The Chinese Super League, before 2015 was a measly league based in China which was widely unknown outside of China and the subcontinent of South East Asia, until the super-rich owners of the football clubs started investing in foreign talent from the major leagues of football, especially targeting Europe, where football is most widely followed and somewhat considered the biggest game in the continent.[1]  Big name and big money signings such as the likes of Carlos Tevez, Oscar, Hulk and other such international superstars of the game have put the league into the spotlight for giving players extremely high wages and incentives to come play in their country and promote the game. [2]

Now this brings me to ask a dreadful question, does money play a role as a motivating factor for such players and does money trump the love for the game for the players, and their ambitions to improve themselves as players? The answer, sadly, is that money does matter more than the game to many players nowadays, and does act as the biggest motivation for some players looking to trump their love for the game and sell their souls to make easy money.

In addition to that, players look for other forms of extrinsic motivation over intrinsic motivation before making decisions on their future in the game they are to play with passion and for the love of the beautiful game, but do not. The formation of new leagues and teams around the world is helping promote the game around the globe, but the dirt that comes with the money is somehow splattered on the players faces and they eventually lose track of what they are essentially supposed to do on the pitch. This shows their attitude off the pitch as well, as younger players who earn extremely high wages lead reckless lifestyles and are literally moments away from destroying their careers in the sport.

[1] Akavoor, Sharad. “Chinese Super League: Is there more to the rising giant than the money?” The Indian Express. N.p., 13 Jan. 2017. Web. 02 Apr. 2017. <http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/football/chinese-super-league-money-transfers-spending-budget-4469432/>.

[2] West, Aaron. “The 13 highest-profile players to take their talents to the Chinese Super League.” FOX Sports. N.p., 23 Dec. 2016. Web. 02 Apr. 2017. <http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/gallery/biggest-players-chinese-super-league-transfers-hulk-ramires-graziano-pelle-121416>.

Uber, one of the world’s largest ride-sharing services has not fallen short with its hype and the problems such multinational firms face. One of the biggest problems they face is the fact that management for them is extremely hard as they don’t directly hire the cab drivers most of the times, especially in third world countries where people cannot afford to own their own cars and lent cars by the firm on an installment-based payment system.

But that is not the case I will be talking about. The biggest issue Uber faced recently was when the Chief Executive Officer of the company, Travis Kalanick was recorded yelling at and behaving in an extremely rude manner with a bankrupt driver working for the ride sharing service to earn his daily bread.[1]

My classmate, Johnny Lee spoke in his blog post on the topic[2], speaks about how the actions of the leader of an organization have a direct impact on the employees and daily functions of the firm. I believe that his statement may be partially true, because of the fact that even at the top the hierarchical system, the CEO is not able to directly influence every employee of the firm directly which makes his or her actions outside the workplace somewhat arbitrary to the actual running of the firm. Granted that what Kalanick did has brought a lot of backlash to the firm and has affected employees to a certain extent, the fact that the company is still running smoothly and everything has been contained shows that his leadership may be unethical but somewhat effective as the company is not facing a collapse.

Although, in my opinion, such acts should be contained and CEO’s of such firms should be ethical, whether in the workplace or outside, as they highlight the reputation of the firm and carry the values that are to be followed by its employees.

[1] Watson, Libby. “Billionaire Uber CEO Yells at Bankrupt Driver: ‘Some People Don’t Like to Take Responsibility’ [Update].” Gizmodo. Gizmodo.com, 28 Feb. 2017. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

[2] https://blogs.ubc.ca/johnnylee98/

When we talk about leadership, the first names that come to our mind are usually popular world leaders, well-known businessmen, Presidents and Prime Ministers of powerful nations, and other such examples. In a response to my friend Barry Le Kim’s blog post[1] on this topic, I’d like to point out that the skills he has mentioned leaders should have, or possess to make effective change and lead are not just learnt or known.

I would like to suggest the idea that leadership can also be innate, as the clichéd phrase says, “some men are born leaders”. This idea does hold true, in my opinion as many world leaders, who have absolutely no background in leadership do not need to develop such skills, but are born with it and just wait for the opportunity to show their leadership qualities. Take India’s current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came from humble beginnings, working as a tea seller in his youth, to becoming the Chief Minister of the State of Gujarat, and eventually becoming the Prime Minister of India, the world’s largest democracy. [2]

The traits mentioned by Barry Le Kim in his blog post that a leader should possess and hone depend on the type of leader we’re talking about, in reality. A leader may follow different kinds of leadership styles such as a parental approach, or a laissez-faire, but that does not mean he or she has learnt or practiced the kind of leadership throughout their careers as leaders, which brings me to say that I disagree which Barry’s statement, “leadership skills does not come from anywhere.”

[1] https://blogs.ubc.ca/barrylekim/

[2] Umar, Baba. “Modi: From tea boy to India’s leader.” Modi: From tea boy to India’s leader – Al Jazeera English. Al Jazeera Media Network, 27 May 2014. Web. 02 Apr. 2017. <http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2014/05/modi-from-tea-boy-india-pm-20145139742599119.html>.

Managers over the years have used several motivational techniques to deal with the motivational levels and morale of their workforce. Theories and strategies, new and old have failed to motivate millennials, though. At least that is what everyone has to say about millennials which has led to the word becoming stereotypical of being lazy and extremely hard to motivate. But that is exactly what they fail to understand (the managers and people who judge), that is the fact that they are not hard to motivate at all.

The traits of millennials are often very similar which is why they have become a stereotype, but those very millennials have gone on to find billion dollar companies and single-handedly change the business world. Now, when it comes to motivating them, managers believe it is an extremely hard task as the traditional strategies don’t always work on the newer generations of people joining the workforce.

In my opinion, what motivates millennials is not just what the theories state, but the freedom and autonomy to do their own thing. Growing up watching other people just like them do so well and completely change the world through an idea, breeding entrepreneurship, almost every millennial wants to be an intrapreneur in their own way, which is why one of the only ways to motivate millennial employees is to get to know them better, apply the same strategies, but also give some kind of freedom and autonomy in their work, which will help them channel their positive energies and provide ideas and improve flow of work and thought, which in turn is more beneficial for the firm. Hence, allowing employee feedback and vocalization is one of the biggest ways to handle millennial workers in today’s day and age.

In the end, the stereotype will never break, but the motivation required will need to be addressed and someone will have to come up with theories on how to do so as theories are becoming outdated.[i]

[i] Gasca, Peter. “How to Motivate Millennials, By Millennials.” Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur Media, Inc., 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. <https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270764>.

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Refugee crises, wars, and other such evils of our day and age have forced dislocation for millions of people who have fled their homes in search of a land where they can lead better, more peaceful and prosperous lives. This dislocation and other such factors have led to Workforce Diversity becoming one of the biggest drivers of change in the business world. Workforce Diversity is not limited to religious and political beliefs, gender, ethnicity, education, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation and geographic location, and has to do with more than race or ethnicity.[i] It is defined as the presence of people from a wide range of backgrounds and possessing different traits.[ii]

Now when one talks about Diversity being for businesses all across the globe, one fails to realize how hard it is to manage a workplace with diversity as the firm may be subject to many conflicts, be it cultural, generational, or any other kind.[iii] It is extremely hard to help people adjust to the different behavioral styles of a firm coming from different backgrounds, which makes it extremely hard for managers these days to manage their workforce. Another aspect is that of the Generational differences in the workplace where the Baby Boomers, the Generation X, and the Millennials have different needs and wants, which contribute to them having different motivations in the workplace, which makes it so much harder for managers to find common strategies to satisfy every employee they have to manage.

The main idea of this post is not to challenge the idea of Workforce Diversity being good, but to go further and say that it’s extremely hard to manage it as well.

[i] Brookins, Miranda. “Define Diversity in the Workplace.” Define Diversity in the Workplace. Hearst Newspapers, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/define-diversity-workplace-4926.html>.

[ii] Kokemuller, Neil. “What Is Diversity and How Does It Impact Work?” What Is Diversity and How Does It Impact Work? Hearst Newspapers, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/diversity-impact-work-15985.html>.

[iii] Murphy, Steven. “This Is Why Diversity Is Good For Business.” The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 01 Feb. 2017. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. <http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dr-steven-murphy/diversity-good-business_b_14549158.html>.

When we look at organizations in today’s day and age, we only associate ourselves with the leaders or the men or women who hold the highest posts in those firms. We then make assumptions on how their work ethics and impact on the organization shapes the organizational culture of the firm. This is where we go wrong.

Organizational culture can be interpreted in many different ways, by many different people, some may say firms have an ‘innovative’ culture, and some may say that their organization follows a “customer focused,” but then again, it’s the leaders in the firm that help set that image or that culture.[i] Now, why is every employee not a leader? Why is there so much differentiation between the workforce and the higher level employees at firms? The answer is simple, the general workforce is usually not motivated enough or given enough freedom or autonomy by the very leaders who practice different leadership styles and try to create or blend into the desired organizational culture they wish to create.

Moving back to my first point, we go wrong in identifying a firm by identifying its CEO or another higher level employee, which contributes as generalization and eventually effects workforce morale negatively as the lower level employees could only dream of achieving such a position and mostly lose hope of advancement. This generalization causes workers to think they are not good enough and hence contribute away from the desired organizational culture for the firm. This is solely in my opinion; I may be wrong as there as examples of firms such as Google Inc. which follow open cultures that allow a free flow of information through every department in the firm and also allow employees to communicate their ideas and vision.[ii]

In conclusion, I’d like to point out that we as people should not only look at the leaders of the firm, but also the drivers of the firms, the employees and give them the credit they deserve.

[i] Whitehurst, Jim. “Leaders Can Shape Company Culture Through Their Behaviors.” Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 13 Oct. 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2017. <https://hbr.org/2016/10/leaders-can-shape-company-culture-through-their-behaviors>.

[ii] Kennedy, Sean. “Google’s Organizational Culture & Values.” Study.com. Study.com, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017. <http://study.com/academy/lesson/googles-organizational-culture-values.html>.

After reading my fellow classmate, Aman Chhetija’s blog post[i] on how a co-founder of a company namely, Boston Beer Company, has implemented a strategy of conflict resolution in an attempt on improving his company’s organizational culture which enables his employees to use the phrase “f**k y**” while at work. The phrase can be used on anyone in the hierarchy as well.

I believe it is a bold move, but Aman gave points on how it can actually boost the morale of employees and make the workspace more open. Also, it enables employees to speak out and point out where their colleagues are going wrong.

But, the title of the blog, “Would saying ‘f*** you’ to your boss land you in trouble?” asks a very controversial question to every professional in the corporate world. I think the answer to which lies in every firm’s organizational culture. Most firms want their employees to be extremely professional and disciplined as the environment is such that allows professionalism to thrive. Whereas, new age firms nowadays hiring millennials in order to keep up with the changes in societal likes and dislikes adopt somewhat casual organizational culture practices such as video games at work, and no formal dress code.

This brings me to a conclusion that allowing that phrase to be used would probably land a professional in trouble at MOST firms across the world as professionalism is chosen over casualness by most firms as it retains the same business ethics that have existed since the beginning of the 20^th century. Although, there is still a trade-off seen over the selection of the two; professionalism or casualness at the workplace. Too much of casualness may lead to callousness and carelessness from employees and too much of professionalism may lead to employees getting bored of their jobs and a fall in morale and increase in labour turnover.

Major companies lately have started following a more casual approach towards it employees as they have started believing the in “happy employees lead to happy customers” philosophy and it has enabled them to keep their employees content with minimal effort by just catering very little of their resources towards their employees, which leads to my final question. Is it worth it at the end of the day for the firm? This question is still widely debated and will be for years to come until one of the types of organisational cultures collapses.

[i] https://blogs.ubc.ca/amanchhetija

Vancouver is home to approximately 600,000 people, thereby making it the most populated city in the province of British Columbia, and the eight largest municipality in the whole of Canada. It also boasts being a portside city having a metropolitan status.[i] But one of the biggest issues with the city is the taxi services it has to offer to its residents and tourists. It is believed that Vancouver has the lowest number of taxis per capita of any other major Canadian city having just one taxi for every 4,000 residents.[ii]

Now, the public transport the city has to offer is phenomenal, almost every part of the city is navigable by either Transit buses or the SkyTrain metro line. But when it comes to hailing cabs, it fails to deliver. Coming from a city where people use more cabs than any other type of public transport, especially through app-based cab services such as Uber and its competitor OlaCabs, it was hard to get used to not being able to hail cabs easily. Hailing cabs in Vancouver is a tedious job, whereas in New Delhi, at a click of a button, I’d be in a cab within minutes of booking one.

Why is there no Uber in Vancouver, still? There is a need for cost efficient cab services in the city, because there is a demand for taxis. Why then? Is it because taxi worker unions and associations put pressure on the government to not let such services take over the industry? The answer is simple. The drivers need to be educated on the concept, business, and revenue models of services like Uber where they’ll be paid fixed salaries depending on the number of rides they hail in a day. Another thing Uber would offer is the flexibility to both the driver and the consumer, on whether they want to take the ride or not. This would also mean that the demand for taxis would reach closer to equilibrium as supply would increase, encouraging more and more people to add on to the service.[iii]

In my opinion, Vancouver should follow suit from almost every major metropolitan city in the world and allow Uber to set up operations in the city, even if it is just a trial run, and see what kind of changes it brings to the setup of transportation in the city of Vancouver, which I believe should hopefully be positive.

[i] “Vancouver.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver>.

[ii] Jordan, David. “Vancouver Has Fewer Taxis Than Any Other Canadian City.” BCBusiness. Canada Wide Media Limited, 03 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2016. <http://www.bcbusiness.ca/vancouver-has-fewer-taxis-than-any-other-canadian-city>.

[iii] Singh, Ajaydeep. “How Uber Works: Insights into Business & Revenue Model – Juggernaut- Powering On Demand Apps.” Juggernaut Powering On Demand Apps. Juggernaut, 19 Apr. 2016. Web. 30 Oct. 2016. <http://nextjuggernaut.com/blog/how-uber-works-business-model-revenue-uber-insights/>.

Google unveiled their unique invention, the Google Glass, a pair of spectacles which featured augmented reality for the first time in history of technology, in February 2013. The release managed to create a widespread demand for the product, globally. Everyone wanted their hands on a Google Glass. But just like any other overhyped product, the hype for this product died soon. Security and privacy related issues overpowered the features the Glass had to offer, such as providing a HUD (Heads Up Display), compatibility with smartphones, and a camera which allowed the device to record your life, and share it on various social media platforms.[i]

In an attempt to rebrand and differentiate their company, Snapchat, an extremely popular image sharing and multimedia mobile application recently changed the name of their company to Snap Inc. and as the first step into their differentiation and rebranding process, unveiled an invention perceived to be similar to that of the Google Glass, Snap Inc. Spectacles. The spectacles would allow users to record 10-seconds snippets of video, using a 115-degree lens, and post it on Snapchat.[ii]

But that’s where people are going wrong. The Spectacles offer literally nothing compared to what the Google Glass had to offer in terms of accessibility and features, which is what sets the two apart and makes them incomparable. Yes, they both come under the broad market for wearable technology, but in my opinion are two poles apart in their target market and technology.

The Google Glass was considered to be a flop at the end of the day, and people eventually forgot about it.[iii] It may have been the pricing of the product, or the pressure from consumers and developers towards safety and privacy, which is why I agree that the prices of both products are two poles apart as well, where the Spectacles would be priced at US$130 and above, whereas the Google Glass was priced at well above US$1000, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the two can be compared.

Also, when it comes to the question of whether the Snap Inc. Spectacles would sell or not, I believe a couple of ugly pair of sunglasses which can only record videos for Snapchat would not be a likely investment for me, at least. I’d rather go and buy sunglasses which would serve the purpose of sunglasses, protection from the sun, and allow me to look good.

In the end, I’d like to reiterate the point I tried to put forward; I have reason to believe that the two pieces of wearable technology cannot be compared to each other unless we’re talking about a broader market, and also that Spectacles may or may not be a success. I suppose time will tell!

Sources:

He, Jenny. “Snap Inc. Spectacles vs. Google Glass.” Web log post. Jenny He’s Blog. N.p., 2 Oct. 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/jennyh16/>.

[i] “Google Glass.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Glass>

[ii] Newton, Casey. “Snapchat Unveils $130 Connected Sunglasses and Rebrands as Snap, Inc.” The Verge. Vox Media, 23 Sept. 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/23/13039184/snapchat-spectacles-price-release-date-snap-inc>.

[iii] Ulanoff, Lance. “Google Glass Disappears from Twitter and Facebook.” Mashable. N.p., 26 Jan. 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://mashable.com/2016/01/26/google-glass-social-accounts/#AUZ37zroukq8>.

Tesla Motors, Inc. is an American automotive and energy storage company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars, electric vehicle powertrain components, and battery products.[i]

Tesla Motors has, in absolutely no time, gained control of the electric automobile market through its innovation and energy efficient focus. They were the first to introduce the driverless cars technology or Autopilot to the automobile market which created ripples all over the technological world. Consumers found it extremely interesting and the rising demand of Tesla cars has reached levels never experienced before.

In the midst of all of this, The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, visited Tesla’s headquarters on his annual visit to the United States to get a first-hand experience of what Tesla really is up to, by interacting with the CEO, Elon Musk, and also seeing their factories.[ii]

What he saw was that Tesla is trying to create an energy efficient world through researching and creation of sustainable energy sources so that the future generation of humans can live a sustainable life, which is exactly a nation of approximately 1.6 billion people needs.

A few months later, after another official visit from a highly ranked official of The Government of India, the government offered land to Tesla, in India, to come into the country and start producing.[iii]

Now if Tesla were to start producing in India, it would be catering to a whole new mass market for them altogether for which they’d need to evaluate pros and cons for entry such as the cost of producing in the country, how many people they would be catering to, price strategies etc. Although, they’d have first mover advantage over other car manufacturers in India as they’d be the first to introduce such innovative automobiles in the country.

In my opinion though, producing in India and catering to the mass markets of the country would not work well as the conditions of the roads, the corruption in licenses for driving, and the limited space for driving ‘driverless cars’ would limit the firm from selling as much they’d like to and would also only be able to cater to certain segments such as the upper middle classes, and the middle classes, depending on their price strategy.

To conclude, I believe the relationship between Tesla and India could be one that could revolutionize the on-road experience for drivers all around the country and could change the way people drive, along with limit emissions.

[i] “Tesla Motors.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.

[ii] Fehrenbacher, Katie. “Indian Prime Minister Tours Tesla Factory, Talks Batteries & Solar with Elon Musk.” Fortune Indian Prime Minister Tours Tesla Factory Talks Batteries Solar with Elon Musk Comments. Fortune, 26 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. <http://fortune.com/2015/09/27/indian-prime-minister-tesla/>.

[iii] Manchanda, Megha. “India Woos Tesla with Land Offer.” India News, Latest News Headlines, BSE Live, NSE Live, Stock Markets Live, Financial News, Business News & Market Analysis on Indian Economy. Business-Standard, 16 July 2016. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. <http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-woos-tesla-with-land-offer-116071600509_1.html>.