One of the most important concepts I learned in Commerce 292 was the importance of diversity within organizations and the positive externalities that are associated with it. Many concepts including generational differences, principle and attitudes, as well as values are extremely important not only to make a corporation, but to the diversity of this organization. These aspects directly have an influence on the employees of an organization and these different concepts give the different employees a different perspective which is extremely valuable to the organization.

Corporations should make sure that their work environment is as diverse as possible in order to bring different points of views all across the world. For example the different organizational groups in my class have a wide variety of individuals that come from many different places across the world. Some of us are domestic student,s while other students are international students and we all have different hobbies, opinions, and interests. We come together in order to bring different perspectives on whichever problem we face.

This makes us easier to work together which enhances our teamwork and it makes us more accountable on each other in order to complete the task of finishing our projects. I believe these experiences in the Commerce 292 class room can be directly applied to real world applications to the business world and I believe diversity is an invaluable asset that every single corporation should consider.

I believe that employees should bring up this aspect of diversity if it is not extremely apparent in the organization as I believe that through the increased teamwork, the organization will become much more efficient which in turn will increase their bottom line profitability.

In high school I played on the volleyball team in grade 10 where I was disciplined by a very tough coach. We had 4 practises a week, and every time you were late you had to run 15 laps around the school. Although I respected the coach like he was my father, a lot of my other teammates resented him and they started skipping practises. This only infuriated my coach even more and subsequently, we lost our team cohesion and we did not make it very far in to the season. The following year, many of the players that previously played did not come out again and I wondered if there was a better approach the coach could have used in order to teach us.

In Commerce 292, we had a case study project in which we had to analyze a movie and identify any organizational behavior issues. Our groups movie was “Coach Carter” and many of the teachings he used was similar to my high school coach. He disciplined the players on a regular basis with drills that were extremely intense. As a result this caused a lot of tension between the players and himself. He, like my coach in high school was a transformational leader in which he tried to inspire the players to take the game more seriously. However, a different concept that I learned in class could have been more applicable if he used it. Both coaches would have been better in coaching if they used a charismatic approach in which they rewarded the players by intrinsically motivating them and focusing on the positives they contribute instead of what the did wrong. Punishments should not always be used an I believe this alternative approach would have been much more effective.

Vine which started almost completely by accident has turned in to a multimillion dollar social medium. Vine has made a lot of individuals famous, and has helped entertain consumers for over a year, however, a lack of innovation has caused Vine to stay stagnant. However, Twitter has recently shut down vine. Twitter is planning on implementing the features that are in vine which mainly includes the 6 second videos which will be implemented in to vine.

Vine which initially exploded has been used much less frequently as time goes on. The social platform has an extremely small amount of traffic compared to when Vine first kicked off.  However, competition from Instagram, snapchat, twitter, and YouTube has taken out the necessity that is the 7 second videos for vine.

These various other social mediums can incorporate these short 7 second videos, while providing a platform in which individuals can share much longer videos or pictures and text. Therefore, Vine becomes obsolete as consumers can look towards any of these alternatives.

In Andrea Atanacio’s blog “The Planet, Live” she discusses why Twitter decided to shut down vine. she makes very good points which I agree with that include that the celebrities of vine are switching to other social media platforms and Twitter wants to focus on their vision in the future as a live news platform. Live coverage of large events like the presidential election attract a lot of visitors to their website and Twitter wants to expand on this aspect in the future. I completely agree with Andrea on the point that because Twitter has shown decreasing profitability over the last two years and most of the users of vine have left that they should shut down Vine and focus on the future vision of twitter. Twitter is live and this is a large point of difference when compared to other social media platforms.

Vine does not have any significant points of parity when compared to its competitors which are the other social media outlets. In fact, there are restricted because they are only able to send out videos that are no longer then 7 seconds. This social media app has thrown in the towel as it could not move fast enough to differentiate itself from its competitors.

Twitter made an extremely smart move by shutting down Vine which is lacking behind its competitors. Twitter should use the features that were available in Vine to differentiate Twitter a little more from Consumers and they should focus on the future by expanding on their vision as a live platform which Andrea summarized very well.

Word Count: 427

References:

Newton, Casey. “Why Vine Died.” The Verge. N.p., 28 Mar. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016. <http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/13456208/why-vine-died-twitter-shutdown>.

Perez, Sarah, and Katie Roof. “Twitter Is Shutting Down Vine.” TechCrunch. N.p., 27 Nov. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016. <https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/27/twitter-is-shutting-down-vine/>.

Following world wide reports of over 100 cases of the Samsung Galaxy Notes exploding and catching on fire, Samsung has decided to announce a massive recall of their new phone. There are now halting sales and stopping production completely of their new phones and they are encouraging consumers to return their phones. There has already been many instances in which individuals have been severely burned and have needed skin graphs to replace their skin which has been burned off.

Samsung has reportedly tested their phone and have found no external or internal issues, however this is not shown through the numerous cases of their phone catching fire. Even airlines are taking precautionary measures to ensure that no Galaxy Notes are allowed on the plane in the event that the explode or catch fire (Cosmin 2016).

This incident will tarnish Samsung’s reputation and will cause even the most loyal Samsung customers to rethink buying another phone from Samsung. There will be a missive swing of customers flocking over to Apple or Android. Google has also launched their new phone Pixel which will definitely sway a lot of consumers to their phone instead of getting another phone from Samsung. Samsung will see their bottom line profits decrease drastically and they will need to strategize to keep the customers they have previously had, as well as potential new customers.

Samsung is giving customers over $100 of in store credit, as well as a guaranteed replacement of their phone for their newest model. However I believe this incident will cause all consumers who purchase phones to think twice before they walk in to a Samsung store. In Alon Aminov’s blog “Have the exploding Galaxy Note 7s Destroyed the Company?” he discusses that ramifications of this incident and how the company will face decreasing profitability in the next coming years. However, I really agree with his point that the customers of Samsung should be able to use their newest model which is the Galaxy S7 until all of the issues are absolutely fixed. Anyone who is still using their phones should feel safe about the product and Samsung should incur this large fix cost to mitigate some of the damage that has been caused to their company.

Word Count: 372

References:

Cosmin. “Airlines Improve Safety Measures after Reports of Exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7                   Units.” Phone Arena. Phone Arena, 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

Chipotle has grown drastically over the past 12 years growing from several stores to 1,900. It has managed to sustain this rapid growth by differentiating itself from other fast food chains. These differentiation factors include Chipotle’s effective operations management and value proposition to customers.

With its core value of, “Food With Integrity” it utilizes locally growth organic vegetables and responsibly raised meats. This differentiation factor alongside consumer trends of willing to pay more for healthier foods, Chipotle is able to charge a premium with average bills being ten dollars an order (Gagliardi, 2015).

Further with Chipotle’s effective operations management of focusing on standardization rather than customization and focusing on corporate expansion verses franchise expansion, it has allowed them to retain high profitability than competitors.

Standardization Vs Customization:

Chipotle offers a limited menu of food items and also utilizes a highly efficient assembly line. This standardization of limited items for Chipotle allows them to lower food waste and reduce food inventory resulting in costs savings (Li, 2015). Further, the assembly line allows workers to specialize in one step of the food preparation process providing them a comparative advantage in food preparation. This in addition to Chipotle retaining only the most efficient workers has resulted an increase of inventory turnover allowing them to serve over 300 customers per hour and attaining $2.5 million dollars in revenue per store (Li, 2015).

Corporate Vs Franchise:

Every individual Chipotle is company owned, in contrast to many fast food companies that utilize the franchise model. This decision has led to slower company growth but has resulted in higher cash flows by allowing Chipotle to retain the entire retail level profitability rather than just collect franchise fees.

Given Chipotle’s key strengths of utilizing its, “Food With Integrity” value proposition and focusing on a corporate model compared to a franchise model, it has managed to increase its top line and bottom line profitability compared to its competitors. This increase in profitability compared to competitors is further magnified by cost savings resulting from a standardized operation model. These factors have indicated that greater profit margins can be achieved in the fast food industry and led me to believe that this type of corporate model will be a new era in the fast food industry.

Word Count: 368

References for Articles and Images Used:

Gagliardi, Nancy. “Consumers Want Healthy Foods–And Will Pay More For Them.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.http://www.forbes.com/sites/nancygagliardi/2015/02/18/consumers-want-healthy-foods-and-will-pay-more-for-them/#105032cb144f.

Li, Sam. “Chipotle: It’s Not the Burrito – It’s the Operating Model.” Technology and Operations Management. Open Knowledge, 9 Dec. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/chipotle-its-not-the-burrito-its-the-operating-model/.

Roemmele, Brian. “What Are the Keys to Chipotle’s Success?” Quora. N.p., 20 Aug. 2011. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-keys-to-Chipotles-success.

Zheng, Micheal. “Chipotle Nation.” Technology and Operations Management. Open Knowledge, 18 Nov. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2016. https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/chipotle-nation/.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=chipotle+image&espv=2&biw=1018&bih=773&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHr7yW573PAhUN4GMKHclxB2UQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=chipotle+image+many+pixels&imgrc=cDA3j7mNPhTBJM%3A.

A series of reports by the Asian Floor Wage Alliance and the Human Rights Watch reveal the horrifying conditions of sweatshops located in Cambodia. These factories create cheap clothing for large companies including H&M and GAP with little regulatory oversight which results in extensive amounts of workers being abused.

Some factories hire children as young as 12 who are legally forbidden to work in Cambodian factories. Further, an estimated 30 percent of workers were children who worked alongside adults for up to 14 hours in the blistering heat without clean water or breaks (Winn, 2015).

Pregnant women were fired as they were seen as inefficient, sluggish, and susceptible to frequent washroom breaks (Winn 2015). Many women relied on this job as it was often their only source of income. As a result, they are pressured to tolerate unsafe and unhealthy working conditions as well as sexual harassment.Workers are often paid up to 50 cents per hour, which is substantially lower than the minimum wage. Many employees do not receive their overtime rates or rewards for hitting their quota and are often told that they can be easily replaced (Bain, 2016).

In Garret Browns blog from Science Blogs “Global supply chain is still full of sweatshops” he discusses how frequent sweatshops are used in international brands today and how they are not just a thing of the past. I completely agree with his view that genuine worker participation and pressures from employees, consumers, stakeholders and governments are required to get rid of sweatshops. Working conditions in sweat shops are immoral, illegal, and utterly unacceptable. Lessons need to be drawn from news articles that bring sweatshops in to light that are used from a variety of different countries and action has to be taken against the use of sweatshops. the current system makes it easy for large companies to exploit poorer populations and these business ethics behind these corporations is unacceptable and should be dealt with accordingly. Stricter regulation and safety procedures with harsh penalties must be implemented for companies who fail to meet these regulations.

These clothing companies should value the safety of their workers instead of the higher profits they receive from abusing them. In the short term these corporations can make profits through unethical conducts, however this will come at cost of long term growth and a damaged reputation for their brand. Consumers also need to be aware of theses unethical practices in order to create political pressure or to boycott these companies until they amend the conditions of their employees.

Word Count: 422

References for Articles and Images Used:

Winn, Patrick. “Inside Cambodia’s Abusive Sweatshops.” Public Radio International. Global Post, 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.                                                       http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-03-19/heres-how-cambodians-who-stitch-your-clothes-are-routinely-abused.

Bain, Marc. “H&M, Gap, and Walmart Are Accused of Widespread Worker Abuse.” Quartz. Quartz, 31 May 2016. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.                                                         http://qz.com/695763/a-web-of-terror-insecurity-and-a-high-level-of-vulnerability-hm-gap-and-walmart-are-accused-of-hundreds-of-acts-of-worker-abuse/.

<https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/rtr40r7m-cropped.jpg?w=1600>.