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?