An article in the Vancouver Sun was published today about the inappropriate behaviour that employees tend to develop during the holiday season. Accountemps identified 5 “personalities.”

First, “the-not-so-secret shopper”, who overextends their lunch hour to shop for holiday gifts. Secondly, “the Cookie Monster”, who cleans the break room out of holiday treats. Next is the “Sniffler”, who shows up to work despite being sick. Then there is the “party animal”, overindulges at the company Christmas party. Finally, is the “Grinch”, who spreads anti-holiday cheer.

While this article does point out common holiday behaviours, it tends to point out the obvious, and gives very little value to the reader. The article offers no approach for employers to stifle or handle the inappropriate behaviours, nor does it add anything of value to the original information provided by Accountemps.

The article has very little use or qualifications to be published in the business section of a prominent newspaper.

Abby’s post “No matter how hard we try to avoid them, presentation skills are essential” is in response to the article “Why Is Good Public Speaking Important” on publicwords.com.

Abby makes many credible points in her post including: “In the business world, the ability to present well can be categorized as a ‘soft skill’, yet how you present yourself, an idea, and your company serves as the tipping point to success.”

She is completely right. At the end of our presentations on Monday our professor, Elaine Williamson Sprague, told us that what sets us apart from the Economics majors is Sauder’s focus on presentations. These skills in public speaking, creating engaging and efficient presentations as well as the ability to work in teams are the key to future success.

The article points out that “good presentations can turn around a bad situation, good public speaking can create enormous opportunities and healthy competition amongst employees and a good presentation can change the world.” These are things we must always keep in mind and work towards when we are dreading creating a presentation, and speaking in public.

Presentation Zen is a blog written by Garr Reynolds about “the issues related to professional presentation design” . His blog was ranked number 32 on strategistnews.com ‘s Top 50 Best Business Blogs 2011. Reynolds views are clearly respected, and recognized as he was invited as one of the guest speakers at TEDx Tokyo.

Reynolds blogs, are abundant with external sources, references and video clips to provide background knowledge and examples of the techniques he’s commending or critiquing. The posts are well organized, with clear headings, ideas clearly leading from one point into another. The posts are often concluded with a list of related articles and a “take-away” section.

One of the blogs downfalls is it’s inconsistent updates. The blog goes through long lull periods, often up until a whole month. Currently, the blog has not been updated since Oct. 31st.

One post I found very interesting was about the importance of smiling. Something the TA’s had reiterated to us a number of times throughout the last lecture.  I chose to review this blog after the last lecture because it is a skill that is often neglected by many business people. This blog is worth perusing, and is made enjoyable with the number of visual aids.

TED Ideas Worth Spreading – Smile – Ron Gutman

Word Count: 200

Japadog fits the definition of entrepreneurship to a tee, according to the various definitions of the word found on quickMBA.com. Japadog has presented a new and unique product, acquired a niche market and was started by Noriki Tamura, a man who works for himself and has “pioneered change”.

If you are a Vancouverite you already know what Japadog is. If you just moved here, like myself, you’ve probably been asked at least half a dozen times if you’ve had one yet.

When Tamura moved to Vancouver from Japan in 2005 he had dreams of opening a sidewalk crêpe store. However, he quickly discovered street-venders here were only allowed to sell beverages, muffins and pre-cooked hotdogs. He was able to obtain a permit by lottery, and instead started to develop a unique hotdog menu.

Japadogs is what happens when your metropolitan city’s street-corner hotdog kiosk meets a japanese restaurant. The hotdogs menu is extensive, an array of toppings: wasabi, japanese mayo, cabbage, seaweed, teriyaki sauce and much more.

A questionable combination perhaps, but upon consumption your taste buds won’t be doubtful. Tamura provided Vancouver’s downtown with a unique feature enjoyed by all.

word count: 190

I read two of Michael Bean’s blog posts, one about the risks of inbound marketing, another about the decline in TV viewers.

The first post talks about inbound marketing, which involves “the customer finding you”, meaning that we find companies and products via search engines, Twitter and “liking” it on Facebook. Michael is of the opinion that this marketing technique is risky, and companies using commercials on TV (outbound marketing) have the upper hand. However, he explains that ideally both tactics will be incorporated in a company’s marketing plan.

While I agree with him, that at the present time both tactics are of extreme value and importance to obtain customers, companies that use “outbound marketing” may not have the upper hand much longer. In Michael’s second post mentioned above he explains that there has been a large decline in TV viewers. His reasoning? No one wants to watch commercials and today there are many options to avoid them (the internet and PVRs).

I believe companies who depend on television commercials should now look to posting their ads on websites such as Megavideo, Putlocker and Videobb. These sites are frequented by people avoiding commercials and by who are busy during “primetime”.

Word Count: 200