(Screenshot from http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx)

The price of the of the global gasoline has been gradually decreasing over the past few months. In Canada, the average price of the gasoline has decreased approximately 17 % over the past five months from June 23rd to November 10th. In my opinion, the gradually decreasing gasoline price will have a conspicuous impact on the market of electric vehicles.

Due to the continuously increasing gasoline price, car manufacturers developed the new technology for vehicles to operate with alternative fuel — electricity to save expenses on fuel and attract more consumers. The increasing gasoline price pushes car manufacturers to develop their technology and changes the taste of consumers. With the new technology, consumers could save money on the fuel, therefore the demand dramatically increasesIn my opinion, the tendency of the continuously decreasing gasoline price will shift the taste of consumers. I think there will be a partition of  people who choose to use electric car like Tesla to   save their money on the fuel instead of following the “Green Movement” while the price of gasoline is on an upward slope. The decrease in the price of the gasoline will definitely decrease the demand of electric car and shift them back to fuel consumption vehicles. Therefore, the decreasing gasoline price will negatively affect the market of electric vehicles.

Reference:

“Historical Price Charts.” Historical Gas Price Charts. GasBuddy Organization LLC, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

In Stav Kimhi’s blog, “Is It Game Over for Video Game Stores?“, she points out the video game industry might follow the decreasing tendency since the sales of both DVD and CD decreases substantially. She thinks the access of downloading digital copies from online stores would decrease the demand of physical video game copies and as a result the profit of physical video game retail stores will be affected.

Here are  my personal opinions about the disadvantages of digital copies, which cause me to think the effect from digital copies will not have conspicuous impact to the profit of video game retail stores like EB Games and Game Stop. Purchasing the video games online will require the consumers to download the games from the online store. The process of downloading takes time, and the downloaded files will occupy partition of the storage. To those video game lovers, they will have plentiful video games; if all of them are digital copies, the storage will be out of space. In order to download new games, the gamers need to delete the old games. The cycles of downloading and deleting take time to proceed. Gamers need to purchase external hard drives, in order to not keep all the games they have downloaded without deleting them for new games, but the purchase of hard drives will be additional expenses to gamers. With the purchase of the extra external hard drives, the opportunity costs of using digital copies will increase dramatically, since the prices of the physical copies and digital copies are similar. Only for part of the games, the digital copies’  price are cheaper than the physical copies’. To me, if the price of the two types of video games are identical, I will definitely choose the physical copy, because it is realistic and can be placed on the shelves as my video game collection.

Overall, from purchasing the physical copies, gamers can save both their time and money. The growth of the digital copies is undeniable fact, but i don’t think this will threat the profit of retail stores and cause them to shut down.

Reference:

“Download From Playstation Store Or Buy Physical DVD Game?” GameSpot. CBS Interactive Inc., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

http://cnet2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2012/06/13/180d8728-f0eb-11e2-8c7c-d4ae52e62bcc/resize/620x/2fe025f5e76cf41c2379ca889ffd777d/usedgames_flickr-660×495.jpg

Since United Nation is a global organization, it has multiple countries to care about; therefore they do not have enough time to to research for the regions and creating individual improvement plans for  each area, and causes both global and regional improvement not conspicuous. Unlike United Nation, Social Enterprises and the Arc are able to target on the specific regions and provide detailed assistance.  Even though this will not make a conspicuous global improvement, but the enhancement to each region that has been assisted is relatively significant by comparing to the United Nation.

As a result of being able to particularly support each region, both Social Enterprises and the Arc are capable of instructing the firms with business knowledge for exchange of business skills. To the Arc and the local firms, this is a double-win situation. The firms receive the knowledge of how to efficiently operate a business for further development, and the people in the Arc receive business skills from the experiences. Unlike United Nation, the Arc and Social Enterprises could not only aid with financial assistance but also a unabridged knowledge instruction. Financial assistance could only improve the global economy temporarily, since the money will abridge over time if people don’t efficiently utilize the financial assistance. Business knowledge could help people to further generate money, radically solve the problem, and thoroughly improve the economy of the region.

Therefor Social Enterprises and the Arc also indispensable when United Nation is fully funded.

Reference:

http://socialventures.com.au/assets/1496_SVA_infographic_slides_11-Copy.jpg

“What Is Social Entrepreneurship?” Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. Skill World Forum, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

“Uniting Knowledge. Fuelling Entrepreneurship.” The Arc Initiative. Sauder School of Business, 07 Oct. 2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

“Sauder Student Shares Skills with Fellow Entrepreneurs Back Home in Rwanda.” UBC News. University of British Columbia, 30 June 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

Kroeker, Jeff. “Can Fair Trade Boutique Expand without Alienating Customers?” The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc., 13 July 2012. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.

     In Philip Wong’s blog post, “Focusing On Consumers” he clearly introduces League of Legend, created by Riot Games, as an online game that focuses on  their gamers.

I totally agree with Philip Wong’s personal opinion that Riot Game focuses on consumers. Since the competition in online gaming industry is drastic, companies need to upgrade and revise their gaming operations periodically to attract more gamers and run ahead of other rivals.  Riot Games, as a leading online gaming company, frequently upgrades their game by releasing new patches, new champions, and reworked champions to keep the interest of current gamers and provide better qualified gaming experience to the consumers. Moreover, Riot Games also focuses on the communication with their gamers. It has its official website, Facebook page, Twitter, and Youtube channel for gamers to follow.  In addition, gamers could post their questions on the official website, and then other gamers and official staff from Riot Games could comment below to answer; All of these connection channels created by Riot Games forms a community for gamers. Each year, there will be an annual World Championship competition held by Riot Games. During that period, gamers will enthusiastically support their favourite teams through watching the streaming games and online posts. Through focusing on their consumers, Riot Games could simultaneously advertise for their game; it uses the competition and gamers’ enthusiasm to maintain the interest of current gamers and advertise for themselves; new gamers will be attracted by the posts and the enthusiasm of current gamers. Furthermore, the prize that is awarded to the winning team of the competition will also push more gamers to play professionally and accelerate the growth of electronic sports.

Reference:

https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/theme/signup_theme/img/signup_logo2_clean.png

  According to the article from HSBC Global Connection, the exports rate of Canadian firms has increased 31% since 2008; expanding internationally becomes a good opportunity for many Canadian firms. However, an external blog post from Oracle Blogs called “Five Globalization Risks and How To Manage Them” clearly introduced the five types of risks that will occur in globalization. I think this blog is useful for understanding the risky side of globalization and what to do to solve the risks.

In my opinion, Resource Constraint is the most perilous risk to globalization. This risk could undoubtedly impact the profit of an international business. The increasing rivalry of the industry will cause the lack of resources and skills, since businesses look for effective planning with dynamic resource management to increase their profit. I think the drastic competition will also cause the barrier to entry to be comparatively high to the firm. Therefore, when the firm first time enters the market, the power it has in the market is relatively tiny by comparing to the leading companies. As a result of both relatively low power in the industry and the drastic competition for resources, the firm will be much more difficult to find out a sufficient local supply chain, since suppliers with abundant resources of supplies will cooperate with the leading companies. Without the resources of supplies, the company will be hard to solid their feet in the foreign market and impact on the further expansion of the firm. Moreover, the relatively low power in the new market will not only impact on the supply side but also the demand side. The advantages of the leading companies in the market will also attract more customers. Rather than purchasing a new brand, the customers would buy from the brand that is well known to them.

Even though globalization is a significant opportunity to companies, but the risks of expanding into the global market is outstanding. Companies need to come out with solutions to the framework of the problems and risks they might encounter and do plentiful research before they enter the foreign market.

Reference:

http://paragkhanna.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/globalization-edudemic.jpg

“Manage Working Capital in Each Stage of Your Business Lifecycle.” HSBC Global Connections. HSBC, 06 Nov. 2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

Lopes, Melissa Centurio. “Five Globalization Risks and How to Manage Them .” Oracle Blogs . Oracle, 06 May 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

            Recently,  an article from HSBC Global Connections called “What Canadian Business Need to Know about RMB” grabbed my attention. RMB is the currency that is used in China, but why should Canadian businesses need to know about Chinese currency.

             As being introduced in the article, Chinese businesses would like to offer up to 5 percent discount if their partners trade in RMB, but only 5 percent of Canadian that is surveyed uses RMB for trade settlement. Due to the uncertain fluctuation risk of currency, Chinese companies would like to set higher price to offset the currency fluctuation if their partners decide to pay with foreign currency.

             In my opinion, keep trading in CAD will not be a beneficial decision to Canadian companies. According to the exchange rate chart from 2004 to 2014, the exchange rate between CAD and RMB decreases 22.7 percent as the purchasing power of RMB is increasing. Due to the gradually increasing in the purchasing power of RMB, Canadian businesses would pay much more if they continuously trade in CAD; since the purchasing power of CAD is relatively decreasing by comparing to the purchasing power of RMB, the Canadian companies will pay more for the same amount of purchase by comparing to the past, and in order to offset the fluctuation of the exchange rate, Chinese will keep rising the price; therefore the cost of trading in CAD increases. This will cause Canadian companies to pay more for less. I agree with the idea that Canadian companies should be at least RMB ready. The 5 percent discount of using RMB will save vast amount of money during the trade. The money saved could be used either for further purchasing or investment to generate more profit. Furthermore, the discount for trading in RMB will also increase the exports of Chinese companies due to the increase in demand. Therefore, I suggest trading in RMB would be a double-win situation to both Chinese and Canadian companies.

Reference:

“XE Currency Charts (CAD/CNY).” XE.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2014.

“What Canadian Businesses Need to Know about RMB.” HSBC Global Connections. N.p., 13 Oct. 2014. Web. 06 Nov. 2014.

http://www.indiatradepromotion.com/earth.JPG

Hydroelectric dam generates electricity from transforming the pushing force of water into electricity. It produces tremendous amount of electricity for both factory and residences, but it also destructively impact environment, such as eroding river bed, blocking fish migration routes, and flooding large area of land.

In September 18th, 2014, the First Nation chiefs urges government to reject BC Hydro’s construction plan of a mega Hydroelectric dam called Site C. Forcefully opposing against the plan, since the impact of Site C to the environment is destructive. The construction of the dam would flood 83 km of Peace River Valley, and causes a significant effect on First Nation’s fishing opportunity.

Would a $8 billion mega project be a benefit or catastrophe? The discrepancies between First Nation and BC Hydro obviously shift the value proposition of the dam. The environmental concerns of First Nation chiefs for their people become a dramatic external factor to the organization. As an external factor, First Nation’s concern of environment also implicate with politics as they claim to challenge the decision in Federal Court of Canada if the plan is approved. The violation on the benefit and property, which was declared by Premier Christy Clark last week that, ” B.C is Indian land,” would cause the co-operation between organizations and First Nations to be tangled to achieve. The external factors to organization could be critical and effect the whole canvas model.

Reference: O’Neil, Peter. “First Nation Chiefs to Stage Site C Showdown.” Www.vancouversun.com. The Vancouver Sun, 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 05 Oct.     2014.

< https://snc1dcedarbrae.wikispaces.com/Janahan.gif>

<https://www.bchydro.com/energy-in-bc/projects/site_c.html.jpg>

As we learnt in Class 7 Business Canvas and Strategy, a company’s strategy and technology will quickly being emulated by its rivals. This concept realistically revealed in the Mobile Phone Industry. Samsung and Apple are the two most significant competitors in the industry. Introduced in the Business Insider, Samsung’s ability on learning from its competitors is better than any others in the industry. It observes the social response to its competitors’ products to find out the interests of consumers, and then combines with their own research to produce new innovations. For example after iPhone 5s was released with the fingerprint feature; Samsung also released Galaxy S5 with fingerprint and heart rate detection features. In this way, Samsung could save a large amount of money on trying and researching. They could easily understand the favour of customers from their responses to competitors’ products. The rivalry in the industry is drastic; Samsung risks investing 5.7% of its total revenue into Research & Development while Apple only invests 2.4%. The input of researching and marketing created opportunity for Samsung to catch up and compete with Apple. Moreover, quickly help Samsung to learn and develop better innovations than rivals.

From understanding the interests of consumers and learning from competitors, Samsung’s products are as popular as IPhones in recent years. However, Samsung also got into trouble for imitating Apple’s design in the past, but it did not have an intense impact on Samsung. Emulating strategy and technology will not stop in industries; in order to keep the leading positions, companies need to rebuild their strategy from researching and learning. Learning from competitors are important for the growth of a company in the industry. Emulating, in my opinion, is an essential part of operation for a company to grow, since it could help a company to save both money and time on finding the interest and responses of consumers. The drastic rivalry will never stop.

Picture resource: <http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2014/06/apple-samsung-smartphone-patent-war.jpg>

Article Reference: Nisen, Max. “Samsung Has A Totally Different Strategy From Apple, And It’s Working Great.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 15 Mar. 2013. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

With abundant natural resources and workforces, Africa attract multinationals to invest in Agriculture industry. The economic growth of Africa is always the front-runner in the world due to the investments from foreign countries, but this doesn’t efficiently contribute in boosting the government’s  revenue and reducing poverty.

Why? Multinationals would use their offshore shell companies to evade the taxes. The tax incidence on the profit would  shrink the total profit of the company, therefore they could decrease the cost and maximize the profit through evading taxes. As Africa is providing with equal amount of supplies to the international investment companies, but obtain less money from tax; government is not able to improve the living standards of Africans.

According to the year’s Africa Progress Report, Africa annually has a estimated lose of US$1.3 billion on fishery and US$17 billion on logging through unregulated and unreported fishing and logging activities. The evasion of taxes and unregulated profit cause tremendous impact to the economy of Africa;  With transparent investment and taxes, Africa could quickly increase government revenue and get out of impoverished situation. Kofi  Annan, chair of the Africa Progress Channel said, “facilitate tax evasion and, in some countries, corruption, draining Africa of revenues that should be deployed against poverty and vulnerability.”  From the view of economics, the supply curve which represents African supplies is extremely elastic, and this causes the profit to increases a little while the quantity increases tremendously.  A regulation on the transparency of foreign investment to Africa is eagerly needed, in order to control the evasion of taxes and help Africa to be prosperous, otherwise, Africa will still be tangled to step out of poverty.

Picture Reference: <http://www.borgenmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/africa.jpg>

Article Reference: “Africa Progress Panel Calls for Responsible Investment and Business Practices in Africa Share Var Addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:false};.” Africa Progress Panel. Africa Progress Panel, 4 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

The ethic responsibilities of businesses can be as simple as maximizing benefits, however, while businesses are pursing maximized profit, the boundaries between right and wrong will be blurred by their desires. Therefore, the proper ethic responsibilities of the businesses are to maximize the profits of all stakeholders, which include employees, financiers, suppliers, and the community through following the regulations and without violating the rights of others.

In recent years, many irresponsible construction companies maximize their “pockets” through purchasing defective constructing materials and obtaining the rest of the construction funds; one of the most significant catastrophic collapse happened in Bangladesh, the capital of Dhaka in 2013. An eight-floor building collapsed in the morning, killing more than 150 people and injuring over a thousand.

The pursuits of satisfying the companies’ financial desire overthrew the concepts and ideas of moralities and ethic. The boundaries between right and wrong vanished completely. Businesses need to understand the balance of our society and maintain it through following the ethic responsibilities of the businesses, which is about to benefit all stakeholders instead of themselves under the situation of following the regulations and respecting the rights of others; as Freeman said in his theory, the business will be on a decline if it does not figure out and focus on the common interests of each group of stakeholders. Each group of the stakeholders is significantly important to the success of the business.

Reference: Ahad, A.M. “Bangladesh Building Collapse Due To Shoddy Construction” National Geographic. April 25, 2013. Web. 09 Sept. 2014. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130425-bangladesh-dhaka-building-collapse-world/>