Stanley Yu's Blog

The Arc Initiative provides social entrepreneurs with the necessary tools and opportunities to making a lasting and influential impact.

Social entrepreneurship is, broadly speaking, innovation towards “[disrupting] the status quo and [transforming] our world.” The Arc Initiative seeks to foster social entrepreneurs that seek to make a lasting and significant impact in areas of society that are often ignored. Alternatively speaking, the Arc Initiative fills in the gaps that organizations, such as the UN, will inevitably miss or need to ignore even when fully funded. The Arc Initiative paves way for innovators, such as Arielle Uwonkunda, that are able to see issues within their communities that the UN, harbouring broader goals, would often overlook or would be unfamiliar with. Unlike charitable organizations or even organizations such as the UN, which usually administer temporary relief to pressing issues, social entrepreneurs employ long-term programs to mend an issue over time with more lasting results. While organizations like the UN are still important for their global scaled operations and well laid out goals, programs like the arc initiative that “build a bridge” between individuals seeking an opportunity to make specific yet lasting impacts are necessary to heal society. With differing goals that work hand in hand, both types of organizations, ones that work to resolve familiar issues (the Arc Initiative) and ones that work to broadly halt the growth of issues (the UN) must exist in order for changes to be lasting, noticeable, and influential.

Upward Arc

http://www.sauder.ubc.ca/Global_Reach/ARC_Initiative

http://skollworldforum.org/about/what-is-social-entrepreneurship/

In being sustainable, businesses must not only pay attention to their profits, but also to the environment as well as the people. The government has a role in setting up these regulations.

In response to Michelle Su’s blog, “Dont’ Shame Businesses,” I agree with Michelle’s suggestions and viewpoints regarding the importance and possibility of sustainability, however, I would like to offer a slightly alternative viewpoint. Currently, there exists a major debate regarding profit maximizing firms, one regarding the social responsibility of said firms. In seeking to maximize profits and effectively minimizing costs, firms often forego steps to create a sustainable business and this is raising concerns for many activists. I empathize with Michelle’s claims that if firms are able to be aware of their operations and slowly seek to make changes, firms can effectively create economic benefits for themselves as well as social benefits for others. My opinions differ with Michelle’s in the role of the government. While Michelle dismisses governments as slow reactors to social change, I believe that the government plays a major role in social responsibility and sustainability. By setting regulations and standards that businesses can, over time, adapt to, the government can more effectively keep profit maximizing companies at bay and persuade them to adopt more sustainable practices. In developing countries, the absence of government control can be seen with illegal or unethical practices and I believe that while companies can and should have a responsibility to be socially responsible, the government also has a role to impose a standard of social responsibility to the firms.

After doing an earlier post regarding Amazon’s new Kindle Fire, I was surprised and excited that Amazon has decided to once again diversify their services. Recently, in Toronto and Vancouver, Amazon has “[raised] the ante in Canada’s e-commerce battle by offering same day shipping” starting at $6.99 per delivery.

Amazon’s same day shipping is a respectful strategy that may give them a successful run in Canada.

Amazon is already  dominating the online shopping channel, yet Amazon has decided to take another risk with this new service. Amazon faces competition from leading retail stores, such as Walmart, that offers free same day shipping services, yet Amazon is confident in this new initiative; as Alexander Gagnon, the country manager, states “[it’s] all about convenience.” Amazon realizes that a major pain for customers is the long delivery times and customers are usually in a hurry to acquire their products; Amazon hopes to relieve this pain. Same-day shipping is a very common service in the United States, however, in Canada it is still a rare commodity and usually much more costly than $6.99. By keeping the service limited in Toronto and Vancouver, Amazon can effectively control a lower cost, due to a limited delivery frontier, while avoiding large scale competition. Amazon has strategically decided to develop this service in Canada, since it is a relatively fresh market. By adding yet another value proposition, Amazon seems to have a reliable future in their Canadian market.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/amazonca-raises-stakes-in-same-day-delivery-service/article21448160/

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=8729023011

In response to Panos Mourdoukoutas’s Forbes blog post titled “Is Starbucks Losing Its Coolness?” I would like to offer my alternative, yet similar, viewpoint of competition. Mr. Mourdoukoutas outlines Starbucks’s original business plan, to be an “affordable luxury” coffee that would differentiate it from competitors such as “McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts.” In recent years, however, Starbucks has seemingly lost its edge with fluctuating stock prices as well as changing customer segments to “families and young children.” I believe that this is an issue of competition.

Starbucks No Longer in the Lead?

Recent years have been met with a ‘boom’ of many coffee stores: Blenz, Waves, and Pacific Coffee Company, to name a few, that all operate under a fairly similar business plan compared to Starbucks. In particular, highlighting Blenz Coffee, many products found in this rapidly popularizing Canadian coffee store are pricier and often ‘tastier’ than many Starbucks products – it is no surprise that Starbucks has begun to lose ground when met with all these strong competitors. With companies such as McDonald’s, which has begun to target a more luxurious sector, with the introduction of McCafe, Starbucks has shown no disappointment with their change in business plans to targeting a more diversely aged customer segment, as outlined by Mr. Mourdoukoutas. While facing formidable competitors, I believe that Starbucks’s widespread reputation may still allow the company to thrive if Starbucks can continue to modify their strategies to conform to changing tastes and situations.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2014/11/01/is-starbucks-losing-its-coolness/

Just yesterday, I was informed that my cable was cancelled and, to say the least, I was disappointed since I still regularly used the television. In response to Stella Cho’s blog “Cable Television: The New Old-Timer,” however, I take no reservations in agreeing that cable television is becoming ‘outdated’. The sheer quantity and growth of on-line media has simply been astounding in recent years. Sites such as Youtube, Twitch, or, as Stella outlined, Netflix cover most forms of video media. Sites such as Twitch can feature gaming videos that would be impossible to find on television and sites such as Netflix offer a wide database of movies at a cheap monthly subscription. There is a  noticeable disparity in value propositions and cable television is, simply put, not convenient. Movies or shows are scheduled to play at certain times whereas movies or series can be found and watched on-line at any time. I believe this issue of convenience is a major reason for the rapid and successful emergence of Chinese companies, such as XiaoMi, that offer on-line television services, through which users can watch videos on their television via an on-line network. While there will exist many cable television users for years to come, I believe that eventually the convenience of on-line media will displace cable television as a rare commodity.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/stellacho/

“Kite, peel, flash, and ignite” are common words in the world of League of Legends, a popular on-line game released in 2009 that has grown to become the most popular on-line video game in the world. The growth of this game is revealed in a New York Times article titled “Behind League of Legends, E-Sport’s Main Attraction.”

League of Legends 2013 World Finals

“‘Player experience is first’ said Joost van Dreunen.” For starters, League of Legends is a free to play game, charging players only for premiums that do not change game-play; League of Legends premiums only provide visuals and the game is ultimately requires skills.  How does Riot persuade players to purchase these premiums? Simple: most of the game’s premiums can be purchased for an affordable price of under $10.00. Players that have invested thousands of hours will willingly spend some money to visually enhance game play. Up to date, League of Legends, has also hosted 4 World Championships, large scale events with millions of spectators. Riot has stated that these events are not meant to earn money and are only meant to popularize the game, much like an endorsement. Riot’s thinking has not failed as they have reaped $1 billion in revenues due to the vast amount of players that are willing to invest in the cheap premiums offered in the game. League of Legends has been constantly expanding as a successful free to play game, yet due to the large scaled nature of the game and the new ideas constantly brought into the game, Riot is on a long and successful road.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/technology/riot-games-league-of-legends-main-attraction-esports.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/10/technology/league-of-legends-graphic.html?_r=0 -Interesting video of player movements in League of Legends.

In this eye catching article titled “It Looked Like a Stabbing, but Takata Air Bag Was the Killer,” the death of Hien Tran was the third case of the defective airbag problem by Takata. These series of deaths, caused by the exploding airbag sending deadly shrapnel flying at the victim’s face, signals a major issue for some key Japanese car manufacturers, including Honda and Toyota.

Hien Tran, an unfortunate victim of the Takata air bags.

Many recalls have been made by Honda and currently there is a “safety crisis” in the Japanese automobile industry. In the automobile industry, aside from technological innovations, design, and energy reduction, safety is a huge issue. Losing ground in safety guarantees would mean a major deficit and issues for these large automobile manufacturers as well Takata, which will likely begin to lose partnerships. In order to recall vehicles to solve these airbag issues, these manufacturers will no doubt utilize many expenses, but more importantly, they will begin losing reputation with customers. My family recently purchased a new Honda Odyssey, however, we have gotten no notice of recall. Nevertheless, these incidents have given me a negative viewpoint towards Japanese car manufacturers and, likely similar to many other consumers, will cause me to greatly reconsider future automobile purchases. I believe that car manufacturers must not only better ensure the safety of their future vehicles, but also establish more secure and well researched partnerships. While Takata failed Honda and other car manufacturers, they also failed to properly ensure that Takata were properly functioning before bringing their products into the market.

Businesses often suffer from external pressures and oppositions due to marginal analyses on whether a project may bring great benefits or even greater harm and costs; BC Hydro’s newest project currently faces this barrier. BC Hydro’s “$8-billion Site C hydroelectric megaproject” on the Peace River has met strong opposition from the First Nations. Arguments regarding the damage to wildlife and farmlands have been raised and currently BC Hydro is in a standstill with their proceedings; in a broader sense, there is a political debate regarding the social “utilities” and the harm to the First Nations people. Sadly, this debate shows little promise in satisfying both the First Nations people and the project’s intentions. The Canadian Court demands that BC Hydro demonstrate “both a compelling and substantial government objective” in order to proceed with the project and they justify their goals with the need for developments due to the “region’s growing population.” Inevitably, however, in fulfilling these hefty goals, the First Nations will suffer damage to their lifestyles.

The proposed dam site.

In business, while ethics are very important and should be taken into consideration, it is almost impossible to satisfy every opinion. Decisions ultimately involve sacrifices and businesses will often have to make sacrifices to pass entry barriers. Solutions have been offered in this debate, such as the ultimatum between building the dam or pursuing liquefied natural gas development; choosing one will mean forgoing the other, however, as seen in this ongoing debate, it is inevitable that both BC Hydro and the First Nations will suffer losses, one more than the other.

Websites:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/site-c-or-lng-pick-one-say-b-c-first-nations-1.2776481

Twitch TV

In response to Nunu’s blog “Video Games, The New Frontier,” I strongly agree with Nunu’s statements about the important business strategies associated with acquiring gaming companies, such as Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch.Tv, however, I would also like to emphasize the significance of these purchases. An article titled “Charting the Rise of Twitch,” shows that Twitch.tv was originally an non-existent website that has grown to become a dominant video game streaming website. Twitch channels are able to acquire over 300,000 viewers, numbers that Twitch.tv never anticipated, while streamers are able to amass millions of viewers over the course of years. While the article states that Twitch.tv has yet to surpass sites such as Youtube, the growth of Twitch.tv throughout the years signals the growing popularity of video games. Nunu further outlines Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang, the creator of the popular game Minecraft. While simple in play, Minecraft has become one of the most played games in the world. The number of Minecraft players surpassed a shocking number of 300 million since 2012 and is the most purchased game in App stores due to the simple yet diverse game play; Mojang successfully used the strategy of differentiation to provide an appealing and different experience for customers. In the video game industry, the idea of differentiation is very important since most games similar in price. Video games with original concepts, such as Minecraft, are able to rise in popularity. Games that are not able to differentiate themselves from existing video games will not be successful. Companies such as Microsoft and Amazon see the rapid growth of the video game industry and are taking initiatives to acquire these companies in order to, themselves, differentiate from competitors with a wider customer base. I believe that the battle of video games has only begun and with the evolving nature of technology, the variety of video games will only keep growing.

Sites:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/26/technology/charting-the-rise-of-twitch.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/07/11/riot-games-league-of-legends-officially-becomes-most-played-pc-game-in-the-world/

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/

http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml

Recently, with the release of the new iPhone 6, hoards of customers have been lining up at retail stores. Mainland China, however, is not so lucky as the iPhone 6 will not be on sale until around October 1. Recently in Mainland China, however, there has been a massive influx of highly priced iPhone 6’s into the Chinese black market. Unfortunately, iPhone sales in Mainland China are greatly diminishing and even the black markets have suffered losses. In previous years, the iPhone had been synonymous with luxury phones in China, yet the iPhone 6 is already facing sales issues due to the popularity of newer, more affordable brands. The article outlines new phone brands, such as Xiaomi, that have been emerging and taking over the Chinese market. Xiaomi phones have seen a booming growth in recent years. They are slim and have very excellent functions not too different from the iPhone. Xiaomi phones are, however, a lot cheaper than the iPhone. The market for Xiaomi phones has risen to the top due to their affordability. Furthermore, the iPhone 6 has yet to introduce any new striking aspects support its high price, while Xiaomi was able to use the strategy of low cost to pull ahead. As the article outlines, Apple seems to have a “glum” ride with the sales of the iPhone 6 in Mainland China as customers are now looking towards newer brands that are dominating the cellular market in Mainland China. Apple no longer holds a firm brand leadership and the decline in demand can already be seen with the failures even in black market sales. When the iPhone 6 is officially released in Mainland China, Apple may be in for another surprise.