When people talk about the United Nations (UN), the first description came to my mind is an organization formed by a group of countries that focuses on improving social well-being, maintaining and developing peaceful relationship among countries. However, in the case if the UN had enough funds, I still believe we need  social enterprises and the Arc to support the global community, especially in business area.

Social enterprises are very important since they offer people from developing countries more opportunities. For example, Salem’s Ethiopia hired 15 more marginalized women to the production line. The company also provided these women free training classes so as to improve their skills and productivity.

Because the UN has to solve many different global issues, even if it was fully funded, it cannot spend all money and effort to support a particular business. While for The Arc, which promotes social enterprises and is mostly focusing on business concept. This program provides ways for Sauder students and the faculty as well as local entrepreneurs to apply business knowledge in the real world. When I was watching videos introducing this program and its workshops, I noticed that  many entrepreneurs were being taught to use SWOT and some accounting knowledge to analyze their own business. By getting more detail information related to business, it can help the local entrepreneurs to make use of business tools so as to identify problems and find the best solution based on the analysis.

Although the UN can offer financial support to various businesses directly, it still cannot replace the role of social enterprise. Actually, I think the UN, social enterprises and programs like The Arc should work together because they can benefit lots of people and help businesses to improve problem solving abilities as well as their performance in the community.

“Doing Well by Doing Good” is the main belief of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). It is also the reason why HUL began Project Shakti, which focuses on empowering women who live in rural area by offering them more job opportunities.

Relating to what we have learnt in class, I believe this project is a way for HUL to create shared value (CSV). Because in my opinion, the project brings HUL into a win-win situation as it takes social responsibilities and creates a larger benefit for both the company itself and the local community.

Instead of distributing the company’s revenue to these women or letting them rely on the dole, HUL hires them to work as Shakti Amma (selling HUL products in the nearby village) and offers them wages per month. In this case, more and more women have money available to raise their families and to buy higher quality products. As a result, people’s living standard will be improved.

This project also makes a contribution to the company’s profit. Since 70% of the population in India comes from rural area (Wikipedia), as more people in this area get jobs and receive better payment, the demand for goods and services will increase. Moreover, I consider Project Shakti as a way to expand HUL’s brand awareness because people can easily access HUL products around the rural area.

According to the article written by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, since the pie of revenue and profits is getting bigger and bigger, I think HUL is doing well  in creating shared value. In conclusion, if a company can focus on CSV, recognize and satisfy the societal needs, this can help maintain or improve the company’s performance in the market.

Do you like drinking coffee? If you like, which coffee shop would you choose: Starbucks or Tim Hortons?

Since Starbucks and Tim Hortons are both popular in Canada, how can customers make their decisions? What are the similarities and differences between these two coffee shops?

Using P.o.P and P.o.D can help answer these questions.

Points of Parity (P.o.P):

1. All provide tasty coffee.
2. All offer good services (friendly, and polite employees)
3. Easy to find ( these two coffee shops are mostly located in shopping malls or some main streets)

Points of Difference (P.o.D):

1. Product differences: Starbucks provides customers Frappuccino, latte, and mocha with various flavors. The flavors change regularly based on seasonal changes or festivals. Compared to Starbucks and the other coffee shops like Blenz or McCafe, Tim Hortons is much more  Canadian. This is because it provides special Ice-Cappuccino and other beverages. Despite these, it also provides TimBits, Donuts with Maple syrup and other delicious snacks that can satisfy most Canadians’ taste.
2. Unique buying experiences: When people make an order in Starbucks, they will have their names written on the cups. However, other coffee shops in the whole industry don’t do this since they focus on providing efficient services to customers.

In all, I think it is hard to say whether people will choose Starbucks or Tim Hortons. Some people especially students may choose Tim Hortons because it provides more choices and they are quite cheap. Furthermore, students don’t need to spend too much time queuing up and waiting for their coffee. However, for me, I will choose Starbucks. The changing flavors and putting customers’ names on cups are Starbucks’ marketing strategies to keep and attract more customers. Although Starbucks maybe more expensive, I really enjoy the higher quality coffee and services provided by Starbucks.

One of my favorite movies is The Social Network, which talks about the story of Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. He is a genius, a young billionaire, and a successful entrepreneur.

I’m impressed by the video that Mr. Zuckerberg spoke Mandarin during the whole public Q&A section at Tsinghua University on October 22.

Why Mr. Zuckerberg chose to speak Mandarin? I firmly believe this is one of his important steps to help Facebook enter into Chinese Market. According to Vijayalaxmi Hegde on her blog, it doesn’t matter whether Mr. Zuckerberg can speak fluent Mandarin or not. The main point is, as Hegde pointed out, Mr. Zuckerberg can acknowledge the power of languages and make use of them. This is very true. Although Mr. Zuckerberg’s Mandarin has accents, he is the first CEO that willing to take this challenge. In this case, I think Mandarin acted as a tool for Facebook to build a better customer relationship.

Some people believe a company should mostly focus on the existing market. Providing higher quality products and services to customers are what can help to keep brand loyalty and to maximize profit. However, this is not enough to satisfy an ambitious entrepreneur. In this case, Mr. Zuckerberg noticed an opportunity – What if Facebook becomes accessible in China? Or, what if Facebook treats Chinese customers as its new target customer segments? China is a country with a large population but lack of the accessibility of foreign social networks. So, Mr. Zuckerberg grasped the opportunity and tried to answer all questions in Mandarin so as to make his future customers happy. Once Chinese people can use Facebook, the company’s global market share will become larger. It will also bring a huge potential profit for the company.

How can a company become more successful? It needs an entrepreneur like Mark Zuckerberg. How to become a successful entrepreneur? The lesson Mr. Zuckerberg gives to me is to find and to grasp opportunities. In all, because of  Mr. Zuckerberg, I believe Facebook will be widely spread in China in the near future.

On October 21^st, McDonald’s announced their global sales dropped by 3.3% in the third quarter. This was more than the expected decline of 2.9%.

McDonald’s has always tried to convey the value proposition of  “ friendliness, cleanliness, consistency, and convenience” to its customers. Ironically, the CEO, Mr. Don Thompson said the food safety issue took place in China was one of the main reasons for this decline. In this summer, an undercover TV report showed that one of McDonald’s food suppliers, the HUSI Food Company supplied burgers and chickens by using expired meat. Such case brought a negative impact on McDonald’s sales as Chinese people nowadays have become increasingly sensitive about food safety.

I found that in one of  Ziqi’s blogs, she also mentioned about this food scandal. I strongly agree with her recommendation of  opening the factories to allow people to visit. As more people get involved in the production process, that means the whole society will pay more attention to McDonald’s and its products’ quality. Furthermore, this activity also provides McDonald’s a way to regain consumers’ trust and confidence.

McDonald’s first entered Chinese market in 1990, and within 24 years, more than 2,000 restaurants are opened in China. With such rapid expansion, China is now one of McDonald’s most important target markets. After the food scandal, McDonald’s quickly set up a FAQ page on the website. I think this is a good way to build a reliable customer relationship. As customers get more detail answers from the company, it helps McDonald’s to eliminate the negative social image. Furthermore, despite Ziqi’s recommendation, in order to avoid such scandal in the future, I think it is crucial for McDonald’s to look for a reliable supplier as its key partner. Meanwhile, the company needs to reinforce the management of the whole supply chain and to make sure they sell high quality food to all customers. Therefore, McDonald’s can remain consumer loyalty and expand its potential profit.

From the news I read, Tsilhqot’in people claimed that Taseko Mines Ltd’s project brought negative impacts to their daily life and the whole environment.

Acting as an external factor, the First Nations have the power to affect the business’s plans and model. In this situation, the tribal park took over the mine site, which was previously owned by Taseko. This restricted the company’s access to the key resources: mines. Lack of necessary resources will reduce the production of goods and services. Thus, the company’s main goal – profit maximization, would become hard to achieve.

In 2013, even though Taseko came out with a commitment (the company will help protect the environment during production process), this commitment seemed hard to come true because the ecosystem in Tsilhqot’in was still being affected due to logging and pollution.

From my perspective, if a company only focuses on gaining higher profit at the expense of the environment which the local habitants have been trying to protect, this will make the relationship between the company and the First Nations even worse. Instead, Taseko should treat the Tsilhqot’in as key partner when setting the company’s plan. Building a good relationship between these two groups and protecting Tsilhqot’in people’s interests can actually avoid such conflict to take place. Taseko should improve their business model and focus on using other greener resources. They should also negotiate with Tsilhqot’in people, sign up an agreement and get the permission about what kinds of activities they can do in the title area. Since the whole society nowadays pays close attention to the living environment and the rights of the First Nations, if Taseko keeps ignoring people’s interests or breaks the agreement, this company will definitely be at risk.

Most people get to know Tadashi Yanai because of the wonderful clothing retailer called UNIQLO. The expansion of UNIQLO is growing rapidly as it opened more than 400 overseas stores in countries like China, UK, and US within 20 years.

What are the keys for this fast development?

The way it operates is called the SPA business model(Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel), which means the whole company will remain the control of the process from designing, producing, and selling. This model is quite similar to DELL’s Direct Business Model as UNIQLO cuts the payment for middle men; it also produces various products based on their research and development for the market trend. A quick reaction to market can help control the inventory level. Furthermore, this model also creates a more direct and easy way for the company’s executives to access to the production line and to ensure clothes being produced are with high quality.

Moreover, UNIQLO  builds a good customer relationship by offering online shops and delivery services, consumer service centers vice versa. This brings a large group of loyal customers like me that really enjoy buying and be willing to pay for this brand.

“By 2020, we’d like to be making $50 billion in sales, $10 billion in operating profit.”— Tadashi Yanai

Tadashi Yanai is an ambitious and outstanding businessman. However, UNIQLO is still a young company compared to  ZARA or H&M. So Mr. Yanai should figure out ways to help UNIQLO to win the fierce international competitions.  Here is my suggestion:

1.  To make more Canadians know this brand. The company should develop a marketing strategy like making more advertisements (it will be better if the advertisement is featuring with celebrities) on Canadian media so to attract customers and investors.

2.  The company should increase the choices available for customers in both stores and online shops (this can help reflect the company’s value proposition: make everyone access to all kinds of Japanese fast fashion).

In all, I still believe UNIQLO has the potential and ability to achieve Mr. Yanai’s goal. What do you think?

The result of Scottish independence referendum came out last week with 55.3% votes for NO. (Theguardian)

After reading Jiawei‘s blog, as he said, if Scotland itself becomes a country, it should take a long time to adjust changes and find ways to solve unpredictable situations. I strongly agree with this point of view since a new country has to create better and suitable policies so to become a country with completed system among aspects like economy, politics and so on. Actually, although countries like China or the UK, which have been established for a long time, they still have to put effort into the perfection of policies.

Despite what he said, in my opinion, the independence will affect the whole society. Business will be one of the victims.

Because Scotland has a large amount of natural resources, such resources can be exported and contributed to the country’s GDP. However, once Scotland separated from the UK, its GDP will decrease. A recession in economy and an uncertainty of future profits will reduce the funds paid by investors. Businesses will be at risk since they need to face the shortage of funds and higher raw material costs (in this case, there is a raise in prices of imports due to the depreciation of GBP value). The independence will also limit the number of cheap labors from Scotland that a British business can hire. Cost of production goes up again.

All in all, I have to say, to some extent, the failure in Scottish independence referendum actually helped Britain escape from a business and economic turmoil.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd is a Chinese based company producing Solar Panels. In 2010, a new factory of Suntech opened in Arizona, USA, but closed in 2013(Reuters). Using solar panels is considered as a recyclable way to provide electricity, and it is widely used among different groups of customers from the whole market (residences, fuel companies, etc.)

So how could this happen?

By looking at news related to Suntech, it is obvious that, after the financial crisis in 2008, most of  buyers delayed their orders, which led to overproduction in the factory. This caused an increase in operating costs and more spending on storing the products as well as equipment maintenance(Suntech Financial statement for 2011).

The US government also imposed a nearly 250% anti-dumping tariff on Suntech as this company was confirmed to sell products at price much lower than their production costs(TREFIS). Such tariff made it hard to cover costs by total revenue and achieve the business main goal: Profit maximization.

I think it is hard for Suntech to recover from this downturn. The debts that Suntech needs to take are extremely high, which leads to a bad reputation of the company. Even if Suntech wants to rebuild its reputation, it will take a long time to remove all the bad images.Furthermore, because of the failure of Suntech, customers  lost confidence to the company and eventually, they will turn to buy the substitute goods–Wind Power products(Advantages for wind power).

Business Ethics is about the responsibilities that a business needs to take during its development process. These kind of responsibilities are not only to achieve business’s objectives( like offering high returns to shareholders), but also to try to satisfy some of the public interests both in a legal way.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

The news I read is about those Chinese labors being mistreated by Apple and the Pegatron Group. The workers are forced to lie about their real weekly working hours so to avoid the inspection; underage labors are being hired; insufficient wages are offered and so on.

I think these behaviors break laws and show no business ethics or social responsibilities. The exploitation of labors can largely affect labors’ living standard, and this may lead to some other social issues like  increasing labour suicide rate, health problems, etc.Although Apple and Pegatron Group want to gain competitive advantages and maximize profit by lowering labor costs, it is the business’s responsibility to protect the workers’ right and interests. Providing a safer working environment and set proper production target can help remain the labors in a long run and build a good business reputation. Or the workers will no longer want to work in such an immoral business.

Generally speaking, businesses can’t succeed if they ignore workers’ interest and right. Be aware of how important business ethic is and be responsible, is what can help a business better developed.

The link of the news is:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-23486638