Creative innovation requires taking risks, accepting failure, rejecting convention and exploring unproven methods.

Like blog states, “successful innovation is a numbers game of high output for minimal success with high reward.”

And companies are cost minimizers so why would they risk that?  In the field of innovation, very rarely do your ideas make  it big. Do you have a grand idea that you think will change the way we view the world or do business? Well too bad because the likelihood of that happening is slim. Companies don’t want something costly and they don’t want something risky either. So how is anyone able to come up with an idea that will change the face of the game?

I’ve talked about the high price of a degree before but in this case I’m responding to Vanessa Lau’s post about entrepreneurship.

I agree with her. As she says, “Many successful entrepreneurs, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckenberg, didn’t even complete their degrees, and look at them now!  You can even google the list of billionaire drop outs, and the list goes on and on.” 

So the question remains, what makes a Business Man successful? I, for one, do not think that it has to do with the degree. You can have all the degrees you want but that doesn’t make you a quality business person. It’s all about the idea and willingness to see it through to the end. I bet a lot of us in Sauder are at University for the sake of getting a degree. We’re not particularly passionate about business. We’re just going through the motions of getting a boring a degree then getting a boring job.

Why would anyone ever want to work on a holiday? Especially on a day that’s meant to be a day of being thankful. But stores like Walmart and Target see it as a day of making as much money as possible. 

“Every year the opening gets earlier and earlier. Before long, we will be open all day on Thanksgiving,” she said. “Thanksgiving is a day about families, and giving thanks for what we have got. There are a lot of single parents at Target. This just ruins the holiday for them.”

She said she had been surprised by management’s attitude to the holiday. “I have always enjoyed working here and they have always seemed flexible,” she said. But not about this. “Their attitude seems to be: if you don’t turn up for work, you don’t have a job.”

I’m all for maximizing profits but this is just too much for me. Why does maximizing profits have to supersede the morals of being a decent human being?   I understand that Businesses are free to do as they please. If being open during holidays was a poor choice then it would reflect in sales. But, it doesn’t because people want to shop. So I guess things we’ll just continue to get worse.

I’m not even going to address the corruption or scandals going on within the government but whoever thought that increasing the price of rice would increase demand clearly needs to go back to school.

“In theory, the policy makes perfect sense. If you pay farmers above the market rate for paddy they will earn more, Thai rice – already known for its quality – will rise in price and in turn force up prices on world markets.”

How in the world does that make perfect sense? If you increase supply and arbitrarily raise the price without any increase in demand why would that ever be successful? Isn’t that just basic economics?

I think this is why Professor Gateman hates government intervention within the market. Because all they ever do is leave things off worse than how they were before.

Investment Banking is a dangerous game. There’s no question about it. Especially when there is little to no liability.

2012 has been a hard year for banks in general. There have been a large number of scandals and people are just sick and tired of Banks.

Thomas Jefferson once said, “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” 

Investment Banking is only dangerous because banks are dangerous. They care nothing about their customers and more about achieving a profit. This attitude coupled with almost no liability leaves Banks with far too much power than they deserve. I believe the article is right in stating that Banks need to start feeling the consequences of their reckless attitude.

The internet has helped the world progress to many different heights in a variety of aspects. But to call it one of “the most important education technology in 200 years”  seems a bit of stretch to me.

We all know how expensive education is and I doubt Online Education will disrupt this highly profitable business.

Perhaps I just can’t see the big picture, but I see the Online education as a great tool to help you learn while you are still studying in school. They’re almost a substitute for tutoring. However, the traditional education model will always be more effective because employers are still relying on degrees/certificates from well renowned institutions.

In the end, I don’t see, at this point, traditional learning institutions being hard hit by a few online courses. As a university student, I should know that you don’t pay for the education. You pay for the credibility of the university.