In defining Pike Place Fish Market’s success, Conor Macdonald was spot on—“a strong organizational culture is essential [in] creating a successful organization.”  The Pike Place Fish Market benefits from utilizing intrinsic motivation with its workers in forms such as high employee satisfaction and low turnover.

As an extension to MacDonald’s blog, the superior organizational culture Pike Place Fish Market possesses not only has a positive effect on its workers and the financial success of the company, but on the consumers’ experience as well. This increases the number of customers that will return– customer loyalty. A firm where there is no involvement between customers and employees contrasts this type of business, as in that firm the organizational behaviour is not communicated to the consumer.

Mr. Yokoyama, the owner of this fish market, has managed to create a strong organizational culture that impacts his customers almost as much as it impacts his employees.This is a major reason for this fish market’s success. As a consumer, I personally find the organizational culture to be the most appealing aspect of this business. I can buy fish anywhere, but I cannot get the experience Pike Place Fish Market offers just anywhere. As evident through both Conor Macdonald’s blog as well as mine, a strong organizational culture is essential to a successful business, and benefits both the employees and customers.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BKln3A0nJeI/UEU3AnOwtAI/AAAAAAAAAME/lc8_GjTD5tE/s1600/pike-place-market-fish-market.jpg

Within the mobile phone market, there is a high demand for phone companies to continue producing top-of-the-line products in a short span of time. As one of the smartphone pioneers, Research in Motion is slowly falling behind the competition. In “Blackberry by choice is bad marketing by choice”, Peter Nowak recognizes RIM’s failing market strategies, yet he specifically blames Blackberry’s new slogan as a core reason for the company’s lack of success.

Nowak interprets Research in Motion’s new slogan “Blackberry by choice” as having a negative connotation. This is where I believe Nowak to be incorrect. While the author of the blog views the slogan as a message from the company communicating that the only reason consumers use Blackberrys is because it’s a phone issued from his or her business, my analysis shows that it represents the opposite. “Blackberry by choice” illustrates that despite all other phones in the market, consumers choose Blackberry because of it’s point of difference—which at this point may not be clear to buyers. This lack of differentiation between RIM’s products and its competitors’ combined with poor marketing is the reason Blackberry’s decline in sales. Not because of this slogan.

While my interpretation of the reason for Research in Motion’s declining sales may differ from Nowak’s, we both agree that the organization cannot continue headed in its current direction.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blog/tech/104855–blackberry-by-choice-is-bad-marketing-by-choice

http://www.sync-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/rim_logo_blue.jpg

Introduction to initial public offerings:

Usually, a company’s IPO is an inflation of the true value of the company. This inflation is able to occur through a multiple step process, beginning with creating excitement and buzz about the company before it becomes public. Once the company has been hyped up and gotten the attention of the media, only a small amount of shares are offered, which creates a false sense of scarcity. When there is a scarce supply with a high demand, the price of these shares skyrockets, which accounts for the inflation of the company’s legitimate value.

Zynga’s IPO:

Even though this entertainment/tech company followed the steps outlined above, its shares suffered a decrease in price once it went public. Opening around $10 a share, there was a decrease of around 30 cents by the end of that day. Why did this happen? Critics believe it is because of the extremely competitive sector this company is in. If it fails to continue to create and innovate, there is no future for Zynga Inc.

Zynga’s current predicament:

Nearly a year after going public, Zynga has continued to lose shares, suffering a decrease of 70% in price. This significant decline in value can be linked to Facebook’s success because Zynga Inc. is co-dependent on it. When the social-media giant becomes less popular, then so will Zynga as well.

Zynga’s IPO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JXJvKz8vfg 

Rossignol – Established 1907

Strength:

The brand recognition that Rossignol has obtained from being in the industry for over 100 years is easily its most significant strength. It is an organization that is recognized worldwide, which makes it very easy for consumers to choose: they know exactly what they’re buying. Combined with superior brand recognition, high quality products like wooden core skis create a point of position.

Weakness:

Due to such strong roots in the history of skiing and snowboarding, Rossignol has been branded as a traditional company with traditional values that don’t appear to be keeping up with the modern market.

Opportunity:

This company has the opportunity to diversify its product line, which will make its products accommodating to a greater range of people. Unlike other alpine-sport companies, Rossignol does not have a diverse selection of twin tip skis and freestyle snowboards, which is associated with the future of these sports.

Threat:

As skiing and snowboarding continues to become more popular, so has the market for producing such goods. Due to such a traditional stereotype, Rossignol is threatened by emerging alpine-sport companies that are seen as new and modern.

Analysis:

In order for Rossignol to address this threat, it needs to establish itself as a contemporary and ever-changing company with traditional roots, but not necessarily traditional values. By establishing a new frame of reference in consumer’s minds, this organization will target all skiers and snowboarders, offering new and innovative products with quality that consumers can trust. By adapting to a new audience to target, Rossignol proves itself as a true competitor in the ever-changing market of alpine sports.

Dairy products are generally more expensive in Canada due to “restrictions by the country’s dairy board,” as well as “tight controls on US imports of cheaper cheese.” Three Canadians living in southern Ontario used this as motivation to smuggle cheese and other dairy products from the United States of America and bring them into Canada. Buying large quantities at a time, these smugglers illegally transported the cheese across the border without declaring or paying duty on the goods. Exceeding the maximum of CAD $20 or 20kg of cheese legally allowed to be imported at one time to be considered “duty free,” the smugglers were risking civil penalties that can charge up to 245.5% of the original value of the cheese. But while this operation clearly had its risks, it also had its benefits. The accused were found to have made a profit of just over CAD $165 000 just from the dairy products. The business ethics followed by these three Canadians were closely related to Friedman’s ethics that roughly translate to: do whatever you have to in your business to make money. These smugglers were simply doing what any other business strives to do. Make money. The differentiating factor in this case however, is the illegitimacy of the business.

Works Cited:

BBC News. BBC, 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19751695>.

As CEO, Gary Holden had the ability to abuse the spending of company money. Opposed to always spending company money responsibly, Holden chose to use it to fund elaborate and private house parties where famous rock stars performed. On top of Gary Holden spending precious company dollars on said parties, he also abused his pay package receiving $2.7 million opposed to Enmax’s proceeding CEO who only earns $1.6 million. While Holden was able to sneak under the radar and continue exploiting company money for quite some time, an Enmax employee eventually emailed the City of Calgary (the sole shareholder) explaining exactly how Holden was abusing his position. It did not take long after the email was sent for the media, and soon all of Calgary to discover Holden was spending company money irresponsibly.

The true extent of the former chief executive officer’s ignorance towards business ethics became apparent after he sent out a company-wide email to his employees not only defending his actions but suggesting Enmax would “pursue legal action against an unnamed senior employee who first leaked the information.”

Holden spent far more company money on his parties and on himself than he should have, illustrating the extent to which he neglected business ethics. Enmax and its stakeholders were negatively affected due to Gary Holden’s lack of business ethics.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2010/11/04/calgary-enmax-nenshi-email-pay-critical.html

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/trust-responsibility-watchwords-enmax-ceo-says-030500106.html

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