Tim's Blog

RIM BlackBerry

As I look around now at all my friends, the number of blackberry’s has dropped significantly and have been replaced with either an Iphone or an Android. This change in the market of phones has only been over the past few years to say the least, showing that RIM really dropped the ball in being able to give up so much market share in a matter of years. RIM’s failure has been attributed to many reasons but as I delved deeper and deeper into the issue it revolved around 2 major reasons, management and lack of innovation. Prior to RIM’s recent change in management, they were running a co-CEO business where two men held the power to executive decisions, this had lead to a series of wrong decisions and also inability to make one decisive choice and instead have to compromise in the middle. With the co-CEO idea there is also the lack of motivation that was portrayed by the two CEO’s especially during times of the service outage and other stressful times. Another major cause to the failure of RIM was their lack of innovation, not being able to keep up with the new technology on the market. For example, to compare the Blackberry to the Iphone 5 or even the Galaxy S3 the specs destroy the Blackberry. Not to mention the thousands of apps that are available for Android and Iphone but not available for the Blackberry. Those two main reasons amongst many other smaller but still influential reasons are the causes as to why Blackberry has fallen to this low point right now, and will continue to sink even lower.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/article/66599–how-management-has-failed-at-rim

The more and more that I delve into the world of business the more and more I think about business and the impacts it has made on my life. For example, advertisements and how they have changed over the past 18 years alone. As a child, growing up I would be subject to ads usually on television, billboards, movies and the odd sign. Looking back at it, the advertisements in my childhood had a profound effect on my product loyalty and I still purchase the same goods that I did as a child. To look now, the amount of advertising the youth of today are subject to. My little brother has been subject to not only the same advertising techniques that I was accustom to but also the new media in our world. This includes internet, social networking, etc. He knows about a new movie, toy, video game before I even do and he already has product loyalty even though he is only 12. My parents grew up in the 60’s and even then my parents did not have direct access to television, their advertisements came from the movies, newspapers, etc. Even to this day their product loyalty is quite low and are willing to switch brands for any reason, compared to myself and my little brother. It is interesting to see the differences in product loyalty and the correlation to the time and age that we have all grown up in and the mediums to which advertisements reached us.

http://themarketingspot.com/2010/09/evolution-of-advertising.html

Masters of Business Administration

During on of our COMM 101 tutorials, the discussion had come up “Is an MBA worth it?”. We were only given 10 minutes to research, discuss among ourselves, and debate, I took the time after to class to really figure out if an MBA is worth it. After reading many articles all with different viewpoints, I had decided that an MBA is completely worth it. The main reason many of us Sauderites are going to Sauder is because of the network that comes along with it. We could have gone to any school but the reputation of Sauder’s network is unbelievable. The same can be said about getting a MBA, the network that you get from it is also excellent, as you have a degree already, hopefully some sort of existing network, and now you meet even more individuals in your field, who could end up giving you a job or vice-versa. On top of the networking there is also valuable tools and skills that they teach you i.e. soft skills. Even though, many people will advise against an MBA I believe it comes down to the old saying “it’s not what you know, but who you know.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/business-education/was-my-mba-worth-it/article4202592/

Bob’s Burger Shack

After meeting with my COMM 101 group and deciding upon a business plan that could work, a burger shack, I started to think if it would in the real world. I did a little more research into the statistics of starting a small business, let alone a fast food restaurant. A survey was taken of a number of small businesses that had all started in 1992. 10 years later in 2002 there was less than a third of those businesses still operational, and that is still 10 years ago.The business plan that we had chosen was quite straightforward and looked like a successful business plan, but after doing more research there is a lot more work that needs to be done for a business to be a success. For example in my own business plan, there is a serious lack of a point of difference. I also believe that is a serious problem in the real world, where people believe that they can compete with major multinational companies because they believe there product is better or just on par. The economies of scale are a huge factor and I believe is one of the largest areas of failure amongst many other things.

http://smallbiztrends.com/2008/04/startup-failure-rates.html