This blog post is referring to Madison Zapach’s blog post on McDonald’s employee programs: Creating shared values. https://blogs.ubc.ca/maddisonzapachsdomain/

I found Maddison’s blog very interesting and I was unaware that McDonalds was doing these kind of activities outside of there regular charity events. I feel that if more people where aware of these activities it could create a point of difference. This would not only create a POD for McDonalds but it would also create a very happy organizational culture.

Just like at Zappos and the article about “happy feet”, McDonalds using some of it earnings to help the younger generation get better schooling creates a happy work place to be in. This also creates a better future for the children within the work place who are helped. Making McDonalds one of the better jobs for the younger generation who fell they will not be able to go anywhere for school.

I could not agree more with Maddison’s statement about this creating shared value is much more effective, but I also feel that it is more leaning towards the competitive advantage side of the shared value. The company is only helping a small segment of there workers but in return gaining much more publicity , POD and more workers in the future. If the company where to help more if there younger generation I feel the company would be able to help create a well balanced shared value proposition.

word count:250

sources

Zapach, Maddison “McDonald’s Employee programs: Creating shared values” November, 2016     https://blogs.ubc.ca/maddisonzapachsdomain/ 

It has become much harder in this day and age to emerge from the poverty into the middle class by gaining money and power. The numbers for the poor will continue to rise, but there is a way that these numbers can decrease. With the help of small factories the people in poverty have the chance to become more profitable by gaining more money than they would working in fast food chains. As well as providing those workers who may be less educated the chance to get a better education in that specific field.

Just like Zappos how they provide all there employees with a mandatory 4 week call center training before the employee is qualified to work for the company, in the article I read some small factories provide some of their employees who was struggling with poverty a chance to gain more experience in the field operating the machines for the company’s. This creates a culture within the company that makes the workers to want to work more causing them to gain more money. Working with the poor who are motivated to make money to support their family will never lack the work ethic a company wants: Making the poor the perfect group of people to work for a manufacturing company such as these small factories. The poor create a culture of hard work and commitment within the companies.

Looking into the PEST analysis on how small factories can help to decrease poverty within struggling cities, we can see that the E (Economic Factors), are mainly affected. With some help from the government more small factories could be less tempted to move to foreign cities creating more jobs: Causing less poverty. This can be viewed into a better understanding of why small factories should continue to give jobs to those people in poverty.

Economic Factors

• Decrease Unemployment rate, increasing middle class
• Stimulate the economy
• Stronger society, creating a more efficient society

Political Factors

• Lower taxation on products produced from smaller factories
• Increase tariffs on imported products to increase the world price
• Increase employment laws on small factories

When the company’s like the Marlin steel factory begin to start employing more people with in poverty the market of wealth within those towns/cities where the factories are will spike in-return increasing the economic growth. If the companies continue to create a good organizational culture as well as maximizing the human resource experience for workers the companies will also creating more profit: causing the company’s to hire more workers who are in poverty and will cause the unemployment rate to decrease.

Word Count: 445

Sources

Schwartz, Nelson “Small factories emerge as a weapon in the fight against poverty” October, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/business/small-factories-emerge-as-a-weapon-in-the-fight-against-poverty.html?_r=0

This blog is commenting on Seth’s blog post called “and when it breaks down?” it is about when company’s websites become outdated and not used; this fact is inevitable.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/11/and-when-it-breaks.html This is Seth’s post.

I found this post very interesting and valuable. If you look back into what we have learned in Commerce 101 I feel that it really provides you with a strong connection on how a Rita McGrath’s concept on transient advantage works. If a company does not constantly update and change their website the website will become not useful to customers and be tainted with bugs and many errors: in-return leading to website failure. If I company manages to keep their Website upto date and well organized this could give the company a competitive advantage over their fellow competitors.

I also found Seth’s first question and answer very useful, it connected to class 19 about organizational culture and human resource managers. If I customer experiences a problem with the website and there is a way for the customer to contact the company through means of an email or call center this could help to prevent website failure. Depending on this company’s management of human resources and their culture the consumer could choose to call or not to call. If the company has a good atmosphere and a well run call centre the consumer would call the company to discuss the problem. If a company does not have a well run call centre or atmosphere then perhaps the consumer would not call and the website would fail.

If a company chooses to sunset an old website I believe they should first provide a way of telling consumers on the old website that they have created a new website to prevent a loss in consumers through the transition. If the transition is done without any warning to the customers they have a potential to lose many of the customers who where dependent on there old website.

Over all I found this blog post from Seth very useful for connecting business problems in the real world to what we have been provided and learned in the Commerce 101.

Word count: 370

Sources

Godin, Seth blog  http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Godin, Seth “and when it breaks?” November, 2016 http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/11/and-when-it-breaks.html