I find the external blog “How social media can be used by social enterprises?” very interesting because we have recently learnt about social entrepreneur, and I find it really meaningful when social entrepreneurs are devoting their time and effort in order to make a difference in our world.

In this blog, it has mentioned several of ways of how social enterprises can benefit from using social media. It highlighted that by using social media social enterprises can make partnerships, identify financial contributors, promote missions, etc. Since social enterprises might not earn a lot of profit, it is very reasonable for social enterprises to use low cost social media like network to help their firm develop.

This blog has also remind the social enterprises about some of the features of a social network that enterprises need to know, so that no unnecessary problems will be created by using social media for example, the transparency of social media means that all the actions are visible, so firms have to be really careful about what they are doing, and do not do something that is inappropriate.

I find this blog very useful as it identify the benefits social enterprises can get by using social media, and some points the enterprises need to keep in mind when using the social media.

http://www.canadabusiness.ca/eng/blog/entry/4364/

  As products of Apple are high, not all people are able to afford the iPhone. Therefore, in order to expand the market of iPhones, they targeted to the lower income customer segment, and therefore Apple introduced a cheaper iPhone “iPhone 5c”, but the sales of iPhone 5c is not as good as it was thought to be.

One of the reasons for iPhone 5c’s sales is not as good as it was thought would be is because it is not as cheap as it was hoped to be. The price of iPhone 5c is still not the price that most people are able to afford, and the price difference between iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s is so small that most people will decide to choose iPhone 5s instead of iPhone 5s.

Although iPhone 5c has different colours, people mainly do not decide whether or not to buy a phone because of its colour. People mainly consider the performance of the phone rather than the appearance of the phone. Therefore, people incline to buy iPhone 5s rather than iPhone 5c.

The blog post “The Big Three-Bell, Rogers, Telus vs. Verizon” written by Cindy Fu mentioned that the US mobile network operator Verizon Wireless is planing on expanding its service into Canada. The three respond to this as “possibility of unemployment of Canadian, and unfairness”, but I have a similar opinions as Cindy Fu.

As Verizon enters Canada, it will increase the competitiveness of telecom industry in Canada. As everyone knows, the rate of com

munication is really high. But, when more competitors emerge, price will drop since that telecom industry is elastic, a small increase in price will cause the customers to turnover to other companies. So, in order for the telecom companies to increase their revenue, they will either have price reduction, for example cheaper rate so that customers will be willing to stay with the same company, or they will provide better service, for example free data give away.

It is clear that when more competitors emerge, customers will directly benefit for it. But, from the Canadian government’s point of view, it will not be happy for foreign companies to enter Canada since this means the Canadian’s money is going to other country.

The Big Three-Bell, Rogers, Telus vs. Verizon

I saw the blog post “Once Again, Apple Launches a ‘New’ Product” by Stephanie So, and I found out that we have similar view points.

She has mentioned that Apple is constantly launching new products which are similar to one another with a higher price, but only with some slightly improvements. If related to the what we learnt in COMM 101, it is dangerous for Apple to do this for several reasons.

First of all, since they are only a slightly improvements for the new product, they will be  losing their value proposition “newness” which has already been created in the past because customers no longer think that their products are creative.

Secondly, the industry of smartphones are really competitive. Brands like Samsung, and HTC are constantly launching new “varied” products. Customers seeking for something different will turnover to these companies.

Lastly, as Apple charge more for the new products, but with limited improvements compared to the older ones, so customer will not be willing to buy the new products since the older version is “similar” to the newer ones.

In conclusion, I think Apple should launch products that is totally different to the ones that they already have.

Once Again, Apple Launches a “New” Product

On November 11th, the Remembrance Day in the West, its the Singles Day (11/11 four ones), and it has also became the world’s biggest one-day online shopping day in China.

On Monday, China’s biggest online shopping company processed more than $5.75 billion…

 

As a result of one child policy, the male population is much higher than the female population. The excess men are left single, and therefore the online shopping websites in China targeted the the customer segments of man’s products introduced the significant discount. Soon the woman’s products also introduced discounts. It then creates the value of low price and cost reduction, and will then attract customers.

The features of online shopping: convenience of not needed to go to the actual store and will be able to purchase is a reason why online shopping  is so popular in China  . The population in China is so large and  concentrated, and therefore most people are not willing to go out to shop since the opportunity cost is so high.

The other reason is you get to look for products in a large variety at the same time, whereas if going to shop in real shop, you will only be able to buy a certain type of product since a shop will not sell all the products that a customer wants.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/12/kelly-mcparland-how-chinas-lucky-dictators-manipulate-the-population-into-online-sales-and-early-death/

BlackBerry was once the top mobile phone company, and almost every businessman had a BlackBerry. But, in recent years, as Apple has emerged, the market share of BlackBerry has dropped significantly. What has caused this dramatic drop in BlackBerry’s market share?

First of all, according to Porter;s Five Forces, clearly the emerge of Apple and Samsung has a huge effect on BlackBerry’s market share. This is called ” the threat of substitutes” where buyer incline to other substitutes (Apple and Samsung smartphones). As a similar product with better function been introduced, customers will substitute to the better product, and will therefore cause BlackBerry’s market shares to drop.

Secondly, BlackBerry is lacking of newness because it was insisting to have keyboard instead of teach screen, but meanwhile the current trend of smartphone is to have a touch screen. In the BlackBerry era, mobile phones are for business uses, whereas in recent years mobile phones are combined with leisure uses, and it is no longer only for business use. As value propositions determines whether the customers will stay with your product or will they turnover to other products, when BlackBerry is lacking all these value propositions, customers will turnover to other companies that satisfy these values.

As most people knew, Google has excellent working environment. Employees in Google are paid with a high salary, and they get time to do things they want to do when they are at work. Google is known as a company with a positive work culture.

As we have learnt in COMM 101, we know that positive company culture helps to improve the performance of the employees. But, is it always the case?  According to a former Google employee, it is not always the case.

Google employs top candidates, and even for the most low level roles, so most of them are arrogance because they are not willing to take in other peoples opinions, and  they rarely have discussions, which means that the developments will be limited.

“It’s like never-never land- people never grow up. They drink at all hours, socialise constantly, play games, and do little to no work.”

The culture is immature.

Not all the people are discipline enough to work to their full potential when they are given a choice between relax and work. Therefore, there must be a proportion of employees being lazy, and not doing their job. This will then reduce the efficiency of work.

So, is it true that when you give people working environment without pressure they will perform better?

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/09/google-inc-employees-confess-the-worst-things-about-working-there/?__lsa=acc8-469d

In the third quarter and the Vancouver-based carrier, Telus Corp exceed the forecasts for new subscribers. It has also reduced its turnover rate to 0.99% which is the lowest in Canadian wireless industry.

“Every time you let a customer down it costs you money”

Telus work towards the goal of “customers first”, and Telus claims that “customers first” will contribute in reducing its turnover rate. But why does “customers first” policy will help to reduce turnover rate?

Customers service creates a value proposition of “getting the job done”. Without good customers service, customers will not be satisfy as their problem is not solved, and will then increase the turnover rate of the customers. This explains why Telus will be willing to invest money in “customers first” training, and why better customers service will reduce the turnover rate of customers.

Better customers service will also directly enhance the customer relationships with the company. The services Telus provides are in forms of dedicated personal assistance, human interaction, and these two types of service can best improve customer relationship. Telus also provides automated service.

These explain the reason why better customers service will reduce customers’ turnover rate, and will therefore reduce the money lost and increase the profit earned.

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/08/what-is-telus-doing-right-users-flocking-to-telco-and-hardly-complain-about-service/?__lsa=f259-cc5c

Astonishing news about the 12 people committed suicide  in a short period of time in Foxconn factory in China surprised the public in 2010.

Foxconn is one of the biggest electronic manufacture in the world. They are the main supplier for Apple.

Many people claim that low wage and unpleasant working environment for the workers are the main reasons that cause people who committed suicide in the factory. But are these really the reasons way people in Foxconn factory committed suicide?

The first  person who committed suicide was paid 350,000 RMB (55,800 CND), and this is a lot of money for the poor workers (workers are mainly from poor families). Every person who committed suicide in Foxconn got paid at a range of 100,000RMB to 250,000 RMB. Among the workers, people say that “If you committed suicide in Foxconn, you can save your whole family.” Is it possible that “mimicking” were one of the reasons that people committed suicide in such a short period of time?  Or is it possible that these workers committed suicide to get the money?

I am not denying the fact that Foxconn is paying a low wage to the workers, I just want to say that is it fair to blame this whole suicide event solely on Foxconn?

Five month ago, a factory fire killed more than 1,100 factory workers in cut-price retailer Lidl in Bangladesh. It was recently found out that the fact of so many employees died was because of the abusing workers’ right.

The workers were forced to work 19 hours a day locked in the factory which caused them unable to escape when the fire began. The official claimed that workers only work for 10 hours per day, and they work over time to extend their holiday.

Is these really fair to the workers? They work over time but they do not get paid, and all the profits “they” earned go to the executives. Isn’t it the executive’s job to ensure that all the members get the maximum benefit? One of the worker claimed that he only earn 2 euros for his 19- hour work day. They did not get time to rest, and was locked in the factory which is against human right because people should have the right to decide where to go. In the end they were not able to escape because they cannot open the door.

This problem has to be solved since it is closely related to human life.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bangladesh-clothing-workers-still-exploited-five-months-after-factory-fire-panorama-investigation-finds-8833102.html