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Comm 101 Blog Entries

Different Perspective at Social Entrepreneurship

Original Post: Guardian Professional

In class we commonly talk about Social Enterprises, and their missions, their founders, and what makes a business a social enterprise. Yet we are not given the most thorough perspective, especially when talking about the challenges faced by a social entrepreneur.

This is where Dan Berelowitz comes in. I was surfing blogs looking for social entrepreneurship news and what not when I stumbled across a little blog entry on the Guardian by Dan. Dan being a social entrepreneur himself talks first hand, about the problems and issues that he faces.

Surprisingly, the problem he brings up is one little people think of at first. We all think of resources, money, accessibility and so on as barriers to innovative ideas to social entrepreneurship, however Dan points out the fact that it is actually a little bit of everything but mainly, stubbornness on their behalf. Social Entrepreneurs are ignorant to already found and established ideas, and always looking for ways to “create” their own. This is where Social Franchising takes on a role. Social Franchising is utilizing already founded ideas for social change, though not implemented on any large scale whatsoever, and replicated by many other franchises to speed up and expose the change to a much larger market. Rather than trying to reach a large market through one vendor, there are multiple vendors, and ultimately being able to reach to a much larger market. Much like McDonald’s (Dan’s example in his post) and their millions of franchises. Imagine there only being one McDonald’s or one starbucks in each province. No way would they be able to serve the millions customers they do now, and that’s the same idea behind Social Franchising.

Dan Berelowitz is a 2011 Clore Social fellow and chief executive and co-founder of ICSF.

Source: Guardian, Picture source: masoninnovation

 

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Comm 101 Blog Entries

RE: Microsoft dumps the Messenger for Skype after brought Skype for $8.5 billion

Original Post: Tony Liu’s Blog

Tony’s blog about Microsoft discontinuing their messenger application and merging it with Skype was definitely a good read and gave me a great insight on how much (not to mention how quickly) the technological world is changing and how companies have to cope with it almost immediately.

As stated in the blog, Skype was previously bought by Miscrosoft by $8.5b last summer, which was a huge investment considering the company already had their massively successful Windows Live Messenger application. However, Microsoft’s messenger has been on the decline ever since the likes of Facebook Chat, Skype and Google plus have come into the market. I agree with Tony that there is no doubt Microsoft has made a relatively good move in merging the two applications and ultimately discontinuing their original Messenger. Skype gives the company’s messenger market competitor a new image and by eliminating Windows Live Messenger, it will only reduce the relative competition.

Whether or not this decision by Microsoft turns out to be a good managerial move is yet to be seen, however, it is clear that this is one of the most dynamic markets out there and even behemoth companies like Microsoft faces adversities.

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Comm 101 Blog Entries

Greenwashing is the New Trend

Little doubt that the new fad for companies seems to be the Eco-friendly marketing schemes across basically any market out there.

The term “Greenwashing” is a new term through combining the “green” approach to symbolize environmentally friendliness, along with “white-washing” which is to cover up wrongdoings. Hence, greenwashing is simply a gimmick used by companies to mask their non-ecofriendly ways with logos, marketing, and so forth to give the consumers a sense of contribution to the environment while boosting the company’s image.

It is an extremely smart marketing tactic for companies in many ways, as it takes advantage of the new trend within the society to do what we can to buy goods that are good for the earth, or so we think. The problem is that, with this new trend, people tend to think they are doing enough for the environment, that buying these products, driving hybrids, and so forth will be enough to “save” our planet. What most consumers are failing to see is that these are only reducing our footprints by a miniscule amount, while some companies just use this tactic to cover up their environmentally harmful ways and boost sales and company image.

Greenwashing is going to continue in the mainstream society until consumers are more aware of the truth behind the companies and more importantly, the truth behind their environmentally harmful ways.

Sources: Forbes | Picture Source: AllVoices

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Comm 101 Blog Entries

Big Data Emerging in Unforseen Ways

November 8th, 2012,

The only winner that day was not only re-elected US President Barrack Obama, but a man of another name, Nate Silver.

Seen above on the left is 538, Silver’s Blog’s, predictions, and on the right is the actual results of the 2012 Presidential election.

Little would dare to say it was an uncanny coincidence that Silver was able to predict every single state perfectly. This is what a High School math teacher would brag to his kids about Statistical analysis, probabilities, etc. However, at the same time, enterprises are keen on understanding the potential of using big data and algorithms in future opportunities.

There is little excuse now that companies do not implement these big data changes, be it data analysis, predictions, information systems, its crucial for companies looking for a step ahead of the competition to take hold of the opportunities at hand. Silver doesn’t hold his recipe to success as a secret though, he has posted his methodology on his NY Times blog seen here. He gives us all the steps, but not the numbers he used in calculation, that’s the secret ingredients necessary for a successful prediction.

Little doubt there is a lot of value in these big data analysis in the future, but how companies utilizes them in the future will be what’s important

Source: Fivethirtyeight (blog) | InformationWeek | Mashable

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Comm 101 Blog Entries

Apple Stock trading at 15% below all-time high

Apple inc. (AAPL) is trading at $584.62 as of closing November 5th which is a far cry from the $700 price it was trading at just over 50 days ago.

Many thought that Supply chain expert Tim Cook took the CEO spot after Steve Jobs’ passing, there should be a better managed system in place to match the demand. That has not been the case at all. Though many companies would love the problem that Apple has with having too great of a demand for their supply to match, it’s been a daunting problem for Apple. The success of the iPhone has not gone unnoticed by any means, but it seems as though Apple refuses to improve their supply to match the increasing popularity. Now with Android and Windows Phone all caught up to the iPhone in terms of quality, customers unable to get their hands on an iPhone will have alternatives to waiting for another 6 weeks for an iPhone. This may not be the only reason dragging down Apple’s stock price, but it certainly is a contributing factor, and one that Apple fails to address with their iPhone, iPads, and now the iPad Mini.

Source: Forbes

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Just For Fun

Mobile Service Charges are Outrageous (Just for fun)

We all know how hefty a Cell phone bill can be with new services, new technologies, and fees flying in from every corner. However, no one can compare to Solenne San Jose of France, who was faced with a cellphone bill with a flabbergasting amount of zeroes attached. San Jose, had decided to cancel her phone plan and was told that she would be faced with a cancellation fee, with the exact amount showing up in her next cycle’s bill. Little did she suspect that she would be faced with easily the most expensive cancellation fee in the world of €11,721,000,000,000,000, equivalent to about 15 Quadrillion USD. That’s over 1000 times the amount of United Stat’es debt Ceiling of 14 trillion.

Reportedly, San Jose had troubles getting Customer Service to take her seriously, whilst trying to figure out how to say a number with so many zeroes. In the end, the confusing was sorted out and the cost was actually €117.21 instead of the crazy 11 quadrillion. This isn’t the first time a company’s accountant went Zero-happy as stories like the 44 million dollar hospital visit have gone viral in the past. The company either needs to fire their employees’ radical plan to increase France’s GDP by over 6000 % or need to get some new printers, who knows when someone will get a heart attack from opening a multi-quadrillion dollar phone bill?

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Comm 101 Blog Entries

Tank Dilemma

CNN was allowed access into a Army depot in the Sierra Nevada region. The sight was none short of shocking, with hundreds of tanks lined up just sitting there collecting dust as a result of result dispute between the US congress and the US Army.

(Video Courtesy of CNN)

Recent Analysis has shown that if the Military stops producing, refurbishing, and repairing Military tanks, it could save the Country’s taxpayers over 3Billion dollars each year. Surprisingly, it is the military in favour of this option with the US Congress opposing against it. Congress has always been keen on imposing the government should listen more to the Military are going against their own word on this one with a recent Letter sent to the Secretary of Defense signed by 173 House members, from both the Republicans and Democrats, to continue producing tanks. Their reason behind it though is not completely unreasonable, however. With the cease in production and refurbishment of tanks, it would leave over 16,000 people unemployed and put over 800 suppliers in a very tough situation.
It’s a tough tradeoff, supplying the country with jobs, or saving taxpayer dollars. As of right now though, the Budget for next year includes 181 million dollars for additional funding for the production and refurbishment of tanks. Whether or not that will be changed is still up for grabs.

(source: CNN)

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Comm 101 Blog Entries

Car Company, Tesla, a loser?

During the electoral debate on Wednesday, most people were focusing on what each candidate were going to do about the struggling economy and healthcare, none more than electric car company, Tesla Motors, however.

Tesla Motors have been struggling to make a dent in the US market for years now, and on Wednesday, Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, took at shot at the company on the nationally broadcasted debate. Romney constantly refers to Tesla Motors and Silicon Valley solar power start up, Solyndra, as failures that the Obama government have been supporting.

These statements follow the recent attempt by Tesla to raise an additional $150 million for the company. Many see this move as another downside for the company. However, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, released a statement saying that the tactic was just done in risk reduction. The only time they would use the money would be in case of an emergency, such as an earthquake or flood affecting the supply chain.

Elon furthermore states that the company is expected to be profitable by the end of next month. However, Tesla was very confident on making their claim of 500 vehicles last quarter, but also missing that target by over 100 vehicles. Many in the financial world are criticizing Elon’s remarks, claiming that stating the company is raising money in hopes of risk reduction is simply for PR. At the same time, Romney is under fire for making such claims, in attempts to talk down the Obama government.

Whether the company is a “loser” as Romney claims, or not, is up to the individual to decide.

(sources: Mashable, Tesla Blog)

 

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Comm 101 Blog Entries

Kodak No Longer In Consumer Printing Business

Friday September 29th, Eastman Kodak has announced that they are now exiting the consumer printing Business.

Kodak was always a big name in the photography world. With common cliches like “Kodak Moments” being used time and time again. However, these slogans have not been able to help the company very much lately. In January, they filed for bankruptcy protection, they have been desperately trying to get their company back on path ever since, with the decision of no longer producing digital cameras back in February. Clearly Kodak has been struggling with keeping up with the digital times, as their original brand positioning has clearly changed over time.

The company has also tried once to sue RIM and Apple for over 1 billion in damages over patent violations which came to no avail. As a result the company had made some attempts to sell their film business, Photo Kiosk commercial scanning, and their entire patent portfolio. Clearly these were not enough to keep the company afloat, resulting in their decision to slash their entire consumer inkjet printer business.

In these desperate times, Kodak has chosen to focus on a different market, concentrating on “commercial, packaging and functional printing solutions and enterprise services,” according to Kodak. Furthermore, the company is cutting its workforce by 23%, or over 4000 employees in attempts to reduce costs and bring the company out of their long decline. The digital world may be giving some companies like Instagram new opportunities, but for some business that have been around for a while, the drastic change has been hard to keep up with.

(source: Mashable, photo source: Financialpost)

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Comm 101 Blog Entries

Google Makes Jump to Fifth Most Valuable Company in the US

Google’s stock has been on a rise for a couple months now, and are currently still soaring. Google’s stock went from $559 a share in June, to an all time high of $764.89 on September 25th. Shares closed today at $753.46.

Image courtesy of Flickr, TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

Thanks to data provided by the Bespoke Investment Group, Google has surpassed Chevron and IBM in becoming the 5th most valuable company in the United States. In this time period, Google has increased their market cap by over 60 billion dollars, and though they’re at approximately 245 billion dollars. Though they are still far off from the country’s leader in market cap, Apple, which stands at over $631 billion, there is little sign of slowing down for the search engine company.

There are many speculations as to why the stock is going up, while others like Facebook, are going through a detrimental fall. Maybe it’s the fact that Google’s mobile operating system, android, is finally catching up to Apple’s iOs, and their recent release of devices like the Google Nexus 7 has been highly welcomed. Maybe it’s the the fact that people are realizing Facebook is no real threat to Google’s core business. It’s most likely a combination of these things that has Google increasing Stock prices by 30 percent over these 3 months. Whatever it is, those bold predictions that Google’s stock could one day be at $2,000 may not seem like such a stretch after all.

(sources: Business Insider, Mashable)

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