Tim's Blog

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

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

Advertising to Children

During one of our classes one of the professors showed an old McDonalds advertisement. It was of a baby swinging in his chair and smiling and laughing when he was able to see the golden arches of McDonalds and crying when he was not able to see it. During the discussion someone brought up the point of advertising to children as unethical. After doing some further research, I was somewhat shocked to see that everyone on the internet it seems, believes that advertising to children is wrong. At a business standpoint it is a huge market and consumer base. According to the article on APA.org children/teenagers spend and influence an exchange of nearly $400 billion a year. It would seem idiotic for a huge company such as McDonalds to not advertise to a huge portion of their market, based on the fact that they are under a certain age. Sure, it may seem as though these companies are abusing an impressionable child’s mind to embed a product or idea. It may seem unethical but companies should not stop doing so, but it is up to the parents to deem what their children should and should not watch.

Advertisement of the Baby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz8dsR5vPzM

APA.org http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep00/advertising.aspx

Samsung Electronics Co. has had allegations put forward saying that one of their suppliers is using child labour. Samsung had investigated the accusation but found no evidence of child labour being used, instead found malpractice. These derelictions included: overworking and potentially unsafe working conditions for the employees at HEG, Samsung’s supplier. Samsung has demanded that these problems be fixed or Samsung will sever all business with HEG and find a suitable manufacturer who will adhere to all laws. The main ethical issue in this case is that companies who do not adhere to working laws, especially those who will use that to save on production costs. Samsung, fortunately, did the right thing after these allegations were made and thoroughly investigated it, fortunately they did not find child labour but other unsafe practices. It is too often seen in the news that major corporations try to take the cheaper, but unethical route, to save a couple dollars on production costs and to maximize profits. This can also be applied to any business, and not just child labour, where companies take the easier and cheaper route, while they sacrifice the safety of the employee and the consumer.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Samsung+looks+suppliers+child+labour/7187709/story.html