Robert A. McDonald, the secretary of the government agency-Department of Veterans Affairs, is devoting himself to hire new doctors. As he stated, many veteran’s hospital lacks doctors, which is different from the proper treatment for veterans.

There has long been a shortage in doctors for V.A., and sometimes even in the industry. Therefore, to solve the problem, new medical schools need to be built while more medical students studying existing schools.

Apart from providing veterans with proper medical care, what Department of Veterans Affairs do also creates value for medical students, who have a heavy loan burden. The loan forgiveness is a important reason for the choice.

Government supports V.A., which makes it possible for them to provide newly-graduated students with a salary of $233,000. The salary is near the salary of a normal supervisor. This may lead to grads choosing V.A. only for the salary, failing to develop their own skills and characteristics.

Although the high pay and loan forgiveness is an important point of differentiation, V.A. should stick on their value proposition: taking care of veterans. They can further polish their employment processes, choosing the ones who genuinely want to take care of veterans.

Work Cited:

“Needing to Hire, Chief of V.A. Tries to Sell Doctors on Change” www.nytimes.com <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/09/us/politics/needing-to-hire-chief-of-va-tries-to-sell-doctors-on-change-.html?_r=0> Nov 8, 2014

Source of Pictures

http://www.va.gov

http://www.dailydosemd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Doctors-in-meeting.jpg

Home Depot, a US retail company, was hacked recently and 53 million customer’s email address was exposed to hackers. Previously, 56 million debit and credit card information was stolen through Home Depot as well.

However, Target, another US retail, also lost control of 70 million customer’s information.

These days, in order to build a stronger customer relationship, stores collects customer’s information a lot. With higher technology, a giant database can be easily built. This paves the way for hackers to gather large amount of information in a short time.

The stolen of card information is even worse. The convenience of technology, which was used to solve customer’s problem, now acts in an opposite way. Even if customers received Home Depot’s reminder of stolen information, there is nothing to be done to retrieve their payment information. The only thing they can do is to abandon the former chip.

Customers, frustrated by the breaches, may ends in choosing another company to shop with. So it is urgent for companies who are facing with the same issue to develop their security system. This can somehow, help the company to meet points of parity in the market and regain customer’s trust.

Work Cited

“Home Depot Hackers stole 53 million E-mail addresses” www.bbc.com <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29946792> Nov 6, 2014

Source of Pictures

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/following-data-breach-home-depot-reportedly-turns-macs-security/

http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/target122713.jpg

Russian hackers steal more than 1 billion online identity credentials

General Motors is facing defect problem right now.

GM has been recalling cars since last winter due to its defection. Now, it is retrieving another 40,000 cars around the world. And its product, Impala, was recalled due to MANY DEFECTIONS like transmission defect, ignition and joint problem. It’s not a surprise that the national institution, NHTSA, required investigations into the quality of the cars by GM.

I came up with some suggestions under this circumstance. Firstly, they should focus more on the inspection part of the cars. Products have to meet PoP of the industry to get itself into the game. However, GM failed to achieve even PoP in quality. Besides, they also need to develop better customer relations and wider channels. These parts became especially useful when GM might want to take responsibility of there mistake. Good customer relations keep consumers trust even after the defection and broad channel grants GM a chance to win customers back.

GM, survived through government bailout in 2009, should find its own approach to regain population instead of relying merely on the fund it has. Neither should its glorious history stiffen it from producing better(meeting PoP) and more innovative(with PoD) products.
Picture Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76349.html

Reference:

Kessler, Aaron “GM recalls Impalas and Cadillacs Over Risk of Brake Fire” www.nytimes.com <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/business/gm-recalls-impalas-and-cadillacs-over-risk-of-brake-fires.html?mabReward=RI%3A12&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine&_r=0> Sep 20, 2014

“GM made $22.6 billion, we lost $10.6 billion”<http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/29/news/companies/gm-profit-bailout/> CNN,  May 29, 2014

Cubbon, Paul”Intro to Positioning and Value Propositions”(video) <http://vimeo.com/49370591> posted on course prep