http://www.shoesvbuy.com

Once I wanted to buy a pair of casual shoes. I considered a lot of brands and chose TOMS finally because of its “One for One” model. At that time, I believed that it is a direct way to help the poor people. However, after careful consideration and much thought now, I cannot totally agree with its model. TOMS grows faster and become an internationally well-known brand with this model, though the model has some potential problems that most consumers (including me) may not consider.

The “One for One” model is giving one pair of shoes for the poor person when a consumer is buying one pair of shoes. It does a little to solve the root of poverty. A poor person can get a pair of shoes from this model one time, but what can they get after the shoes become tattered? They still need to wait for TOMS’ donation and TOMS can sell more products and earn more profits. The root cause of poverty has not changed. Instead of giving one fish, teaching a person how to fish is more important.

Furthermore, the model may even destroy the local business for less people would buy shoes and more people would loss their jobs. Consequently, the population in poverty level would be larger and larger. Social enterprise should give back to society while TOMS does not make a healthy “return”.

http://mylifeasannie.com/2011/04/

To solve this problem and enable TOMS to grow in future, TOMS should make another decision to help the poor. For example, TOMS can establish some factories in those poor countries and increase their employment rate. Providing them more educational opportunity is also a positive method to help them have better economic situation. The “One for One” model is a direct model and most consumers may believe that it is great at first. But after deep consideration, consumers will realize and refuse to buy TOMS’ product.

Reference

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/one-one-business-model-social-impact-avoiding-unintended-consequences/

http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-10-08/toms-shoes-rethinks-its-buy-one-give-one-model-helping-needy

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stephen-harper-says-canada-will-not-airlift-refugees-without-proper-security-screening-1.3219359

The most shocking news at present must be the attack which happened in Paris. Following the attack, the decision of Trudeau, accepting 25000 refugees, has been a hot discussion for the public. As Marcus wrote in her blog about Europe, sharing the responsibility to help refugees is always associated with politics. But business in today’s society has enough power to assist the government to help refugees to fit in the new environment.

Marcus’ analysis can be utilized in Canada too. Accepting refugees is not the only task for Canada. There are numerous potential problems for accepting them. Government, business and some charity organizations should work together in order to turn the challenges into opportunities. Only when refugees fit in the new country successfully, can social, political and economic risk be reduced.

Considering the aging population in Canada, most refugees who come in Canada are willing to work can be an antidote to the community. More than 100,000 refugees are qualified for university. Some of them can be educated in Canada and then be employees of Canadian companies. Furthermore, companies who employ refugees may be considered as a social enterprise. Providing jobs for refugees is a unique value proposition for companies to show that they are taking the social responsibility. The public will be appreciative because the companies reduce the social risk.

In conclusion, focusing on the benefit of companies, helping refugees can bring some positive effect. Additionally, Canadian business should be involved early in the integration planning so that they can shape the policy of refugees instead of complaining of the policy of government in the future.

Reference

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/25/syrian-refugee-crisis-and-higher-education

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/statistics-canada-seniors-1.3248295

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/china-ends-one-child/2225922.html

One- child policy was a strict policy for Chinese families, which allow one family can only have one child since 1979. It helped China to control her population efficiently while it also infringed the right of Chinese citizens. The public and experts have argued the pros and cons of the policy for a long time because many people were not satisfied with it. However, it releases in recent, which lead tons of comments from all over the world. Most medias think that it is too late to release. Browsing my friend—Phyllis’s Blog, I found that we have some similar opinion.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1873987/china-abandon-three-decade-old-one-child-policy-driving

Although the policy helps China to control her booming population in that generation, it caused a lot of problems in nowadays. China is facing an aging population and a lack of working-age recently so our country needs more young people. However, the release may not as effective as the government thinks. The young in our generation do not highly desire to have more than one child because of the different custom and high burden of child- bearing. My parents want to get more children because they are familiar with a large family with many children liked their childhood, while we are not. Also, as Phyllis’s mention, Chinese human resource market is competitive and supporting our parents without searching help from siblings is stressful. The young generation may not have enough money to breed two children.

Furthermore, ignoring the voice of the young generation and considering the environmental sustainability, the government should solve the problem of shortage of resources in the future. More population means more demand for products. Does our country have enough resource to support more population and be environmental friendly? In my opinion, government should not only release the one child policy. Meanwhile, the government should have more policy to encourage the young and plan to cushion the resource shortage which may happen in future.

Reference 

http://time.com/4098745/china-one-child-policy-rights/

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/china-ends-one-child/2225922.html

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>.

http://www.newmobilelife.com/2015/03/17/rose-gold-iphone-6s/

Apple is a worldwide company which provided several new technology products for the world. Apple usually renews its phone products once a year. In 2015, it just released their newest telephone, named Iphone6s. Last weekend, Apple made an announcement that they have met the highest sell record, 13 million of Iphone6s, compared with its previous record. Why can Apple have such brilliant record from selling its new products?

As far as I am concerned, the phenomenon can be attributed to Apple’s strength and the opportunities of the world. Investing a lot on advertising, Apple successfully establishes one of the most famous brands in the world. Thousands of consumers build the powerful loyalty toward Apple, so Apple can restraint the old customers while it recruits new consumers. Furthermore, smart phone is necessary for increasingly people at present, which mean the smart phone has a really large market in modern’s society. Apple occupied almost half of the smart phone market. When a person wants to buy a smart phone without deeply knowledge of the field, he may choose the smart phone of large brand such as Apple.

However, Apple should be alerted that the strong competitors, Samsung, also occupied a large percentage of the market. Samsung has diversified products, while it threatens Apple because Apple has limited products. Apple should improve its products continually in order to resist impact from other brands and keep its record of selling new products in the future.

Reference

Ganger, Allison. “The Important of Smartphones to Us.” The Important of Smartphones to Us. 16 July 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2015. <http://www.slideshare.net/Allison00001/the-important-of-smartphones-to-us>.
Obrien, Sara. “IPhone 6S: Apple Sells Record 13 Million IPhones.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 29 Sept. 2015. <http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/28/technology/apple-13-million-6s-sales/index.html>.
Singh, Abhishek. “Android And IOS Occupied 47% And 43% Share Of Mobile OS Market [STUDY].” Dazeinfo. 11 Jan. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2015. <http://dazeinfo.com/2012/01/11/android-and-ios-occupied-47-and-43-share-of-mobile-os-market-study/>.

http://www.britishirishchamber.com/kpmg/

Canada is a country with high taxes in order to provide social welfare for Canadian citizens. However, some of the citizens trying to avoid their taxes to shirk their social responsibility. Furthermore, a kind of business exists, which help those people with a tax avoidance scheme. We have noticed that KPMG, one of the largest professional service companies, is being prosecuted by Canada Revenue Agency, because KPMG is helping rich Canadian to avoid taxes. Obviously, it can be considered as crime but KPMG continuous because of profit. Wealthy Canadian would not have to pay any taxes for their investment income. Instead, wealthy Canadians should bill 15% of the taxes that KPMG help them to avoid. Each year, KPMG receives a great amount of money from the scheme. However, the behavior of the company is not in ethical.

https://www.betterment.com/resources/investment-strategy/taxes/does-avoiding-taxes-really-save-you-money/

Taxes are used by a state to maintain many functions, such as national defense and social welfare. These are all used for the country and the citizens, so paying taxes is the obligation of every citizen. Nonetheless, the “taxes haven” provided by auditor companies still exists for those wealthy people. The business of avoiding taxes is unethical. The companies which provide such business should stop doing this in order to improve their reputation in the future.

Reference

“KPMG Tax Avoidance and Privatization Schemes Costly for Public.” Nation Union. National Union of Public and General Employees, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.

Cashore, Harvey. “KPMG Tax ‘sham’ Could Lead to Criminal Investigation, Experts Say.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 11 Sept. 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.