The key to any successful business is a well developed business plan and a well planned strategy. Steve Jobs was one of the co-founders of Apple Inc. as well as one of the leading innovators of the company. Jobs had a plan that was developed around a hockey phrase he acquired, “[Apple] will skate to where the puck will be”. Jobs used this phrase and related it to Apple’s plan as a company, it means that apple will not be looking to provide products to satisfy current trends, rather, create new trends and products people didn’t even know they “needed”. This plan provided the company with an advantage, their advantage came from their thirst for innovation. The innovations Apple created, changed and shifted in markets. These shifts gave Apple the edge in portable music players, laptops, smartphones and tablets. Sam Gustin reports in his article that Apple is on a monthly average producing $4 million in profit. Apple’s key to success came with Steve Jobs and his business plan for the company. Jobs’ business plan led to the development of a strategy, innovate. This strategy created a share price that is now over $600. A strong business plan and an effective strategy are the keys to a successful business and are exhibited by Apple Inc.

Over the last fifteen years Google Inc. has taken control and now holds a monopoly over all other internet search engines. People have become so accustomed to the usage of Google  that it now has its own place in the Websters Dictionary. Google is now a verb as well as a company. Society use Google for almost every instance where curiosity and knowledge need to be bridged. As well with the expansion of Google to create services for e-mail, mapping, translation, calendars, images and much more we are also turning to it for entertainment purposes. With all of these services though, Google has recently created a privacy setting that allows for your information to be stored and centralized. Should we agree with this? Or is Google becoming a little too involved with our lives?

Janet Vertesi writer of Give Apple Maps a Chance has had enough of Google and states, “I [Janet Vertesi] broke up with Google.” Janet explains that Google has too much of a monopoly and receives too much information from all of it’s sites about the individual user. Google’s strategy to help sponsorship and optimize search efficiency is to accumulate personal information. The information they gather across it’s services inform companies of what people search for. As well, Google benefits by understanding what certain individuals  tend to look for, creating a convenience through a specialized search feature that only Google users will find. Is that right though? At what point does there need to be a line drawn?

Running a business correlates, very directly, to how one runs his or her life. In your life you attempt to maximize your efficiency while also attempting to maximize your utility, or happiness. As a business, you try to also maximize your efficiency as well as your utility. There is one difference though, the utility many are looking to optimize in a business is their utility as a result of profit. Sometimes we lose sight of what creates a successfully optimized business: successful workers, happy workers and workers who believe they are trusted.

The Right Way to Respond to Failure discusses how in life as well as business the way company leaders respond to a shortfall is not the most efficient. Most times people fail, they know what they have done wrong and understand their downfall. With that said, it does and will not help a worker to stab at an issue with advice or guidance. Peter Bregman discuss’ in his article that the proper way to approach a humiliated or discouraged employee is with empathy and understanding. To offer expressions that identify with understanding rather than advice will create trust between your team and reduce the likelihood of a defensive, distraught and ultimately unproductive employee.