Monthly Archives: November 2014

Helping the World As a Whole

Sauder’s Arc Initiative offers business student the opportunity to go to the developing countries and exchange business skills and knowledge. People in these countries would be able to see what the most up-to-date products are, and students would know what the economy is like in these countries and how is different from others. The Arc Initiative could benefit the development of new social enterprises in these countries. That’s why I think it should be kept even the United Nations is fully funded.

Social enterprises are entrepreneurs that help the cause in the society. Just like what “Skoll World forum” has explained, these social entrepreneurs are society’s change agents, creators of innovations that disrupt the status quo and transform our world. However, social enterprises are different from the charities organizations. They make a profit while helping out the community. These factors make sure that social enterprises can survive longer than others and more sustainable

In my opinion, when the United Nations was fully funded, they would have more power to finance the programs that they have already, or even offer more. The Arc Initiate could bring out more social enterprises around the world, and under the help of these social enterprises,United Nations would be able to determine what are the issue they should focus more.

Welfare Queens in US

In Barry Ritholtz’s blog, he finds out that McDonald and Wal-mart are the biggest Welfare Queens in America. I’m interested in this blog because that I’m responsive to this topic. There are two reasons why I feel that way. First, the article mentions that the workers from both companies receive more than billions of dollars in public assistance. That means we, the taxpayers are subsidizing these profitable companies; they take enormous advantage of us, whereas the same time they are operating within the law. Although the blog suggests that the simplest way to solve this issue is to raise the minimum wage for everyone in the states and to make sure everyone gets a fair wage, that’s still the ideal situation. In my opinion, that would bring US society a rising unemployment rate.

The second reason is that I think these two companies should provide their employees a better environment and a more comprehensive training program. Just like what we’ve talked about in class. Organizational Culture is crucial to every business, because it gives the company more efficient workers, which means a rise in productivity for these two companies.
There’s nothing much we can do, as the consumers. However, if we can get everyone in the society to respond to this issue, and call on a change in these outdated rules. Maybe we can change a life for all these workers who aren’t treated fairly and appease the anger of the taxpayers.

Ecommerce Challenge

Recently, I’ve been doing couple research on commerce retailers. The reason why is that I’ve been thinking of being a purchasing agents. I believe it will be a good practise and an excellent opportunity of gaining experience for my future business career. Most reports or news online only talks about the fun part of this job or the upside of doing this, but I want to know both the pros and cons.

While I was doing the research, a blog written by OrenLevy caught my eyes, because it talks about the downside or the risk of doing this business. In this modern society, the powerful internet gives people the ability to shop at wherever they want and whatever they like. My business plan is to build a cross-border retail that provides variety of goods at a lower price than what they offer in store, and I’m aiming for the Mainland Chinese customers. But, what Levy has written in his blog reminds me of the risk of providing such service. His findings show that most people is not comfortable with buying things from another country, because of the unfamiliar payment methods and unclear on questions of duties, taxes, customs, shipping, and other hidden costs. After reading his research I realize that if I want to success in what I’m planning to do, I must address people’s concerns first. As long as people understand how the process runs and how they are getting charged, then they would shop at my store with no concerns. Now, it’s obvious that there would be numerous “small” bumps on the path to cross-border retail, but Levy’s blog tells me what I should look out for as I start this business.