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While there are the obvious things i’ve learned from 299 such as how to write a competitive resume and cover letter or interview correctly there are also other valuable things I have learned from 299 that are not as obvious. Just listening to Philip talk about “real life” business situations he experienced help me understand better what sorts of things i’ll be experiencing after my four years here or even earlier.  I feel like i’ve been more infomed about what the business sector at UBC has to offer. I definetly just feel more enlightened and not so overwhelmed with everything here at UBC. I also believe that i’ve gained quality experience in interviews from the one-on-one oppertunity 299 gave me. I’ve also gained experience practicing things like my elevator pitch in my TA session. Which brings me to what I believe is the thing in comm299 that I have learned the most from and that is my TA’s real business experience stories. Not only have they made business a lot more realistic and tangible but just hearing about an actual students experiences in an intresting manor has influenced me in a very positive way. Overall I just feel more informed with the business sector and how to act and respond to it – what is expected of me in the next few years. I also am so grateful for the resources 299 has introduced me to.

I know that it’s cliche but the greatest lesson I learned so far in my life is from my mom. While she didn’t formally tell me any sort of advice that magically changed my view on life and made me “oh so wise” it was a bunch of little things and a lot of leading by example on her part. Unfortunately the lesson I learned is also cliche and is not singular.  The lesson’s I’ve learned from my mom make-up a huge part of who I am obviously, and is where most of beliefs and ethics are rooted. The main lesson that I’ve learned is that nothing is too big or too small to to put my energy into; from this I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of opportunities that I would have otherwise overlooked. Learning this lesson has allowed me to be confident about my abilities as well as being unbiased to any situation. The second lesson that has come from my mother is to never take anything too seriously. There is always another chance to do something and it is never to late to stop trying to accomplish something. This lesson has allowed me to never stop trying to do something if i truly want want it. Although my lesson and person I learned this lesson from is cliche I 100% believe that it has made me the person I am today, and I’m not sure what I would be like without these valuable lessons.

What is going on with Whistler? Have the Olympics helped or hurt? According to Paul Andrew’s who is involved with Crankworkx, a biking event that takes place every summer “Whistler is expensive, it’s overbuilt, and — not insignificantly for those of us who remember its distant hippie past as a rustic backwater — it’s sold its soul. Any local will tell you so.”

This mountain was essentially created in 1966, led by Franz Wilhelmsen, to host a winter Olympics. Now that it’s ended, Whistler is left in this unidentified state. The estimated jump in tourism that the Olympics were supposedly going to bring did not take place. It turns out it was just a temporary high. The year to date hotel occupancy rate in Whistler at the end of June was recorded at 59.3 percent, which was lower than the 61.8 percent rate for recession-plagued 2009, said Mark Heron, chairman of the Hotel Association at Whistler. Values of Real estate have been dramatically declining, thanks to the overbuilding taken place for the Olympics, investors and homeowners’ investments at Whistler are in a unknown state. It was hoped that the Games would help restore these level, but unfortunately it does not look that way.

Sources:

Sources:
POSTMEDIA NEWS AUGUST 14, 2010

Whistler's Bankruptcy: Meaningless or an omen?

http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Olympics+didn+help+Whistler+tourism+rate/3399021/story.html#ixzz11FN7P8k3

After all this discussion on price wars, ethics and advertising strategies, the cola wars case that I’ve always been interested came to mind. I was stuck at my computer watching commercial after commercial of Coke vs Pepsi ( very hilarious). Type “Coke vs Pepsi” into Youtube, if anything you’ll at least get a great laugh out of Pepsi continually bashing and copying Coke’s ads, but there’s a lot more to it than just that. Everyone has a preference to either Coke or Pepsi, why? Coke was first but Pepsi quickly followed and has offered Coca Cola competition ever since- these are the only real players in the market. Pepsi is the choice in the United States, Coca Cola has the majority elsewhere. It’s a very interesting case to check out of how these soft drink giant rivals have evolved over the years, mostly their advertising strategies.; how they have gained our attention. They will always be rivals, but they’ll always offer each other a motive to be on top. What boggles my mind is how Pepsi can continually bash Coke as an advertisement strategy, it questions my ideas of good ethics. All the while Coke targets an international audience in most of it’s advertisements.  Pepsi or Coke? Which do you choose?  Below I’ve included a few Youtube videos to get you started.

    Over the years it’s unlikely you haven’t heard about the colossal Ponzi scheme of Bernard L. Madoff. The 70- year old former stock broker, financial advisor and chairman of NASDAQ, was arrested on December 11, 2008 in his Manhattan home and charged with numerous accounts of fraud which has said to have cost 65 billion dollars over the past 20 years.  

    On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme, defrauding thousands of investors billions of dollars. His investors reported that Madoff returned eight to twelve percent in a year. He was allegedly paying the first investors with money from the new investors, in turn, building up debt rather than assets.The court-appointed trustee estimated the loss of investors to be 18 billion. On June 29, 2009 he was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison.

It is no question that this case offers many questions of business ethics. Federal laws broken, fraud, lies and stolen money; Mr. Madoff is a major example of bad ethics in business.

“On Wall Street, his name was legendary. Now it is infamous.” (Ruby Washington/ The New York Times)

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/bernard_l_madoff/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=madoff&st=cse

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