IT and information systems has changed how we do business.  With so much information now on the cloud and everyone carrying mobile phones, Business Technology Management (BTM) is needed to ensure that an enterprise’s business strategy is being correctly accommodated by the updated technology it deploys.  According to an article at Hopkins Medicine, monitoring internet search traffic about influenza to prepare hospital emergency rooms for any upcoming surge in sick patients may be better than to wait for outdated government flu case reports.  Using Google’s Flu Trends tool, the researchers have found a strong correlation between a rise in internet searches for flu symptoms and the rise in sick patients coming into the hospital.  This example is very similar to the example given in Class 17 where we learned about how Target figured out a teen was pregnant before her father did.  I believe that Google will greatly utilize the valuable information to their benefits from people using their Gmail, Youtube, Google Maps, and search engine.  As shown above, IT and information systems is a very valuable tool in the business world nowadays that can ensure businesses better execution, risk control and profitability.

Sources:  http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/_hopkins_researchers_find_google_flu_trends_a_powerful_early_warning_system_for_emergency_departments

As seen in the video in class 14, Zappos is able to maintain a high level of customer service through their unique organizational culture, such as how each employee can decorate their cubicle to their likings.  Rituals which develop over time in an organization are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization.  One well known corporate ritual is Walmart’s company chant.  The chant was started by the company’s founder, Sam Walton, to motivate and unite his workforce.  “Gimme a W, gimme an A, gimme an L, give me an M, A, R, T!” has become the company’s ritual that bonds its workers and reinforces Sam’s belief in the importance of his employees to the success of the company.  This chant preservers a small-family spirit and work environment within the world’s largest retailer.

The Walmart chant has developed over time resulting in many variants; however, the main aspect of motivation still remains intact:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJwrlF8AzmA

Sources: http://www.citeman.com/4003-how-employees-learn-culture-2.html

In less than 10 years, Skype has become one of the most popular VOIP (voice over IP) program in the world, boasting over 700 million users and bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion in 2010.  To me, Skype has become a substitute for a service provider like Telus.  When I first moved to Canada, my mother came along to take care of me while my dad stays in my home country Thailand to work.  In the first several years, our phone bill was enormous because of long distance calling, but this was a necessary cost to maintain the tight bond in our family.  However, when Skype came out, we no longer had to spend any money on the phone bill when calling long distance.  I am sure Skype has impacted the revenue of phone companies with so many people turning to its free communication tool.  Skype continues to update with new features, such as calling landlines using wifi.  This Summer while I was in Thailand, I actually use Skype to call people’s mobile numbers like a normal phone to save cost.  Skype is a great communication tool helping everyone in the world connects to each other.  The program is also beneficial in the business world such as when setting up a conference call with each member in different parts of the world.

Sources: http://mashable.com/2011/05/16/skype-infographic/

During class 20, guest speaker James Tansey had the class do a survey to gauge their own carbon footprint.  I was surprised by the huge amount of carbon footprints some of my classmates had.  This survey made it clear how the trivial activities we do such as commuting and eating meat greatly contributes to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.  This survey raises a question, “If I alone can cause this much greenhouse gas to the environment, then are big companies doing anything to reduce their non-undoubtedly massive carbon footprint?”  In Cathy’s blog about Walmart’s initiatives on going green, she mentions that Walmart’s “real motives…deciding to go green is questionable.”  We cannot be sure if Walmart’s approach to become an environmental leader in the business was to increase profitability by reducing costs, or to purely help the environment.  However, I consider each company to be a profit maximizing firm and at the moment, “Green sells,” and it is probably in Walmart’s best intention to reduce its costs while still marketing their company to be “green” to the public.  Nonetheless, Walmart must still be praised for aiming to become more sustainable and setting an example for other companies to follow.

BC Hydro smart meter has received much controversy over the issue.  There have been many concerns by the public over the smart meter, but perhaps the biggest one would be privacy concerns.  Consumer’s behaviors are valuable information that is desired by many companies; therefore, the smart meter measuring residents’ power consumption by the hour is a huge privacy concern to the public.

-BC Hydro is replacing 1.8 million digital and analog power consumption meters with wireless-enabled “smart meters” by the end of 2012. (CBC)

According to this article, “BC Hydro has failed to notify customers who received new smart meters about how their personal information was being collected and used.”  In order for BC Hydro to regain some of their lost reputation, the company has to be more transparent and communicate with the public so that its customers do not think they are being ignored.  BC Hydro quickly needs to address in their marketing plan letting consumers know that privacy is a great concern of the company, and also educating the public that the smart meters do not provide any security risks.  A man in Vancouver has mentioned that he does not want a smart meter installed in his home because the devices can tell other people as to whether or not anyone is home.  I believe that as soon as BC Hydro can fix these two main issues of privacy and security, the smart meter can then be trusted by the public.

Sources: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/12/19/bc-hydro-smart-meters-privacy.html,

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/10/21/bc-smart-meter-privacy.html

The actions and image of top management can greatly impact the organization’s culture.  The executives establish norms that are filtered down through the organization through their behavior and what they say.  These norms establish what is appropriate and desirable within the company.  The CEO of Japan Airlines, world top 10 international airlines, is Haruka Nishimatsu.  He slashes his only salary to only about $90000 per year, which is actually lower than the salary of a regular pilot of his own company.  The CEO uses the bus everyday to go to work and lines up at the cafeteria during lunch along with all his employees.

Haruka prefers a modest personal lifestyle, and also prefer the same for his company.  He mentions that “businesses which pursue money first fail” and that “the business world has lost sight of this business ethics.”  The CEO hopes that his behavior would send a message to all his employees.

Sources: http://www.kal01.com/2012/04/haruka-nishimatsu-a-real-life-hero/

In our last COMM 101 class, we talked about how product placement is everywhere and movies are starting to utilize it more and more.  In the recent years, there have been many obvious product placements in movies, so obvious that we notice it when it should have been just subliminal.  For example in this video when the actor Daniel Dae Kim says “You don’t believe me? Bing it!” in the TV series “Hawaii Five.”

Now let’s visit the movie “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” a documentary about branding, advertising, and product placement funded by branding, advertising, and product placement.  The documentary directed by Morgan Spurlock, the same person who created the movie SuperSizeMe, is about him going around the city finding sponsors to buy product placement in his documentary, with the footage of the film capturing his adventure in finding sponsors.  In the picture above, we can clearly see the Pom Wonderful logo being the most noticeable with “Pom Wonderful Presents” being at the very top and that is because this company was the most prominent in sponsoring the film.  I learned many new things from this film, one of which is when Spurlock visits a school district in Florida that, because of constant budget cuts, is forced to sell advertising on its busses, fences, classroom televisions and any other surfaces that logos can be put down on.  Product placement is everywhere around us, and this movie is a great example of it.

In an update to Kevin Yu’s blog on the unethical business practice in Foxconn, China Labor Watch reporting four days ago on October 5^th 2012 that around 4000 Foxconn workers are on strike at the Zhengfou factory in China.  Kevin has mentioned “Foxconn has neglected the working conditions of its employees” to pursue maximum profit.  The atmosphere in Foxconn has suddenly escalated recently because of the demanding quality standards for the iPhone 5.  China Labor Watch has noted that “with such demands, employees could not even turn out iPhones that met the standard.”  Without receiving any necessary training, the workers are now under enormous pressure to deliver the iPhone 5’s.  I am not sure how effective the strike will be, because for every worker that are on strike, there are many other desperate Chinese that are looking for a job.  I also do not believe this news will receive much attention because people are already used to hearing poor working conditions in factories in China.  Apple also would not be impacted negatively by much in my opinion from this news because Apple is not the only big name that uses Foxconn, to name a few others: Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and Toshiba.  I think that even though 4000 Foxconn employees are now on strike, there won’t be much impact overall and the poor working conditions would not change and if they did, it would not be by much.

In response to Lou Lee’s blog on Japan’s new piracy law, I strongly disagree with both the new anti-piracy law and Lou Lee’s viewpoint of its effects in the future.  The law does not quite address the problem of the falling in music sales but will only worsen the problem.  The article states that “only one in 10 downloads are legally purchased” in Japan and an estimated “99% of all downloaded music is illegal” in China; however, it must be noted that not all these illegal downloads make up for the lost sales.  There are people I know with hundreds of illegally downloaded songs in their music players who said they would not purchase any of them if they were no longer free.  Also, even though labels may be against piracy, there are artists who love it because they yearn for exposure –  “The Pirate Bay has also proven to be a buffer of success for young, aspiring artists who are able to advertise for free on the website.”  These illegal downloads introduce people to music from new bands which will increase the band’s fan base and any sales regarding to concerts and merchandises.  I do not believe this law is good economically and socially because prison might be too much of a punishment for downloading music illegally.

In Florida, inmates from a maximum security prison provide cheap labor for Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE), a private non-profit corporation.  Congress created the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification in 1979 (PIE) with the purpose of providing employment for inmates.  However the program was abused for companies to gain huge profits as prisoners are “expect[ed] to be paid between 10 cents and 50 cents an hour” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/06/prison-labor-pads-corporate-profits-taxpayers-expense).  Through the program, PRIDE in 2011 has grown to become one of the largest printing corporations in the state because of how cheap labor has significantly impacted local smaller printers.  This event may have influenced other states to seek replacing public sector workers with prison labor, with California alone having sixty prison industries and another 100 scattered across the country.  Scott Paul, Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, mentions that “it’s bad enough that our companies have to compete with exploited and forced labor in China,” “they shouldn’t have to compete against prison labor here at home” (http://www.thenation.com/article/162478/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor).  Through tough times in the American economy, certain corporations such as PRIDE in Florida have found ways to make vast profits through utilizing the cheap and massive prison labor force.