UN’s major mission is to safeguard the world peace and develop friendly relations with countries globally on the basis of equal human rights. The United Nations is more focused on the social and political aspect of an issue to help a developing country grow better and make social progress. However, organizations like Arc and social enterprises are more focused on the economic and social development of a nation or community. Due to their different focus on the duties, they both contribute a significant part in making the world better.

For example, the story of Osei-Duro clothing tells me that a social enterprise is able to help the local community in several ways, which are really beneficial for a developing country. Ose-Duro’s action of using hand-dyed fabrics increase the employment opportunities in Ghana and at the same time highlights the company’s value of sustainability in an ethical manner.

In addition, by providing a clothing production training package to their employees, it helps the local people become more educated. Such specific benefit towards the locals cannot be provided by the general organization like UN but only enterprises like the Arc etc. Meanwhile, it not only accelerates clothings producing time but also enhances the quality of their products, the increased and better quality production help the company increase their profits.

Reference:

http://assets.oseiduro.com/img/about/slide-1.jpg

Lately, my classmate Yutian Qiu’s blog debates that employees are the main ones in charge of a company’s organizational culture. In class 19, we learned that organizational culture is a combined “shared values and beliefs that considered to be a appropriate way to think and act within an organization”. A positive organizational culture plays an essential role in human resource management.

In my point of view, organizational culture is created by the employer but improved or enhanced by employees as a company grows. The article Beaware of the ‘silent killer’ at Your Company caught my attention. Here, the author compares organizational culture to the silent killer because it is an invisible indicator tells people a company’s core value.

Also, as many exmaples (Lululemon, Netflix and 3P) indicated that in order to establish a good culture within an organization, it is crucial for the employer to firstly give employees enough freedom to pursue their favourites. It fosters a happier work environment and helps the company to become more innovative and profitable. The happiness at work can directly influence a person’s job performance positively

For some companies, a good orgazational culture can also contribute as a competitive advantage. Lululemon stands out in the fashion industry because the company uses this particular competitive advantage to gain customer loyalty, connecting its target market by delivering the good culture (authentic, creative, consistent and personalized) to consumers. And it obviously works! Therefore, it is very necessary for a company to think hard on forming an organizational culture for the further development.

Reference:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ea/80/78/ea8078f9f8fc6017175ee97cdfa04e75.jpg

Personally, when I do grocery shopping, I prefer to purchase food that labelled with “organic” or products associated with “green” as it delivers the company’s value proposition and social & environmental awareness to me. Recently, I came across Women on Business’s blog post regards to the trend of company’s sustainability matters to customers. The post emphasizes the importance for a company to develop its sustainability since more and more customers have started thinking sustainability as their priority nowadays.

As we learned in class, sustainability is a long term development that requires three stages to achieve, including compliance, efficiency and innovation. Also, sustainability is not just related to environment but it connects to the “Triple Bottom Line” indicated as social, environmental and economic aspects. For example, the blogger brings up the economic aspect, indicating even a consumer’s income is low or the world economy is suffering, customers will still buy “greener” producst because of their increased awareness of environmental-friendly concepts and green value.

I agree with her opinion because consumers’ increased awareness can bring lots of opportunities or space for the company to enhance its development by sustainability in an innovative way. Therefore, companies should take advantage of this trend and adjust business plan to create a well structured customer relationship satisfies consumer needs.

Reference:

http://www.kpu.ca/sites/default/files/downloads/energy-sustainability21056.jpg

In the modern world, advertisement has become the major activity in a business model when a company starts up. Each company has to find a way to market its products to consumers in order to broadcast the brand name. Therefore, they have to discover a unique strategy regards to differentiating their business from others in advertising their goods and services. However, the traditional way of advertising may cost a large amount of money, which creates difficulties for the newly entered entrepreneurs. After reading this article, I am truly inspired by Brooklyn Brewery’s founders’ wise way of advertising.

Brooklyn Brewery, a U.S beer company that tripled its sales in 5 years due to its unconventional marketing strategy. As we learned in Class 4’s Business Model Framework, Brooklyn Brewery has considered many factors in the business canvas for the plan. The company advertises their craft beers by sponsoring  events held in the local community and regions. By sponsoring, the company gradually builds up a good reputation and also creates a customer-orientated relationship. The development of Brooklyn Brewery is mainly based upon the “word of mouth”, it not only saves the company’s advertising expenses but also it broadcasts its brand image. Therefore, more customers will come back to purchase their products in store.

Also, the company is expanding its customer segments by targeting markets globally and getting involved in more music festivals or local artists and restaurants. At the same time, the unique way that company introduces its business is by bringing customers back to their website, which is an online platform developed by the company to attract more customers and emphasize its uniqueness in value proposition.

Reference:

http://brooklynbrewery.com/about/history

As we know that marketing strategy plays a big role in a business’s success, recently I came across this article that really tells me the importance of finding a suitable strategy (business model)  in marketing for a company.

Garret Chan, a founder of tealeaves smartly switched his marketing strategy due to the change in customer segments. Previously, the company only targets its products to many hotels but because of the gradual popularity of tealeaves, the target market has been changed into the individual consumers because customers have the demand for tealeaves. Therefore, the company has to find a way to not only differentiate its products from competitors but also needs to change the old way that they marketed their products.

In my opinion, one smart part for what the company did is that by testing out the “people who were already drinking its product” first and then they discovered it’s a good idea to omit one process of advertising its brand on social networks because customers are mostly elderly groups. By leaving out one unnecessary step, the company can save quite large amount of money which they can therefore transfer into a better marketing strategy, which in this case is shooting films to create stories with tealeaves based on its different characteristics. It builds up the company’s brand image and reputation, attracting more and more people to work for the company and at the same time more consumers would be willing to purchase its products. 

Reference:

http://www.tealeaves.com/static/images/pro_thumb2.jpg