Thursday, September 10, 2009

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?