It’s no surprise that many kids from highschools all over BC, rather than pursue post secondary education, simply get on a train and head North to some rural area of Prince George where they can earn a very good living working as labour. Not only is it easy for highschool graduates, in fact there are apprenticeship programs in place in most highschools that allow students to work part time as they study so that after graduation they have work experience under their belt. This experience makes them very valuable in the labour market and they face no troubles finding jobs as soon as they graduate.

Well that’s just great!

…Actually, is it? This means more and more of our young are diverting themselves from going to post-secondary for 4 long years (I mean, who wants to study?) as they see the lure of money as soon as they graduate. Many are forced to leave their home due to family issues, at which point the only thing they care about is making money to support themselves. And studying costs money… and is… well, studying.

As this trend continues to grow, it will be very interesting to see how it affects our economy in the near future as much of the possible talent and brains are being sucked away by the labour market.

Coming into the course, I had varying expectations. From what the upper year students, who had taken the course last year, had told me, I was somewhat nervous about all the casework that we would have to do. They warned and said, even though there’s no final, there’s a lot of work and the cases will creep up on you if you don’t keep up to schedule.

This was all true, and I saw it right as the first individual case approached. Since then, I’ve been doing better with time management… somewhat. However, those struggles aside, the group project has been a very positive experience, contrary to my expectation. In highschool, group projects were often very short and not engaging. However, the Comm 101 group business plan project has managed to keep me interested and involved with the group for the most part of the semester.

Dividing the assignment into 3 parts allowed the group to gain lots of experience with working together and by the last assignment, we have confidence in each other and have communicated enough to be comfortable with each other. All my group members have been very solid, and I am very confident that we have tried as hard as we could and the results will reflect the hard work for sure.

Many fanboys and fangirls of Apple around the world simply follow the fact that “Apple has the largest market capitalization of any company in the world” so therefore they’re bigger and better than Google and everyone! The fact is, every company makes mistakes and is lacking in some aspects. One of these big mistakes Apple made was introducing its own maps application to the iPhone operating system to replace that of Google which is so well renowned across the world.

Above are just a couple of the very obvious and unmistakable errors that are seen in Apple’s new Maps application. As soon as news spread of this atrocious decision by Apple, Google pounced on the opportunity and is finishing up design of its own application which it will submit to the Apple Store very soon.

This is just another way that Google will assert its dominance on Apple (at least in the software market for sure). The Android operating system is also currently holding the lion’s share of the smartphone operating system market in contrast to Apple’s iOS which is limited to just the iPhone. Google’s decision to delve more into the software market has been very rewarding thus far, and it is extremely impressive to see that it has managed to compete with Apple in terms of market capitalization while remaining completely in the software market, whereas Apple has been in the hardware market for a long time.

Now, as Google also enters the hardware market for tech products, the competition gets even sharper. Who do you think will prevail?

Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-prepping-iphone-maps-apps-report-says/2012/11/16/09592e3a-2ff4-11e2-a30e-5ca76eeec857_story.html

An acquaintance’s blog post on the topic of Profitable Passion struck a note with me and really led me on a thought-provoking journey revolving around my future and my peers’ futures.

Ever since entering Sauder, I’ve heard countless stories about my fellow classmates successfully leading their own business while in highschool (some even middle school). Stories that are awe-inspiring and truly characteristic of what a Sauder student really is: a passionate businessperson.  I, myself, created and nurtured a Creative Design agency named Blue City Design throughout highschool, but since entering business school, I feel the need to be part of something bigger, something more lucrative.

The fact is, many of us enter business school thinking we’ll hit it off big as entrepreneurs and become the newest millionaire billionaires of the 21st century. But, the fact is, millions of people attend business school just in North America… how many become the next big thing? You got it… not many. But isn’t that what defines passion? Even while seeing the daunting obstacles ahead of us, a remorseless world waiting for us, we follow our dreams endlessly. We put everything on the line, in the hopes that we will one day, get that next big idea that’ll take us to where we want to be.

“Hope is a waking dream,” the great Aristotle said. “Go get it,” I say.

A big thanks to my acquaintance for leading me on such a journey!

My friend Jeff Wang’s post about Starbucks finally entering India made me think deeply about whether or not the business would really hit it off in India. At first, as the linked CNN blog discusses, the average person unaware of what really goes on in India, would say, “Oh, well Indians drink chai don’t they? I don’t think they would take to coffee!”

Well, the fact of the matter is, Indians are striving, perhaps just like the rest of the world, to be more and more like Western society. The new, younger, generations are taking after their counterparts halfway across the world in the Caucasian countries. Indian born and a resident until the age of 7, I would know best. When I grew up there, all of this was just starting: kids were starting to listen to Pop and Hip-Hop music created in North America and Europe. Slowly, the fashion began to evolve and nowadays, everything is changing very rapidly.

One thing that happens in India faster than anywhere else, for some reason that is out of my comprehension, is trend-hopping. Everything that becomes trendy, goes hot across the nation faster than you can imagine. Most likely, it’s the result of India being the second most populated nation in the world, and the largest democratic nation that’s open to infiltration by international media and influence more than China.

Starbucks won’t just be a hit because people will like it’s coffee, it will be the new thing because it’s the thing in America.

Image: http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/article_large/public/2012/10/19/starbucks-mumbai.jpg

As I was reading my friend Marissa’s blog post on TransLink raising its fares starting in 2013, I remembered also reading elsewhere that not only were there going to be sharp increases in fare, TransLink was also planning on cutting routes and reducing SkyTrain frequency*.

 This change in fares is seen as quite the outrage by Vancouver’s commuting population, whether it be students or people in the workforce. As it is, many people complain that the routes are serviced very infrequently and are thus very cramped. I, myself, have been left waiting for a bus that was supposed to depart at a certain time, but never really left… This left me no choice but to call TransLink and inquire about the whereabouts of the bus, only to receive a monotone apology along the lines of “I am very sorry for this sir, we will try out best to correct this in the future.”

For students like myself, commuting all the way to UBC from Surrey every day, I see the real face of public Transit and these fare increases will definitely affect my tuition as well, as the increase will be reflected in the cost of the UPass indefinitely. Not only is there a large void in the SkyTrain system (from Commercial-Broadway station to UBC), TransLink is planning on reducing service elsewhere to fund projects such as the Evergreen Line in Coquitlam (a fair bit smaller of a market). These factors are quite irritating to us as customers, but its the price we pay for such low taxes.

* http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/news/175694591.html