Tim's Blog

In our lecture the other day we had a guest speaker, James Tansey, and he talked about sustainability in a business sense. One of the things that had caught my mind and stuck with me throughout was the idea of products made in sustainable ways are not always the most profitable. After thinking for a time on this, I thought that in this day and age that it is possible to become more profitable and sustainable. People nowadays are trying to be as sustainable as possible. This is can be illustrated through types of cars being purchased, clothes that are made in sustainable ways, etc. The pro-environment trend has become huge in the past decade or so, as more and more people come the realization of the environmental trouble that we are in. Firms and companies can use this as a significant point of difference in their value propositions. If firms do have sustainable ways of producing their goods and advertise that and market that to its consumers, it could pull in a huge number of people to buy their product rather than their consumers products. In my own personal experience, my parents will go out of their way to buy products that have the little seal on them signifying those products were made in sustainable practices. My family and myself will pay the extra couple of cents or dollars for environmentally friendly products. From the firms perspective if there costs are a little more but will sell more products and take up more of the market share they will become more profitable than their competitors, while also helping the environment, it is a clear win-win.

http://creatingwhatmatters.co.nz/articles/10-ways-it-improves-business/

Jamie Oliver a food guru and a household name is known for his fantastic food, television shows, and successful restaurants. What many do not know is that Jamie is known for much more than just his cooking skills. He took his cooking techniques and used that to take on an ever-growing problem, childhood obesity. Jamie began a trek to ban unhealthy food in the UK and to substitute that unhealthy food with healthier alternative. He then took the initiative to try and change the types of food that was served to children in school. Instead of just dictating others to change the food to healthier options, he showed the school systems that there are cost-efficient ways to serve good and healthy food. Jamie Oliver’s approach to changing the food youth eat can be seen all over the place. For example even in my own high school, over the past years there has been a significant change in the food served in the cafeteria. It is great to see people who have skills and ideas that have made them rich, such as Jamie Oliver, use those skills to help solve or alleviate a problem that is prevalent in our world today. It clearly shows that those in business can have a heart and use their skills that made them successful in business to improve the world as a whole.

http://www.thenaturalrecoveryplan.com/articles/jamie-oliver-obesity.html

http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl=en&biw=1437&bih=751&tbm=isch&tbnid=uOCG57O-iWkF0M:&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Oliver&docid=iB_3Z1LHCjwmgM&imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Jamie_Oliver_retouched.jpg/220px-Jamie_Oliver_retouched.jpg&w=220&h=291&ei=LyWoUNbAKrH2igLr04GYCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=180&vpy=163&dur=756&hovh=232&hovw=176&tx=114&ty=105&sig=106010889264730636772&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=95&start=0&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:132

Canadian Business is a website that also hosts a section a blogs on a daily basis. I found the blogs to be quite distinct and varied quite a bit. For example the blogs there talk about everything from how Apple is doing to the NHL lockout and the financial repercussions associated with that. Even though a business website and blog, there are still blogs on how to improve your speech in a business setting, allowing yourself to get rid of jargon in your speech etc. The blogs themselves do cover business in all different kinds of light and appeals to all people in business. Either you just got degree, are still a university student, graduate student, or even a seasoned business person there are different blogs for everyone. The blogs themselves are a little bit longer than the ones we write in COMM 101 but they are still short enough to capture ones attention for the time being.

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Hey take a look at Sandra Woo’s blog on Apple and its unfortunately unhealthy producers. I left a comment there as well, so click here and take a look at her post and my comment!

Take a look at Nicole Chan’s blog post on globalization and call centres! Click here to take a look and see what I wrote as well!

One of the only things that have been in the news recently has been Hurricane Sandy and all the bad that it has done on the East Coast. Even though, we are on the West Coast we are still subject to the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy unfortunately took the lives of 110 people from the Northeast, those were not the only repercussions from that storm. The problems that the West Coast had to handle were the closing of the New York Stock exchange for two days. The market has only ever been closed for two consecutive days since 1888. With this close in the markets it puts even greater stress on the other markets, investors, and literally everything else that is connected to the exchange. This panic and fear can also be seen in the events of 9/11. After 9/11, similar to the hurricane, there were huge economic losses. In my own opinion, a lot of these financial repercussions from either man or mother nature could be avoided if all of the financial districts in the U.S. were moved to more central parts of America, where things are more tame (environmentally), and are harder to reach (incase of another 9/11). If the New York Stock Exchange was moved to a more central location such as Denver or Wyoming, there is next to no chance of any tsunamis, hurricanes, etc. and even for attempted terrorist attacks it would make it even more difficult to reach. Even though this idea would be held up with a huge amount of public backlash, it would make the financial and overall security of the United States and the world much more stable.

http://www.dailynebraskan.com/opinion/article_67993dda-2c7c-11e2-8897-0019bb30f31a.html

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/09/09/Economic-Cost-of%209-11-Three-Industries-Still-Recovering.aspx#page1

Redbull is pushing the limits of where man can go and putting their slogan “Redbull gives you wings” to the test. Redbull dropped a man, Felix Baumgartner, from the edge of space hurtling down to earth at speeds faster than 800 miles per hour. Felix has now become a household name all around the world as the man who fell from space. Did Redbull do this to take a man to the edge of space or was there a greater purpose in this whole thing? In my opinion, Redbull did this whole stunt solely for the marketing. On top of the 8 million who watched live, there were tens even hundreds of millions who either watched it later, saw it on the news, or heard their friends talking about it. It cost Redbull several million dollars, salaries for 40 engineers, equipment costs, and any extras needed. The expected marketing that Redbull got from the event was estimated to be the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars. Redbull has now put its name out there for tens of millions of people, displaying their product, and making Redbull synonymous with Felix Baumgartner’s. This has also put Redbull into a prime position to be the face of skydiving and any other extreme sports. Redbull has made the appropriate move to make its name homogeneous with a scientific breakthrough for the world.

http://news.yahoo.com/red-bull-stratos-project-science-meets-marketing-163844910–abc-news-money.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4bb1a862-1685-11e2-957a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2CAGaQkuJ

RedBull Gives you Wings