Wendy's Blog

As a basketball player, Stephen’s recent post regarding the NBA Lockout caught my eye. In his post he talks about how the players would be the “losers” if the deal fell through as they ” will suffer more in terms of salary loss” in comparison to the owners.

Since his post [dated in October], both sides met for a few times in hopes of working out a deal. However, on November 14th it was concluded that all games through December 15th would not take place as the players refused the owners’ proposed deals and disbanded their labour union.

As a long time NBA fan, I am outraged. The league is proposing to replace the soft salary cap (58mil per team) with a hard cap (48 mil). Even though I understand the players’ refusal to implement these changes, but on average they have already lost $220,000 after missing the first month of the [regular] season. I agree with Stephen that the players are the losers here. They seem to forget that this is their job, and at the end of the day, if they don’t play, they don’t get paid.

Though the chances are slim, I am praying that a deal will be worked out and I can enjoy some games on Christmas Day.

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Kevin Wong recently wrote a post about business ethics on his blog in which he questioned businesses’ right to allocate their investments “towards purposes that wouldn’t increase the return on their investments?” and profits “for social causes – without (the customer’s) knowing?” I agree with Kevin in that companies have no rights to support causes with their investor’s money or their revenue. However, I believe that businesses’ still need to find a way to express their interest in developing/maintaining social responsibility. A way for them to do so would be first finding a suitable and sustainable cause, notifying their investors of their degree of involvement, and then asking for their support. In my opinion, it is easier to find those who share similar values when requesting support (from both investors and customers), as they are more likely to provide financial assistance and less reluctant to purchase your product/service. An example would be TOMS Shoes, where the company has clearly advertised that a single purchase of a pair of shoes would result in another pair being donated to a child in Africa. Thus, it is more likely for consumers who believe in solving this problem (helping children in need) to purhcase a pair of TOMS as a means to support this cause.

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CEO Diane Johnson of Descriptive Video Works Inc. saw an opportunity to provide TV services for those who are visually-impaired. Her company provides video and audio descriptions with quality narration and production. For example, DV “plays on top of a show’s pre-programmed audio. “As a sighted person, we don’t realize all the nuances that might be missed on screen,” she says. “We might describe a scene by saying that a woman is wearing a red blouse, but what’s more important is that a woman is wearing a red blouse and has her back to the door.”” 
(Source: BC Business Article)

Diane is a successful entrepreneur because she took something as simple as TV and innovated it into a new product that is unseen and as as result, also created an entire new market with it. Her company has created a speed of wealth and experienced tremendous growth in the past year, with revenues increasing by 38 per cent and gross margin by 43 per cent.

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The era of CDs has been long gone. For the past decade, the media industry has found a way for consumers to replace their buying habits with digital purchases. Music, movies, and even books and magazines can all be found online these days, and consumers have quickly adapted to these resources. The main two reasons why consumers have chosen buying digitally are the time saved from going into stores and the reduction of energy consumption it brings.

But what most consumers don’t realize is that their MP3 players (the ones they frequently replace) are made of heavy metals and toxic chemicals, which eventually end up in landfills. They also don’t realize the energy and carbon emission from the gigantic servers used to provide the platform. (with the size equivalent to football stadiums)

So even though the energy use and greenhouse emission of downloading music has less impact environmentally than music CDs, consumers need to take a look at the impact the use and disposing of MP3 players has on the environment.

This is rather interesting because consumers are often blinded by the limited information that is carefully packaged by the businesses and often don’t seek to explore further about the issue. If only consumers are willing to take the time to acknowledge the problem, their carbon footprints can be reduced even further.

Original article can be found here.

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In a world where the internet is considered a necessity and where a person is bombarded with over 3,000 advertisement of some sort, it is difficult for companies to successfully distinguish themselves. The term “viral marketing” has been on the rise as of late, where companies uses the internet as an advertising medium, ie. via Youtube or Facebook, to promote their products and services.

But since internet users generally don’t linger on the same website during their usage, companies need to allocate their marketing resources on popular websites to ensure that they are getting their message across. Only a handful of companies have successfully let their advertisement gone “viral”, one of which is Old Spice.

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

Personally, I did not know the brand before these videos. And the only reason why I saw these videos were through a conversation with friends. This shows that Old Spice has achieved its goals of generating buzz and using the cheapest marketing tool there is, “the word of mouth”. In my opinion, companies should definitely consider shifting their marketing sector towards modern mediums as it is affordable and if done right, effective and of great impact.

Original Article here: Viral Marketing

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Rumors surrounding the Air Canada strike will finally be validated this week as employees go on strike.

This will cause a decline in Air Canada’s business because of its lack of power in costs. Unlike its competitors, Air Canada does not have the ability to provide its services at low costs and many of these costs often affect its employees.Its main competitor, WestJet, may find this a great opportunity to edge out Air Canada and gain a portion of their customer base.

This will also harm the company’s brand as it has been perceived as one of the more reliable airlines in North America.

It will be interesting to see how Air Canada can solve this imminent problem and how this strike will affect the airline industry. In my opinion, Air Canada needs to come to an agreement with its employees as soon as possible to minimize their loss if its employees were to go on strike.

Original article can be found here.

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Personally, I cannot remember the last time I used Yahoo! as a search engine, or even visited the website. The common use of Google has turned it into a verb, “You don’t know what it is? Google it.” No one ever says “Yahoo it.” This goes to show the importance of branding and positioning. Even a large company like Google has to constantly strive to position itself in our minds with other internet services (though most don’t come close to Google’s services.”

I think Yahoo! is making the right choice in exiting the Japanese market. Why stay longer if the company is certain that there will be further loss in market share and other assets? Yahoo! needs to quickly determine their profitable markets in Asia and invest their resources there.

Orginal article can be found here.

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An article published last month by the New York Times recently caught my eye. It is generally one’s assumption that if the economy is not doing well, everyone cuts down on  their spendings.

But apprently not. According to the survey, luxury goods are being purchased more often than consumer goods (ie. necessities.) While retailers such as Walmart and Children’ s Place are struggling to keep their consumers with small price increments, Mercedi Benz and Tiffany’s bracelets are being sold out in a flash. Caroline Limpert, a New York entrepeneur stated that the only reason she would buy less is “not to be showy” about her buying powers.

The interesting fact is that while middle-class families are scraping together their gas money and grocery funds, the rich is actually helping the economy on its way to recovery. (What?!)

“This group is key because the top 5 percent of income earners accounts for about one-third of spending, and the top 20 percent accounts for close to 60 percent of spending,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “That was key to why we suffered such a bad recession — their spending fell very sharply.”

So I guess if the rich just keeps spending their money, we’ll all be okay?

Original NYTimes Article here.

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The Canadian coffee giant Tim Hortons has recently changed their cup sizes in their Ontario locations. Small-size cups are eliminated and extra-large (24oz) is now being added to the list and so far the prices have not gone up.

This is amazing for coffee lovers (such as myself) and even though it is not certain whether or not Tim Horton’s will implement this new system to all locations across the country, there are several reasons why they possibly will.

The first is Tim Horton’s recent entry to the United States. Since their entry, the company has established countless locations and have had decent success there. (Not as well as Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts, etc. but pretty good for a new foreign coffee company) And as we all know, Americans love to get their money’s worth. By disregarding the old cup sizes, customers can now get more with what they paid, and for many, that definitely accounts for a good start to their day.

Another reason is Starbuck’s introduction of “Trenta” (31oz) earlier this year. Tim Horton’s might see this as a potential threat and therefore has chosen this strategy to keep at par with their biggest competitor.

The full article is here: http://www.businessreviewcanada.ca/business_leaders/tim-hortons-to-test-new-coffee-cup-sizes

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Many of us remember the disastrous BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last April. That incident not only left environmental contamination and a poor reputation for BP but also raised awareness for the corporate responsibilities to clean up their own messes.

Companies such as Imperial Oil Ltd, ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp. and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, who hope to drill in the Arctic have assured they would operate safely and take entire responsibility throughout their project.

Michael Peacock, the exploration manager of Imperial, stated that: “… If we can afford to drill in this environment, then we should have the financial strength to fund any cleanup.” Most readers would be happy to see such large corporations make such commitments in protecting the local environment and demonstrating such business ethics. But upon further examination, it is clear that the companies have no intention in putting money aside to pay for possible spill-related costs. Peacock states that “Financial guarantees…. create little benefit for the public while adding to the cost of the operation.”

In my opinion, there are two parts to business ethics. The first is the ability to promise to do wrong by none (openly stating their beliefs and morals). The second is the ability to carry out their promises. The public is more likely to be convinced if companies such as those of Mr. Peacock’s are more willing to act upon their “beliefs” rather than shielding themselves from the situation.

Globe and Mail: Oil drillers willing to accept liability for accidents in Arctic

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