Sober is depressing

Helena told about Energy Aware in her blog article. The  Power Tab in-home display system from Energy Aware  shows the exactly energy consumption and the price over a time period, encouraging customers to reduce the usage of energy.  Helena  hold an opinion that customers are promoted by energy savings to replace their old meters as the Smart Meter is required for the Power Tab Systemto function. “This will allow BC Hydro to better collect energy use data and streamline energy distribution, reduce energy theft, improve outage response, and ultimately lower operational expenses by wasting less energy”, she said.

The second picture shows the BC Hydro’s objective, it wants to control the demand of the energy and encourage clients to reduce energy consumption. As I study the Organizational Behaviour and did the consulting project with a group, we find that clients of BC Hydro are no fans of it, due to collect data from the BC hydro, customers feel that their privacy are violated( BC Hydro will know the entire data uasge of any electric equipment the customers consump and the time period ). Therefore they tend to be defensive.  Moreover, household recieve a ridiculous high bill after they installing smart meter, this does not seems to incentive customers to have smart meter at their home.

 From:https://blogs.ubc.ca/helenalin/2012/11/15/save-energy-make-money/

Links:http://langleytoday.ca/?p=18015

           http://www.bchydro.com/news/conservation/2011/smart_meter_facts.html

From： https://blogs.ubc.ca/jingyipeng/2012/10/25/chinese-nexen-net-profit/

This is a command of Jingyi Peng’s blog article, which is about takeover between Nexen and CNOOC.

As Jingyi illustrated, there were two major concerns from Canadian stakeholders. First one was security, Canadian stakeholders were worried about their information  about users would be investigated by Chinese company. Secondly, due to economic situation difference, it was no easy for these two stated-own company to make decision and agreement, Canadian stakeholders were worried about future uncertainty. However, China tried to understand Canada’s slow decision making speed.

The University of Alberta’s China Institute did a survey and found that  37 per cent of answerers showed an opinion that partial Chinese ownership in Alberta resources is acceptable. Meanwhile, another similar survey asked about full Chinese ownership and only 15 % of responders found it acceptable, with 64 percent against. Undeniably,  Canadian feel uncomfortable that a foreign company to control the production of oil and gas, which are their critical raw fuel. On the other hand, due to cultural difference, decision and agreement may not be easy to make between these two companies. Anyway,  if the integration succeed finally, it benefits both countries in terms of bigger market and new technology.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20265583

 A financial aid to India about £200m ($319m) will beterminatedby UK  from now to 2015 and UK will then shift to offering technical assistance to replace. When it was overtaken by Ethiopia, India was the biggest recipient of bilateral aid from the UK until last year, receiving an average of £227m a year in direct financial support over the past three years.  Justine Greening, International Development Secretary said that now is the time to move to a relationship reforce skillsharing with India.

There is a  folksay in China says that,”It is always better to teach a person who are hungry to fish than to give him some fish.” UK’s support in technology will help India to grow in the future rather than relaxation current, future growth means India has ability to accelerate its economy. One more thing, India’s helath care spending  has the lowest percentage globally. As spending on health care rising, citizens will become healthier and have more energy to work, which could mean a reduction in absenteeism and an incresase in productivity. Hence, a positive multiplier effect to promote economic growth.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20206710

Greece presents cuts package to parliament which worth 13.5bn euro. The cuts  include tax rises, spending cuts and structural reforms.  Parliament  will vote for thsi and make a final decision.  Nov 16 is the deadline for Greece to repay 5bn euros in debt, in this case, international lenders hold th opinion that  Greece must pass the measures to receive any more bailout cash, otherwise, Greece would go bankrupt.  Dut to the cuts, the main unions of public have called a 48-hour general strike.  Antonis Samaras, Prime Minister, tried to reassure the public and guranteed thess will be the last cuts in wages and pensions.

The Eurozone crisis are strait, especially in Greece, Spain and Italy. It may not be easy for the Greek economy recover in a short time, the debts are like a deep hole. The European Union and IMF provided 110bn euros of bailout loans to Greece to help the government repay its creditors in May 2010,and a further  130bn euro this year. In addition, Greece has been in recession for four years, where could it to obtain a massive amount money to pay the debts in such a short time.  Go bankrupt might be the best way.

From: http://www.jingdaily.com/to-play-ball-in-china-mulberry-needs-to-up-its-game/21742/

 Mulberry claimed a shares slid about 29 percent, the brand’s steepest decline since 1998. It blamed a fall in wholesale and  lower-than-expected international sales, China particularly. However, it should then looking at its internal shortages. Mulberry shows a little ambition to develop its brand in China, it has a single Bejing location in china, and  a capitalization on the “Alex” bag, which is the most popular product of it among China’s younger bag-buying set. As chinese consumers become more seasoned and sophisticated that they switch buying cheaper products in other places like HongKong, or purchasing in slack seasons, China is no longer a place where major international brands should expect their goods to sell themselves.

Therefore, personally speaking, it is adventurous for companies to keep thier strategies same in this changing commercial environment. In order to survive in this environment,  key points for firms to to become successful are impressive customer services,  tailored perks and some promotions. For the companies in fashion industry, the level of turnover is crucial as well, after all, the change of fashion taste is spanking. But some luxury stores like Chanel and LV,  classical design is most popular one.

From: http://www.jingdaily.com/roger-viviers-high-stakes-bet-on-china/21816/

Roger Vivier opened its third main flagship in Shenyang, China. Compared to Beijing’s 80 square meter location, Shenyang’s 360 square flagship became  one of the label’s largest global boutiques in Shenyang, which seems to become  become one of the top luxury markets in China. Roger Vivier was so confident that it was brave to built a location in second tier city in China in a fragile global economic state. Not only Roger Vivier has an ambitious to develop in China, as well as Coach, BMW and other retail which focus on luxury and attainable luxury. Undeniably, China is a massive market which welcomes any tpyes of retails to develop. They interact and promotes each to grow.

Andrew Tan from Reckitt Benckiser said that much of the predicted 11 percent growth in China’s retail sales sector will from the middle class living in second and third tier cities in China by 2020. This indicates that China’s middle and lower class has grown recently. The aim for those luxury firms to enter China is to expand thier market demand, as we know, China is a big market for luxury products due to its fast grow.

A group of Canadian premiers went to Chin, which is the second big market with Canadian products, look to attract and sign big business  contracts.  Alison Redford, premier of Alberta, said her discussion is whether the transaction povides exactly economic benefit to Alberta. Maybe not Albert, but the trancation do bring benefit to Canadian economy, from 2010 to 2011, the value of Canadian exports to China jumped by 48 perent.

On the other hand, China also hunger for Canadian resources and technology to feed its economy. Take Beijing as an example, he is planning to add about hundred reactors to help clean its air. Canada benefits from the nuclear expansion.($3 billion over ten years)

The investments from Canada to Chian benefit not only Canadian but Chinese economy, as China provides a sizable quantity of customers and absorb new technology from Canada, this may be a win-win situation.  However, it exists risks in terms of profitability. Even thoughthe value of Canadian exports rose, that does not mean the profit raised. As firms expand products to a new market, they might need to  do marketing researches first, and set new strategies as well as analyzing problems and risks they may face, in this case, cost could be high.

Video:http://www.cbc.ca/video/watch/News/World/ID=2279691352

RIM’s new 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook is accessible through  Bell, Rogers and Telus on August. This is may be a chance  for RIM to relieve its tough situation—continual product delays, declining market share, cost-cutting layoffs.

However, the author of this news, Peter Nowak, indicated that RIM overpriced its PlayBook products again, at a price of $549 and RIM posit itself at the  high end of the market. Whether it worths?

PoP: The LTE PlayBook  has the same crisp, seven-inch high-definition screen and stereo speakers as RIM’s first product, provided same entertainment functions. It also has a front-facing camera of three-megapixel and a five-megapixel back camera, including  standard tablet features: GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth.

PoD: The new PlayBook’s screen interfaceorganizes open apps in a horizontal carousel, which is different from the iPad and many Android devices. Its app menus are accessed through swiping down from the top of the touch-enabled frame, swiping up from the bottom backs to the home screen.

Does this innovation means playBook has strong advantage to compare with iPad and  Android products? It depends on the segment of customers RIM focus on. The fans of PlayBook may be delighted to expect the products.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/08/08/f-rim-playbook-review.html

As the article shows, according to the National Association of Realtors’ data, the price of previously US owned house rose, resulted in  the sale of this kind of house reached  highest level for more than two years in August. However, this also caused a fall in the amount of first-time buyers about 3%. This  phenomenon was caused by the rising housing price, which means the opportunity cost of first-time buyers raised.

On the other hand,  Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, hold an opinion that the housing market has a stable increasing trend with consistent increases in both home sales and median prices. One of the reason of housing economy being boosted could be a  federal home-buying tax credit, which encourages buyers to increasse thier purchase.

However, Lawrence Yun also indicated that there were shortages of houses for sale and the price rose faster than other places in the west of the United States and in the state of Florida .whether the recovery of housing market will worsen inflation rate or even worsen economy situation, it takes time to see.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-19652560

Nokia’s advert shows its  optical image stabilisation (OSI) technology. A man uses a smartphone to film his  girlfriend when they are both riding bike. The advert displays a fascinating picture on difference of  OSI on and off. People think the camera of this phone has really good visual effect. However, this is a fake.

The truth is that the footage of this advert is cut from professionally-filmed material rather than the smartphone held by man. Customer are misleaded by the advertisment. Fortunately, Nokia recognized that he made a fake and has  apologised for that.

 The main ethical issue is that Nokia used fake advert to mislead consumers and this might help Nokia to make profit. However customers’ right is  infringed. ( Customers have right to know the true infomation about the goods. ) In my opinion, firms need competition but the competition must be fair. In this case, Nokia might gain more profit by selling this type of smartphone and are able to gain higher market share, in the other hand, it might lose reputaion, which will cause larger lose in the long run.

 Links:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19499879