Reading CBCNew’s blog Money Talks, I came across a post made about how people in today’s business world are interpreting the true definition of success.  This made me consider all of the topics that we have touched on throughout Comm 101: ethics, brand positioning, finance, sustainability, organizational culture, entrepreneurial ventures and social entrepreneurs.  Now bearing in mind all of these subjects, I’ve come to realize that all of these types of business people would define their success differently, be it how they’ve improved the wellbeing of others, whether they’ve helped the environment, if they’ve maintained ethics and morals, the cohesion of their organizational culture, or if they have made a profit.  For a single course, this is a huge variety of motives for success.  However, I believe that many people would like to achieve more than one of these types of accomplishments and in today’s innovative and rapidly diversifying business world, this has become a reality.  The expansion of the business world into incorporating admirable causes, environmental concern and organizational culture above and beyond the basic profit motive gives today’s workforce the ability to truly make an impact on the world that was unavailable in past generations.

Entrepreneurship is defined as a highly innovative venture that accumulates a large wealth over a short period of time; that’s exactly what Bethenny Frankel did when she launched the Skinnygirl Cocktail Brand.

A seemingly unoccupied area of the liquor industry, this reality star came up with a low calorie cocktail that would appeal to women like her.  At first the product got turned down by all of the liquor companies that Frankel pitched the idea to, until finally she sold the brand to Fortune Brands’ Beam Global, for a price tag around $120 million.  Now the fastest growing spirit brand in America, it seems that this product appealed to women across the US in a way that no one predicted it would.  The initial product of the brand, the Skinnygirl Margarita, was quickly joined by two other products, the Skinnygirl Sangria and White Cranberry Cosmo, all of which allowed women to join the primarily male dominated liquor industry.  A relatively simple idea, Frankel preyed on the key tenet of entrepreneurship; creating wealth from the demand that’s created by an innovative product, a venture that clearly did her well.

To say that people in today’s world are dependent on their smart phones is an understatement.  Used to pay bills, check balances or even as virtual tickets at airports, business has found a new way to use the smartphone: as a means of payment.  Starbucks has implemented a mobile payment option, a smart business move that exploits the ever-changing technology world to use people’s phones as a Management Information System.  As a teenager myself, I see the appeal of making instant purchases with a smartphone, seeing as this generation relies heavily on this technology.  Starbucks hopes that by making payment both convenient and quick, it will cause consumers to make spur-of-the-moment purchases that they wouldn’t normally work. Although this seems like logical inference, this process strongly mirrors the PayPass option that credit cards already have, which haven’t necessarily shown to increase impulsivity of consumers.  However, Starbucks counters this by stating that mobile purchase will be two thirds faster than credit card purchase, a fair justification to  validate their goal for consumers to splurge more and return often.  With 60% of teenagers claiming to be “addicted to their smartphones”, Starbucks may have just hit the money.

Reading on the increase of auto sales, especially in reference to SUV’s and trucks, it can be questioned whether sustainability is truly what today’s world is moving towards or if it’s simply a consumer trend that will be passed over when people begin to consider practicality.  Although small cars and hybrids seem to be a great alternative to SUV’s in terms of saving the environment, the fluctuation in auto sales demonstrates that consumers are reconsidering their functionality, particularly in terms of corporate fleets.  Given that the stable gas price causes that factor to become extraneous, consumers are choosing the utility of larger vehicles as opposed to choosing the more sustainable, environmentally-friendly models such as small cars and subcompacts.  Although there are still rising sales in cars and more environmentally responsible alternatives, those sales have all been trumped by the ascending sales of SUV’s and trucks, which is largely being attributed to the consumer confidence that gas prices will not unexpectedly spike. People today are fully aware of the harmful effects of larger vehicles on the environment, and is seems to be a prevalent topic on consumer’s minds; however, when push comes to shove, people seem to choose function over saving the environment.

Nicole Dee’s recent blog on the online fashion company Moda Operandi caught my eye, as I agree with Nicole that it occupies a so far untapped niche in the fashion industry.  Many fashion designers create haute couture lines that are sent down the runaway as well as corresponding ready-to-wear lines that then become available to consumers, but Moda Operandi allows women to order straight from the runway collection, something the fashion industry is yet to see.  This business is highly customized, in that the customer reviews the “Trunk Show” within three days of the actual fashion show and picks from the collection what they want; the designer then produces only the pieces that are ordered, most of which will never reach stores.  Moda Operandi has taken over a spot in supply chain operations by facilitating the delivery of fashion from the manufacturer directly to the consumer.  Although this company will only appeal to a very specific consumer, with over 50 thousand women already in their customer base that are willing to spend big money to receive exclusive products from 57 successful, globally known fashion designers, Moda Operandi is definitely on the fast track to raking in some major profits.

Moda Operandi Co-Founders

It can be debated that a company’s brand is potentially the most valuable asset it has.  Perhaps one of the best examples of this would be credited to Apple.  With the value of their brand increasing by fifty eight percent in the last year alone, Apple has clearly proved why it deserves to be number 8 on Interbrand’s Best Global Brands list.  With a sense of innovation distinct in the electronics industry, Apple occupies a broad niche that
consumers seem to be flocking to.  This could in large part be due to their constant evolution of their products; each time Apple launches a new generation of one of their products, people are still responsive because they identify with the older version but still covet the new features that are added. For example, the iPhone 4 was nearly identical to the iPhone 3GS, the improvements including a longer battery life, higher megapixel camera and the introduction of FaceTime technology, however the demand for the newer product was so high that it was crashing pre-order websites.  Through their constant innovation and knowledge of consumer wants, Apple has grown into a worldwide brand that consumers everywhere have come to covet.

As an avid purse collector myself, Hayley Palmer’s blog post on eco-friendly bag producer Matt & Nat caught my eye, as it’s a brand that I consistently purchase.  I agree with Hayley’s comment that Matt & Nat has created vegan, eco-responsible products that make the message of the company one that consumers and employees can stand behind, however I have to disagree that this is the sole reason that consumers are attracted to the brand.  Matt & Nat has established itself as a vegan brand, but looking at their target market, which I would define as teenagers to women in their late twenties and early thirties, I believe that it is their brand holding somewhat of a prestige in the fashion industry that pulls consumers in.  Now obviously these bags are not on the same price scale as Chanel or Louis Vuitton, however they have established a brand that fetches prices of over one hundred dollars, becoming somewhat of a status item that their target market would appreciate.  I would not it any way say that their eco-friendly tactic is unimportant, I just have to wonder if their target market is overly concerned that their new bag is made from 21 recycled bottles.

In today’s business world, you most often hear of companies outsourcing their customer service departments, such as call centres, to other countries like India and the Philippines where labour costs are lower.  Terasen Gas recently reversed that process by bringing their call centres, which had been outsourced for the last eight years, back to B.C. in an attempt to improve the quality of their customer service.  Although an expensive project to improve their infrastructure, Terasen Gas made a smart move in order to provide consumers with more knowledgeable staff in regards to billing and energy conservation, which will likely result in an increase in customer loyalty.  And the benefits don’t stop there, this change will also have an impact on the local economy by providing more jobs, a perk that has been quantified at $25 million.  Having direct control over their customer service department, rather than delegating it to CustomerWorks LP (the company that was controlling their outsourcing), will potentially allow for profit gains from increased customer loyalty and the ability to promote efficiency and energy conservation programs.  That being said, Terasen Gas may not have lost money through this endeavour, but in fact potentially increased future profits and growth.

Facebook has already established itself as the largest social networking site in the world, but recently it has recently been reported that the site is adding a new media platform that will allow its 750 million users to share music with their friends.  Facebook has chosen to pair up with notable music streaming services Spotify and Rhapsody as well as a variety of the former’s smaller scale competition such as Rdio and MOG, which will support the links that Facebook users choose to put on their profiles as “favourites”.

From Facebook’s perspective, this interoperability between the music industry and social networking can only be positive, however it could be potentially detrimental to those smaller music streaming sites that are less well-known.  These companies will have to make the risky decision of entering Facebook directly alongside their competition in addition to trying to maintain deals with record companies when the free trials that the other companies are offering leave little incentive for users to subscribe to their services.  The president of Rhapsody is definitely correct when he states that “It’s going to be hard for the players not at scale to survive, you’re looking at a two-horse race.”

The newest advancement in medical science is the revolutionary idea of stem cells; undifferentiated cells that can form into any type of cell that the human body requires.  As ideal as this kind of treatment sounds, businesses are beginning to see the profit of this therapy and exploiting it in order to maximize their sales.  Because stem cell research is so preliminary, businesses have preyed on families hope for a unconventional cure to lifelong diseases by guaranteeing them results from stem cell research, which have thusly turned out to be fraudulent.  International regulations have yet to be established on the distribution and use of stem cells as a valid treatment for ailments such as Parkinson’s disease, allowing businesses a time frame in which to promote their product as a “miracle cure” without running into the difficulty of overcoming laws.  However, this lends to the debate of business ethics in that businesses are not taking into account the harm that this is causing to both the patients and the families that are counting on this treatment to save lives.  In this case, business’ sole motivation is profit, seemingly being unconcerned and unwilling to consider the ethics of creating hope without results.