http://www.mercola.com/infographics/unhealthy-foods/processed-meats.htm

Nearly everyone likes sausage and eats it frequently, but the World Heath Organization says that processed meat is not healthy for it may cause colon cancer. The organization just placed the processed meat in the same category as cigarettes, asbestos and diesel fumes, which are carcinogenic for human. This result may cause the public to refuse to buy sausage in the future. It can be predicted that the selling quantity of sausage will drop seriously. Considering the Canadian situation, most of the meat suppliers are in Alberta, where is also the home of oil patch.

As we all know, oil prices at present are much lower than one year ago. The economy in Alberta has been hurt since the oil price decreased, while the recent news gives it a double whammy. According to the supply curve, the manufacture of oil has decreased because of the low price. Additionally, consumers will buy less or not purchase the unhealthy processed meat, so the suppliers should reduce the production. Companies in Alberta must reduce their cost and shrink their output by firing some employees. The unemployment rate will rise in a short period.

To decrease the loss, Alberta’s government and companies should do marketing analysis and make some strategies. For example, they should change most of the factories which produced processed meat in the past to process frozen fresh meat. Also, companies can expand the market to other countries to sell the fresh frozen meat because the oil price is low and the transportation cost is cheap. In order to expand successfully, companies should do market research on new markets. Respecting the culture and customs of new customers is important to the success of companies. The government should build a friendly relationship with foreign countries to help the companies enter new markets easily.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/meat-cancer-world-health-organization-1.3288355

Reference

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/meat-cancer-world-health-organization-1.3288355

http://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/alberta-deficit-forecast-to-hit-record-5-9-billion-as-economic-outlook-weakens

https://www.cloudsherpas.com/partner-google/welcome-google-work/

Google is expanding and planing an attack on Microsoft’s Office software. Using several ways to attack the first status of Microsoft’s Office software, Google believes that it can be a strong competitor and divert a great amount money from Microsoft. However, the ways which is shown on the news report may not be as effective as Google thinks.

As far as I am concerned, Google Work, the new product, will not easily replace the Microsoft Office, which sticks in the mind of consumers. Most consumers choose Office, though there are several similar products in the market, such as Pages, the app of Apple Inc. Even Apple pre-installs the Pages, Number and Keynote on the Macbook and iPad, many consumers still choose Office to do their work. Coming back to Google, there is Nexus, which is not even as popular as iPad, so Google cannot use this product to occupy the market successfully.

Google tries to have some point of difference with Microsoft, so Google Work require the Internet to work. However, it is not convenient for the people who need to write in a place without the Internet. The requirement of Google Work narrows the target market. Furthermore, Google was banned in China, which made it lose a large market.

Compared with Microsoft, Google does not have many advantages and the attack may not be successful in replacing Microsoft Office.

https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/google-for-work1.jpg?w=738

Reference

http://m.voanews.com/a/unhappy-with-microsoft-office-google-has-software-for-that/3013856.html

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jan/12/google-china-ends-censorship

American Apparel Inc. which is the brand of teenage clothes, has bankrupted recently. According to the news, they have nearly $300 million of debt and they planned to exchange their bonds to equity, accounted for more than $200 million. There are several reasons for the bankruptcy of the company. Firstly, many competitors in the global market such as Zara, H&M and Forever 21, make American Apparel lose a great amount of consumers. Furthermore, company’s clothes are expensive and related to bad quality in consumers’ mind. But in my opinion, the most important reason is that the founder and former CEO, Dov Charney, is notorious for his misconduct.

Considering the leadership of the former CEO, he is incompetent. In his leading period, the selling quantity of the products dropped dramatically. In this situation, he still did not pay attention to work. Instead, he misused the property of company and kept inappropriate sexual relationships with models and employees. Maybe Mr. Charney is a successful entrepreneur with several excellent abilities to found the company, while he is not a good CEO for American Apparel. CEO should lead the company for sustainable success. It is less about becoming creativity and focusing on one hub, but more about harnessing several departments and considering the sustainability. Obviously, Mr. Charney cannot meet these requirements.

http://www.businessfinancenews.com/24673-american-apparel-inc-app-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-protection/

Reference

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/former-ceo-dov-charney-sent-pornographic-emails-american-apparel-claims-1.3125417

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/american-apparel-chapter-11-bankruptcy-1.3256563

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245368

When I was in China, I wanted to go to buy a cheap cooker in Walmart but I was really tired of going out. Suddenly, I realized that I can shop online. After checking out on Taobao, I felt that the e-commerce is really convenient and economical. I paid $10 to purchase a small cooker online, instead of buying it in much more expensive price. The experience of online shopping linked to the knowledge of direct business model that I studied in class. The model allows companies to cut the middle cost and reduce the price.

http://www.channeladvisor.com/blog/?tag=alibaba

Not only Dell but also some electronic commerce giants uses the direct business model. As I mention above, Taobao is a website for thousands of small business owners to sell their product directly. Alibaba, the company of Taobao create a consumer-to-consumer and business-to-comsumer market place, which gives many small manufacturers chances to sell to consumers directly. The model also offers the small merchants in Taobao to build their own relationship with the consumer. Thus, manufacturers can produce differential products for some consumers.

http://studyinchina.universiablogs.net/2013/02/25/the-wonderful-world-of-taobao/

The advantage of direct business model helps a lot for Ablibaba. Millions of customers (include me) keep their loyalty toward Taobao. Although we buy some “lemon” on Taobao sometimes, the differential and cheap products supplied on Taobao make us continually use the website. Ablibaba has booming revenue every year.

In today’s society, advanced technology infuses almost every part of our life, when a company realizes the importance of an appropriate business model and technology, it may get to succeed.

Reference

Media, Demand, and Matt Petryni. “Direct Sales Model Advantages.” Small Business. Web. 4 Oct. 2015. <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/direct-sales-model-advantages-32207.html>.

Osawa, Juro. “How to Understand Alibaba’s Business Model.” MarketWatch. 15 Mar. 2014. Web. 4 Oct. 2015. <http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-understand-alibabas-business-model-2014-03-15-94855847>.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/64B2/production/_85687752_85685264.jpg

Recently, various news websites are all have the updated information about the scandal of VW that it cheated on emission. As the German car giant, VW should never have cheated on such essential function of the cars. Instead, VW sells diesel cars in the US by boasting that its cars are low emission.

According to the Milton Friedman’ s theory, VW disobeyed the social responsibility for it did not abide by the basic ethical customs. The reputation of VW becomes terrible now. Thus, VW is facing several threats such as the lawsuit by Texas county and losing trust of consumers. As Yuki said, “No one wants to drive a lie”. Company must pay  money for recalling and the demand must be shed recently. It is predictable that the shareholders’ equality of VW will shrink by decreasing of revenue and increasing of legal cost in several years in the future. The situation of VW warns the entire car industry. Other car manufacture testing result is suspected by the society. People start thinking tighten the European Union testing regulation, which is the threat for the European car manufacturers.

As far as I am concerned, VW suffers a large cost instead of getting profit from its cheating. A good manager of a company should not get around the regulation in order to get profit, but the CEO of VW is not a good manager. To save its reputation, VW should be responsible and promise that it will not cheat again in the future.

Reference

Hotten, Russell. “Volkswagen: The Scandal Explained – BBC News.” BBC News. 25 Sept. 2015. Web. 30 Sep. 2015. <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772>.

Rascoe, Ayesha. “Texas County Sues Volkswagen over Diesel-emissions Scandal.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 30 Sep. 2015. <http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/01/us-volkswagen-emissions-texas-idUSKCN0RU2GI20151001>.