Pure Business

In a recent few years, Blockbuster only saw contradicting results to its company name in the financial statement. The failure led from increasing debt but declining assets with resulted in a much higher debt to assets ratio than previous years. The report of fourth quarter and fiscal-year 2009 financial results show: revenue dropping $0.23 billion in a year; gross profit decreasing 118.5 million in a year; operating loss increasing $50.9 million compared to the full year 2008; a net loss increasing by 184.1 million compared to the full year of 2008. This highlights some of the results of failure in finance of Blockbuster.  The charts below (Quarterly Data: left, Annual Data: right) based on the balance sheet of financial statement indicates that Blockbuster has been increasing in its debt but decreasing in its assets continuously since 2008 and throughout 2009. This resulted in an increase in debt to assets ratio which is significant sign of financial downfall to the company. We should keep an eye on Blockbusters’ 2010 financial statement to see how and in what areas they made a “blockbusting” recovery to its finance.

According to the a Board Member of the Canadian Marketing Association and an executive for the National Advertising Benevolent Society of Quebec, Mitch Joel, there are four key factors of trend that will change marketing forever; touch, analytics, one-line and location-aware.

As a commerce student having an interest of going into marketing, these four factors seem significant for me to familiarize.

From phones to mp3 to navigation system or any types of device, it is notable that technology is focused on simple and quick to use methods.  This brings the trend of touch screens (example). Personally, I prefer typing and clicking than touching. I would usually get frustrated at either the sensitivity or the inconsistency of the device. The conception of being on one-line which is the linkage between all different devices (example) is the drift of today’s technology. The combination with the trend of touch to one-line would make a hit in marketing.

Analytics is another trend that companies should concentrate their motives into collecting detailed data.

Lastly, the ability that allows people to publish, receive and follow information which brings a location-aware is the concept that is popular among social networks these days.

Whether I prefer the use of it or not, the world’s marketing is changing based on these four trends, and Mitch Joel is suggesting that these will be fixed into a creation of new and successful business models. Therefore, we all should not necessary follow but familiarize and consider these trends.

Work Cited:

For Current Trends That Will Change Marketing Forever by Mitch Joel (Web) (http://www.twistimage.com/blog/)

After calculating my carbon footprint, I was not too surprised with the result of low carbon emission. This is because of the fact that I am currently living in a temporary student residence determines and gives me a huge advantage in footprint calculation. The residence does a good job of reducing the electricity/utility costs. I can reduce emissions in my shelter by doing little things such as taking shorter showers or using less of warm water. However, I can’t do much to change the items (heater, window, showerhead) as it is all for the public use or the school residences’ property. For the “daily commute” part of the footprint, since I live at my school and my classes very nearby, this allows me to walk which creates no carbon emission.

I was a little surprised with the result the calculation gave me with my food consumption. I didn’t know that food can determine the amount of carbon emission. In order to reduce my emission in the food area, I can change my diet so that I consume more organic and vegetable-based food. I have a desire to follow this plan because this would benefit my personal health anyways; as well it would reduce emissions to do good to my community and even the world.

I noticed that I am not aware of many of the activities or items that determine the amount of emissions as many of my answers were “I don’t know”.

After the crisis that led from the recall, Toyota needs a recovery plan based on their brand. Their biggest loss from this incident is the trust and reputation of their brand. Toyota used to be known and had success with their quality of the vehicles. However, when this advantageous gap started narrowing, the company focused instead on the appeals (styling and performance) which caused the engineering and management resources to decline. This was the fault that led to the failure resulted in the incident. In order to regain their reputation, Toyota needs to put the customer’s voice at the center in planning based on their behavior. They need to satisfy and meet the decision making qualities of the customers: motivation, perception, attitude formation, integration, and learning.  In purchasing Toyota cars, the behaviors which represent their voice of the customers clearly show that these decision making qualities are triggered and made due to the qualities of Toyota vehicles. Toyota needs to respect and focus their recovery plan based on these voices of the customers. This will help the company to regain their trust from the customers as well as their brand reputation.

Toyota takes action in their first step of this recovery plan by launching new quality checks.

Work Cited:

Learning the Hard Way by Finbarr O’Neill (Web)  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/opinion/25iht-edoneill.html

One of the most significant factors in the efficiency of an organization is the human resources management which is the relationship it forms from the treatment of employees in their lifecycle at work. Failure in this aspect would result in employees to have high levels of job stress and dissatisfaction. This can lead to higher absenteeism and turnover of employees. In the case of Electronic Arts, the failure in human resources management led to even more extreme measures as the employees launched a class action lawsuit in July, 2004 for unpaid overtime. EA creates very long overtime hours for their employees at work which brings up their stress levels and brings down their performance. The company’s brutal fixed hours include 13 hours/day (9 a.m. – 10 p.m.) for 7 days a week. Plus, during the ‘crunch times’ of producing games, the employees were forced to work extra hours. The case of lawsuit ended up with settlements of more than $31 million US in total.

Work Cited:

Electronic Arts faces overtime lawsuit by Ed Frauenheim (Web) (http://news.cnet.com/Electronic-Arts-faces-overtime-lawsuit/2100-1043_3-5450316.html)

Revenge of the gamers: Suing for ‘crunch time’; [National Edition] by Danny Bradbury (Web) (http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1106460531&SrchMode=2&sid=12&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1256855842&clientId=6993&cfc=1)

Marketers and operators, a tension that is familiar in all businesses, both of these sides only consider their functions the most significant in running a business. However, when it comes down to it, they cannot function effectively without the help of each other.

In one of the lectures of Commerce 486G, a situation of contradicting point of views from each side was taught by the speaker. Marketers try to push the business towards in producing more variety of products for the customers to choose from. However, in operators’ point of view, they demand to keep the variety less in order to create more efficient supply chain by preventing more days of inventory.

The article by Shellye, Marketing vs. Operations – Can’t We All Just Get Along? , suggests that without a firm operation of business in creating an effective product and service quality, the greatest marketing campaign would never turn out to be a success. Both marketers and operators need to collaborate by communicating their side and situation, and then they need to understand and learn the other side and adjust their work accordingly. This is the way that marketers and operators can both exist and function effectively with peace in the same company.

Toyota vehicles have been under the scope lately with numerous  vehicles getting recalled due to accelerator and brake pedal failures. These pedal failures of Toyota vehicles were blamed on for a number of accidents leading to deaths.  The recalls have been massive ranging from 2 to 5 million vehicles in a number of occassions.

These problems are a big concern to Toyota both financially and in the market. Financially, Toyota has been damaged with the cost of the recalls and for repairs. However, in over time, Toyota can recover from this financial damage, but on the other hand, their reputation in the market is not so easy.

It seems to me that there is a possibility of media exaggerating the blame for the accidents of the Toyota vehicles in order to push away the competition and in result strengthen the US vehicle companies.

Whatever the situation is, Toyota has lost the trust and reputation from its consumers in the North America and this is a damage that is hard to mend. I think that Toyota should start to look at some of the other markets such as in Europe or Asia where they have a different setting, culture and reputation for Toyota.

Would you find it ridiculous if I claim that climate plays a key role in becoming a successful entrepreneur?

In some basic foundation and key factors in becoming a successful entrepreneur, characteristics is one of the most important features that people possess within their inner quality of personality.

So what types of characteristics are helpful in becoming a successful entrepreneur? Characteristics such as risk-taking, creativity, charismatic, passionate, etc. comes into our mind.

An article “Something in the air” written by Dianne Buckner brings up an idea that climate can be a key factor to the characteristics of some of the rising entrepreneurs from B.C.

Buckner says in the article that she is “wondering if the climate in B.C. has some mysteriously inspiring effect on entrepreneurs, possibly causing them to be especially creative.”

She backs her idea up by recognizing some of the outstanding British Columbian entrepreneurs from various TV shows such as Dragon’s Den, Venture and Fortune Hunters.

It is hard to conclude that an weather is the cause of entrepreneurs’ creative side to become outstanding. However, climate can definitely effect people’s mood and behavior. Therefore, it is something that we could wonder about. Climate; a key factor to entrepreneurship…?

Work Cited:

“Something in the air” BC Business. Dianne Buckner. Feb, 2008. (Article)

Trend is a significant aspect in fashion that consumers follow and retailers must keep up. The retailers must recognize and supply consumers’ demand quickly according to the trend. In order to keep up with this fast fashion, the retailers must recognize the consumers’ choice and situation, then have a flexible and efficient supply chain to support those demand.

This process is depended by the operating element of the company. In fashion industry, it is vital to keep the days of inventory as low as possible. This requires the industry to process accordingly and correctly to the demand and have a flexible variability. The capacity of inventory must be measured accurately so that it wouldn’t be higher than the demand nor too low in order to maximize profit.

A direct supply chain management would make a great business for fast fashion as it is advantageous in obtaining valuable information on the demand, as well as people are able to consume the exact design or style of what they want. Also, direct supplying would prevent any over producing as the industry would manufacture just the right amount according to the demand.

“There are some people, no matter what you do for them, it’s never going to be enough. If they’re not making $1 million in a year, they leave.” – a mentality (entitlement) in [the Silicon Valley] (Employee Loyalty by Cheryl Breetwor)

The article titled “Employee Loyalty” is an interview with Cheryl Breetwor who ran a company called ShareData for 16 years. She writes of her experiences she had with some of the employees she managed throughout those years.

The link to the article: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v12n1/loyalty.html

The article addresses the loyalty of employees to companies that hired them. This explains the attachment or investment the employees commit to the companies. Breetwor experiences many cases where employees leave her company for what they believe as a better option. She gives an example of a case where an employee in his twenties who got promoted three times in a year with earnings of approximately $100,000 a year. He left his job for another company.

In the case of the employee leaving the company, in my view, it is obvious for employees to leave companies for the better option. This is a personal choice and decision that the CEO or managers of companies should question. The reasons for that decision can be very significant and personal to the employees that managers do not know of or do not understand. The employees should not be attached to the company just to be “loyal”. Also, I believe that a great leader should not only be able to attract people to them but also be just as understanding to let them go for their sakes. If they want to leave for better individual opportunities, managers should be able to understand it in their point of view.

Works Cited:

• Employee Loyalty by Cheryl Breetwor (Web) (http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v12n1/loyalty.html)