Product Innovation

During the past maybe six or seven years I have seen a lot of product innovation, amongst companies. I have seen this innovation especially in Apple's Ipod. Around the year 2000 the ipod came out with just a black and white small screen. Now in almost 2010, there are color ipods, that have video, photo, and many other new features. But through the years they would make small innovations to the ipod each year, so most people would go get the "newest" ipod with the latest features. Then a year later apple would make another ipod with a slightly new feature. Im sure apple had the technology to make the 2009 ipod, back in 2002 but they just made small innovations each year for more sales.

Is this common amongst electronic device companies? If so, which ones and in what way?

Response to Jack

Is materialism's affect on Christmas important for the troubled economy?

During the holidays many people get into debt because they are making so many purchases for gifts. They also spend a lot of money on new sweaters or dresses to look nice on Christmas day. People also buy a lot of food and alcohol to provide for their family and friends. All these purchases cause many people to get into debt for the new year. Most of these people are expecting a nice big Christmas bonus and or a nice tax return to pay off this debt. As a result of all this shopping and purchasing can be very bad for the economy.

Is there any ways that this can be good for the economy?

Leadership In An Organization

I believe that leadership is a huge part of a business. From top managers, to middle level managers, to the employees. The way the managers act and behave will always reflect upon the way the employees act. I know this from my own personal experience. I have had jobs where the assistant manager is lazy and isnt not responsible, thus the other employees including me became somewhat lazy and irresponsible. I have also had jobs where the managers are paranoid about little things, so as a result I saw the other lower employees also paranoid and picky about little things. So the way the higher employees behave, like the manager, assistant manager etc. reflects upon the behavior of the lower employees. Thats why managers must be good leaders and good rolemodels for thier company.

What other ways does leadership affect a company?

In Response to Michaela

Is the cost of going green too expensive? Is that whats holding back companies going green?

I have done some research on green energy sources. I have found them to be very expensive, but I have also found them to be able to save a business a fairly good amount of money in the long run. For example, water power is not very expensive but the business needs to be somewhat close to a reliable flowing river. On the other hand, solar power is very expensive and obviously there needs to be an efficient amount of sun to provide power. This is why a lot of companies refuse to go green, because they dont want to wait a long period of time to see the profit from it. Also a lot of top managers arent properly informed about the benefits of green energy. A lot of companies just use location or situation as an excuse, like they are not located on a river or in a sunny area etc.

Are there any major companies that have decided to go completely green?

In response to Katie

Has a manager ever motivated you in a particular way that made you more motivated?

Yes, I have had a manager motivate me in some way. Recently during the month of october at my job, I cashier at a convenient store, we had to sell these pumkins for donations. We would ask the customer, would you like to donate to teh march of dimes? If they wanted to donate they would give us a dollar and we would put their name on a little paper pumpkin up on the wall. So most of us cashiers would always forget to ask, so we would end up asking only a few customers throughout the day. The manager would get mad and always be all over us to ask EVERY customer. So the manager came up with an incentive, who ever sold the most paper pumpkins by the end of the month would get $50. Now we all asked almost every customer and we ended up selling a lot of pumpkins. I didnt win but I sold a lot more than i would have with out a prize incentive.

Is that right to bribe employees with cash?

In response to Katie

Is facebook helpful to our society today?

I think that facebook can be helpful to the society in several ways. First it can help family and friends stay in touch with each other. Second in can help companies advertise thier companies by having pages. With businesses that have pages, facebook users can become a fan or "like" the company. By seeing what type of customers thier company attracts, they are able to target certain age groups or groups of people to get the most business.

In what other ways is facebook helpful to the society?

Managing Organization Change

Chapter 13 talks about managing organization change and innovation. I actually worked in a small convenient store that was changed in order to succeed. The store used to be just an average convenient store selling mostly soda, milk, candy, coffee, and other small grocery items. It was located right over the mass. border in NH, along a busy road. The store really didnt get much business becuase it wasnt near anything, it was just on the side of the road as people sped past it to get to the main part of town. They actually went out of business for a little while because they didnt know how to change in order to get more customers. Well about a year later, a family bought the store and completely changed it. Instead of being just an average convenient store they changed it into more of a liquor store and sold tons of beer and hard liquor and not much of the other stuff like soda and milk etc. They thought this would be a good idea because since they dont have as much tax in NH as they do MA, all the people in MA would come right over the border and buy their beer in NH at this store. It was a success, and now if its a nice day out, they are swamped with people all buying thier booze.

What other stores have been changed in order to not go out of business?

In Response to Jack

Is this going to be the worst Christmas ever, or can people look beyond the material objects?

It is pathetic how a lot people base the quality of thier Christmas and the holidays on how much cash they have to buy gifts for people. Or how much gifts they recieve from friends and family. In recent years many people go out and max out all their credit cards in the months of november and december, hoping to get a nice tax return in febuary to pay it all off. It's probably true that many people are going to be much more careful in how much money they spend this year because their budgets can't afford as much as they did in the years past. The economy is very bad, so maybe the malls and stores wont be as packed as they used to be. That is how most of the world views a good Christmas, tons of shopping and packed malls. But that is wrong, thats not the true meaning of Christmas, we are celebrating Jesus' birthday not going into debt. People should be able to just enjoy being with their families, having the day off, and eating good food with the people they love.

Whats more important to you, gifts and chaos or being with your family?

Organization Design

In my life I have had quite a few jobs. I have had jobs with all of the basic forms of organization designs. I worked at market basket for about year, and they have a mostly a fucntional or U form of organization. I think this form of organization is good for very large companies like market basket. But also its much more impersonal, because the main manager of the store barely knows the lowest employees, like the cart boys. I also worked at a small liquor store, which was a family business. This business didnt really have a organization design because of the fact that it was so small. The recent job I have is Cirlce K, which is a small gas station convenient store. The store itself is very small but it is owned by a much larger corporation, Macs Convenience. This corporation has an organization desing similar to the divisional M-form design. They have many small businesses and stores that are all related somehow. With my experience I have found working at the circle k most enjoyable. This is because it is not a small family business, but it is owned by a large corporation. The store itself is aslo small so the manager knows all the employees very well and we all know each other very well.

What type of organization design do you think works best? Does it have to do with what type of company it is?

Response to Kendyll

Do you think athletes should get paid so much? So you think they deserve it?

I think that it is somewhat ridiculous that professional athletes get paid millions of dollars when that money could be used for other things that are more helpful in the world. America could use that money towards many things like to build new schools or build better hospitals. This is how America should use its money but realistically, sports competition is apparently more important. The reason why Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter, and other pro athletes get paid so much is because it is almost like an auction for them. When they are free agents they can sign with any team they want to. They will most of the time go with whatever team is offering to pay them the most. For example, when the Yankees wanted A. Rod back in 2004, they offered him a contract of $25 million, which was better than what the Rangers were paying him, so he signed with New York. Every team wants to be the best, and to be the best you have the best players. If another team was wanted him bad enough they could of probably got him if they offered him more than what the Yankees offered him. So I think that it is somewhat a waste of money but it's all about the pay for the players and all about being the best for the teams.

Should there be a limit to how much professional athletes are paid each year??

Response to Tom

I think that is completely wrong for a company to be giving those kinds of bonuses to a single employee. Even if it is a manager, I don’t think they should be getting that big of a bonus, especially a company that had to lay off 100 workers that past year. That is just not fair that 100 workers lost their jobs because the company wasn’t able to pay them and then six months later give 1 million dollars to one of the managers. The manager is probably making good cash anyways. It would be understandable if one of the line workers came up with a design idea on their own and presented it to the company and got a huge raise for it, because that’s not their job. The manager who gets paid well to come up with new designs, should not get a million dollar because she came up with a new design that worked very well. It is similar to a doctor that prescribes a patient with a medicine which eventually cures the patient. The doctor is just doing his job the right way, and does not get a million dollar bonus every time a patient recovers from an illness.
What companies have also done things similar to this?

Response to Jack Guerino

I agree with Jack's point of view on saving receipts. It is almost completely pointless to save the paper receipt when almost all of our transactions are electronic. I understand that people would want to save their receipts in case they had to return whatever they purchased for a refund. But for the managing money part, it is just easier to go to the bank and get a bank statement for all of your purchases that month. So for items that are most likely not going to be returned for a refund, like groceries or going out to eat, then receipts are useless and a waste of effort, energy, and paper.

In what ways can people manage their money better, without the use of receipts?

Response to Kathy Cross

Is it fair that women get less pay than men for the same work?

I dont feel it is fair that women get less pay for the same work that men do. Also its not fair that minorities get less pay than white people. The glass ceiling, is exists in companies is referred to when minorities or women aren't able to get to top management positions. This is not very good when it comes to the competitiveness of the business. Having a women in a high position in the company can be very helpful. She might be able to come up with different ideas, or market a certain product better than a man would be able. Having a more diverse work place can also bring better problem solving solutions because there is a bigger information pool.

In what other ways is more minorities and women in the workplace a benefit?

Response to Jack “If a Company is evil should they get the boot?”

Should we be the ones setting Walmart straight, or should it be dealt with by a higher order such as government?
I actually watched a video on how evil Walmart is. They showed why the stuff there is so inexpensive. It’s because they have sweat shops around the world that have people that live in poverty working in a factory morning till night making $0.30 a day. That is definitely evil and immoral, its one of the most evil companies out there. How should this be dealtwith? Well the people of America could theoretically shut them down by not purchasing any goods there at all. This is very unrealistic because that is where millions of people buy a lot of their daily things, like soap, shampoo, and groceries. Since it is practically impossible for the people to shut them down, the government should definitely do something about Walmart and other evil companies.

Response to Jack “Will there be a day where everything is bought online?”

Is buying everything online foolproof or should we be hesitant? Well there are several points of view on making online purchases. First off, there is the argument that making frequent purchases online will actually help the natural environment by reducing exhaust emissions, which will help keep the air less polluted. That’s one of the arguments that some tree hugger would put out there. But for the safety of a person’s identity there are definitely some precautions that should be taken. Typing your credit card number into any and every site will obviously greatly increase the chance of someone or a company misusing your card number. This is usually a bigger issue with the bank and not so much the card holder due to the fact that most cards have protection against stolen card numbers from online purchases. So basically if there is a problem, its mostly within the bank, which means the choice of online purchasing or not is really up to the consumers preference. Although there might be some occurrences where there’s some type of theft with the card, but the bank will have to figure it out and usually won’t count against you. With that said if the consumer is willing to take the chance and the hassle credit card identity theft then they shouldn’t be hesitant to sit down, have their credit card ready and start shopping.

In response to Sarah Simmons

Do you think this responsibility fall on the student or the parent of the student? (education about financial debt)

In most cases, when a 17 or 18 year old high school student is looking into college their parents are the ones that will be needing to pay for some part of the tuition or cosign their loans. So in just about every case the parents have something to do with a kid going to college. This is why I think that the parents should try to talk to their kid about financial debt and what to expect when they are all done college. The parents are the ones that have been out in the real world dealing with this stuff for years, so they are the ones have firsthand experience with it all. An 18 year old usually has never had experience with any sort of financial debt. In my high school they had a meeting for financial debt which they talked to us about all the loans and financial aid we can get. This helped me somewhat understand what was going on, but my parents have already gone through the college debt thing so I think that parents with experience in college or any financial debt should help their kid understand it all.

Response to Katie McGarity

Do you think saving all of your receipts is helpful? Do you save all of your receipts?
I also think it is very important for students to keep track of the money they are spending, especially if they are using a credit card for most of their purchases. Many students are so caught up in their studying, school work, work, partying, or with their friends they often aren’t able to pay close attention to what they are spending with their credit or debit cards. Then before you know it, it’s the end of the month and they need to pay their credit card bill, and all the little things have added up and they cant afford their monthly bill. So would saving all of their receipts help them manage their accounts better? I don’t think it would help them with what they are spending, it would only help them if there was a misunderstanding at the bank for some reason. The one thing that I would recommend to help them control their bank accounts is to have an online banking account and check their balance almost every day. That way they can see how much they are able to spend during that specific day. Keeping every single receipt is too hassling and will get confusing if you use them to keep track of your balance. I don’t keep any of my receipts, I just check my balance every day and try to use cash for most purchases.
Is it better to make purchases with cash or credit? Why?

In Response to Max Gausch

Is internet monitoring that big of a concern for our nation?
The government does track a lot of our personal daily tasks such as phone calls, texts, voice mail, internet searches, internet purchases, transactions at every bank or ATM, and all other purchases with credit or debit cards. This monitoring makes searching the web easier and faster, and also makes purchasing things with electronic payment methods much quicker. This should not be considered a crime for the government to do this. Studies show that around 90% of Americans have some sort of financial debt. This is from borrowing money from the government, so why shouldn’t they have the right to see what other purchases we are making? If someone wants to not be tracked at all then they can write letters instead of using a phone, and pay with all cash, everywhere they go. Also the organizations that look at this information do it so they can focus on certain consumers. This means that their sales will go up and this will help the economy.

Where does it say that the government can’t monitor American citizens?

Response to Lauren Foley

Do you think that businesses should work on going green?

I think that going green shouldn’t be necessary for organizations. I believe that it would be somewhat helpful to the environment if they were recycling all their waste materials but only if it did save them money. For instance if a company was spending more money and energy on recycling just to be environmentally friendly, I don’t think it is worth it. Organizations definitely shouldn’t be wasteful with their natural resources and go beyond what they really need to be efficient. America is all about money and making money, so as long as the littering and pollution doesn’t get extremely out of control I think the earth will be just fine.

What are some companies that go over the edge in polluting the environment?

Social Entrepreneurs Turn Business Sense To Good

Recently many nonprofit organizations and other organizations that are involves ed in helping improve the natural environment, have been approaching nontraditional plans how to run their business. They are starting to create some of their own revenues and use for-profit business techniques to progress towards their goal as an organization. An example of this would be Neil Keny-Guyer of Mercy Corps. Keny-Guyer turned his relief organization into a global powerhouse with 3,500 employees and a $300,000 budget. He did this by going the capitalist route and purchasing a bank in Indonesia. They call these people “social entrepreneurs”. Another social entrepreneur is Vikram Akula wanted to prove that you can make a decent profit while serving and helping the poor, and not making them a charity case. He is the CEO of SKS Microfinance, which has around 9,500 employees and 3.3 million customers in India and adding roughly 300,000 new clients a month. They don’t turn down poor people when they come to SKS for loans. They feel that believes that it is a win win situation for everyone when people take out loans and uses them for a good reason, for example to start a small store and make a small store bigger. Last year SKS had revenues of $48 million, and a net profit of $6.16 million. This shows that having a for-profit business model helps everyone out in the long run.

What are other companies that should use this business model to help out the society?

College Credit Card Hustle

Many well known public universities and colleges’ alumni associations have a very deceiving process of making money. The alumni associations are selling the students’ personal information to credit card companies. They will often times decorate the credit cards with appealing colors and also the school mascot. Since the cards look appealing to the students and the fact that most undergrad students are very broke, they see the card as an opportunity to pay for a lot of the stuff they need. The students are also very vulnerable to late fees because they often don’t have a steady job to be able to pay for the monthly payments. They are also vulnerable to hidden fees or increasing interest rates because they do not have the experience in banking or take the time to fully read and understand the contract. Alumni associations will sometimes even get paid more if the students use the school credit cards often. These credit cards that the students are intrigued to buy can be very dangerous if they look at it as free money as many do. Before they know the interest rate has sky rocketed and the $3000 they were in, all of a sudden turned into $7000 because of the interest rate and/ or hidden fees they get charged with.

Should the students be more informed and educated about credit cards? Or should the ones intriguing the students to buy the cards make sure they are informed?

The Task Environment

The task environment is usually the environment that most organizations like to focus on. The task environment is very helpful to the organization because it helps them to specifically identify environmental factors that are important in the company’s success. This environment is made up of five parts. The first part are the competitors. Competitors compete mostly for customers dollars for example Nike, Adidas and Puma all compete for customers that are looking for athletic shoes, soccer cleats etc. Organizations also compete against one another but not only for customers money, but also for things like the right to buy a piece of real estate, or for a loan if the bank has limited funds they can lend. The second part is customers. Organizations have individual customers as well as wholesalers, retailers, and schools that are also customers to companies. For example hospitals buy food in bulk from McDonalds which makes the hospital a Micky Ds customers. The third part are suppliers, the ones who provide resources to other organizations. For example McDonalds buys soda from Coca Cola, and ketchup from Heinz. Most companies don’t buy ALL their supplies from just one supplier, because if that supplier goes bankrupt then so does the company that relied completely on them. The fourth part are strategic partners. This means that two companies work together in order to help each other. An example of this would be McDonalds will promote Disney toys in happy meals and Disney will build McDonalds in their parks. This can help companies get expertise from other companies that they tend to lack in. In this environment the manager will be able to see what companies or customers help them and who they need to focus their advertisement on.

In what other ways does the task environment help the manager?

Rise of the Numerati

After reading the article “Rise of the Numerati” I have become much more informed about how companies advertise to their customers through the internet. I came to realization of how much companies are able to track every move or transaction we make. Most Americans own cell phones, computers, and credit cards. Through just these three things these companies can know exactly where you are through GPS on cell phones. They can know what internet sites you have visited, and what advertisements you click on, which will reveal to them what products or other things you are interested in. Many Americans will use their debit or credit card for buying daily things like buying a few groceries at the store or filling up their car at the gas station. All these purchases are recorded on their bank accounts and the bank can know that you bought a 24 pack of beer at Market Basket at 8:22pm in Rindge, and that you bought $10 of gas at the CITGO station at 10:47pm in Keene. Also security cameras have time stamped pictures and videos at just about every convenient store, bank, gas station, and atm around the country. With all this access to everyone’s lives, statisticians are able to come up with inferential statistics to infer information about different types of people. Which means they are able to come up with relations for example that a high number of romantic movie fanatics, are one of the largest groups of customers for rent-a-car companies. Maybe because the movies they watch inspire them to travel to romantic areas. Now the rent-a-car companies know where to focus their advertisement for more business opportunity.

What other examples prove that statistics are used by a company so they can know where they can focus their business?

Supporting the Natural Environment

Everyone has heard the sayings “go green!” or “go green or go home!” all meaning recycle and be mindful to the environment. Well it’s not just individuals that are encouraged to not litter and drive eco friendly cars, but corporations are encouraged too. For example some clothing companies like Patagonia uses organic fibers to make clothing. Even countertop companies use recycled glass and concrete for their counter tops. Wal-mart plans to double their fuel economy by switching their whole fleet of company trucks to alternative energy vehicles. All this recycling in these companies helps them achieve their main goal, to be efficient and effective. They are being efficient by saving money by using recycled materials and by using alternative fueled trucks for transportation.

Is organic materials cheaper than conventional materials?

The Start of Google

The founding of Google I thought was very interesting. Also the way the founders manage the company is also very unique. In 2000 Sergey Brin and Larry Page came up with a profitable business model that worked by selling advertisement. Both Brin and Page were graduates in computer science, and had no education in management or in business. This is why they were naïve and rejected many ideas and advice from managers who were well experienced. They base most of their activity on their math skills, for example they use algorithms for auctioning advertising which gaurantees the company will receive the highest amount that someone will pay for advertisement. They also successfully attracted workers that were well educated and creative which created their work place to be innovative and productive. Many companies wonder how they do this and also wonder what are their plans for the future. Brin and Page reply that they don’t talk about their strategy because it’s strategic and that they would rather let people think that they are confused than let their competitors know what they are doing.

This is a very unique company, the type of people who founded it and the way they manage the company. What other some other companies that are managed in a non traditional way?