Business-Sauder-Blog

Beini Chan highlights the importance of defining roles in a business setting within her blog. Role ambiguity is a large issue within enterprises, and an even greater complication with many family businesses. This was evident through two sisters, Susan Parker and Erica Rosenfeld, who enlisted the help of a coach to sort out their role ambiguity which was putting strain on their dress company and personal relationships.

It is important to define a person’s role as a function of their strengths in order to receive full benefits and potential from them. From a human resource perspective, roles give a company structure and a chain of command for employees to follow. This chain of command is a large influence on a company’s culture which is likely to impact how an enterprise functions on a whole. Establishing this proves beneficial to the operations side of a business, as a business is able to move forward in a more efficient and effective matter. Additionally, by creating a more efficient environment for production, costs are likely to decrease, allowing a company to focus on the profits it is generating. Therefore, it is evident that role ambiguity is not a issue to take lightly.

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After enjoying class with guest presenter, Nikolas Laufer-Edel, I followed up by reading his blog. One post that resonated with me, was a TED talk presentation featuring Salman Khan giving incite into his non for profit organization.

The Khan Academy is a online learning resource that offers close to 3000 lecture videos, allowing anyone to learn at their own rate. This system is close to an example of BTM as it improves classroom innovation in the same ways it would improve a business’ innovation. First, it is able to measure statistics around how a student is learning through the online questions. The online system provides the flexibility to experiment with different educational questions, while utilizing discussion boards to share insights. Replication is also possible by implementing this system in other classrooms. The academy was tested in the Californian Los Altos school district, where students worked through online questions in class and watched lectures at home. By doing so, technology can be used to humanize the classroom by creating interactions between peers and teachers. The Khan Academy system aims to arm teachers with as much information as possible, to allow them to be more productive in student confrontations.

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Maryanne Mathias, Sauder MBA student, founded Osei-Duro Clothing as a social enterprise based in Ghana, West Africa. This venture is aimed at being socially responsible, while producing sustainable clothing. In a country where women are viewed as incapable, it looks to give back socially by training women and providing them with job opportunities.

According to her online discussion and audio interview with The Glob and Mail, Maryanne finds it difficult to balance her enterprise while working towards her MBA. But beyond this personal issue, there are many other complications with running a social enterprise in Ghana. Geographically, it is should be expected that Maryanne be faced with social and cultural barriers.  These cultural barriers are likely to influence her employees, as they may respond to different incentives and have different work ethics. Although there are many other clothing companies aimed at providing opportunities to underprivileged populations, a main point of differentiation for this company is that they are a social enterprise, where profits go back to helping humanity. This standpoint makes companies seek them out to get a hold of their merchandise, however as they grow, other marketing tactics will be necessary.

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Apple Inc. started off as a small company, but is now expanded to an international market base. I view this venture as an entrepreneurial company not only for its climb in society, but because it fits Joseph Schumpeter’s definition of entrepreneurship and exhibits appropriate characteristics.

It all starts with Steve Jobs and his partners. These men, who became iconic entrepreneurs, decided to undertake a business and assume associated risks. They evolved the company into one that is worthy to fit Joseph Schumpeter definition that relates a company to being extensively innovative. Apple has always had targets to produce new products through cost efficient production methods for different markets all over the world, while looking for more effective forms of organization. Upon the start up of the company in 1976, where society that may not be ready to induct computer technology, there were high risks for Jobs and his partners. Since then they have had to deal with the risks associated with being in highly competitive markets, where there is a large uncertainty surrounding consumer loyalty. But because of constant innovation, Apple Inc’s profits are reaching 25.9 billion american dollars which is a key indicator of its entrepreneurial base.

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As discussed previously, The Green Shag Shop’s main point of difference over other retail stores, is the fact that they offer a customer the ability to customize garments to exactly their likings. However looking into the production of its garments, tailors involved in customization are in low supply as all are above the age of 60. This is a major issue as they are deemed close to irreplaceable due to required training being virtually non-existent.

Nevertheless, Aero-Safe Technologies posses a solution to the problem of requiring specific workers with a specific skillset. To fill this need, Aero-Safe has partnered with the school board of Niagara to offer co-op and job shadowing opportunities for students at a secondary school level. These students become adopted into the company’s culture and after applying themselves through the training, they can choose to become part of the company or decline. This is much like the screening process that Zappos implements through its training process. By growing their own talents, Aero-Safe can satisfy its demand for specialized labour in a more cost effective way that decreases the need for job advertisement. This strategy of growing your own talents will prove to be beneficial for The Green Shag Shop.

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Society has moved to a time when appearances greatly influence decisions, which seems like a scary fact for many males who lack fashion sense. Victoria McPhedran, initially a fashion writer turned designer, decided to capitalize on that fact in 2002 when starting her business of customized men’s wear in her Vancouver apartment.

The Green Shag Shop is very similar to Dell in a sense that they both follow a direct business model. Clients come into the store, sit down with Ms. McPhedran and design what they are looking for. From the construction to customized buttons and fabric, the shop allows for imagination. By taking a direct approach, the shop is able to lower uncertainty, therefore lowering costs associated with its operations. Inventory within the shop will be kept at a minimum giving the shop a more advantageous inventory turn over ratio. Customization is huge point of difference for this company which allows them to charge steep prices, which most clients are willing to pay for a unique piece. This is also reflected in the The Green Shag Shop culture, as they aim to have garments fit consumers in a literal and lifestyle sense.

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A staple, next to rice, of Chinese cuisine are the warm buns that are daily  sold in supermarkets. However, The Shanghai Shenglu Food Company, a bun provider to many supermarkets, has begun to recycle stale buns through a process of re-steaming. With china being the greatest producer of pollutants in the world, many companies have been desperately trying to become more sustainable on a country wide scale. But have they gone too far by recycling food? According to Jason Yip, the answer is yes.

I agree with Jason on this discussion of operations and ethics. There is a high demand for this low cost snack, however by choosing to recycle their product, it has defiantly hurt the brand image that is associated with The Shanghai Shenglu Food Company. Although they may have chose to take this course of action as a way to appear more sustainable and decrease production costs, this is also a matter of ethics. These business ethics are surrounding the underlying promise to sell products that do no harm a consumer. It has been tough for many Chinese company’s to survive given the competitive food markets in China, however sacrificing quality is not the route to take.

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Occupy Wall Street has unintentionally created a successful brand associated with its movement. As a group without and against centralized management, there has not been any official steps to establish the brand.

Having discussed child labour in my previous post, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss linking ideas to the article discussed in class regarding the unhappy employees working for Ikea.

Both companies have built up a stable brand image through appealing advertisement, however both have turned to unethical labour options as a way to keep up with consumer demands. With increased pressure from consumers to have items at lower prices, partly due to the US’s bad economic situation, companies are being forced into competition. They have chosen to go a route that cuts operations costs, yet tarnishes their brand.To hear negative stories from both of these great companies, has definitely changed my view of them. As a child, I viewed both from a very positive standpoint: gap as a quality clothing company and Ikea as a child friendly furniture store serving up hotdogs and frozen yogurt. They had both set up brand communities of people that were proud to be buying their furniture or clothing. However, it is these negative articles that have caused the connotations behind their brands to be lessened. Consumers, such as myself, do not want to be supporting companies that wave flags of negative ethics.

What is the pay a child in India receives for living a life of labour and abuse? 0 dollars, according to an undercover investigation by The Observer. This was the startling discovery after searching the streets of New Delhi only to find sweatshops producing clothing for Gap.

Consumers seek the cosmetic benefits that the Gap brand offers through their hand sewn features. Features that Indian children, whom are seeking government intervention, sew as a result of being sold to factories. As Gap launched their “Product Red” campaign, which was aimed at donating profits to charity, many deemed this situation to be ironic as their abused workers are their own charity case.

By suppliers performing unethical practices, the question of business ethics surfaces. The Gap industry faces a trade off: cheaper labour costs verses their reputation as an ethical company. Sweatshops can be viewed as an opportunity to improve their bottom line and efficiently generate more product, therefore settling the pressure from western markets to decrease clothing costs. However, there is no justification for a business to overlook the lack of ethics associated with child labour.

Gap consumers should not have to wear the stains of child labour.

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