Alibaba’s Successes

My interest into Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOP) was sparked through reading my classmate Jude’s blog post about Disney’s ESOP for extrinsically motivating their employees.  Upon further digging into business news, I was brought to the attention that Chinese company Alibaba is also notorious for paying its employees through stocks.  In Jen Wieczner’s article on Fortune, she writes that through motivating employees with ESOPs, Alibaba is able to receive and ship more packages than US e-commerce giants Amazon and UPS, even with fewer employees on payroll.

While investors in Wieczner’s article doubted Alibaba’s ability to overtake Amazon and USP, I believe that more companies in North America should take note and introduce ESOPs into their employee motivation programs.  ESOPs are typically used to reward employees if the company’s stock price goes up.  While many companies still rely on motivational tactics such as bonuses and pay raises to encourage employees to push the extra mile, my personal experience in the workforce pushes me to say that most employees, especially the ones where their roles in the company are not very significant, will not push the extra mile for the company to succeed as an owner would.  So instead of constantly trying to motivate employees to act like owners, companies should follow Alibaba’s success and essentially make their employees owners through ESOPs.

Word Count: 220

Sources:

http://fortune.com/2016/02/05/alibaba-stock-pay-disturbing/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/judearafeh/2017/03/27/disneys-happily-ever-after/

 

“Change” – J.Cole’s Motivation

Rap music has historically been largely associated with gangs, drugs, money, and sex.  When J.Cole’s album 4 Your Eyez Only was released on December 9, 2016, it marked an addition to the conscious hip-hop movement, a movement of rap away from the stereotypical topics discussed above.  Specifically, during the hook of Track 6 “Change,” J.Cole raps “I know you desperate for a change let the pen glide, but the only real change come from inside.”

What J.Cole is essentially saying is that although people often look for changes in their lives through external sources, such as the “pen glide” of the signing of a check or contract, J.Cole believes that real change comes from within the individual.

This line reminded me of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in OB.  When I look at J.Cole’s development as an artist from his 2014 album 2014 Forest Hills Drive to his new 2016 album, it is clear that J.Cole not only superficially raps about real change coming from inside of a person, but that he actually walks his talk.  In 2014 Forest Hills Drive, J.Cole relied on producing crowd popular songs such as ”Wet Dreamz,” a song about sex, and “G.O.M.D.,” a song about making it big in Hollywood.  Contrastingly, in his new album, J.Cole deviates from the stereotypical sex and money lyrics and instead, raps about loving his wife, loving his new-born child, and conscious topics regarding the murder of his close friend “James McMillian Jr.”

J.Cole’s new album demonstrates that he is no longer motivated by the “pen glide” of checks or contracts, rather, his change in musical style symbolizes his maturity in the rap game, and that his motivation is now shifted to his relationships with family and friends; motivation that comes from inside.

Word Count: 293

 

Sources:

“J. Cole – Change.” Genius. N.p., 09 Dec. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 128

 

Image Source:

http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2015/12/03/03-j-cole.w529.h529

Samsung, Take Note! (out)

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was one of the hottest phones in the market when it was released in August 2016.  The phone was so hot that several of them caught fire in the hands of consumers.  This led to Samsung’s decision in October to issue a worldwide recall of the Note 7; resulting in a $5.5 billion loss.  Now, just five months later, Samsung has made yet another decision: resell the refurbished devices to recoup losses.

Samsung’s decision can be explained through the Six-Step Rational Decision-Making Model.  With the problem of a $5.5 billion loss identified, the second step for Samsung would be to identify the criteria.  In Samsung’s case, their criteria would include any additional expenses needed to rebuild its loss, and customer feedback.  As the refurbishment of recalled devices is less costly than the development of a new device to replace the Note 7, Samsung valued the decision to simply refurbish and resell the Note 7 over other alternatives.

Was this decision ethical from a long-time Samsung user’s perspective?  Personally, I view Samsung’s decision as unethical.  From Exhibit 12-6 on page 435 of Nancy Langton’s Organizational Behavior textbook, Samsung’s decision to keep costs low and resell recalled devices is largely considered a decision motivated by self-serving interests.  On the contrary, I believe that an alternative that Samsung may have passed over would be to face the situation and develop a newer, safer, device to compete in the tech market.  This would have placed Samsung back in the competition with the other tech giants.  But for now, the decision may have further lowered the market confidence in Samsung, digging Samsung deeper into its problem.

Word Count: 276

 

Sources:

Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 435

Reuters, Thomson. “Samsung to sell refurbished Galaxy Note 7s after battery fire recall.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.

Image Source:

http://donthatethegeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/note7_samsung-fire-hed-2016-1

 

Generational Differences for Workplace Communication

Being in a very unique group bordering the millennial and centennial generations, I was inspired to further investigate the millennial generation in the workforce after recently reading my colleague Cindy Olsson’s blog post.  In her post, Olsson focused on the differences that millennial generation holds in their expectations for the workplace in comparison to the expectations held by older generations.  As she writes, the values of baby boomers lie mainly in the basic needs towards the bottom of the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs pyramid, whereas in contrast, millennials put greater value on upper ends of the pyramid, the self-actualization, and esteem needs of the workplace.  With the growth in technology and differences in values being the main separation between the generations, the main methods of communication between the generations will certainly be affected.

Through my Google investigation, I came across Sarah White’s article where she discussed the workforce generational diversity and the expectations of communication.  She wrote that because the workforce is rapidly being mixed with millennials and older generations whose lives have not revolved around digital communication as the former did, communication tension is caused and employers must adapt to ensure that both generational expectations are met.

Although face to face communication is the most direct form of communication, I believe that verbal communication is slowly being phased out by the increasing number of millennials in the workforce.  Through digital communication, all communication is being recorded digitally through emails, text messages, and more.  This may result in the loss of intimacy in communication with the decline in face to face interaction.

But digital communication may be beneficial for the workplace.  The most obvious benefit is the increase in communication speed.  It takes a person an average time of 90 seconds to read and respond to a text message[i].  When time is a factor to the success of a company, digital communication hails in comparison to the lengthy times of meeting up for a conversation.  In addition to an increase in communication speed, the ability to proofread every sentence before pressing the send button will inevitably increase the accuracy of information.  With both the speed and accuracy of communication being essential for maintaining strong organizational behavior and lines of communication, I believe that as a workforce, we will soon see that digital communication will triumph over traditional communication as the main source of communication.

[i] https://onereach.com/blog/45-texting-statistics-that-prove-businesses-need-to-start-taking-sms-seriously/

 

Word Count: 394

 

Sources:

  • “45 Texting Statistics That Prove Businesses Need to Take SMS Seriously.” OneReach Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
  • “Millennials and Their Expectations – Cindy Olsson.” Cindy Olsson. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
  • White, Sarah K. “Millennials are shaking up workplace communication.” CIO. CIO, 13 June 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.

 

Image Source:

 

 

OB is the Problem of the Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks have now struggled in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 47 years to win the prized Stanley Cup. The team came close three times, in 1982, 1994, and most recently, 2011, with the last two resulting in city riots. Why does it appear that the Canucks never seem to reach the prize?  The problem is not a matter of luck, it is a matter of poor organizational behavior within the Canucks team.

I recently read Patrick Johnston’s article in the Province about former Canucks player David Booth still having frequent nightmares about his former coach, John Tortorella, years after they both had left the organization.  This example reminded me of the Five-Stage Model for team formation in Chapter 6 of Nancy Langton’s Organizational Behaviour textbook.  To me, the fact that David Booth still detests his former coach demonstrates that the Canucks have never actually left the storming stage, where team members are constantly in conflict.  For a team to win the Stanley Cup, they must have reached the performance stage where team members have sorted out roles, so they can all contribute at the highest ability to the common team goal.

While this example of team storming may account for the Canucks’ lack of success in recent years, I believe that Page 218 of the OB textbook provides a better explanation for why the Canucks have lacked success throughout their 47-year history.  The problem is that the Canucks management has relied too heavily on their aging team leaders as opposed to building a young, well-balanced team.  Because of Canucks management regularly relying on their aging leaders to lead the otherwise mediocre teams, aged leaders such as Trevor Linden who played with the club until he was 38, Markus Naslund who played until 35, Roberto Luongo who played until 35, and the Sedins who are still with the club at age 36 end up being the only notable team members throughout team history while the others remain largely unnoticed.

I believe that the problem of the Canucks is a result of the poor team building by team management.  The team hires coaches and players with conflicting interests, and the team relies too heavily on the contributions of aging veterans while neglecting the contributions of young stars (example being the trading of future goaltending star Cory Schneider away to the New Jersey Devils).  Although this method of team building has led to developed the legacies of several Canucks hockey legends, this method, in my opinion, is an ineffective way of building a Stanley Cup contending team.

Word Count: 427

Sources:

Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 128

“Henrik Sedin.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

Johnston, Patrick. “Does David Booth still have nightmares of John Tortorella?” The Province. N.p., 16 July 2016. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

“Markus Näslund.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

“Roberto Luongo.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

“Trevor Linden.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

 

Image Source:

http://s227.photobucket.com/user/Meg_8_2007/media/Markus%20Naslund/63MarkusNaslundwasagreatmentortoHenrikandDanielSedinwhentheycamefromSwedentoVancouver.jpg.html

My Experience with Motivators

My most effective method for learning and understanding material is to see how the material is relevant in my life.  After learning about intrinsic and extrinsic motivators in Chapter 4 of Nancy Langton’s Organizational Behavior textbook, I wanted to expand my understanding of this topic by browsing the web.  There, I read Merge Gupta-Sunderji’s article in the Globe and Mail “Why money is not an employee motivator.”  Like the title suggests, the article is about how once employers pay their employees appropriately at the competitive market wage, employees are satisfied and money no longer motivates them.  Instead, employees look towards other motivators intrinsically such as a sense of achievement, and recognition for achievement.

I found her insights most relevant and easily understandable when I connected it to my current work situation as a server for a restaurant.  As a server, I am paid at a wage lower than the regular minimum wage where a large portion of my actual earnings come gratuities.  Although a logical assumption would be to maximize my earnings by serving larger tables, I personally find happiness and motivation for my job from other factors.  These other factors are my intrinsic motivators, and they include satisfaction from seeing the smiles of happy customers, and positive recognition through the comment cards that my customers fill out after their visit.  If money was a motivator for me, I would serve as many large parties as possible, as their large bill would mean more money in gratuities for me.  But when serving large parties, I lose the personal connections that I form with small tables of four.  Because I have reached a state of content with my financial wellbeing, money is no longer a motivator and I would rather serve small tables, where as a server communicating with my customers, I can more easily form conversations with customers, learn about their backgrounds, and overall getting to know them on a more personal level.  This ultimately satisfies me and makes my job more rewarding than simply making as much money as possible through flipping tables at a high rate.

 

Sources:

Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 128

Merge Gupta-Sunderji, “Why money is not an employee motivator,” Globe and Mail, January 30, 2017, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/why-money-is-not-an-employee-motivator/article33755286/

Image Sources:

http://i1.wp.com/www.rightattitudes.com/blogincludes/images/Extrinsic_Motivation_and_Intrinsic_Motivation.png

 

Word Count: 348

From Needle Drop to…Dropout of iTunes?

Decades ago, before Frank Ocean, John Legend, and Spotify, there was Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, and dropping needles on vinyl records.  The years between of going from buying albums at record stores to entering a credit card number for unlimited online music streaming is what Commerce 101 students call: “disruptive innovation.”

To see where the music retail industry is headed to in the near future, I was inspired by my classmate John Zhang’s blog on Netflix where it is seen how Netflix has grown to essentially becoming the entire film retail industry.  Due to Netflix’s innovative entrance into the film retail industry, incumbent companies such as HMV and BlockBuster were displaced and ran out of business.  With this background in mind, I believe that iTunes will also soon follow this path of these companies and become obsolete.  

Historically, disruptive innovation in the music industry has done its fair share in sourcing the fall of incumbent music formats.  Up until the 1980s, vinyl record companies such as Columbia and Atlantic Records dominated the music retail industry with their pricey and “skippy” records.  Through the technological innovation of the CD however, music enthusiasts in the 1980s to 1990s were made able to purchase albums at prices that did not require an expensive turntable setup, this also came along with being able to listen on the go and without having to clean the discs like they had to with the “skippy” vinyl records.  Through the CD, several of the incumbent vinyl record companies, similar to HMV and BlockBuster, were run out of business.  In the early 2000s, with the introduction of iTunes music purchasing, CDs companies, similar to the vinyl record companies, were also knocked out of the race, and this brings us back to the present day with the innovation of online music streaming.

At the peak in 2012, iTunes music downloads generated $3.9 billion, since then, sales have been on the decline and is projected by independent music analyst Mark Mulligan to drop to a mere $600 million by 2019 as customers are drawn towards streaming services such as Spotify, Apple’s own Apple Music, and the newly launched Amazon Prime Music.  Furthermore, my hypothesis that iTunes will soon become displaced is reinforced with the recent resurgence of CD and vinyl records collectors, as iTunes will not be able to offer customers the physical copy of the album as CD and records do, and not being able to offer the low flat rates of streaming services for unlimited music.  

Word Count: 419

Sources:

http://www.claytonchristensen.com/key-concepts/

https://blogs.ubc.ca/johnzhang/2016/10/18/blog-post-3-netflix/

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3070416/apple-ios/the-end-of-itunes-music-sales-is-inevitable.html

http://www.timeslive.co.za/incoming/2013/04/05/record-player-vinyl-lp/ALTERNATES/crop_630x400/record+player+vinyl+LP

Mac Vs. PC Round 2016

At home, I use my Mac Desktop. On the road, I use my HP Laptop. That’s right, I am a supporter for both Apple and Windows.

Recently, I read Blaine Kyllo’s blog in The Georgia Straight where he wrote that in a span of two days in October, competitors Apple and Microsoft released two of their newest products, the new MacBook Pro by Apple, which has undergone its first major changes in four years, and the Surface Studio by Microsoft, which is the premium notebook in the extensive Microsoft Surface Series.

I found Blaine’s blog to be particularly insightful as it connected two separate major business news stories to showcase the differences in the notebooks and the competition between the customer base of Apple and Microsoft.

From Apple and Microsoft releasing new products at essentially the same time in a competition for sales, I personally drew connections that this timing has to do with giving customers more options of products to choose from, to hopefully break the “blind loyalty” as modeled in the consumer decision journey.

Since the inception of Apple, consumers have entered into this spiraling journey where their continual purchases for Apple products, whether they are newer iPhones or MacBooks, have been formed purely on blind loyalty, by being satisfied enough to not wanting to endure the research process again. In fact, a survey polled released on Forbes showed that 59% of 2,275 iPhone users “admitted to blind loyalty,” meaning that they continue to purchase lines of Apple products solely because they were previously satisfied with their older Apple product.

This may be interpreted as the reason that Apple for the past four years has ceased making notable changes to the MacBook Pro, knowing that their customers, being fully engaged in the repeating consumer decision journey, would buy the newer models regardless of any new changes.

On the flip side, Microsoft has been trailing Apple and the other competitors in the industry in terms of customer loyalty as shown in the following graph.

screen-shot-2016-10-30-at-12-49-32-am

With Microsoft lacking the customer loyalty enjoyed by Apple, the company is put into a position in which one of its only ways to appeal to customers is to implement new changes in each model of the Surface Series, as opposed to the MacBook Pro, which has not undergone a major change in four years until now.

By the companies timing their product releases so closely together, one can interpret this their as efforts to draw customers towards their own companies and preventing them from repurchasing products from the competition in the blind loyalty cycle.

Word Count: 434

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/03/21/the-majority-of-iphone-users-admit-to-blind-loyalty-why-this-a-problem-for-apple/#4376ec02df62

http://www.straight.com/blogra/817607/apple-unveils-new-macbook-pro-microsoft-shows-surface-studio

http://betanews.com/2015/04/07/microsoft-vs-apple-which-has-the-most-loyal-and-satisfied-customers/

http://mashable.com/2016/04/23/surface-pro-4-vs-macbook/#CIRzOUHK2sqK

Happy Hour Special: Rum and Cigar

Ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Cold War, economical and political relations between the democratic United States of America and communist Cuba have been severely strained –until recently under current President Obama’s administration. On Friday, October 14, 2016, President Obama continued his declared 2014 détente with Cuba by eliminating the $100 limit on the value of Cuban rum and cigars that authorized American travelers were permitted to bring back from their Cuban travels. Travelers are now permitted to bring back thousands of dollars in products, as many as 100 cigars, which can be valued upwards to $100 a piece in America, and several bottles of rum.

What does this mean for Americans, and for Cubans?

For Americans, the purchase of Cuban rum and cigars within the country, online, and from third-party nations has been illegal for the past half century. The recently lifted trade embargo will not only now allow Americans to enjoy these products for their personal consumption, but it may also create an incentive for profiteers to establish unauthorized black markets for distribution of the two highly coveted luxuries to those who are not authorized to travel to Cuba.  This is similar to the American prohibition era of the 1920s, where the illegality of alcohol led to the underground production and distribution of the product.  Although the current circumstances of the situation may vary slightly from then, the overall theme of profiteers looking to supply highly demanded, but illegal products to the masses stay consistent to the history of the 1920s.

For the centrally planned Cuban government and general population of Cubans, the lifted trade embargoes will mean great economic and political prosperity. This news story will most definitely be considered by leaders of Cuban rum and cigar productions in their next PEST analysis, to alter their business strategies and market towards American travelers, who, historically, have been legally restricted from these products. The increased rum and cigar sales will also mean millions of dollars of generated revenue for the government, and a step into the modernization of the Cuban economy that emphasizes international trade. For the vast Cuban population, this step towards international trade can also be interpreted as a step towards releasing Cuba from the Castro communist rule of the past fifty years, a scene that may seem to mirror the glasnost and perestroika policies of the communist Soviet Union that led to their collapse just twenty-five years prior.

With the upcoming US elections, this move to relieve American – Cuban tensions may be one of the last moves that the Obama administration makes, and it will take the next President who will soon take office in the White House to continue President Obama’s legacy.

 

Word Count: 450

 

Sources:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/u-s-removes-limits-on-bringing-in-cuban-rum-cigars-1.3115128

http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/fall-of-soviet-union

http://passportto.iberostar.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Caribe_puros_cuba.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apple Used Their Heads in Their New Headphones

Being at a loss for ideas to blog about, I turned to my colleague Drew Evan’s blog for inspiration.  There, I read about the antagonizing of Apple in planning to release the AirPod and EarPod (with the lightning port plug) headphones for the iPhone 7 and consequently eliminating the use of the traditional 3.5 mm earphone jack.  Having recently learned about business ethics in class, I, too, initially agreed with Drew that Apple was unethical in putting the millions of owners of headphones with 3.5 mm jacks scrambling to purchase new products.

However, as an open-minded business student and audiophile myself, I decided to investigate further into the new Apple headphones.  To my surprise, I underwent a perspective change on this issue through reading Jennifer Allen’s article in Paste Magazine.  In addition to learning from other sources that Apple will be releasing adapters for the new iPhone so that 3.5 mm jacks will be compatible, Jennifer’s article lists some benefits of the new headphones, including better audio quality in the EarPods (from the built-in Digital to Analog Converters (DAC) and the extra power produced by plugging into the lightning port), and the wireless AirPods eliminating the problem of tangled wires.  With the improved audio quality, the market for audiophiles, including myself, will be more inclined to stay loyal to Apple and accompany our iPhones with these quality Apple products instead of investing our valuable time and money to research into the vast headphone market.  At the same time, for the customers where audio quality is not a deciding factor for their purchase, the convenience of simply having headphones without wires may just convince them enough to go with Apple instead investing time in other Bluetooth headphones.

For these reasons, I can now appreciate Apple’s decision to take the courage to be the first in its industry to integrate the concepts of built-in DACs and lightning port plugs to focus differentiate their headphones to target separate customer segments. It will take time to see if Apple’s new business strategy of differentiating their products from the industry standard will actually prove revolutionary in the audiophile and headphone market, but in the end, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

Word Count: 386

Sources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/airpods-apple-iphone-7-wireless-headphones-explained-faq-2016-9

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/03/pros-and-cons-of-the-iphone-7-not-having-a-headpho.html

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/mobile_phones/iPhone/iPhone%207/Press/iPhone7-Press-07-970-80.jpg