Month: December 2010

On Dec. 3, 2010’s Vancouver Sun, a column mentioned, “Dogs can foster greater employee trust and collaboration in the workplace.” I found this to be quite intriguing as I personally have a love for dogs. To look at this in terms of business, would it be beneficial to have dogs in a

workplace in order to create more trust between employees? Certainly it may help with boosting morale and collaboration, but dogs may also have negative effects. As not all people are dog lovers, some even being afraid of dogs, the presence of canines may frighten those workers and cause their productivity to decrease due to a constant fear. Another problem with dogs would be the chance of an employee having allergies, which would cause constant sneezing and sniffles and thus reducing productivity once again. This shows that new ideas should be thoroughly thought out before putting them into action. Next time you are given an innovative solution, think it out carefully before using it.

“There’s a soldier in all of us.” That is the tagline for Black Ops, Activision’s newest video game in their series of Call of Duty, and was shown in one of their commercials. This commercial features average people, with special guests Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel, in everyday clothing running around shooting guns along with explosions. With this commercial came controversy that emerged over the fact that it depicts war as something that is fun and glamorous. However, they fail to mention the physical and mental health concerns in soldiers, as well as the tragic outcomes of war on both sides of the battlefield. It is true that this commercial fails to send the message that the reality of war is a horror that should not be taken lightly, but has this commercial gone over the limit and should be banned? I personal do not feel this way. Although it does depict everyday people as soldiers, people should be logical to tell the difference between video games and real life. If they cannot achieve this differentiation, then they are not mature enough to handle these types of games as the rating of Black Ops is rate M for Mature. Of course there will be some issues with these commercials (it is a “war game”), but it is up to parents and guardians to ensure their next generation knows the difference between a game and life.

In November 26, 2010’s Vancouver Sun, an article introduced me to the term ‘MOMpreneur’. Mompreneurs are moms that carry out tasks that every other mother does, such as taking their kids to school and picking them up, caring for the kids when they are sick, as well as

playing with them when they get home. However, one thing sets these mompreneurs aside from regular soccer moms, and that is moms strive to reach their entrepreneur dreams. Take Julie Kelly for example. Kelly is a mother of two and has the daily routine of seeing her kids off to school and welcoming their return after school. The period between those two actions is where Kelly carries out with her business named Chilly Dogs. Her business is making clothing for large dogs, such as Great Danes, to keep these massive beasts warm during the winter. Although her business is small, Kelly’s Chilly Dogs home company is certainly successful with 25 per cent growth every year for the past decade. This comes to show that entrepreneurs can be anyone and still be successful if done with the right procedures.

On October 20, 2010, Apple released a redesigned version of the MacBook Air with two possible sizes, being 11 and 13 inches, to choose from. Compared to the 13” MacBook Pro, this device is often underpowered for some tasks, had not optical drive, and only has two USB ports. To add to this, the same sized, 13 inch, base model MacBook Pro is cheaper than the MacBook Air by one hundred dollars. So why are customers still driven to buy the MacBook Air? If they wanted something small and portable, they could’ve easily bought a netbook at a certainly lower price. On the other side, if they wanted a powerful laptop, they could’ve gone for the 13 inch MacBook Pro, which is still cheaper than the 13 inch MacBook Air. It is evident that it is neither the functions nor the price of the Air. In the end, it all comes down to personal preference and whether the customer is willing to use that money to buy the MacBook Air.

Last week, in my public speaking class, I was given the assignment of researching and presenting about Nike sweatshops. My findings about the sweatshops exceeded my expectations on the degree of immorality and inspired me to raise some awareness about this issue in our world. Workers of sweatshops are often moved into unsanitary living conditions where they are forced to work overtime with little pay. Despite the fact that sweatshops are constantly occurring in our world, nothing is being done about it. These workers are forced to work 16 hours a day, every day of the week and are often denied sick leave or access to adequate medical care. In addition to these horrible conditions, shocking high rates of sexual harassment has been found along with reports of frequent verbal and physical abuse. With their products being made with such low costs, where does all the revenue go? According to Thirdworldtraveller.com, Nike paid 105 million dollars in 2000 to sponsor Tiger Woods while sweatshop workers get 10 cents per hour. Given these facts, are you still willing to buy Nike products and support these slave houses?