Alexander Nguyen's Blog

Google – being the world’s most used search engine has been constantly ranked number one for being the best and attractive employer to work for by Fortune’s Magazine. Although money is the most commonly used reward – benefits, flexible schedules and overall satisfaction of the job is what is truly appealing to workers today.

Google provides the standard benefits of paid holidays, maternity benefits, parental leave and more, but how does Google set itself apart from other employers?

Google offers free meals to every employee, and not just any meal, gourmet chefs prepare all dinners and lunch just for Google employees. Feeling sick at work? No problem, just head over to the on-site doctor’s office located conveniently inside the Google’s office. Google is literally a free mall with all the services you need! There is massage therapy, hair salons, dry cleaning, bike repairs, gym and even a car wash station. With all these benefits, it’s no wonder that Google is ranked so high up in the attractiveness category. These benefits allow employees to enjoy their work, increasing job satisfaction which in turn will increase productivity and efficiency. A positive environment will encourage workers to be motivated to work hard and stay dedicated.

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LG, an electronic company based in Korea, launched the world’s first 3-D television not too long ago but it is already facing touch competition with Toshiba. Toshiba has just released new information about their new development of a “high definition liquid crystal display 3-D television that does not require special glasses.” As a consumer, I find this new discovery intriguing as I see wearing 3-D glasses to be a huge downside to buying LG’s LED 3-D television. I think that wearing glasses is not convenient, especially when there is a large gathering of people. Also, it is uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time and it is a problem for people that wear glasses already for vision problems.

Toshiba has proved to be a leading competitor once it launches this new product because it is establishing itself as the first company to release a product that shows 3-D visual effects without the aid of glasses. Being first in the consumer’s mind will allow us to remember this product and notice its unique features. However, Toshiba needs to move fast and take a risk in releasing this product first before Sony does. There is a race of 3-D TV going on between these two companies, who will win the hearts of the consumers?

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I was very surprised after reading “Twitter co-founder quits as CEO” that twitter’s 2^nd former CEO, Evan Williams, stepped down from his position to Dick Costolo, the company’s chief operating officer. Williams said that “I have always been more of a product guy and we are entering a new phase of the company where we require a CEO who is more into operations, sales, finance and operations… And Dick is better at those things than I am.”

I believe the CEO change was a very smart and effective decision because with Costolo, Twitter expanded into larger offices in San Francisco to fit in payrolls of employees that have gone up almost 10x! Also, twitter’s redesigned layout spawned a lot of positive feedback from users. It has grown to be one of the top social networks and continuing to grow throughout the years.

This was a good strategy! – Twitter knew what they wanted in the long term and the direction they wanted to steer the company, which was towards the opportunity for businesses to function more effectively through the new layout. With Twitter rapidly expanding, it was time for a new CEO who was boisterous to drive the company –

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– Alexander



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Much hype was created for the new Blackberry Torch with its dual touch screen and QWERTY keyboard before its 1st release in August. It was said that the Torch could challenge the iPhone 4 as the best smart phone on the market however that wasn’t the case…

It was a disappointment; critics reported that the Torch didn’t surpass or even match the specs of some of the competitors already on the market, namely the iPhone 4. The worst critics suggested RIM was slipping down the road to ruin. However, one thing Duncan Stewart, Deloitte’s director of research, said that I agree with is “There are weird dynamics going on, when new phones come out people…[expect] every phone to be exactly like the iPhone”.

Before the Torch’s release, I had a feeling that many consumers were going to be disappointed, since the Blackberry Storm already had failed with the touch screen, now combining the touch screen and keyboard still wouldn’t be on par with the successful Bold 9700 or iPhone. Even though with the negative criticisms, RIM said they weren’t worried and they shouldn’t be because if Obama has a Blackberry, it still means RIM’s has #1 safest business phones on the market!

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– Alexander

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The iPad is definitely a very good consumer device however it is now slowly breaking into the corporate world with its new revolutionary apps. According to Financial Post’s article, “How Apple’s iPad is invading the business world”, restaurants have been using the iPad for hosting using the apps Tablewait and Eventbrite; the apps allows you quick input and edit customer information, and can notify when tables are ready through text messages. Instead of the tradition plastic buzzer, computer or paper which are a hassle, heavy and expensive; the iPad is only $500, lightweight, reliable and easily programmable. This could even be brought towards retail stores to replace POS systems, which are complicated to use and lengthy to program – Many of my managers and co-workers said they would love to destroy their POS systems.

I think this is an HUGE opportunity for Apple in creating a completely new way for all businesses to function by using tablets. It can cut down extra costs quite a bit and can be very efficient. Imagine being an event organizer and knowing who has checked in from across the room, it saves you a lot of stress and time if you have everything in your hands.

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Nokia’s new smart phone, the N8,  was subjected to be the competitor of the Apple iPhone for 2010. It’s released date was scheduled in September to the open public, but due to quality problems from their new Symbian system, the date was delayed until the end of October.

Do you think the N8 can out sell the iPhone??

Of course! …  NOT! There have been countless phones that have been said to be major competitors to the iPhone and yet Apple still prevailed every single year with the iPhone being top 3 in every reviewers list. Even though the N8 is seen by analysts as the company’s first top-range model, Nokia has never out performed Apple in the sales of smartphones since the release of the iPhone line in June of 2007. Also, with the N8 weak smart phone offering and problems with software,  Nokia replaced its chief executive with Stephen Elop from Microsoft, which created a big decrease in Nokia shares in May. Apple share’s on the other hand had been increasing higher and higher throughout 2010, and had almost tripled since the 90’s.

Every year since the iPod’s release, Apple still proves to be the most dominating company in technology!

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– Alexander

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As to think that both men and women are now equal in this world, there are still discrimination problems happening in the workforce all the time. Just a few days ago Goldman Sachs was sued by 3 former-employees (all females)  for discriminating against women in their company. They said that Goldman allowed their male managers more freedom to do what they like – “unchecked discretion” – such as assigning accounts and responsibilities to their employees, and also deciding who gets administrative support and training. On top of that, the complaints said that the company intentionally had companies policies/practices to promote males and pay them higher than women. – source

I think this is an ethical issue in that we should no longer accept any discrimination in the workforce or flat out anywhere; especially in the business world where gender should not matter, but rather the idea and leadership of individuals count. Men and women are supposedly considered to be equal, however within the Goldman Sachs the majority of all business positions are male; only 14% of partners, 17% of managing directors and 29% of vice-presidents are women. To me that isn’t even close to being 1/3 of the entire company!

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– Alexander

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