Month: October 2010

According to the article, Trimark Sportswear Group has never had a full time human resource manager to look over the staff in 35 years. That had all changed as Andrew Will became the president of the company. 

 He  had decided to change the culture of the company and had sought to find a full time human resource manager. Will wanted to hire someone who wasn’t going to sit in the office all day. He wanted to hire someone who would go out and connect with consumers, suppliers, and front-line employees.

As we learned in class, building a good team of workers in a company is very important. It is essential that the employees know how the company is performing and understand the company’s future goals. There needs to be a person or a group of personnel who would act as a connector between the executives and the employees to ensure strong communication within the company.

Communication should be highly encouraged in a company to build better internal and external relations as it will benefit the operations of a company.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/business-categories/human-resources/capitalizing-on-culture/building-an-hr-department-from-the-bottom-up/article1743214/

There is always a misconception that sustainability could mean extra expense for a company.

However, this may actually be a myth. In the Vancouver Sun article, “six B.C. businesses [were] cited as success stories in finding savings by reducing energy consumption.” Companies such as Mountain Equipment Co-op found that the company could lower 38 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time reducing its shipping costs. Karen Jawl, sustainability corrdinator from Jawl Properties has noted that by changing their company’s energy consumption, they have found new opportunities. Being aware of the environment has been a strong issue in the world today.

This external factor has created mutiple opportunities for companies to thrive. This article showed us that we could have the best of both worlds; where companies can be sustainable at the same time as helping the company save on operational costs and other energy usage related costs.

As discussed in class, companies are not only socially responsible in the aspect of making profits, but are also socially responsible for catering to the interests and concerns for the world. Knowing that being socially responsible can positively affect the company, new tactics and strategies could improve the company.

Source: “Going Green can be good for the Planet and the bottom line.” The Vancovuer Sun. October 4, 2010

In the Vancouver Sun article, Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, said that customers today are more likely to be influenced by blogs or Twitter users than mainstream advertising.

Before, consumers were heavily influenced by positive reviews from influential publications like “Fortune” and “The Wall Street Journal”. However nowadays, consumers are more influenced by the opinions and reviews of a product from ordinary people on blogs and Twitter.

Companies in this era need to embrace the new fad and develop new marketing strategies in order to influence their target market.  It is especially essential in today’s society to develop a good product position, since there are a huge variety of products in the market.

In order to survivie, the company must capture their target market by being creative and by using effective means. Knowing that consumers nowadays would rather listen to the opinion of a regular person, companies need to build good customer relationships in order to gain popularity on the internet. Building good relations would allow more people to write good and positive reviews about their product or service thus building brand loyalty and trust.

The society is constantly changing , forcing companies to keep up with the changes and act on it if they want to be successful.

Source: “Tables turned in new era of the sell” The Vancouver Sun. Wednesday September 29, 2010