Monthly Archives: November 2014

“If the United Nations was fully funded why would we need the Arc or social enterprise?”

The Arc Initiative and other social enterprises are vital to not only the developing world, but to the people participating in fully developed countries as well. As was said in Class 20 Prep, the Arc Initiative received its name from the idea that business knowledge and ideas are flowing across an arc, from Sauder student/alumni to participant in the host community and back. Though full funding of the United Nations would allow for these underdeveloped nations to eventually become prosperous, it wouldn’t involve the same kind of personal interaction and relationship that is provided by the Arc Initiative. This genuine, personal learning experience is arguably the most important part of the Arc Initiative, as it allows for both the mentor and business owner in the host community to create a contact for life, and gives each a party a different view upon the business world and how it relates to the physical world.

It is no question that the United Nations helps underdeveloped nations, by providing funding, protection and opportunities for the country to become a part of the global economy. However, the United Nations would not be able to provide the personal element of mentorship that the Arc Initiative provides, regardless of the amount of funding it has. Because of this, social enterprise such as the Arc Initiative will always be important to the world, as providing wonderful learning opportunities for students who are looking to make a difference will never go out of style.

As has been recently publicized, Air Canada is soon planning on applying a charge of $25 for the first checked piece of baggage of each economy class passenger. In addition to this, Air Canada has also recently decided to crack down on the size of the baggage that a passenger is carrying on to the plane, meaning that if the carry on luggage is too large, the passenger will not only be forced to check the bag, but they may have to pay the $25 fee for it.

Obviously, people have been extremely upset and annoyed by this sudden change in Air Canada’s leniency on its baggage policy, and are not afraid to voice their opinions on the policy’s swift implementation to the staff. This is where the lesson from Zappos comes in handy.

As I read in class 19 prep, Zappos is highly dedicated to providing top notch customer service, with employees who genuinely believe in the core values of the company. They go through rigorous customer service training, allowing them to truly learn how to handle angry and unsettled customers. If Air Canada was able to implement a similar strategy, there is no doubt that the backlash on both the crack down on baggage size and the $25 fee would be minimized, as the staff would have the skills to diffuse tense situations with the upset customers. 

Similarly, Air Canada could learn from Zappos’ implementation of incentives that keep employees dedicated to their jobs and willing to put up with unpleasant customers, such as 100% health care coverage, life insurance, free food at work etc. Ultimately, staff who are treated well by the companies they work for, and fully believe in and support the work they do, will act far more passionately towards customers, and will not shy away from any opportunity to make the customer service experience for the shopper a memorable one.

In Yuval’s recent post, he explains how individuals in a workplace are motivated to do dishonest and unethical things, such as plagiarize or cheat, when faced with a stressful situation/time crunch. While reading this post, I couldn’t help but think back to this article in class 17 prep by Steven Kerr. In Kerr’s article, he describes the faults within a system that rewards a certain action regardless of the steps taken and effort put forward to complete said action, and suggests that successful businesses are the ones that truly reward the behaviour that they are looking for, rather than simply the end product.

The connections that can be made between the two pieces of writing are endless. In the companies that are described in Yuval’s post, there are obviously no rewards in place for honest, ethical behaviour, and instead only having work done by the deadline is rewarded. This seems to be contradictory in terms of overall business goals, as the reputation of any business that is known to reward those who plagiarize will surely be tarnished.

The best way to ensure that a company’s employees are doing honest, thoughtful work rather than copying it from some corner in the depths of the internet is to keep rewards in place for having work completed by the deadline, as that is still an important value of the company, but to also give some sort of reward to those who are using their own genuine ideas and knowledge. By rewarding these employees even just with a “hey, coffee’s on me today, keep up the good work,” they will be encouraged to continue putting forth their own work, and hopefully those workers who currently don’t will see a reason to begin doing so. And if not, then they should get the axe.