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?