Recently, there is an insider news leaking out from Microsoft regarding if Bill Gates is still suitable for the position of Chairman of the firm. The three major investors of the company are concerned that if Gates, who  is now focusing more and more on the Bill & Melinda Foundation funds instead of the company, is still capable of handling the company, and now wanting him to hand over his power. However, is it appropriate for three outsiders, in this case the three investors, to tell the co-founder and chairman of the firm to step down and to hand over his authority of the company? These investors are willing to ruin the Gates and his legacy merely because of their interest in saving their own stakes in the company. Besides seeing their investments grow, the investors might have neglected the relation between Gates and the technological empire that he built with his own bare hands.  Even though Microsoft is in a capitalist economic environment, is the human relationship and feeling going to get neglected? Is money to only true motivator and the only end goal in a capitalist environment? It is going to be interesting to see how the board of directors are going to react towards the three investors’ request.

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/us-microsoft-gates-investors-idUSBRE9901H320131001

This post is also related to some aspects of the previous blog post regarding business ethic. In the article, it is accusing British Petroleum has underestimated and lied about the amount of petroleum that was gushing out of the exposed drilling well back in the Gulf of Mexico.  The reason behind BP’s decision of hiding the amount of petroleum that was leaking out of its well might be its effort of trying to reduce its already enormous amount of fine imposed by the U.S. government (fine is determined by the amount of petroleum that had leaked out). Instead of saving and controlling the damage that the drilling well was causing to the surrounding environment, the company has chose to save itself in terms of reputation and financially. Consequently, the company has established an image of itself as a company that only care about “milking” money out of consumers and not care about anything else. The actions that BP had made generated public contempt throughout the world, especially the environment activists, and a significant drop in its revenue.  Although the company is doing its best for its stakeholders and itself, its actions have left an undesirable mark in the company’s history.

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-bp-trial-idUSBRE98T13U20130930

Even though the U.S. government has shut down due to the conflicts between the two political parties, the world economy continues to move on. Since the U.S. government is temporarily shut down, this meant that there are less regulations and rules imposed on the stock trading market. The investors see this as an opportunity to show off their investing skills. The shutdown of the U.S. government encourages more activities on the foreign trading markets, such as the TSX. When there are more and more people getting involved in trading, their money has to go somewhere. The rush of enormous amount of investments into the market pushes stock prices of many sectors up high. The material sector is one of the sectors that benefits from the government shut down. This significantly showed that investors across the world are starting get more active due to this current event, and this could possibly be the recovery of the international stock markets. Are the indirect consequences of shutting down U.S. government turns out better than what we expected? The question is answered by the markets.

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article//idUSBRE9960CB20131007

Samsung is slowly increasing its market shares in the smartphone market and catching up to its number one competitor, Apple. The reason that Samsung is catching up to the market leader is due to its willingness to modify and create new innovations for its already successful line of products. It is not afraid of losing its existing market shares by trying to experiment with what the consumers desired, and testing the boundaries/limits of the consumers.  As we can see from the release of its Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4, people are starting to buy more of Samsung’s product instead of Apple’s because of Galaxy’s uniqueness and innovation. Consumers are always looking for something new is what motivates Samsung to continue improve its lines of products. The product’s uniqueness and innovation is the main tool that helps Samsung to close the gap between Apple and itself.

Source : http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/samsungs-share-grows-while-apples-declines-in-q3-smartphone-market-229691