The Advantages of a Disadvantage

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In Steve Carell’s last episode of NBC’s comedy series “The Office”, ratings rose to 4.1 as opposed to its series average of 3.2. As stated in The Hollywood Reporter, this extended  episode pulled in 5.2 million viewers for NBC between 9 – 10 pm on April 28, 2011, putting the network in the lead with CBS (who had 10.9 million viewers) — a sight not often seen. What NBC and the makers of The Office really did in this scenario was to rake in all the possible advantages that could be made from the departure of Carell. As the

Touching moments like this one are hard to find in the series. In Carell's final episode, they were plenty.

show’s central and often most loved character, ratings, viewers, and popularity were expected to drop in following seasons in his absence. So, with the extension of the episode from 30 minutes to an entire hour, and the sentimental tone that the episode carried, the producers ensured that the episode would attract a wider market (ie. viewers) and increase ratings as much as possible — essentially, milk out as much as they could from Michael Scott’s farewell.

Unfortunately, as explained in this video, in the absence of Steve Carell, the show is beginning to suffer. It’s a good thing NBC took advantage of his departure as much as possible.

The Company, its Ends, its Motives, and where the Environment fits into all of that

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As a friend of mine Ishan stated in one of his prior posts, a great emphasis has been placed on sustainability within companies in the past few years. A great deal of brand imaging has been placed recently on the basis of a company being caring and proactive towards protecting the environment. This can be seen in small local businesses, large corporations like Coca-Cola with its Polar Bear Fund trying to reach out to a broader market, as well as companies that found themselves on the basis of eco-friendliness, such as The Body Shop.

As Ish stated though, the question is: is the company doing this out of sheer compassion for the planet and sustaining it? Or is it merely for its own brand image and resultant gains in profit? However, I would like to completely agree with him by stating that: it does not matter. Although it is refreshing to find people whose true passion is to take care of others and their natural surroundings, the majority of the time, especially with large corporations, personal gains are the main priority. Therefore, due to the sheer fact that “the ends justifies the motive”, environmental sustainability should be appreciated and valued even when all a company is trying to do is to raise revenues.

Archie Comics: well ahead of the game

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Who knew that such an old and low-key company would be currently in the process of planning efficient and equitable strategies? With the announcement of the planned publication of a new superhero series, Archie Comics also stated the prospective launch of their digital media models for the comic. The company is teaming up with iVerse Media to introduce a system similar to Netflix: consumers will pay a small monthly fee and have access to thousands of pages of comics.

The reasons why this strategy of Archie Comics’ is (in my opinion) bound to be so productive, is the fact that:

a) With a digital model, the company is more likely to reach out to a younger and broader audience.

b) Printing costs will be all-but-none. For a series that is launching, reducing overhead costs such as printing, decreases the stakes for potential failure of the series, and is consequently a significantly intelligent move on the company’s part.

c) The price for a monthly subscription is reported to be from $2.99 to $3.99 (Gustines). According to the CEO, the company is basing itself on value, a move which, during an economic recession, gives the brand and attractive image to the target market: preteens.

PC’s are a Keeper

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HP’s newly-appointed CEO, Meg Whitman, announced yesterday that the company would be keeping its PC division. The previous CEO, Léo Apotheker, planned to cut this division of the company in order to focus on laptops and its smaller and more personal products. His reason for propositioning this was to gain a higher profit margin (greater control over profits and products compared to competitors), but Whitman’s reasoning is that their PC division is what makes HP one of the USA’s 70 largest companies (Hardy).

My reasoning for supporting Whitman’s decision is not only my personal attachment to the company (all of the computers and laptops in my household for the past 7-odd years have been Hewlett-Packard), but also because HP personal computer systems are recognized and established in the market. As outlined in Quentin Hardy’s article, Whitman admitted that she gets asked “what is HP?” often, meaning that the company is having a brand identity crisis. They need to recognize internally what they are first, but in my opinion, their sleek and affordable PC’s are a crucial product that must be incorporated into their brand image.

Deals for a Jobs Biography Already Sealed

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With the success of its movie tributes of Michael Jackson in “This Is It” and Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network”, Sony Pictures Entertainment has already taken up the role of creating a movie-biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The company is reported to have bought the rights from Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacs just 3 days after Jobs’ death.

In the past, it was a rarity to see movies base their subject on current events, since casting, acting, and production would often take years to complete. But with their last biographical hit “This Is It”, Sony was able to wrap things up mere months after Michael Jackson’s death, leading to box office success — no doubt, the company plans to do the same with its new project. While this will be a pressured and daunting task, Sony is ensuring its own success by aiming to release the film while the interest of audiences will still be geared towards Jobs and his remarkable life. By being the first to jump to the task and promising to deliver it swiftly, with the mere efficiency of time, Sony Pictures Entertainment is establishing a secure market and its company’s prosperity.

Child Labor in the Ivory Coast

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In July of 2005, the International Labor Relief Fund filed a lawsuit against Nestlé for allegedly using child laborers. Almost 70% of the company’s cocoa is purchased from and processed in the Ivory Coast, a site to which ILRF attorney Natasha Thys visited and discovered that — despite Nestlé’s claims of working to monitor and reduce the issue — child labor was prevalent. Many of the approximately 378 000 children working in the Ivory Coast are forced to work up to 14 hours per day and 6 days a week with threats of beatings and torture.

An 11 year-old child working in the blazing African heat at one of the cacao plants in the Ivory Coast.

While it is true that Nestlé does not personally own these plantations that enforce child labor, the company provides financial support and monitors the activities of these areas. Being the largest chocolate company to do business in the area, Nestlé sets an example to the other industries, and when they support this trampling of human rights by funding it, they prove to be a stubborn obstacle in the face of organizations, like the ILRF, that are working to provide ethical and fair conditions to employees around the world.