This fairly recent news story, found in the Vancouver Sun, is a good example of how the values of stakeholders can clash – or coincide – with a business, and ultimately play a huge role in the business’s strategy.

In any business deal made on First Nations territory, the First Nations themselves are and should be the primary stakeholders.

For companies that want to make deals involving First Nations and their land, it is crucial that they involve the First Nations people themselves.

It is natural that the First Nations would want to reap some financial benefits from projects such as the Northern Gateway Pipeline. Perhaps more than anyone else, they need a secure form of employment – thus it is understandable for them to feel the need to get payout, especially from projects of a risky nature such as the NGP.

However, their territory is important to them for reasons that are far less monetary: tradition and culture.

Living in Comox, which has a large and proud First Nations community (the K’omoks First Nations), I have been exposed to a lot of First Nations culture. These people truly do believe in the concept of environmental sustainability. Being “one with the land” is a vital part of their tradition, and it is well known that upholding tradition is an important factor to them.

As the Environmental Stewardship segment of the Assembly of First Nations states, “while the pursuit of economic opportunities for First Nations and others must be supported, this must be done in a way that retains a balance with the environment. Economic activity cannot come at the expense of environmental sustainability.” (Assembly of First Nations)

Another point is that, given the public image of First Nations people in Canadian society today, and the public’s general goal to help preserve and sustain a culture that has been continually destroyed throughout Canada’s history, it could be crucial to a company’s image and reputation to respect First Nations’ wants and opinions.

Works Cited:

“Environmental Stewardship.” – Policy Areas. Assembly of First Nations, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2014.

Hoekstra, Gordon. “‘There Will Be No Pipeline’ – In the Heart of Nak’azdli Territory, There Is a Steely Resolve — the People Are Firmly against Northern Gateway.” Www.vancouversun.com. Postmedia Network Inc., 16 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

This post is a response to Sara Chitsaz’s analysis post on McDonald’s.

I agree with all that Sara has to say about the multi-billion dollar company. I liked her point about the success of McDonald’s that was aided by their playing into their image of cheap food and fast service, but that now, given the changing social climate based around healthy eating and sustainability, they might want to continue altering their strategy.

Another interesting layer to add on top of this is a recent news story on CTV that reported a survey that revealed McDonald’s to be one of the favourite restaurants in Canada. While I knew about the obvious popularity and brand power of McDonald’s, I never knew that people thought of McDonald’s so highly. It seems as though people appreciate the consistency of McDonald’s, both in terms of food and service.  Another interesting point that was made was the fact that McDonald’s beat Starbucks in the “best tasting coffee” category – an impressive feat. This truly shows how far McDonald’s has come.

Everyone knows that McDonald’s has established their name. Maintaining their trend of innovation and growth will only lead to more success for them in the fast-food industry.

Original Post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/sarachitsaz/2014/09/28/mcdonalds-and-the-path-to-environmental-friendliness/

Works Cited:

“McDonald’s, Tim Hortons Emerge as Favourite Restaurants in Canada: Study.” CTVNews. Bell Media, 3 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

*Image found via Google image search

Rome’s opera house has fired 200 members of its permanent orchestra and chorus. The company has been experiencing financial problems for some time now, it’s acclaimed director Riccardo Muti having quit two weeks ago. (The Guardian)
This strikes a very personal nerve. I am extremely passionate about music (particularly classical music), and have an uncle who is the artistic director of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, who tells my family of the struggles the Orchestra has with receiving funding from the government.
So here I pose the question of whether the arts should get more government funding.
There are two sides to this:

Pros: The arts contribute to humanity and make society develop intellectually. Without government support, artists and musicians will have to turn to private patrons, which won’t reflect the tastes and opinions of the public, but rather only the wealthy. To look at more reasons governments should fund the arts, see http://stopbcartscuts.wordpress.com/about/ .

Cons: Given the current economic crisis (seen specifically in the Rome opera case – Italy is experiencing the worst economic crisis it’s had in decades) it is understandable that governments want to re-focus funding on areas that they deem more necessary and “basic” than the arts. As well, when the government is involved, censorship is a greater possibility. http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/875 has some good ideas as to why lack of government funding for the arts might not be such a bad thing.

Works Cited:

“Economist Debates: Arts Funding.” The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

“Rome Opera Sacks 200 Permanent Members of Orchestra and Chorus.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 3 Oct. 2014. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.

Image: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/03/rome-opera-house-sacks-members-orchestra-chorus

A story that caught my eye on the Globe and Mail website was the one about Yahoo! considering investing $10 billion in Snapchat. Basically for those of you who don’t know (although really you should know, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 2 years), Snapchat is a “Los-Angeles based startup that makes a mobile application for sending disappearing photo messages”. (Saitto)
So is Snapchat really a good investment for Yahoo? I decided to do a little bit of research on the company in order to come up with some sort of a conclusion.
First of all, companies today in the mobile consumer space are doing very well. (Laporte) Start-up tech companies are drawing investors like never before.
Second, Snapchat itself is drawing talented top executives from both Facebook and Google. Taking over Snapchat’s PR and policy in mid-October is Jill Hazelbaker, former senior director of communications and government relations at Google. (Laporte)
As well, while currently Snapchat has little or no revenue, it is experiencing fast growth. (Saitto, Womack) It competes with Facebook, which tried to buy Snapchat for $3 billion last year.
So in short, it appears that Snapchat is in fact a good investment for Yahoo.
“Snapchat could become an important strategic partner for Yahoo, as it seeks new ways to distribute its content, apps and ads in the mobile world.” (Macmillan, Rusli)

Works Cited:

Laporte, Nicole. “The Snapchat Effect: How Los Angeles Startups Are Snatching Silicon Valley’s Tech Talent.” Fast Company. Fast Company & Inc., 2 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Rusli, Evelyn M., and Douglas MacMillan. “Yahoo Nears Investment in Snapchat.” The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 3 Oct. 2014. Web. 03 Oct. 2014.

Saitto, Serena. “Yahoo Said Close to Investing in Snapchat at $10-billion Value.” The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc., 3 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Saitto, Serena, and Brian Womack. “Yahoo Close to Investing in Snapchat at $10 Billion Value.” Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 3 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

While Staples and Blockbuster don’t have many similarities, the one thing that they do have in common is that they both bear the backlash to consumer spending shifting online. Blockbuster has gone completely out of business as a result. Does Staples face a similar fate?
According to a recent news story on BNN, Staples Canada has had to close 15 out of 331 stores in the country. As well, Staples Inc. has had to close down 12 percent of all North American stores – and downsize the ones that are still running. All of this because “the market is changing.”
This completely relates to the topic of transient advantage that we discussed a few classes ago.
Blockbuster has in fact proven itself to be non-transient in terms of growth and strategy. Will Staples be the same?
In my humble opinion, Staples could take a few hints from Toys “R” Us. While it is a good approach for Staples to downsize their stores, they could take a cue from the toy retailer and convert store space to backrooms. This would allow customers to pick up their online orders at their stores. (Strauss)
According to the Globe and Mail article that the Toys “R” Us story was presented in, while retail will probably NOT shift to being completely online, it is important for retailers to be good at both. This sums things up nicely.

Works Cited:

Strauss, Marina. “As Buyers Move Online, Retailers Shift Space from Stores to Storage.” The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc., 3 June 2014. Web. 04 Oct. 2014.

Strauss, Marina. “Staples Closes 15 Stores in Canada – BNN News.” Staples Closes 15 Stores in Canada – BNN News. Bell Media Television, 1 Oct. 2014. Web. 04 Oct. 2014.