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.