Day: October 7, 2013

The Forbes article considered in this blog post suggests that businesses should start employing athletes. Athletes, you ask?… Yes, Athletes.

The 6 athletic attributes:

1. They never give up
2. They achieve their goals
3. They develop new skills
4. They are exceptional entrepreneurs
5. They strive for balance
6. They work well with partners and teams

The reason why this refers to the term “Athletes” is because it is in the nature of sport athletes whom participate in physically challenging activities such as track, football or swimming. By hiring employees that seek health, fitness, and achievement in the business sense, an organization can as a whole become a young, youthful and strong force that synergies to achieve the best. The 6 straits listed above all make a “business athlete”, an employee that puts in 100% of his effort to complete tasks, one that sets goals and achieves them, develops new skills and widens his scope of ability, is open minded and looks through the bigger picture, ensures balance, and is a team player. However, the question is, how DO we find these “athletes”? Are there such employees that would every commit to the business as if it were their family? It may be a suggestion that businesses should start searching for quality instead of quantity, where quantity refers to solely one’s academic achievements.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkwilliams/2013/10/02/why-you-should-fill-your-company-with-athletes/

The world has changed ever so significantly in the past century, let alone decade. Our ways of living have shifted into a newer, more technology dependant paradigm. With this tsunami of a change, it is not surprising that businesses such as BlackBerry would rip apart from its ground foundation and get swept away with the moving tide, and drown with the rubble and wreckage left to waste by, emerging, and ever so powerful companies such as Apple and Samsung. The smartphone industry has left BlackBerry dumb. It was a movement that penetrated like a bullet train, breaking through the BlackBerry Message empire and only leaving the ruins of a once successful product. But why doesn’t BlackBerry just compete in the smartphone industry? A question that would seem obvious to ask at first, but when looked into, one comes to the realization that Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone series and Apple’s iPhone series have already spread their roots into the hearts of potential consumers. The article chosen reads “Who isn’t on the list of rumoured potential BlackBerry suitors that surfaced this weekend?” and emphasizes the downfall of BlackBerry by mentioning potential suitors whom hold interest in buying out the company. This buyout would definitely help BlackBerry pick up the rubble and reconstruct, but strategies for rebuilding are limited.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/07/technology/enterprise/blackberry-google/index.html

The future has meant countless changes and modifications in already existing markets, and has also birthed the arrival of new and unique markets that have never set face to our world. In a fast growing economy that extinguishes old and obsolete systems, businesses are forced to shift strategies and discard traditions that have set them back and behind market leaders. By 2017 Ford claim to improve efficiency, reduce costs, increase production, and respond more quickly to changing consumer tastes by building and average of 4 different vehicles per plant, and by also expanding into Brazil, China, India and Russia, all of which are countries that are undergoing economic growth. Flexibility is a very important factor in the car industry, because having the ability of responding to consumer demands efficiently and rapidly means that Ford can step up into the ladder of market leaders by delivering a product that best suits its market. Expansion into developing countries also means that Ford can establish a solid market share and gain a competitive advantage by responding to demographic changes. However, will Ford regain it’s pre-War status? Can it reproduce the very painting Henry Ford shocked the world with?

Source: http://www.bnn.ca/News/2013/10/7/Ford-aims-to-make-its-factories-more-flexible-efficient.aspx