Susie (Wen) Zhang's Blog

• Blog Link: Fengge Yang
• https://blogs.ubc.ca/yolandafenggeyang/2015/11/12/＃6-apple-plans-peer-to-peer-payment-service/

Fenge Yang has an excellent argument towards this article. Based on her opinion, I want to add some extra points. In my opinion, the launch of this peer-to-peer payment service is too late since many other companies already have similar services in the market. This situation is not good for the expand of Apple’s service unless it is distinctive and customers can easily differentiate it from other similar services. However, to be different is hard. What’s more, Apple’s peer-to-peer payment service has a big limitation because this service can only be used on apple products. However, in the whole world, lots of people do not use iPhone or Apple Watch, so that means many people cannot use this payment service even it is good. By contrast, Facebook messenger and WeChat can be installed in any brands of smartphones, enlarging their consumer groups, but Apple’s peer-to-peer payment service does not have this advantage. Overall, in my opinion, maybe this service will not be that successful than it is expected to be. Read More »

Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs change the face for society, seizing opportunities missed by other people to improve business itself, build strong and sustainable organizations and invent new approaches. Nowadays, more and more entrepreneurs jump into this social enterprise, pursuing poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal.

Tom shoes is one of the companies that concentrate on this social entrepreneurship. Its business model is “buy one, give one-buy a pair and the California-based company will give a pair to a child in need”. And based on this principle, the company helps hundreds of thousands children in need. In my opinion, however, this one-for-one model only solves the surface problems but not deal with the root causes.

Source: http://www.ban-ma.com/index.php/discover/r-1612.html

Although the one-for-one model do help children in poor countries, at the same time, it will bring some negative impacts on these regions. On one hand, one-for-one model definitely has an impact on the local economy, suppressing the development of local business, such as shoe stores. On the other hand, this action will cultivate dependency of these children. It will make these children think that even though they do not work, they can still get free things and therefore these children will get wrong guidance and it is not good for their growth.

I definitely admit that one-for-one business model is a fabulous idea and has a good incentive, but to make its better, lots of works needed to be done. To go beyond one-for-one, Tom shoes can build manufacturing factories in those poor regions, giving people who in need opportunities to get jobs. And this action can actually boosts the local economy. There’s an old Chinese saying, ” Teach people to fish instead of just giving them fish”. Therefore, to help these children and ensure that they can make a living by themselves, Tom shoes need to teach them how to make money by themselves instead of just giving them shoes.

• Article link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/average-house-price-up-8-3-to-454-976-in-october-1.3320674

In recent years, the hosing costs in Canada increase dramatically especially in B.C. (Vancouver) and Ontario (Toronto). Based on my research,  hosing prices were up 4.7 per cent from a year earlier in Toronto, however, compared with B.C.’s, that is not a big deal. The British Columbia Real State Association said that “by April, 2015, the total dollar volume was $5.8 billion, a 57.1% increase from a year ago while average prices climbed 14.1% during the period to $641,799”. (http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/mortgages-real-estate/vancouver-not-alone-broader-b-c-housing-market-heats-up-rock-bottom-rates-spur-sales). So what are the reasons behind the surging housing cost?

The first reason is that the moderate climate of B.C., especially for Vancouver which is the most “livable” city in the world, attracting more and more immigration to live there. According to my research, nearly 40,000 immigrations enter in Vancouver each year. 

source: http://www.welcomebc.ca/welcome_bc/media/Media-Gallery/docs/immigration/PR-tables-for-CIC-print-edition.pdf

With the increasing population, the demand of houses also increases, leading to a higher level of hosing cost.

What is more, the housing estate in B.C. and Ontario is limited. That means the supply of the housing is less than the demand. In Vancouver and Toronto, the hosing estates are most likely be a house or a condo, providing limited space for citizens to live.

(http://www.mikestewart.ca/radius-condos-a-new-presale-development-in-kits-by-ledingham-mcallister-with-pricing-floor-plans)

It is worth mentioning that since Vancouver and Toronto are well developed cities in Canada, so these places are able to attract business investment, improving the economies. With the booming economy, the prices of hosing estate will definitely be higher. The same situation also occurs in China. In China, cities like Shanghai and Beijing, the housing price there is almost 5 times higher than the housing price in the second and third level cities.

However, for the citizens in B.C. and Ontario, this is the worse news. According to a citizen born and raised in Vancouver, he is so upset to experience the high hosing cost:

Vancouver, “most liveable” as it may be, represents crap value for money and has since roughly 2000. If aging boomers and wealthy immigrants want to continue living in this fantasy world and bidding up the cost of living they can have this place all to themselves… I am happy to contribute to the community and economy of a vibrant and interesting city that actually wants me and my family as a residents. And no I am not going to live in your freaking garage…oh sorry

(http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/01/30/BC-Housing-Drives-Inequality/)

In my opinion, the government had better to pay attention on this serious issues and take some actions to control the hosing price, such as building more houses for people or limit the number of personal hosing estate.

Article link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/pbo-jobs-1.3317890

About 40 per cent of recent university grads between the age of 24 and 35 are overqualified for their job, the PBO warns. However, the picture among college grads, meanwhile, was slightly better. The report found college graduates have fared better in recent years. Does this trend mean that people should not go to university instead of going to college? In my opinion, of course not.

With the development of economy and standard of living, more and more people are aware of pursuing high-level diplomas. Based on my research, the percentage of university grads in Canada increases rapidly from 19th to 20th, resulting in fierce competition for jobs.

 Source: HRSDC calculations based on Statistics Canada. Table 282-0004 – Labour force survey estimates (LFS), by educational attainment, sex and age group, annual (persons unless otherwise noted), CANSIM (database)

However, the high-salary jobs are limited and required few employees and therefore the rest of the university grads are seeking other jobs. In this case, jobs that can be done by people own lower diplomas are now undertaken by the graduates. But it does not mean that university grads are overqualified for their jobs, actually it indicates that the improvement of society and high standard of living.

I also want to say that he person who wrote this news has a misunderstanding towards the purpose of going to university. Throughout this news, all of the words indicate that people who go to university must find a “high-level ” job. However, the university is actually intended for academic research, not job training. Through these four years in university, people can learn knowledges, meet friends, know professors, enjoy their lives instead of only getting a job. Going to university is not the only way even the best way to get a job, but it must be the most stable and correct way to live better in the future.

• Article link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/14/world/asia/china-one-child-policy-loneliest-generation.html?_r=0

When I just saw this news, the only thing I want to say is that what a sensible decision it is for both China and next generations.

For the whole country, it cannot be denied that one-child policy has suppressed the growth of population in China effectively, however, at the same time, aging population is inevitable. Based on my research, by 2005, citizens over 65 years of age rose to 6.96 percent of the whole population. If the one-child policy continues to be used, by 2020, over 23 percent of China’s citizenry is expected to be over age 65 (http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/China’s_Aging_Population). And because of the aging population’s high demand for services and expenditures related to health care, China’s medical and social insurance system will face a big trouble. Overall, all of these factors are not beneficial for the development of China.

Besides the whole country, stopping one-child policy is also good for the next generations. As the last generation who had experienced one-child policy, I am both lucky and unlucky. Fortunately, parent love is exclusive to me when I was growing up. I do not worry that someone is going to divide the love of my parents. However, the cost of this exclusive love is huge. Firstly, I was very lonely during my childhood since no brothers or sisters played with me all the time. Secondly, when I grow up, no brothers or sisters can look after me when my parents are busy. Thirdly, I have to raise up two sets of parents when I get married. However, things become totally different for the children who were born at the end of one-child policy. During their childhood, they can grow more happily and healthily and appreciate what they own. Furthermore, they will not feel alone anymore when they are accompanied by their brothers or sisters. What’s more, their pressure will be less since they do not need to raise their parents by themselves but with their brothers and sisters.

However, stopping one-child policy has some “negative” impact on the boyfriends or girlfriends of the next generations since they not only need to get along well with their mates’ parents, but also need to please their mates’ brothers or sisters.

Article link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/cancer-meat-red-processed-iarc-1.3293541

After reading this article, the only thing I learned was that experts always make people’s life unhappy by telling them that things they like are wrong.

Nowadays, WHO report says processed meat causes cancer. After this announcement, it has a big impact on consumers and producers.

In Canada, the largest farmland for breeding cattle and pigs is in Alberta. If people stop consuming beef, pork and other red meat by knowing they are carcinogenic, the employment rate of farmers will be problematic. Besides, the economy of Alberta will also get into trouble since it is not only for framing, but also for the oil exploring. However, during the recent months, the price of oil declines dramatically; even its price is lower than the cost to produce it. Both of these two bad situations, which including oil price and red meat, give a double whammy to Alberta.

Then, what about the reflection of consumers towards this news? The purpose of this fact reported by WHO is to let people eat less red meat. However, according to my research and the people’s comments towards these related articles, most of them will not change their menu due to this report and I also stand on this side. In my opinion, all the money spent on dying and finding out why we die would be better spent on helping people enjoy life because none of us can get rid of death.

Article Link:

• http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-sonys-new-business-strategy-2015-2

My Opinions:

That seems as a good strategy for Sony 10 years ago, however, personally I think this strategy comes too late for the development of Sony now. The reason why I said that is because the current market of electronic devices is mostly occupied by Sumsung and Apple. Sony lost its position in the past few years and it is hard for Sony to explore the market without new products. Besides, Sony’s most outstanding and profitable products are Game & Network Services, Pictures, and Music, however, Sony did not catch the chance to expand these products in the past years instead of enlarging its product categories, such as TV, smartphone, which hinder Sony itself. Lots of customers of Sony were disappointed and the following content is a customer’s opinion towards Sony:

As a consumer I previously (pre-90’s) held SONY in the highest regard.  It stood for quality and reliability.  It lost me across all its products when some “clever” individual in the TV division decided it was time to cash in on the SONY brand by cheapening its TV’s while maintaining premium pricing.  They lost their bullet-proof reputation because their TV’s broke just as often as others.  It didn’t help itself when it put auto-installing DRM software on its Music CD’s.  They gave up on the PC/laptop market that they probably should not have entered in the first place because they treated it like a “PC” business rather than innovating and integrating it outside the “PC” niche.

In my mind, Sony represents quality and reliability, but its failing business strategies lead Sony to fall down in the competition. Sony had far more of the skills, experience, assets, and market presence in place than any other company  to build a truly integrated electronics and media environment covering all consumers’ needs, but it frittered them away. And this new business strategy is amusing in a sad way.

Through the recent classes, I learned lots of new things about business that I have not touched before. All of these new knowledges help me open the door or business.

In class 5, I learned things about financial accounting which helps the company make decisions and  look at their financial statement clearly. Besides, financial statement is divided into 3 categories-balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Each of them includes different terms to calculate different financial activities of a company.  What’s more, one of the most important formula I learned in this class was liquidity ratio for a company. It is used to determine a company’s ability to pay off its short-terms debts obligations. Generally, the higher the value of the ratio, the larger the margin of safety that the company possesses to cover short-term debts. Through this formula, I can compare two companies’ liquidity ratio to determine which one is more risky.

In class 7, I learned things about business strategies which is divided into generic strategies and competitive strategies. If a company wants to occupy the large part of the market, it must have its own strategy which is clear and unique. Through the globalization, lots of companies become more similar and fail to stay competitive. In this case, companies with clear and unique strategies make a big achievement in business since they sell goods at lower prices than rivals or differentiate their product from those of rivals. Although business strategy seems easy when written in words, it is really hard to implement in a real business situation.

In conclusion, through these classes, I am more interested in business now and I really want to explore in the business world to expand my knowledge about business.

• Article link

http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/anglo-american/business-ethics-and-corporate-social-responsibility/what-are-business-ethics.html#axzz3m1GWleJ8

• The following contents are my opinions towards this article

Through reading the class 3 materials and the article about this topic, I learned that the business ethic is one of the most important factors for the development of a company. The businessman must know how to manage the company to benefit all stakeholders and shareholders. To achieve this goal, the businessman should not only consider the profit of himself, but also care about his employees. In this case, the employees will make their all efforts to do things for the company and only in this condition, the company can develop quickly and has its own spirit. Besides, the company should be honest to their consumers. That means the company must do the integrity management to win the consumers’ trust. If the company deceives their consumers, the trust of consumers will go away as well as the reputation of this company. In this case, the company must go bankrupt rather than develop well. In conclusion, business ethic is the basis of the development of a company and based on this principle, the company can grow healthily and quickly.

• External link

https://blogs.ubc.ca/xuefeiwang/2015/09/13/1-ethics-in-business-monster-energy-drinks/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/aaronng/

These two classmates give examples about business ethics and write their own wonderful opinions about examples. I think they totally understand the meaning of business ethics and can utilize this content to their own career n the future.

During the first class of COMM101, I was surprised by the teaching method since it allowed students to show themselves up and express their opinions and thoughts bravely. What’s more, this unique teaching style let students to think deeply and rationally when they face a problem. The main content in the first class was about government intervention on products and what opportunities and threats would be brought to the producers under the intervention. Besides the given example (soft/energy drinks), teachers also let us to do discussion about another product that should be intervened by government. This discussion not only helped me deepen the understanding of the class content, but also gave me a chance to talk with different people. The last but not the least, in next classes, I believe the discussions on COMM101 class will help me practice my weak spoken English and support me to become a more outgoing person. Read More »