I’m glad to see companies such as McDonald’s stepping up and taking responsibility for errors in their production line. Albeit the fact that they have no real choice as its a life-threatening toy that could cause children to choke, they still made a correct ethical decision to recall all the toys. That would be quite a large profit loss, as they manufactured 2.5 million Hello Kitty Whistles.

Some companies aren’t as responsible, take GM for example. GM knowingly knew some of their cars had air bag issues, yet let the cars be shipped out and sold without a recall in a decade. This unethical decision lead to the death of 13 individuals. GM is now apologizing and paying gratuities to the families of the deceased, as well as they recalled 2.6 million units. The fact that they are apologizing and fixing the situation only after being shamed and attacked by the media really questions GM’s morals as a company.

1)http://www.vancouversun.com/business/McDonalds+recalls+Hello+Kittythemed+whistle+choking+risk/10369554/story.html

2)http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/16/gm-car-recall-faulty-ignition-department-of-transport-agreement

There has been a lot of news recently about the Keystone Pipeline, and their issues getting the trust of the First Nations. Fortunately, this blog is not about that, and is instead about a company that incorporates First Nations and has complete trust with them.

Polaris Minerals is a company that began communicating with the ’Namgis First Nation and Kwakiutl First Nation back in early 2000. By doing so, as well as making sure that the ’Namgis received 12-per-cent equity interest in the quarry, that the Kwakiutl has an impacts and benefits agreement, and that over 50% of the employees were native, they were able to build a strong and lasting partnership. 

I believe this is the way to deal with issues such as this. The First Nations have been oppressed and mistreated for years, and left at a disadvantage. The least that could be done is to treat them properly and not try to take advantage of them and their land and resources. Polaris Minerals is a great example of a company that can do business that’s ethical and morally just.

1)http://www.vancouversun.com/business/resources/First+Nations+alliances+give+Vancouver+Island+sand/10372488/story.html

Businesses and restaurants are struggling and competing against one another in the endless fight for recruitment. British Columbia’s unemployment rate is currently at an all time low, sitting at 6.1%. With the holiday season coming up, businesses are in dire need for workers, and are willing to increase their pay in order to get the manpower that they need. While this is a positive for Vancouver’s labor force, businesses are losing profit and are not growing as fast as they could due to paying workers more and not having enough workers.

It doesn’t help that Vancouver’s cost of living is much higher than the rest of Canada, meaning people move to other areas to secure jobs within the same price range but with a substantial decrease in living costs.

I’ve personally noticed this, as every single one of my friends who applied for jobs has been able to secure one. This is great for all students, as pocket change is very handy in University.

Unfortunately for companies, the rivalry is very strong. The main way for them to try to gain an advantage is through Differentiation Strategy of Porter’s 5 Forces. Andrea Scott, Owner of Skoah (skin care product store and facial spa) has been able to do so, but offering recruitment bonuses to her workers.

1)http://www.vancouversun.com/business/seeker+market+this+holiday+season/10372385/story.html

This post will be a comment on an external blog post – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/11/who-chooses-you.html

I see this post as a very over-complicated way of saying be confident and have some self-respect. Seth bring up a few very important points of taking away the power from the “choosers”. Basically, why would you give someone power over you? Unless you have some reason to believe that they are righteous, reliable, credible, caring and want to help you, why would you lay down and let them walk all over you? Instead, every person should take charge of their life and fight for what they want.

That said, a person shouldn’t feel self-righteous and almighty, as that would shine a bad light unto that person. Instead being humble and aware of your strengths and weaknesses and trying to improve is what’s important.

This post will be a comment on Ray Duplin’s blog post – https://blogs.ubc.ca/rayduplin/2014/11/11/coffee-and-the-app-store/

The concept of controlling a whole market segment via apps is a pretty interesting thought. There are companies that completely control markets due to products that they have put out. Apple had complete control over the portable music devices market when they put out their iPods, Tesla controls the electric car market, etc.

Creating apps that interact with products is revolutionary though, as it combines 2 different platforms (smartphones and life, if you will). The concept of a coffee machine that interacts with an app is pretty basic as it only targets one product. The next stage would be to create an app that can control all utilities/appliances via app (microwaves, lamps, ovens, tv, heater, etc.). Whichever company starts creating appliances that would go together with this app would definitely accomplish the Differentiation Strategy from Porter’s Generic Strategies and have control over the utilities/appliances market.

This post will be a comment on Wing Chi (Haley) Tse’s blog post – https://blogs.ubc.ca/wtse/2014/11/02/family-businesses/

It’s very difficult for parents to accept the fact that their child does not want to continue the family business. In their eyes, they started the business because they were inspired or had the drive for that necessary field. Seeing that die due to their child not wanting to follow in their footsteps is somewhat hurtful.

My mom and dad are both jewelers, and their hobby and business is to make jewelry. They started a company more than 20 years ago, and have been working at it ever since. My sister and I both have no inclination towards this field. It’s definitely difficult for them to accept that everything they’ve worked towards in the past 2 decades is going to disappear once they retire, but they fully support us in following our individual dreams since they know that we’d be able to accomplish much more by following our passions.

In a world that’s learning to rely on technology more and more every day, there is no room for businesses still trying to rely on the old ways of paper and pen. Companies should be looking to get rid of paper in any way possible due to a couple of reasons:

The first is ethics; trees are being cut down in gigantic quanitites to supply paper. By cutting paper out of the equation, the planet is being taken care of. In a world where the word “Green” means so much more than it used to a few years ago, it does not hurt to promote being eco-friendly.

The second is accessibility; everything nowadays can be taken down on different programs (whether they be for accounting, finance, etc.) and shared easily between co-workers, CEOs or potential partners. It is also accessible whether a person is at their desk or in a meeting; all within one device.

The last reason is profit loss; paper, printers and ink all cost a substantial amount of money especially when used very often and in large quantities. In this day and age, every person has a smartphone and laptop, meaning once a document is written up, that’s it. It doesn’t need to be reprinted, just forwarded to whomever needs to see it.

1)http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/industry-voice-blog/2379871/tips-for-going-paperless-in-your-office

The Economic Crisis of 2007-2008 was a very dark and terrible time for people around the globe. One of the major reasons this happened was due to the housing bubble in the United States where banks were giving out loans quite easily to financially unstable individuals so that they’d be able to purchase homes. This caused the market to crash, and many people lost their homes, their jobs, their families and much more.

Knowing all that, I would have assumed the banks would have learned from their mistakes, but it seems as if they’re right back to their old ways. In the article, people are buying houses due to the interest being as low as 3%. Granted, that’s a steal, but the banks are giving loans quite easily to people who might be jumping the gun too early due to the relatively cheap price, without taking into consideration the consequences of their decision.

Only time will tell if this is a repetition of the all too familiar economic crisis.

1) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/easier-mortgage-rules-stable-rates-bring-back-us-home-buyers/article21538296/

Singles Day (otherwise known as 11.11) is a holiday in China with the original goal of celebrating bachelor status among the population, is now one of the largest shopping holidays in the world. While not as big as Black Friday in the US (which grossed $57 billion dollars in 2013), Singles Day was able to gross $9.3 billion dollars this year. That’s an increase of almost a third from last year’s $6.5 billion.

This article really shows how ‘strong’ the middle class is getting, to the point where even with limited internet access, many people are able to order online, and the trend is only growing. This really shows how fundamentally important it is to start interacting and doing business with China, especially with a whole new target market (middle class Chinese) opening up to the western world.

1) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/alibaba-singles-day-sales-break-past-8-billion/article21538437/

It’s easy to fall under the “slippery slope” according to the BBC’s article “The slippery slope of getting away with small stuff”¹. According to this article, people in the workplace are more tempted to cut corners and make unethical decisions when paired up with no ethical guidelines or ones that are not enforced by the workplace. This can lead to people making bad decisions in times of pressure or stress (ex. Assignment due, plagiarism might occur in order to save time – see Jayson Blair). In order to prevent this, managers can implement rules and regulations in regards to misconduct and enforce these by reminding and showing employees the consequences of unethical decisions. These types of decisions are unacceptable, as they can tarnish reputations of large companies, and can also end up costing money if a mistake is made. Business men should be trying to maximize profit all while following the laws, according to “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits”². So while unethical decisions can be made according to the article, they should be avoided as to not harm the individual or company in the long run. If an employer were to make an unethical decision however, it would only make sense to fire that employee, as the business (and profit) comes before anything else according to the social responsibility article.

^{1)             http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140806-the-slippery-slope}

^{2)             http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=10187339&page=171}