Category Archives: Uncategorized

Taken From
https://www.businessknowhow.com/uploads/find-customers-500.jpg

In a recent blog post titled 4 Ways brands can engage customers to increase channel sales, Patrick Kilgore talks about a variety of things. As we talked about in lecture, producers that sell directly to their consumers can collect information on their customers easily, aiding in a company’s ability to adapt. Unfortunately for companies who sell to a retailer first, this information is harder to attain. In his blog post, Kilgore talks about ways companies can still get this information and how to use it.

The first suggestion Kilgore makes is giving consumers an avenue for free communication using social media. Being active on all platforms and encouraging consumers to reciprocate is a must in todays world. If a company does this and listens to the wishes of its consumers, it will profit in the long run.

The second suggestion Kilgore made was to encourage consumers to give ratings and reviews. These reviews provide information that a company can use to grow and expand in the right direction. A perfect example of this is how one time I went to Subway, and after I paid the sandwich artist offered me a free cookie if I filled out a short survey. Being in the mood for a cookie, I accepted.  The questions had to do with product variety, product quality, customer service, and other things. At the end of the day, both parties win. I get a free cookie and Subway gets information on what I think about different aspects of their company.

Taken From
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O9tnR1B9Nrw/UpxZv_7WXVI/AAAAAAAAKC8/0UStRXeJ9eA/s1600/Get+Free+1-Minute+Survey+&+Receive+a+Free+Cookie++Subway+India+MaalFreeKaa.jpg

The third suggestion Kilgore makes is to use people to advertise for your product instead of traditional marketing tactics. 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and other consumers more than traditional advertising. Companies can even use these consumer reviews in their advertisements.

Taken From
http://blog.bazaarvoice.com/2017/09/26/how-brands-can-increase-channel-sales/

Finally, Kilgore states that companies should reward their loyal customers and encourage them to advocate for them. This can be done by personally thanking them for their purchase or by providing free samples of future products to get their opinion. Getting a product in the hands of the consumer and then having them talk about it is the best and most effective advertising one can buy. A great example of this is how on YouTube many content producers are given free and early access to products that pertain to them. If the content producer gives the product a glowing review then that is huge, but even if they just spread the word that the product is available then that is beneficial too. This tactic is currently applied to many types of products including movies, video games, phones, food, and more.

Kilgore’s blog post was an interesting read and I would recommend reading the full article.

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Taken from Citius Minds.com
http://www.citiusminds.com/blog/amazon-patents-a-drone-capable-of-in-flight-adjustments-to-achieve-efficacy/

After purchasing something on Amazon this weekend (as usual), I had to decide what shipping option to use and it reminded me of something we have talked about in tutorial recently: the potential for drone delivery in the future. While doing research on this topic, I came across a fellow Sauder student’s blog titled “Drones Delivering Innovation”. In his blog, Brendan Woodward talks about how autonomous drone technology has improved vastly over the past few years and the various applications it could be used for in the future. The benefits realized by the use of this new technology could be dramatic, but are they practical?

One of the main drawbacks I found while researching this topic was the carrying capacity of a drone. Unlike a large delivery truck that can carefully plan out its route and deliver many packages in a sequence, a drone can only take one package at a time. This means that in-between every shipment, the drone would need to fly back to the Amazon facility and get a new package. Without question, this would add extra time between deliveries and use up a massive amount of power. To keep up with demand, Amazon would need to have an astronomical number of drones constantly in rotation, and while some are charging, others are making deliveries. Also, as Mr. Woodward mentions, with these being autonomous drones, there are many complications that could arise, including how to prevent collisions with other objects or even animals. As one could imagine, these issues could significantly increase the cost of shipping which would ultimately be paid by the buyer or the seller.

Personally, I find this application of technology very interesting, but is it practical from a business standpoint? With current technology, I unfortunately don’t see this concept working on a national scale. The extra costs involved, and the number of drones needed to make this concept work may be too much for any company to handle. For the time being, I think this concept needs to remain a small-scale novelty service until technology improves.

Once these kinks are figured out, I think Amazon should pursue this concept. The two main advantages I can see are vertical integration and “blue ocean”. First off, if they start shipping using drones, this will cut out the need for them to use companies such as UPS and Fed-Ex. This gives them greater control over their operations. The other advantage is the “blue ocean”. No other company is using such a novel method of delivery right now and it would give them a point of difference to separate them from their competitors.

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Taken from Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/delta-bombardier-cseries-cs100-2016-12

Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed new trade penalties that include a 79.82% anti-dumping duty as well as a 219.63% preliminary countervailing tariff on Canadian based Bombardier Inc.’s C -Series jets sold in the US. The U.S. Department of Commerce has done this in response to Boeing’s complaints that Bombardier’s planes are unfairly subsidized, and to stand up for American companies and their workers. Tariffs this large will force big U.S. companies to buy from other U.S. companies such as Boeing instead. As you can imagine, this has stirred up plenty of controversy both north and south of the border.

Effectively, this quadruples the price of Bombardier’s planes to US customers like Delta Airlines, who currently have a contract to buy 75 of these planes.  Delta is clearly irate about the situation, arguing that Boeing does not even make a similar plane.  “We think it’s absurd” said Delta’s CEO Edward Bastian.  “We will not pay those tariffs, and that is very clear.”

Bombardier is also enraged as this tariff will seriously affect their ability to stay relevant in the U.S. market.  They have filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in the hopes of reducing or eliminating this penalty.

It is true that Bombardier is the recipient of government subsidies that helped support the development of the C Series planes.  However, Boeing has received millions in subsidies from the US government in the form of federal grants, loans and loan guarantees.  I understand that the U.S. Department of Commerce is trying to protect U.S. manufacturing jobs and companies, but this decision is counter-productive as it actually hurts US companies.  Almost half the components of the C Series planes are actually bought from US suppliers.  Those suppliers stand to lose millions if the C Series cannot be sold in the huge US market.  Delta, a company that employs thousands of Americans, risks the ability to provide competitive service to their customers, because there is no other similar American-made plane.  Also, trade dispute decisions like this provoke retaliation.  Theresa May of the UK is upset, as she fears job losses in Northern Ireland, where Boeing has a wing assembly facility.  Justin Trudeau is so infuriated with the decision that he is threatening to cancel Canada’s plans to buy 18 Super Hornet military planes from Boeing.

This entire situation is illogical and reflects the protectionist views of the Trump Administration. No country really wins in a trade war, because decisions are made out of spite rather than based on sound economics.  Hopefully calmer heads will prevail when the final ruling on whether Boeing has suffered financial harm is released in February, 2018.

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Taken from “Coastal Appraisals”.
http://coastalappraisals.net/do-you-really-need-a-real-estate-agent/

On September 7^th, an article in the Vancouver Sun entitled, “Proposed new rules address problems in real estate industry” caught my eye. In the article, the author, David Carrigg, outlines proposed new rules in BC that have been drafted by the Superintendent of Real Estate, Michael Noseworthy. Mr. Noseworthy plans to eliminate multiple issues such as when the realtor represents both the buyer and seller. The lack of oversight in this area gives realtors the power to put their own interests ahead of their clients’ and potentially personally enrich themselves.

When a realtor is hired, they are ethically and professionally obligated to work in the best interests of their client, whether that be selling property for the highest price, or purchasing property for the lowest price. In the market today, it is not an unusual practice for a realtor to represent both the buyer and the seller. This is an issue because it creates a conflict of interest. The agent can not properly represent the best interests of both parties. This gives them the opportunity to influence what their client buys and the selling price, which in turn gives them a higher commission. This is what is know as “dual agency”.  To eliminate this, real estate agents will no longer be allowed to represent both the buyer and the seller unless there is limited access to real estate agents such as might be the case in rural areas. Another aspect is that the ultimate recipients of the commission earned on a sale must be disclosed to the buyer and seller. This includes when any part of the commission is being shared with another realtor. This is to ensure transparency and to discourage realtors from attempting “dual agency” with a partner.

I support the proposed new rules because they encourage good behavior by all real estate agents. Before, those who chose to be ethical were at a disadvantage to other agents who had a more flexible moral compass. Hopefully with this new legislation, it will now be a more even playing field and the consumers will benefit as a result.

This proposed new legislation from Michael Noseworthy is long overdue and should encourage more ethical behavior by realtors in the housing market. Although most realtors have always had their clients’ best interests at heart, the evidence suggests that not all did. Hopefully when the new laws go into effect on January 15^th, 2018 it will encourage a generally more ethical real estate market for consumers.

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Photo taken from Mid Island Collision Center’s website: http://www.midislandcollision.com/brands/volkswagen/

When the name Volkswagen is mentioned in conversation, many different adjectives may come to mind. Before September 18^th, 2015, the majority of those words would have been positive: reliable, well-built, affordable, and respected. Nowadays, you may get different results: dishonest, manipulative, and unethical. What happened to change this? In 2015, on September 18^th, the United States Environmental Protection Agency discovered that all Volkswagen cars with turbocharged direct injection diesel engines gave off 40 times more Nitrogen Oxides (NO_x) than was permitted by the law [1]. This happened whenever when the car was outside a test environment. The car was designed so that when it was being analyzed in a lab, it would produce less NO_x at the cost of some performance. This was a work around so the vehicles could still be sold even though they did not meet emission standards [1].

Due to this, Volkswagen’s reputation and stock price dropped dramatically and they were required to spend over $20 billion to settle criminal charges against them, with many executives, including Oliver Schmidt, facing jail time for their actions [2]. This is the result of value based management; or, to be more specific, this is the result of a misinterpretation of value based management. The main idea of this principal is to “maximize shareholder value” [3]. The Volkswagen executives thought the best way to accomplish this goal was to produce high performance, fuel efficient cars for the cheapest cost. To do this, they needed to cut corners, resulting in the poor and short-sighed decision they made. What these executives do not realize is that ethics are just as important to value based management as any other element [4]. On September 4^th of 2015, their stock price was $162.20; On October 2^nd, their stock price was at $92.36 [5]. This is a drop of 69.84% in value, in just under one month. Their pursuit of maximizing stock value had the opposite effect intended because they did not realize the power of ethics.

Almost two years later, Volkswagen is now starting to recover. They recently announced plans to become relevant in the market again. They have now bought back and fixed most of the affected cars, and will be releasing them on the market slowly [6]. They are also planning to focus on other types of vehicles in addition to the small compact cars they are know for. Soon they will start producing the Volkswagen Atlas, an SUV with seven seats [6]. With these changes, their stock price has slowly started to rise again with it now at $135.60 [5]. Hopefully Volkswagen has learned the importance of good ethics in business and will continue to be prosperous in the future.

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[1] – BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772

[2] – CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/vw-executive-diesel-scandal-1.4235244

[3] – Value Based Management: http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/faq_what_is_value_based_management.html

[4] – R. Edward Freeman: https://www.youtube.com/embed/bIRUaLcvPe8

[5] – Google Finance: https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA760CA760&q=volkswagen+stock+price&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwifqeTDrqHWAhVmrlQKHSnTDIEQvwUIJSgA&biw=799&bih=745

[6] – CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/volkswagen-diesel-scandal-1.4271719