Tanner Kirkpatrick

The once original and innovative iPad that Apple featured way back when is not so original anymore. An article in The New York Times called “The Tablet Market Grows Cluttered” focuses on the numerous amounts of tablets that are now cluttering and crowding the tablet market. Comsumers do not only have to choose how much they are willing to pay for one of these devices, they now have to consider which brand they are looking to purchase from. It is difficult to think of an electronic company these days that does not feature some sort of portable tablet device. Is this a good thing or a bad thing for companies?

The fact that there are so many options in the market for consumers increases the buyer power and level of rivalry. Consumers now have that choice to make; they can weight their options out and choose the one that fits best for them whereas when there weren’t so many, buyer power was weak and they did not have as much of a choice when it came to what brand they would buy from. While Apple is losing its footing as biggest tablet seller, it’s only a matter of time before it creeps back up with a new product.

I see the tablet fad fading out in the future due to the increased entries into the market. There will be something new and more innovative that will outplay the tablet in the electronics sector and then POOF, the tablet will have seemed to disappear and then the vicious cycle of a cluttered market will commence again.

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I recently read a blog on ITbusiness.ca regarding young people aspiring to be entrepeneurs and the way the world reacts to this. Being a young adult who aspires to be an entrepeneur myslef one day, I found this blog post very interesting and intriguing.

The author, Leo Valiquette, describes that people in the world today, whether it be counsellors, teachers, parents or the government, are discouraging children who want to grow up to be entrepeneurs. They are warning these children that entrepeneurship is a risky, time-consuming, and stressful area of work.

What Leo Valiquette is saying, and I completely agree with him on this, is that these intelligent aspiring entrepeneurs need role models, mentors and support; they do not need to be criticized and have their dreams crushed by someone who does not have experience in this line of work.

I strongly believe that it is important for young people, who are the future in the business world and are aiming to change systems with their innovative ideas, to start dreaming young and start working towards finding that one perfect idea. This can be very hard to accomplish when the people the young adults are surrounded by are so negative and discouraging.

If the world has plans to keep moving forward and evolving, we need to count on the young adults of today to be the ones to create the positive changes in the future….So back off, stop trying to alter their dreams and let their imaginations run wild.

After hearing the presentation by Janice Cheam about her company, Energy Aware, I became inspired by her story of how she started out as an entrepenuer and came about starting her own business. I have always dreamed of coming up with some ingenius idea and being able to successfully implement this idea into the community. Janice is living proof that it is possible, one only has to wait until the right idea comes to mind.

Energy Aware is a company that boasts an innovative product to help people keep track of how much electricity they are using in their households. This product, called the Power Tab, will help people be more aware of how much they are currently spending on electricity and hopefully encourage them to use less of it.

Janice, in her presentation, stated that the journey has not been easy. She explained that it has been a long and trying experience trying to find investors and ways to come up with money. My concern for Janice and the success of her business is not whether or not the business will have enough money, it is whether or not the product which it is selling can keep up with the competition. With well known companies such as Black and Decker selling similar products, Energy Aware needs to establish a definite point of difference in the market in order to be noticed beside such large and established companies.

The article in The New York Times titled, Olympus and Ex-Executives Plead Guilty in Accounting Fraud, describes the consequences companies have to face for providing false information on their financial statements. The company was charged with inflating the company’s net worth in it’s financial statements for five fiscal years. It is known as the 1.7 billion dollar accounting cover-up. The CEO took responsibility for this act of business vice , however the people who were actually responsible for it and are being chargeed with fines of up to ten million yen and sentenced to up to ten years in jail.

The overall consequences that the company now has to face implies that the the fraud relating to its income statements was not worth it in the end. Not only were the prosecuted employees fined, but the company itself was fined up to 1 million yen. Further, the CEO, who accepted responsibility for the company’s actions but actually did not play a part in the act of fraud was fired. Something we can assume that is not written in this article is also that the company’s reputation; which was exceptionally good, is now suffering. It is also assumed that shareholders in the company have decreased in number due to the realization of the company’s actual net worth.

A lesson here to be learned by all is that it is never worth it in the end to lie about the success of one’s business as it will most definitely hurt it in the future.

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Save on Meats is owned by Mark Brand, a young entrepenuer who has built a reputation for himself in Vancouver. I recently read an article on spacingvancouver.ca called Restaurants that Changed Vancouver: Save on Meats. This article focused on the positive social effects that this restaurant had brought to the Vancouver community. Author Katherine Burnett talks about how Brand employs marginalized and unskilled residents of Vancouver’s downtown east side giving them a source of income, feelings of worth in society, and an increased skills base. This article attracted my attention because I had recently learned about social entrepeneurship in my commerce class and I believe Mark Brand can be classified as a social entrepeneur.

A social entrepeneur works to drive social change and create a lasting and transformational benefit for society (Roger L. Martin and Sally Osberg, 2007). Mark Brand is working to create a lasting change in Vancouver’s community by providing jobs for the unskilled and unhireable thus taking them off the streets and giving them the opportunity to make a buck. There are many entrepeneurs in the world who have done amazing things to improve the lives of many people just like Mark and I truly hope that more and more entrepeneurs follow in their footsteps so that a better tomorrow can be achieved.

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After reading Arsh Basi‘s blog post regarding the implementation of a calorie reader on vending machines, I could not agree more with Arsh in the sense that stating calorie counts of different products will not help shape a healthier America.

When one is thirsty and is looking to quench that thirst with a cold beverage, most people would not stop to consider whether or not they are making a healthy decision, they will simply find the nearest vendor, be it a store or machine, and purchase the first tastey cool beverage they see. In this case, people would not care to see the calories displayed on the screen of the vending machine they are purchasing from, instead, they are more interested in the feeling of a cool fizzy liquid sliding down their parched throat. On a different note, I disagree with Arsh when he states that by displaying these numbers, companies are trying to promote the sale of their other products in the machine. This does not make sense to me because why would a company attempt to harm the sales of one of its products only to increase sales of another one of its products? If a company truly wanted to increase the sales of its other products, they would work harder at promoting and advertising the certain product through ways which did not harm the sales of the other existing products it owns.

In the end, a fizzy drink is satisfying and a calorie count on a vending machine would not stop someone from quenching their thirst.

After coming across Hannah Vandenberg‘s recent blog post regarding Samsung’s marketing techniques, I was immediately prompted to blog about this topic as well. I competely agree with Hannah’s stance and viewpoint on the cleverness of Samsung in it’s advertisements. With the release of it’s new Galaxy S III, Samsung saw a rough ride ahead especially with competitor Apple’s new iPhone 5 being released. While some companies would have seen this as an extreme threat, Samsung used this to it’s advantage as it began showing ads comparing the iPhone 5’s out-of-date design and features to the Galaxt S III’s futuristic and advanced technology.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJafiCKliA8

This was a very clever move for Samsung as it was not only able to flaunt it’s new features, but it was able to do so right next to it’s competitor. In showing an advertisement like this, Samsung differentiates itself from Apple’s iPhone and attracts not only new Samsung customers, but also previous Apple customers.

I recently read an article on Bloomberg called “RIM Releasing Blackberry on Six Continents to Reach Faithful”. In this article, Hugo Miller focuses on the fact that RIM is looking towards overseas customers so as to offset the shrinking Blackberry popularity in North America. My analysis shows that this is a smart idea for RIM especially seeing as the new iPhone5 has just been released and will create a tough market competition for RIM and their release of the new Blackberry 10. In the article, its states that a  big concern for RIM is the fact that they do not have the support of the software developers providing the music, games, and news applications that Apple and Android thrive off of. This will make it especially difficult for the Blackberry 10 to be successful in North America therefore RIM expanding geographically is a risk and endeavor that is worth taking in order for Blackberry to stay in the game alongside companies like Samsung, Google, and Apple. It seems as though Blackberry is having to work harder and harder to stay afloat in the dangerous waters of mobile technology and advancements.

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The New York Times recently wrote an article called “In Meetings on the Web, Owners Turn to Owners for Advice and Support”. In this article it is explained that the owner of the small company, Moody Eyes, turned to a group of other small business owners in the community for advice and support on his company’s issues. While this may seem to most people somewhat of a confidential matter; sharing company failures and weaknesses, my analysis shows that it is in consulting with other experts that companies are able to get back on their feet.

In class we learned that it is encouraged that business owners reevaluate and change the actions of the company if something is not working. It is unhealthy for campanies to remain narrow-minded as this closes a lot of doors to various opportunities and potential gains for the company.

As the owner of Moody Eyes listened to the advice given by his many affiliates, he decided to reevaluate his company’s value proposition. Although it is too soon to judge whether the adjustment has improved sales, my analysis shows that this was both a bold and beneficial move for Moody Eyes owner and it is something that many other campanies should look into as well.

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Everyone loves to indulge in that Aero bar from the corner store or a cup of hot chocolate on a rainy day. However, most people are ignorant to what goes on in the making of their favorite chocolate products. Nestle, the worlds largest food company,  is a major culprit in the usage of children as laborers in the production of their cocoa. Along the Ivory Coast, where some of Nestle’s cocoa is produced, over 600,000 children are working on cocoa farms for little or no pay in excruciating working conditions. Nestle has failed to conduct checks on child labor and other abuses in parts of it`s cocoa supply chain and has been accused of serious violations of their own supplier code which clearly states clauses on child labor, safety and working conditions. While Nestle has taken responsibility for these accusations and has allowed the Fair Labor Association to map their cocoa supply chain in the Ivory Coast, it still leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of all Nestle consumers. Imagining the conditions these children had to endure and the number of children`s lives that were taken in the process , it is troubling to think that Nestle only received a slap on the wrist. It seems as though Nestle needs to pay a little more attention to what`s going on outside the office.

Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18644870