A big event occurring in business in this month affects Canada’s biggest technology company, BlackBerry. It was purchased by FairFax Financial. Three or four years ago, BlackBerry was one of the leading companies in the cell phone market. Unfortunately today they are struggling to survive. Generally, people believe BlackBerry’s failure is due to inappropriate business strategy, inventory troubles, and less ability to attract the customers to their new products.

In recent years, BlackBerry has copied other smartphones and no longer kept physical keyboards. Actually, I think a physical keyboard is one of their great advantages. Some people use BlackBerry because of the keyboard, so they can easily check and reply to their emails, and work on their phones. Today, almost all smartphones use a touch screen keyboard. If BlackBerry can produce a new smartphone with a physical keyboard, their product will be unique in the market and have a huge point of difference from their competitors. Although BlackBerry failed in this quarter, they still have many advantages, such as the technology they have. If they can solve their financial problems, and manufacture some products with unique and useful features, they still have a chance to regain their success.

Reference: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/for-a-start-blackberry-needs-a-cultural-revolution/article14599159/

Today, many companies manufacture their products in Asian countries as several advantages.  For example, cheap labor cost,closing to a variety of raw materials. From Tina’s blog, I learn that high literacy rate can also be an advantage. This attacks my interest.  I want to know why literacy rate is also considered. This question links me to one article, which I read before, “U.S. manufacturing is back – but can Americans do the job?” In this article, I found that today the manufacturing work is complex. If some companies want to return their manufacturing back to the USA, they may face one problem: the USA may lack a huge amount of workers who can satisficy the requests of complex manufacturing skills. By contract, as Asian countries normally have large of population and high literacy rate, it is  easier to hire enough people who can satisfy the requested skills. These people may already have the request skills or can be easily training. Furthermore, these skilled workers will be paid a lower wage compared with their American counterparts. Therefore, many companies are willing to choose some Asian countries to manufacture their products.

Reference:

Tina Zhang’s blog—- Why does Apple choose to manufacture its products in Asia?https://blogs.ubc.ca/tinazhang/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/us-manufacturing-is-back-but-can-americans-do-the-job/article14230183/

As Senate disagreed with the new health law, there was no new budget sent to government. Therefore, most federal departments except security and the army were closed.

As the USA plays an important role in the international business market, this event gives a huge effect not just on the political area, but also in global business. As most departments shut down, almost all licenses and legal documents within the application processing will be delayed, and this will stop many business activities within or out of the country. For example, some part of international business will be paralyzed because there are no customs officers. In other words, many import goods cannot go into USA, and a huge amount of export goods cannot be shipped to other counties, and this will cause many companies to lose a huge amount of money. Moreover, millions of federal workers will be furloughed without pay. When they have no income, they have less purchasing power and this directly affect the business market. Besides, the market may become disordered as a result of the lack of government supervision.

Within this event, I clearly see that politics is an important external factor for business. As the American government shuts down, the business world faces so many new threats and is damaged.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304373104579107051184641222.html?mod=trending_now_3#articleTabs%3Darticle