Month: October 2012

This article caught my attention through its indicative title, “Four Advantages To Being A Female Entrepreneur”. With the increase in female influence in the workforce over the past century, the business world is still an area dominated by males. In the search for equality in all markets, an abundance of articles regarding the topic have emerged in recent years. Most of these articles talk about the pay discrepancies noted between men and women, the lack of job opportunities for women, or other forms of oppression in the workforce that hold women back. What separated this article from the rest of articles addressing the same topic is the writer, Stephanie Burns, took a very opportunistic view of the current situation. She offers four advantages women hold when starting their own business and investing in upcoming businesses.

I will digress from repeating the four main points of the article for brevity, but Burns makes some very compelling arguments and supports them with personal experience and evidence where possible. This opportunistic style article is capable of having a much larger impact on the current state of affairs than the generic article which takes the position of a victim.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chicceo/2012/10/22/four-advantages-to-being-a-female-entrepreneur/

Author: Stephanie Burns

Published: 10/22/2012

In William Taylor’s blog post “Catch People in the Act of Doing Things Right”, he talks about the importance of rewarding employees for good performance, properly maintaining protocol, and any other positive input in the workplace. Mr. Taylor notes how extraordinary acts of kindness have become as they are so uncommon in a business-driven society.

Rewarding good behaviour is just as important, if not more so, as penalizing errors or inefficiency. Correcting mistakes is a reactive way of altering behaviour; if someone makes a mistake that you then correct, the hope is you will not need to correct the same error in the future. This is not meant to downplay the importance of this type of reinforcement; to allow mistakes to go unaddressed is certainly not an alternative. Recognizing good behaviour is a more proactive approach to the matter. Offering a small token, regardless of value, to someone who has done a job well will encourage similar future behaviour. While it may not entirely remove mistakes from the workplace, it should help reduce the occurrence of them as well as boost morale amongst workers.

(Words: 184)

http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2012/10/catch_people_in_the_act_of_doing_things_right.html

The lecture on September 25^th briefly addressed the stock market, why investors would want to give money up for shares, and why companies do or do not pay dividends to their shareholders. A recent article regarding Canadian companies offering increased dividends offers some insight into why certain corporations would want to pay dividends.

The primary reason that a company would offer a payout is to attract more investors to buy its shares. Stocks which offer a dividend provide much lower risk to their holders than those which do not. This is particularly appealing to investors who are “in or approaching retirement” (Reuters) as they may not have the financial security needed for such risks. Raising the size of the dividend also shows the market that the company is stable and powerful enough to survive most economic turmoil.

Another reason a company may look to give out dividends is to please its investors when it is pressured by them to do so. If a company has a large sum of cash, and few threats or opportunities in the foreseeable future, its investors will become restless and question why the money is not being invested into research and development, expansion, or another venture which would help profits.

Works Cited

McGugan, Ian. “The Globe and Mail.” The Globe and Mail. Globe Investor, 23 Aug. 2012. Web. 29 Sept.

2012. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/number-cruncher/upcoming-dividends-companies-with-piles-of-cash/article4496058/>.

Reuters. “Canadian Firms Upping the Dividend Game.” – BNN News. Business News Network, 24 Sept.

2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bnn.ca/News/2012/9/24/Canadian-firms-investors-upping-the-dividend-game.aspx>.