United Nations surely provides a huge help on improving both economic condition and living condition in poverty area, however, the support from only United Nations is not enough, and that’s why we still need Arc and social enterprises.

The duties of United Nations are multiple, so it is impossible for United Nations to focus their attention only on improving economic condition in poverty countries, so the additional help from social enterprises and Arc is really helpful. Moreover, I think social enterprises are a brilliant way to help the countries that have really poor economic condition to get rid of poverty. It is a win-win for both company and the people who lives in poverty area. The company provide jobs to the these people so they can have better living condition, and the company can still function well and get profit as well, also, the company can gain a good name by being a social enterprise. If I am a customer, I will be more likely to choose the product that produced by the social enterprise.

I think the blog post posted–“             Increase your chances of making your next government bid a success with the Learning from Bids service” on Canada Business Network makes a really good point about customer service. This article talks about the importance of customer service for a company and how to improve it.

In my opinion, customer service is pretty critical in this fiercely competitive market. Most of the companies in the same industry provide really similar or even same products, so the key reason for the customers to choose one company over the others is how much satisfaction they can get from customer service from the company. Customer service is important for all the industries but especially for the industries that provide service such as insurance agency, accounting firm, and event planner, because for these industries, customers will have a lot of contact with the company, they need to consult first before they decide to choose the company or not, and if the company couldn’t impress consumers by their excellent customer service, it would lose them. Furthermore, even the customers choose this company, it still needs continuously provide their service to keep the customers loyal.

In a word, providing outstanding customer service is one of the most decisive ways for a company to survive in the fierce competition.

I find that Jiazi Yang’s blog post — Gucci – not the “boss” which represents Kering anymore really interested. In this article, she demonstrates the situation that the sales of Gucci really made shareholders concerned because the sales decreased to 0.6% in the third quarter, and she says that she thinks the decrease of sales is due to the decline in demand and customers’ performances. However, I disagree with her opinion.

In my opinion, the demand of luxury is increasing continuously these years, and the number of people who can afford the luxury items is increasing as well. The continuously increasing price of most luxury products can prove my points as well. Therefore, I think the reason that caused the decreasing sales of Gucci is because Gucci overrated itself and want to take itself further upmarket. I find this move made by Gucci is a mistake that made by a misunderstanding about its brand positioning.

I think this example of Gucci shows the importance about the importance of first impression a company leave to customers, because once the brand image is formed, it’s really hard to replace it. For Gucci, customers already accept this brand as an second-line luxury and it is hard to change their mind, so if Gucci charge more, it would be hard for customers to accept that.

I find Jessica Lao’s post —  McDonald’s Customizable Burgers: Bad Idea pretty interested, and I totally agree with her idea that McDonald is making a bad decision to present the customizable burgers.

She talks about the value proposition of McDonald is that they can produce the fast foods that are cheap and tasty, and it is hard for people to accept that they’re bringing out healthy food. I think that’s totally correct. As we all know, once a brand’s images are formed in customers’ mind, it is really hard to replace it. So for McDonald, the cheap, tasty and fast foods’ image are deeply in customers’ mind, and it is almost impossible for they to reaccept it as a healthy customizable foods provider. Moreover, I think McDonald has successfully positioned itself as fast food provider, and people are considering it as the leader in its industry. So, there is no need to take the risk of positioning in a new area, especially, there is already number one company in this industry – Subway. In a word, without the customizable burgers, people who are looking for tasty fast foods would still come to McDonald, and people who like healthier food would still choose something else over McDonald’s burgers even if they bring out this kind of new burgers.

Knowing how to keep employees loyal to the company is important after it starts up, and more and more companies are now encouraging their employees to pursue their own passion to keep them. I think this is a wise way to make their employees feel more satisfied and happier so they would more likely to stay at this company.

Having employees that have exactly the same goal with the firm is definitely great, but it is also pretty rare. Mostly, company and employees want things that it is not exactly the same. So, to make ambitious employees satisfied, I think it is better for the company to encourage employees to use the extra time to focus on their own project. In that way, employees will work even hard because of company’s humanization, and they will also work more efficiently because the sooner they finished their duty, the earlier they can start working at their own project. Of course there are certain risks for the company doing so, for example, some employees may leave the company and start their own career. So, I think that’s still something that the company should judge and weigh about.

Reference:

http://www.entrepreneur.com

In the information-overloaded era, the cost of decision-making is increasingly high, so collecting data effectively and correctly is important for a company.

Instead of listening to the people who have the hunch, listening to the data is a more reliable way to help the company get the decision made. For instant, eBay, which spent millions dollars on advertising for many years, finds out the fact that most of their search engine advertising spending was wasted by the experiment its analysts ran. This example shows that the data comes from unbiased experiment is more reliable than the old experiences the management have. Undeniably, this kind of experiment will probably embarrasses senior managers by showing that their decisions are incorrect, but it is definitely worth the managers to do so because it will help the company to find the loophole and make improvements. In a word, reliable information is listenable.

References:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Are you letting data drive your decisions?

Contributed to The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Sep. 29 2014, 7:00 PM EDT

The B.C. First Nation value their living environment, and resources a lot, and they also have the power to fight for their rights. In this context, a lot of projects that proposed by large companies are rejected by the First Nation, which brings difficulties to these companies’ development.

Recently, BC Hydro’s 8 billion Site C hydroelectric megaproject was against by B.C. First Nation, and a delegation of B.C. First Nation chiefs urged the Harper government to reject this project. They against this project because it will destroy their land resources and impair their rights to fish, and hunt.

Considering the case above, we can find out that, even the First Nation is looking for development, still, they are paying more attention to protect their living environment. Therefore, if a company wanted to develop a project here, the important thing this company should considered is to not violate the First Nation’s interests.

References:

1.First Nation chiefs to stage Site C showdown, By Peter O’Neil, Vancouver Sun September 18, 2014

When you decide to start your own business, Despite the ability or specialty you have, finding a field that no one dares to step into is a good first step. The field that no one set foot in means a customers’ need that hasn’t been satisfied yet, moreover, as long as you successfully build your career up, your company can be the “first one” in customers’ mind. David Dobrowolski founded his car-renting company called Flash Vehicle Rentals two years ago in Sierra Leonean where none of the big car-renting companies operates in, and now, his company has already taken shape in Sierra Leonean.

Of course, trying something no one has tried before is a risk, because there’s definitely some disadvantages stop people doing so, but once you can conquer it, you can turn all the disadvantages become advantages. In this case, the poor environment in Sierra Leonean is the main reason that makes all the global car-renting companies hesitate to set up their company here. The cars are easily broken in the certain condition, and it’s almost impossible for people to find a place to fix it since there’s no dealership or recovery service. In order to fix that, Flash Vehicle Rentals import mechanics and use GPS system to track all their cars, so they now have the advantage that they can send replacement anywhere in this nation if any of their cars broken. Now, in Sierra Leonean no one knows Avis, but every one knows Flash.

References:

Value proposition of a company should be designed based on its’ customers segments, and the products and service this company provides should meet their targeted customers’ need. The success of Victoria’s secret can prove this point.

Victoria’s Secret is one of the most famous lingerie companies in America. Along with the growing of the company, VS also start its makeup line and clothing line, but talking about the most well known product of this company, it is definitely gonna be its lingerie. The customers VS targeted at are young female buyers who have money, have taste of fashion, want to have a luxury life style and also chase name brand, so the lingerie VS produces is known as the sign of sexiness, style, and luxury. In this case, what the company provide matches what the customers need, so no wonder VS’s lingerie sells very well. Maybe Victoria’s Secret’s lingerie is quite expensive, but the company is targeting at the customers who are not price sensitive at the first place, so as long as the company have put the image of sexiness and luxury in its’ customers’ mind, they will pay for the products even they’re not cheap at all.

References:

1. http://zh.wikipedia.org

2. COMM101, Section106, class8, Sep.30th.2014

The hottest man of the hour is definitely gonna be Ma Yun(Jack Ma), whose company–Alibaba Group was listed in United States on 19^th September. The IPO price of Alibaba is 68 dollars, which raised 21.8 billion for the company on 18^th September, and made Alibaba become the biggest U.S. IPO in the history. On 19^TH September, the opening price of Alibaba is 92.7 dollars, and the market value of Alibaba was measured as 231 billion. The successful listed of Alibaba help Ma Yun become the richest man in China.

Ma Yun’s career can be described as legend: He founded Alibaba Group in 1999 with 17 coworkers and created Taobao in 2003, which shortly became the most useful e-commerce platform in China. The success of his career can be measured by the money he made, what’s more, it’s the significant impact he made on Chinese internet. He created a totally new commercial channel, which provides a lot of convenience for customer to easily have the access to all kinds of products and can compare different sellers just by looking through the website. Moreover, Taobao also provides a plenty of job opportunity for society. In a word, Ma Yun’s achievements have changed Chinese society hugely, and from now on, he is about to make the change of the whole word.

references:

http://en.wikipedia.org