The Zolas: Tom Dobrzanski’s Musical Passion

November 17, 2012 by yungilee

Tom Dobrzanski, a Sauder graduate at UBC, is a successful business man. Graduating with a bachelor of commerce degree, he holds much knowledge of what goes around in the business world. Tom, however has another side to him, a side that is filled with talent and artistic passion: Music. Tom loves to sing and play the keyboard. However, following family footsteps of his mother and father (both whom were business student graduates) he chose the path of business as his future field of interest. His passion in music, however made him join a band and give him ideas for making a home studio. Of course, this did not come easy as there were risks along the way: sunk costs, fixed costs, and variable costs of maintaining the studio was far beyond what he could earn. Using loans and mortgages, he was eventually able to create a home studio where he would record his own songs with his or rent it for other bands to record at a payable price. Being well informed in business, he was able to contract banks and other people to support his path in becoming a successful band.

Tom inspires me as I am also a musician. Using business ideals, Tom was able to use business concepts to support his passion of playing music. Recording his own songs in his own studio, he was able to become a successful mainstream band. Tom essentially persevered and worked hard at doing what he loves. He sought opportunities and was motivated by music and was able to achieve success.

http://thezolasmusic.com/

Energy Aware: Facilitating Control of Household Energy Consumption

November 15, 2012 by yungilee

Sauder graduate Janice is an avid leader and entrepreneur; she has increased awareness of energy consumption throughout B.C. households by innvating and creating a new device called Energy Aware. It is a great example of how simple devices can create great change and open new business opportunities. Janice’s visit to our commerce 101 class was an enlightening one and she gave us knowledge that one can procreate and make change in the modern world with creativity and with the ability to take risks for any given opportunity. Increasing awareness of our energy consumption, we want to minimize costs in how much kWh we consume. Energy Aware has made it feasible for consumers to reduce the amount of energy they use and also gives them an incentive to conserve energy and therefore “save” the environment.

Janice used BC Hydro’s company to her advantage; she has collaborated with BC Hydro and made a device that could track energy consumption off of data streams recorded from smart meters. In essence, Janice’s device relies on BC Hydro to sustain her company. In my opinion, in order to maintain her company healthy, she must create more innovative products that can increase her product diversities whether it be smart phone apps, or creating a new device that can increase more awareness of saving energy.

http://www.energy-aware.com/ Energy Aware - Power Tab In-Home Display Meet the Newest Member of the Family

The Controversial Nicaraguan Presidential Elections of 2011

October 7, 2012 by yungilee

I would like to go back to the presidential election days in Nicaragua that happened in the month of November 2011. This marks an important day for Daniel Ortega who is running for president for the third time, disregarding the laws of the Nicaraguan constitution. This sparked anger and protests across Nicaragua. How has Ortega become such an important figure in Nicaragua? Thirty years ago, when the during the Sandinista Revolution, Ortega’s charismatic leadership gained him reputation. He was going against the dictatorship of Somaza and against the US backed Contras. He eventually won the revolution and became president from 1985-1990. After losing from 1996-2001, he won presidency again in 2006. Through different advertising strategies, he was able to run for presidency again in 2011 and he won through controversial and unjust means.

Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega support each other through financial and economic means.

Why is this important in the business sector of Nicaragua? Nicaragua was a democratic nation having US support and connections with other democratic nations. However, with Ortega, he changed the Nicaraguan government to a socialist nation, backlashing the United States, and therefore limiting international aid by the United States.

Instead, Ortega began to receive aid from other socialist countries such as Venezuela. What is bad about this is that Nicaragua is becoming more and more reliant towards Venezuela and Cuba. According to the top economic advisor of Nicaragua, Nicaragua would have been in a serious economic recession if it wasn’t for the financial aid sent by Hugo Chavez. In reality, Ortega is hurting the economy because he is receiving monetary aid from very little sources and the overall economy hasn’t improved by a noticeable amount.

Nicaragua’s economy has been progressing at a stable rate due to Ortega’s charismatic leadership and his ability to target and support the largely poor population. However, for how long can Ortega receive support from Venezuela and Cuba?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-nicaragua-matters-to-the-united-states/2011/11/03/gIQACFOvjM_story.html

Marketing Strategies of Rolex

October 6, 2012 by yungilee

After learning about how companies use different marketing strategies by finding their own criteria for targeting, segmentation, positioning, and their own points of parities and differentiation, I decided to choose the famous watch brand Rolex as an example. Rolex is known to be a watch worn for luxurious appeal. Known for its rich history in watch making, Rolex watches come very at a costly price. For this reason, Rolex targets wealthy individuals ranging from young adults to the old. Rolex tries different strategies to market their watches including advertisements with professional sports players and with celebrities. As for positioning, because of their expensive price tags, Rolex is positioned up high in the watch market with other luxury watch brands such as Cartier and Omega. These watch brands share similar points of parity in that they are watches however, what differentiates them is the price tag, how expensive they are, and design.