The Arc Initiative and Social Enterprise:

Help Develop And Realize Self-Value

If the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise? My answer to this is, for developing a better economic world and helping more individuals to realize self-value.

According to the several articles, Arc initiative is a platform for business people to share their knowledge and business skills. With more experience being shared, business people have more chance to set up right and effective strategy which helps to allocate resources efficiently. I trust that a company with only a great deal of money but without correct strategy is going to fail in the end. Arc Initiative helps business people to gain more experience by learning from others’ failure and success. When business people know more about the economic world, the whole economic world is going to boom.

Why we need social enterprise? We know that nowadays, as the society is able to make more funds, more and more money is used to help people in need. With the financial help, individuals who are badly-off are able to make a living and lead an easier life. However, merely giving financial aids to individuals does not solve every problem. I trust that people are more willing to work hard and gain what they deserve gaining than accepting pitying help from the society. With the help of social enterprise, people are able to have their own job to feed themselves. In the meantime, they can feel that they are needed while helping the community. I believe that social enterprise will help create shared value by giving individuals hope as well as making more wealth for the whole society. People who used to think life is tough are capable of realizing their self-value. All this cannot be done by only providing money; thus, it is necessary for social enterprise to exist.

Comment On An Outside Blog:

Is Your Client Follow Up Professional Or Painful?

The blog Is Your Client Follow Up Professional Or Painful interests me at first sight. This blog describes a situation most of us have come across. In our daily life, we will receive some cold calls which are hassling. This does not indicate that the cold calls are unnecessary but the clients who are following up have done something inappropriate. Once they do wrong in following up on cold calls, they lose some potential customers.

In my view, cold call is a significant part in customer service and it is an essential way for a company to know more about their value proposition. Through cold calls, companies are able to know more details on consumers’ gains and pains. With cold calls, they can know how their products are working. In order to become good gain creators and pain relievers, I think a company is supposed to do really well in cold calls. Concluding the methods shown in the blog, I think the essential of making a successful cold call is to think on the consumers’ dimension. Thinking on the consumers’ dimension includes calling customers in a suitable time, being efficient on the phone call and make a call that is useful, etc. Only in this way can companies absolutely help customers to solve problems. And solving problems as well as creating values for customers are two of the major jobs for value proposition. I trust that a lot of companies are supposed to focus more on cold calls so as to serve customers better and generate more profit.

Tmall Announces Global Free Delivery Promotion

What does Nov 11^th mean to you? For Chinese, this is a day (Double 11 Shopping Festival) for shopping spree. Tmall(Company Alibaba’s platform), China’s biggest online shopping mall is going to deliver goods from the other countries for free.

Global free delivery promotion is a significant strategy for Alibaba to develop business abroad after its historic New York IPO (initial public offering). President of Tmall, Wang Yulei has said that, “ The first step to go global is to make everyone able to buy things from Britain, Germany, United States or Japan at home.”

In my opinion, IPO enables Tmall to promote this practice. Thanks to IPO, Tmall is able to have cheaper access to capital and create multiple financing opportunities, which make it possible to generate profit by shipping freely.

In other aspect, it is wise for Alibaba to make up this decision because it seems that Alibaba may inspire more people to shop online. I think, in the future, Alibaba may be able to deliver goods for students abroad for free as well, which I think is going to be a win-win strategy. As far as I know, there are more and more Chinese students studying abroad at present and they have need to shop on a Chinese shopping website to buy something which cannot be found abroad and with a cheaper price. If Alibaba is going to do so, Chinese students abroad are able to benefit a lot. Alibaba, on the other hand, is going to have an extra large customer segment.

It is good news to see that Tmall has walked forward the step. I am looking forward to the change that Alibaba will make in the future.

Comment On Xinqiao Dong’s Article

“High-tech classes for Chinese Children”

As what Xinqiao Dong said in the article, Creatica is a company that provides immersive hands-on creative workshop to young children in China. It is indeed an innovative company. Besides the advantages that Creatica have taken according to Xinqiao Dong’s view, which is low investment, stable education market, I think there is one thing that cannot be ignored. In my opinion, Creatica’s success is also due to its attention on CSV(Creating shared value).

It is known to all that the disadvantage of Chinese education has led students to focus too much on standardized tests instead of knowledge itself. A lot of people even have the idea that the main purpose of studying is to gain a high mark in the college entrance exam so as to enter a key university in China. Nowadays, we can see many education companies in China are aiming at helping students do well in the exams. In order to compete with other education companies, some firms even advertise that their education will guarantee the students to enter a key junior high school, key senior high school or a key university. Among education companies like this, Creatica, however, makes difference on their target, which is changing the perception of a country. It aims at helping people to think instead of being test machines.

I trust that in the circumstance of China, education companies are able to gain more profit if they pay attention to helping students to take every type of exam. But, Creatica does not only look to the short run, but consider the long run which is going to benefit to the whole nation. Even in this way, Creatica gains profit. In my opinion, the success of Creatica proves that CSV will finally lead a company to generate more profit. The inspiration from Creatica is that, if I am going to set up my own company, I’d better try creating shared value. Once I do good to the society, the society is also going to pay back.

               Supplement on Juliana Phan’s Article

  “Earnest Ice Cream: Seriously Good and Seriously Personal”

  When I read Julie’s article, I am interested in the company she talked about. According to Julie’s article, firstly, the company Earnest Ice Cream has point of difference, which is providing glass instead of plastic cup. Secondly, Earnest Ice Cream focuses on establishing valuable relationships with customers.

  After searching for more information, I am desire to add more points. First of all, I agree with Julie that Earnest Ice Cream has an intimate business model. Before having the second store, they seem to do every part in an orderly way.

  Linking to what we have learnt so far, I was excited to find out that the shop has something that is very important for a company, the organizational culture. In an interview video, the founders, Benjamin Ernst and Erica Bernardi have stated that the meaning of “earnest” is honesty and transparency. Having core value like this, they do their best to let flavors reflect the community. Besides, Transparency is even shown on their products by supplying transparent glass to place the ice cream, which makes the shop special. Also, they dedicate a lot of energy on gaining customers’ feedback. In all, we are able to find out that Earnest Ice Cream owns a positive organizational culture which benefits a lot. In my view, it is organizational culture that leads the shop to make correct decisions and be outstanding.

People First

The article Tsilhqot’in set to declare site of New Prosperity mine a tribal park[i] is about a tribal park is planned to be built but the plan is opposed by the First Nations for territory reasons and environmental problems. In fact, the opposition from the First Nations is understandable. The whole plan is definitely going to change where they live from generation to generation, even cause some damage. No one is going to allow this happen and once this happen, those who live there are going to do something to stop it getting from bad to worse.

The article reminded my of an issue[ii] happened recently in Huizhou, a city in China Guangdong. The government of Huizhou planned to build China’s largest waste incineration power plant in Boluo, which is a town that had thousands of history dating back to the Qin dynasty. Once the announcement is public, all Boluo people are indignant for the plant is going to produce great pollution to the whole town. A great number of local people went for manifestations and do what they are able to do to stop the government’s plan. The large-scale manifestations even cause chaos. It is quite surprising to see that a town, which was once peaceful, would have this kind of big-scale conflicts with the government. Finally, under the pressure of the public, the government finally announced that regarding the people’s proposition, they wouldn’t choose to build such a plant in the mentioned place.

The same to the issue described in the article. If the government or a company is going to introduce any plants to a new place, they have to concern about the local people. If the First Nations oppose of the plan and the government or company insist building it, undoubtedly, conflicts are to happen and chaos are to appear. No one is going to ignore what is happening around where they live. Thus, do not look down upon the power of First Nations or local people. When introducing a plan, think of those people first, knowing exactly whether they are willing to have this in their place or not.

Citations:

[i] Tsilhqot’in set to declare site of New Prosperity mine a tribal park (www.vancouversun.com)

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Unilateral+park+declared+Tsilhqot+includes+Prosperity+mine/10192766/story.html?__federated=1

[ii] http://http://www.chinese.rfi.fr/中国/20140913-广东博罗两万民众示威抗议焚烧垃圾发电厂计划/news/metro/Unilateral+park+declared+Tsilhqot+includes+Prosperity+mine/10192766/story.html?__federated=1

The Royal Family Helps to Boost Economy

Hey, do you know that the duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton is pregnant again?[1] It is no doubted that a crowd of people are waiting for the second child born in Britain. We are easy to find out that no matter what the royal family does, there will be “royal” response from the British.

Looking back to William and Kate’s wedding, we surprisingly find out that this royal wedding helps to boost the economy in Britain[2], even the Europe, a lot. Before the wedding, factories took actions to produce souvenirs. Gambling market led people to bet where they would hold the wedding[3], where would they have their honeymoon, etc. Tourism in Britain and even the Europe boosted for people are willing to see how a royal wedding is. More than that, Kate Middleton, who was going to be the bride at that time, helped to boost fashion sales. Once she presented in public, the dress she worn would immediately be sold out[4].

It was said that the royal wedding had helped boost Britain’s economy by hundreds of millions[5]. How could the royal family do this and how do they boost the economy? Relating to something that we learnt from class. The royal family in Britain is just like a company and they are doing their best to contribute to the whole country. We are able to see that the family members are active in charity and official events[6], etc. It is appropriate to say that the British royal family has a good reputation. Like Apple, the royal family is very popular and owns a lot of crazy fans. The different role they are playing also makes them differentiate from other movie stars. People are always curious about everything about them. Thus, they are able to attract all individuals’ eyes as well as sell what they have (though they not directly do so, but provide chances to relative companies.)

The royal family helping boost economy makes me think that what a country has, like festival and traditions can also help to boost economy in appropriate way. Those unique festivals or traditions can be something like differentiate strategy (I am not sure whether it is appropriate or not) and if the nations can make good use of them, they will not only help pass those festivals and traditions from one generation to the other, but also help boost the whole nation’s economy.

[1]”Royal Couple Expecting Second Child.” BBC News. Web. 4 Oct. 2014.

[2] |⁵http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8139845/Kate-Middleton-and-Prince-Williams-wedding-will-boost-British-economy-by-620m.html

[3]The Top 10 Royal Wedding Betting Markets | TIME.com (NewsFeed The Top 10 Royal Wedding Betting Markets Comments)

The Top 10 Royal Wedding Betting Markets

[4]The Seraphine dress worn by Kate Middleton for royal portrait sold out in two hours (The Seraphine dress worn by Kate Middleton for royal portrait sold out in two hours)

http://fashion.hellomagazine.com/fashion-news/201308211444/kate-middleton-seraphine-dress-sold-out/

[6]http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/HowtheMonarchyworks/TheroleoftheRoyalFamily.aspx

Baidu-A Wonderful Name for Searching Engine

Just as what is said in the article called Value Positioning[i], a brand’s name is perhaps the most important factor affecting perceptions of it(Al Ries and Jack Trout). A right name is going to tell individuals what a company is indeed doing or selling in a second. Thinking of those names of companies around me, Baidu is what I think having the most appropriate and romantic name.

Baidu is a searching engine in China, founded by Li Yanhong. In an interview he told the name Baidu is from an 800-year-old poem written by a well-known poet who was called Xin Qiji. Baidu indeed means “hundreds of times” in Chinese. In Xin’s poem, he wrote about a man looking for a woman who attracts him but he didn’t know anything about her. The man searched for the woman hundreds and thousands of times in chaos but failed. However, when he turned around by chance, he saw the woman standing in which the lights were waning. Finally, the man successfully found the woman out.[ii] This is a very romantic poem. In addition, using some characters from the poem is a wise choice.

In Baidu, one is looking for what he wants among hundreds and thousands of information. In the end, one is always able to find out what he wants. Li wisely links the name for a searching engine to a poem. Indeed, Baidu not only shows everyone what it is but shows people all over the world how great Chinese traditional culture is. Baidu, a nice name!

Citations:

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

[ii] Watts, Jonathan. “The Man behind China’s Answer to Google: Accused by Critics of Piracy and Censorship.” Web. 29 Sept. 2014.

                            Successful Advertisements Can Be More Than Advertising

  During our daily life, we meet a great number of advertisements. However, we may not enjoy all of them. Some of the advertisements are innovative and interesting, catching our attention and leading us to know more details about the product. Some, however, just make us tired of the target product.

  In the present society, individuals are facing too much information, which indicates that firms are supposed to present outstanding advertisement in order to make people remember the product while coming across a great deal of different information in a day. Putting up innovative advertisement may help a company’s cost on advertisement worthwhile[1]. However, this is no longer a competitive factor for an advertisement to be outstanding, since the society does not lack innovation everywhere.

  After looking up different advertisements, being ethical and definitely focusing on society’s need is what I think may lead to a great success in advertising. The advertisement of Pantene[2] (the shampoo company) and the idea on advertising from a Japanese free copy shop[3] lead me to realize this thought.

  The advertisement of Pantene, which is called Deaf Violinist, is the best advertisement I have ever seen. Though not showing the product all the time in the advertisement, it is still impressive and makes me want to own a shampoo like Pantene. The advertisement makes this by designing a moving story to encourage individuals dare to dream. After that, it skillfully links the idea of the company, which is “you can shine” to the story. The whole process seems quite natural. I think everyone who has seen the advertisement will be moved and finally remember this diligent company.

  Tongyan Kuaidou is the one who runs free copy shop. He was still a university student when he owned a shop like this. He provided free and unlimited paper for students in the university to copy whatever they want. This seems non-profitable. However, the truth is that he earned a lot by running the shop. He made this by contacting and allowing companies who want to advertise to pay to paste their advertisement on the other side of the paper. In this way, the free copy shop gets revenue from helping to advertise. The students who go to the shop are able to print without any money by using papers that are one-side blank and one-side advertisement provided by the shop. Those advertisements then are spread to the students and can be kept by the students for a long period, which makes the company able to be remembered by their target customers, students.

  The common point of these two companies is that they focus more on contribution. What they do is to think of customers first. Pantene tries encouraging the whole society to have a positive attitude towards life while the Japanese free copy shop thinks of providing welfare for those students. These make me have a feeling that if you are really contributing to the others and doing good to the world, everything is going to pay back. Advertisements are like this, so do our life.

Reference:

[1] “70 Creative Advertisements That Make You Look Twice.” Hongkiatcom RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2014. <http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/70-creative-advertisements-that-makes-you-look-twice/>.

[2] “PANTENE : A Very Touching Deaf Violinist Commercial.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ect56804xfA>.

[3] N.p., n.d. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fbbs.tianya.cn%2Fpost-enterprise-220549-1.shtml>.

“What Is the Difference Between Marketing and Advertising?” About. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2014. <http://marketing.about.com/cs/advertising/a/marketvsad.htm>.

Spreading business ethics widely is of great benefit to the whole business world for it works quicker and more efficient than government’s action. If most of the corporations strictly obey the social rules and take doing good to the customers, the environment, etc as significant issue, the illegal issues in business world is surely going to decrease and maintain a well-organized business world.

To raise the business world’s business ethics, executives play an important role. In the article The Slippery Slope of Getting Away with Small Stuff, we can see that Stephen Robert Morse’s situation is result from not having specific regulations for his staffs.

The “slippery slope effect” is telling us that all human-beings have the potential to perform illegal behavior, thus executives who decide how the corporation work shall take actions to stop their staffs from going further and further beyond the line. More than that, if everyone has risk to perform illegal action when they are under personal pressure, the society is also supposed to solve the problem. For instance, business schools are supposed to not only bringing students business knowledge, but raise students’ business ethics during their school life, telling them the consequence of cheating. In this way, they are more probable to have had business ethics already before they thoroughly go into business world. What’s more, laws and regulations of the society shall be updated, keeping pace with the changeable world to restrict those illegal behaviors.