When it comes to entrepreneurship, companies always have to prioritize what is the most important thing and what’s next. Usually, this question comes up; Should we think about customers first or employees first?

According to this article, it doesn’t matter if they focus on customers or employees as long as they are moving deliberately in either one of these directions. It also talks about how to be more customer-focused in four different ways. I agree that it does not matter which comes first as long as companies consider both at the end. However, I believe that employee-focused companies are more successful than the customer-focused companies. Every company has to think about customers since that is where the profit comes from, and when the company fails to get customers, it goes bankrupt. But companies do not always need to think about their employees in order to earn profits. I believe that those companies who focus on employees before customers are more ethically considerate about their stakeholders. Employees are the people a company has to work closely to every single day, and if the company cannot even take good care of them, there is no way that they can take good care of customers.

Oracle is one of successful companies that are employee-focused. They promote a culture of health in the workplace, and by doing so, it translates into caring about the health and well-being of their members and customers. The benefits of being an employee-focused company includes; good reputation, stronger trust and loyalty from employees to the company and motivated work environment.

From these points, I believe that companies that are employee-focused are more successful in creating a good business environment and attracting customers than those that are customer-focused.

Article: http://business.financialpost.com/2014/11/05/whether-you-put-customers-or-employees-first-doesnt-matter/

Other sources:

http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/profit/archives/opinion/041111-bmagusin-359275.html

The blog written by Sarah Dillard and Vanessa Lipschitz shows the research on how female CEOs got their positions. From the research, they figure out that it is not the degree from famous universities or the most prestigious jobs that made them reach the top but a company where you can find a potential to climb up. I found this blog very interesting, because I used to think that graduating from a good university and getting MBA are essential in order for women to get to the top, so this research was quite surprising for me. I found that finding a good environment in a workplace that motivates you to work hard is more important than getting degrees.

However, I still think there is an inequality between men and women. The fact that long stint for women is over 50% longer than for men shows that there is still a difference in how a company treats men and women. I believe that it takes longer for women to gain the trust since some people still consider women as inferior to men and think that men are more suitable for leaders. It is unfair that it is harder to women to get into leader positions, however, I think this inequality is going to disappear in the near future. More and more women are getting university level of education and going into workforce after graduating. The traditional way of viewing women is vanishing as more people are becoming aware that women have as much potential as men do.

Through this blog, I learned that there is a great chance for women to climb up to the top although it might be harder than men. What I found through this blog made me excited to start working after graduating a university and gave me a reason and motivation to work harder.

Blog URL: https://hbr.org/2014/11/research-how-female-ceos-actually-get-to-the-top

In Yuuki Miyagawa’s blog post, he talks about how it is unethical for companies to cut off working hours in order to increase the profitability. I agree that the reduction in hours and increase in part-time jobs would affect some people’s lives enormously in a negative way especially those whose livings depend on earnings from their jobs. It is important for companies to increase its profitability in order to keep the business going, however, it is not the only thing they have to consider when running business. They have to clearly identify who their stakeholders are and make sure that they are all satisfied with what a company does and their treatment. When a company fails to respond to their stakeholders’ needs, it can lead the company to go bankrupt.

Instead of reducing work hours, I believe companies can take other methods to reduce costs and increase profitability without being unethical. One example would be training employees from the beginning as it would make production process faster and workforce more efficient which result in the increase of productivity. Another idea would be improving technology which would also help companies to increase productivity hence its profitability. Improvement in technology also reduces labour costs as companies will not need to hire as many people as before.

For these points, I strongly believe that it is important that companies make sure that what they are doing is not unethical and does not have negative impact on any of their stakeholders when trying to gain more profits. This is also part of their responsibilities when running a business.

URL of the blog post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/yuukimiyagawa/2014/10/05/part-time-jobs-and-the-costs/

In Brendan Lancaster’s blog post “Staying fit in the workplace” talks about placing things as far away from the desks as possible so that employees move around the office and it eventually keeps them fit. I agree with what he said at the beginning that it is difficult to find time to work out when you are busy with your work. I myself feel the same way after I came to UBC. I need to be very motivated in order to make myself go to gym. I also agree that this strategy would encourage me to stay active and not to sit for the whole day.

However, I think this strategy can also be controversial as some people might find this idea inconvenient and inefficient. It would be annoying to get up every time to just get things like staplers and calculators especially when you are in a great hurry. Also, I do not think this would work well in a long term as many people would start finding this inconvenient and they would stop putting things back to the original place and just keep them close to their desks. In order to encourage employees to stay active in a long term, companies should come up with other plans such as mandatory free workout sessions every week. In doing so, it would force employees to work out frequently and stay fit. I myself would love to work in a company that offers service like that in the future.

URL to the blog post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/blancaster/2014/11/08/staying-fit-in-the-workplace/

This article states that Tim Hortons might need to higher the price of coffee due to the price hike of beans. This would definitely have a negative impact on the company and eventually lead to a decrease in profits. I found this article interesting because Tim Hortons is a local company that has a strong customer loyalty among Canada and I personally use it very often. I like Tim Hortons better than Starbucks and other coffee shops because they offer products that are comparatively affordable and inexpensive for its quality. I believe many people feel the same way as me. Tim Hortons currently uses cost leadership strategy (low cost producer in an industry) to gain its profitability and attractiveness, however, this might change if the price of coffee gets higher. I believe that this price hike would be a real pain for them as it would make their products less attractive to customers, hence less customers buy their products. In order for them to keep customers and profitability, I believe that changing their strategy from cost leadership to differentiation would be the best as it is now hard to keep the products low cost. If they have products that are different from other competitors which customers are willing to pay more for, this price hike would not be such a big deal. I think Iced Capp is a great example as no other companies have the similar products and customers like it not because of its price but its uniqueness. They should offer more products like Iced Capp in order to differentiate from others and keep customers despite the price hike. From this article, I found that in some inevitable situations, companies would have to reconsider their business strategy and shift it if necessary.

Article URL: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tim-hortons-exec-hints-coffee-price-hike-may-be-needed-1.2824752

The First Nations Land Management Act, enacted in 1999, gives First Nations certain powers in the management of reserve lands, resources and the environment. The example would be UBC golf course. UBC is also involved in working with Musqueam under the Musqueam Development Committee which requires UBC to invest great amount of money. First Nations not only own some land in UBC but also many other lands such as the Bridgeport casino land and the Jericho lands.

Since great amount of lands are fully or partially owned by the First Nations here in Vancouver, it affects businesses in a way that they would have to check if the land is owned by them when establishing businesses. If it is, then they either have to find another land or have to come up with some kind of agreements with the First Nations. How UBC has been working with the First Nations as a business partner shows how the First Nations partnership can impact one organization’s business model. In this case, UBC’s aboriginal programs and reserving their culture on campus take up a quite big part of UBC’s business. Even though it might cost quite a bit for an organization to operate under this condition, they have to take their relationship with the First Nations into consideration when building a business in BC, Canada.

References:

http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/2008/03/musqueam-settles-with-province-in-landmark-deal/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/background-the-indian-act-1.1056988

http://news.ubc.ca/2006/12/21/archive-media-releases-2006-mr-06-132/

A Muslim teenager, Samantha Elauf argued that she was denied a job because she was wearing headscarf for her religious purpose which is against the company’s dress code. She won this case after all and was awarded $20,000 in damages.

This case shows one of the ethical issues the company has to deal with. It is unfair to deny hiring people because of the religious reasons, however, the company also has to think about following their rules and keeping their brand image while not-abusing anyone’s rights. In this case, Samantha definitely has a right to show her religious beliefs in any ways, but the company also has to apply their dress code equally to all employees. If the company admits one exemption, they are going to have to admit other exemptions as well which might make their dress code meaningless and break the brand image. However, I believe that the company could have discussed this issue with her before denying her job. It is unfair that Samantha got denied a job just because of her headscarf even though she had a high-score at her interview. The way the company coped with this issue was disrespectful and rude. One thing the company can do is to go over their policy again and alternate it if needed to make sure that nobody’s rights would be violated by them. It might be challenging, but this is going to benefit the company in a long run.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29466083

Amazon has built 38 new fulfillment centres in North America and some in other countries such as Europe and India, and also smaller warehouses called “sortation centres” which allow Amazon to ship packages directly to customers. This is all in order to avoid the holiday delivery congestion.

Building sortation centres and new fulfillment centres will raise the efficiency of the company as the products can get to the customers much quicker at a lower cost. Additionally, it will have a positive impact on their reputation which they lost from late arrivals of packages. This action also shows that the company is considerate of their customers. Since Amazon is targeting much wider range of customers than most companies that focus on one field of industry, customers are one of the priorities they have to consider about.

Moreover, Amazon is also expanding its area of Fresh grocery service to New York city area. However, it might not be a good idea as it will make more competitors and also Amazon has a disadvantage for this as it is not well-known for the grocery service. In comparison, the company like FreshDirect has an advantage for this as it only focuses on this field and is known for this service. Expanding the field of business can give the company more opportunities but it can also give more threats and can be quite challenging.

Now they have 158 FCs around the world specifically in East Asia, India, Europe and of course North America, which increased their capacity of fulfillment. With this many FCs, Amazon would be able to deliver the packages much faster than before and would reduce the late arrivals. This coming Christmas would be the first challenge for Amazon to see if this actually works out well.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-26/amazons-grand-plan-to-avoid-holiday-delivery-snafus-again

There are currently pro-democracy protests happening in Hong Kong and some firms and businesses are being affected by them. Many banks are temporarily closed because of the protests. However, it is said that the protests will not have too much impact on economy or financial stability as long as it is short-term.

This news surprised me because I went to Hong Kong this summer for vacation and I personally have many friends from Hong Kong. Because I have many friends from Hong Kong, I was aware of the issue that China and Hong Kong are having since China took back control of Hong Kong in 1997. From my perspective, China and Hong Kong are completely different in terms of political system and other aspects. The biggest difference is their political systems; democracy and communism. Hong Kong has its own government and because it used to be a British colony, their political system is closer to Britain’s than China’s. Also, from these protests, it is clear that citizens in Hong Kong are more likely to support democracy over communism. Considering these facts, it is unfair and unethical to take away their promised democratic rights even though Hong Kong is going to go back to China in the near future.

However, even though this might be the biggest protest that Hong Kong has had in their history, it is extremely hard to change China’s decision. Firstly, because Hong Kong does not have many people compared to China, and secondly, because China’s government and the nation itself have much greater power than of Hong Kong. In the article, Fitch Ratings head of Asia-Pacific Sovereigns Andrew Colquhoun said that these protests will not last long and will not have much impact on their economy considering the facts above.

However, this might be a good chance for both China and Hong Kong to discuss their relationship and issues they have been having for a long time. Since Hong Kong has to go back to China in several years, they cannot keep competing each other like this forever. They somewhat have to find a way to sort out how their relationship is going to work without harming any rights or cultures that they have respectively.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29405480

In the crisis of BP oil spill which took 11 people’s lives away, BP company took all the responsibilities for this incident. However, in the article, it was found that it was not only BP’s fault, and that government other companies were also involved in this incident.

Both BP company and the government were being unethical before the disaster happened since they did not investigate various activities and decisions enough to make sure that everything is on the right track. Even after the incident, they thought that giving out money would solve everything which I think is an unethical action. This disaster could have been prevented if the company looked more carefully into the safety and thought more about their workers’ conditions. They focused too much on gaining a profit and did not concern much about other factors such as making sure that their workers are working in a safe condition. Additionally, if the government had more strict regulations on safety checks, it might have prevented the disaster as well. This incident taught us that the responsibilities of a business or a company is not only to make a profit but also to make sure that all stakeholders including workers are treated equally under the safe environment. This incident also gave a company and government a chance to re-investigate how the safety regulations should be in order to prevent any other crisis like this to happen again.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12124830