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Marvel’s Revolutionary Approach

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Agreeing with Sincere Cheong’s opinion, it seems that Marvel’s decision of creating their own studio in order to bypass buying intellectual property, copyrights, etc… was an extremely good idea.  By creating this new studio, it has allowed the company too expand into a new business model and allowed the company to expand its capabilities.  The process of creating their own studio has allowed Marvel to “retain its creative control” and has paved a new way of movie-making from comic books.  Before Marvel, there was no other comic book company that had established themselves and had created their own studio.  Their newly developed business model that came from the studio has proved to be extremely difficult to mimic.  I entirely agree with this statement as there has been no other company that has been able to do what Marvel has done exceptionally well.  The new movies such as Iron man and Avengers has demonstrated the full capabilities of Marvel and the success of their newly established competitive advantage.  Marvel has been able to successfully integrate themselves into the movie industry whereas other comic companies have not been able to do so as efficiently as Marvel.

 

Their new studio has allowed the company to expand their capabilities and further allow Marvel to have a sustained competitive advantage.  Therefore, I completely agree with Sincere who also agrees with the direction that Marvel has taken.  It has shown the relative success of taking new directions and that it may bring about huge positive changes throughout the company.

Google’s New Tangent

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Last year, Google announced a new project that the company has launched.  Googles launch of a new sector called “Calico” in 2013 is run by Arthur Levinson, chairman and ex-CEO of biotech company Genentech.  Although  there are no specific details about how and what directions Calico will be going in order to do research for extending life or “cheating death.”  Calico is supposedly focusing more on health and the well-being of people, it is also focusing on aging and associated diseases.  This new phenomenon created by Google is a truly interesting direction that the company is heading towards, it showcases the full capabilities of google and how far it has come from simply being an “online company.”  More interestingly is the fact that Levinson is the chairman of Apple, however, he has received the blessing from Tim Cook to pursue this new objective.

 

This new project has been applauded by many but has sprung many questions left unanswered.  I believe that this new idea of improving life and improving the conditions of life is extremely important.  Although far-fetched, a few years ago we would have believed travelling to the moon would have been impossible.  It is the people who research, experiment, and try things that are “seemingly” impossible who accomplish new disruptive innovations that take the world by storm.  I am extremely excited to see what Calico has to bring as there should be much more news regarding Calico and its findings.

 

Calico is a new prospective company that will bring around changes in our future lives.  They have began expanding their company and will be building a facility that further tests aging, and age-related diseases such as neurodegeneration and cancer;  initially, the companies will each be investing $250 million.

 

 

Instagram Introducing Advertisements

 

 

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As of recently, Instagram has begun implementing advertisements into its app.  However, their approach to adding these additional advertisements are different to the approach for Facebook.  Instead of having normal advertisements that any average user would notice, they are tailoring their advertisements to seamlessly integrate into the experience of Instagram.  This meaning that the advertisements would be introduced and styled in a manner that would mimc the photos and videos uploaded by normal users.  In my opinion this new approach is an innovative and fresh approach of making revenue with ads.  There has never been any other way of advertisements except for pre-rolls or pictures on the side of any given website.  This new seamless approach has yet to be seen, however, I do believe that it is a positive approach for advertisements and will receive general positive feedback, despite the negative connection of any type of advertisement.  In my opinion, it is difficult for a business, especially  an online business, to find a fine line of advertising quantity and its website/app itself.  Due to the obvious negativity shrouded around advertising, the Instagram team is risking the potential loss of users or continuing users by adding advertisements.

 

We have seen the use of advertisements on Facebook and have witnessed the negativity as it was being introduced along with the gradual implementation of advertisements on Youtube.  Naturally, there will always be negative feedback, nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how the public reacts to this new innovative way of integrating advertisements.  As an avid Youtube user, the main problem with advertisements were the unnatural and awkward placements of all advertisements as well as the annoying pre-video advertisement rolls.  These issues take away from the overall Youtube experience and has led to many computer users to acquire a tool called “Ad Block” which successively blocks out all advertisements.  With this new system, it will be interesting to see how people react and grade the apparent “seamless” advertisement implementation.

Netflix Takeover

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Netflix has been doing extraordinarily well, their internet business has proven its place in the 21st century.  Since the startup of Netflix, businesses such as Blockbuster and Rogers DVD rentals have suffered heavy losses.  Netflix provides a service that, until recently in North America, has not been provided.  Despite the ability to stream movies online, personal experience has lead me to understand the popularity and growing consumer base for Netflix.  Up until Netflix, streaming online for free was always an option, however, it always came at a price.  It was either trying to search for a good streaming website where the buffering would not be interrupted or it would be the copious amount of advertisements that the steamer had to close.  After using Netflix for three months and trying to go back to normal streaming, you truly understand and appreciate the beauty of Netflix and its accessibility.

Just recently in fact, Netflix has expanded into European Countries.  This expansion came with the release of a new movie that Netflix sponsored/invested in order to increase subscription sales in those areas.  The growing company has been exceedingly well with marketing and advertising their company in the least annoying way to the consumer base.  Using popular Youtube personalities as a way to promote their server was an innovative and ingenious idea that no business had ever taken advantage of.  As a common youtube browser,  Netflix has efficiently and smoothly integrated itself with common you tubers and their respective fan base.   Netflix has also used “Netflix Originals” as an incentive to gain new subscribers and as a way to keep with with overpriced streaming costs.  Their adaptability and versatility has proven that Netflix will be a strong force for online streaming platforms Netflix will be an exciting and dynamic business to watch grow.

 

BlackBerry’s push into the Competitive Market

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BlackBerry’s newest release has piqued the interest of consumers and gained traction with the competitive market of cell phones.  Since their new release, it is obvious that they are no longer trying to compete with the same consumer base as Samsung and Apple.

Agreeing to Sincere Cheong’s post, this new approach to enter the market is an interesting and innovative approach.  BlackBerry is catering towards their original consumer base (i.e Military, Government, etc…).  “We really set out to build the Passport to meet the needs of a very specific customer group,” says director of marketing Jeff Gadway, prioritizing  or catering towards a sole consumer base is considerably risky as it tends to automatically shut out a large portion of potential buyers.  However, the marketing and design team of BlackBerry have done an excellent job advertising and creating the Passport’s image.  Their new business model for the Passport is a make it or break it moment, as the Passport will be the deciding factor of whether BlackBerry will be able to make a comeback after their near bankruptcy from last year.

Blackberry’s new design has great potential as it has includes many upgrades that focus on the most basic aspect of a cellphone, such as, call quality, accessibility, and battery life.  They have specifically designed the Passport to work well with spreadsheets, documents, and other areas with business, their new focus in the corporate world is an interesting idea and has great potential to generate sales and success.  As a Canadian company supporter,  I will be watching the sales of BlackBerry and keeping an eye on their stock.

Reference:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/09/24/blackberry-passport-launch_n_5872426.html

First Nation Influence Over Business Models

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The actions taken upon the First Nations to oppose the new BC Hydro mega-project demonstrates the effect that Natives have on businesses and their business models.  The first Nations play a major role in the way businesses form their models, especial in the industry force.  Since the Aboriginals are major stakeholders and raise particular industry concerns, companies must be wary of Aboriginal issues and formulate business models around them.  Aboriginals played a vital role throughout the concern of the BC Hydro mega-project due to its  interference of land.  This displays the importance in considering the opinion and voice of Aboriginals when developing a plan or business model for a project in order to prevent future conflicts.

The business plan of BC Hydro was to construct a dam and a megawatt hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River in British Columbia, however, constructing these buildings would flood and destroy wildlife and different habitats that Aboriginals go to hunt and feed.  Therefore, the First Nations have played a vital external role in affecting BC Hydro’s business model.  In order to prevent projects being tied up in courts, companies may consider better communications with external aspects of business models and plans to ensure future prevention of court battles and difficulties

 

 

Reference:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

Biggest IPO Ever?

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It has been an interesting IPO year, since the launch of the  IPO for Twitter, Alibaba has become the worlds largest IPO launch in history.  Despite my limited but expanding knowledge on Initial Public Offerings (having had shares in IMB) I like to keep a close eye on IPO’s and its activities.   Regardless of Alibaba being the largest IPO launch, there are many underlying questions of how China itself and the rest of the world will react.  Since there are laws that prevent foreign investment in Chinese companies, is this really a proper IPO?  Alibaba doesn’t even own the licences to operate its websites, they use “variable interest-entities.”   This in itself should raise questions on the risks for an investor and the future stability of the company/stock.  Would investors recommend the risk in buying Alibaba stocks?  As a person with a interest in investments and stocks,  Alibaba is an extremely interesting company to look into.  There are pros and cons in the use of “VIE” for Alibaba, some analysts are concerned with the use of the Variable Entities as it could cause future problems with the company.  While, neither of Beijing nor China’s courts have advocated for or against the use of VIE’s,  only time will tell if issues will arise.

 

 

Reference:

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/alibabas-ipo-big-picture

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2014/09/18/alibaba-prices-shares-at-68-as-it-gears-up-for-the-largest-us-ipo-ever/

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/05/06/alibaba-and-vies-a-primer/

The Cut-Throat Business World

 

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Reading the comment of a Samsung executive on Steven Jobs’ death opens your eyes on the cutthroat attitude of business.  I have always believed that companies -although competing in same markets and same products- managed to get along.  I understood the need for a competitive edge and a need for the company to do better than the competitor, however, I never realized the intensity and war-like attitude of many executives that run companies.  Executives like Michael Pennington, who made the comment on capitalizing on Steve Jobs’ death dampens my hope for equal competition with healthy sportsmanship.  

I have always wanted to become an innovator and have the ability to create innovations to make the world more efficient and modern, however, with the current state of business it is extremely hard to be hopeful for aspirations such as that.  Having the ability to succeed in the business world seems to be becoming more and more ferocious as companies fight for the competitive edge.  I do condone healthy competition, nonetheless, when the death of a CEO occurs, it has come to the point where people wish to use it as a way of boosting their own company in the means of becoming number one.

 

 

Reference:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/16/samsung-steve-jobs-death-attack_n_5161877.html?utm_hp_ref=android

Apple Security Issues

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The recent exploitation in Apple’s apparently “secure” iCloud service has caused tremendous strain on the authenticity and quality of Apple’s security.  As a leading innovative company, the current breach leaves questions unanswered, on how a exploit of this magnitude could occur.  Despite Apple taking all responsibility, personal questions arises whether the customers itself have become complacent with using easy and obvious passwords.  Although there was a breach in iCloud, statements that Apple has made infers that there was in fact not a breach, but a use of “phishing” that caused the leaking of celebrity photos.  I believe that the fault and reason for the breach falls on both the user and the company itself.  Many factors may lead us to believe that Apple’s lack of security solely lead to the exploits, however, the lack of creativity and lack of care in security questions and authenticity questions leads to the relatively easy “guess and check” of a password.  I am not saying that users are the ones at fault, Apple definitely holds responsibility, I am simply stating that users also played an important role in the recent scandal.

Apple’s entire company image bases itself on innovation and modern relativity.  However, how would they manage to uphold such an image with other recent exploitations such as FindMyIphone with the iBrute hack only a few weeks earlier?  Apple engineers and programmers seriously need to ramp up security and focus more on the effectiveness of their security systems.  These current scandals not only hurts Apple’s image, but also its marketing and Pubic Relations department.  They now need to focus on damage control and releasing press statements in order to please their customer base.  Apple has a responsibility to uphold security and customer privacy.  As an Apple user myself since 2008, I am a strong believer in Apple and its capabilities.  These recent continuous scandals, however, has wavered my confidence in Apple as a efficient and leading innovative company.

 

References:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/01/icloud-bug-fixed_n_5748642.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/03/apple-hack_n_5758792.html

Business Ethics and Social Responsibility

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The recent actions that Apple has appropriated, closely relates to the content of “business ethics” that was introduced.   In my opinion, Apple should not shift their focus away from increasing profits.   Friedman states that the main “social responsibility” of a business should be to “increase its profits as long as it stays within the rules of the game” and not about “social conscience” that leads to “social responsibility.”  Although Apple has done considerably well minimizing deception and allowing parties to conduct investigations, inferring what Friedman said about “social responsibility”, Apple –despite being “socially responsible”- is reducing the stockholders money.  The company is exercising “social responsibility” “rather than serving as an agent of the stockholder or the customer”; hence, the company is reducing their money rather than increasing profits. Friedman believes that companies should solely focus on increasing profit, and I agree.  Relating the Apple article with Friedman’s beliefs, I support his opinion and believe that Apple should focus their efforts on profits rather than shifting efforts concerning “social responsibilities” for the company’s “conscience.”  After all, improving working conditions are, at the end of the day, for the company’s self-interests, not for the workers.

Sources:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/13/5407406/apple-2014-supplier-responsibility-progress-report

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