Everyone has experienced working with others before. Whether it was creating a project with a group for class, or putting together a development team for a new product in an organization. Teams are everywhere in organizations, as they are often more effective and efficient than individuals, as they involve people with different skill sets, helping one another work towards a common goal. Teams also allow for greater task identity, which can increase motivation among members. A team can take on larger obstacles and advance projects much further than someone working as an individual could. This was clear for my brother and his best friend as they developed an idea in their last year of university.

The two friends wanted to do something significant in their last summer before permanently finishing their education and entering the workforce. One night, while biking home from a party (as they often rode instead of driving), they talked about how hard it would be to bike across Canada. This idea quickly developed into a cancer awareness campaign, rather than just an activity to kick off summer. With a goal to raise $25,000 for prostate cancer research, the pair of friends began bringing more people in to help them achieve it. Word spread rapidly with the help of a social media platform, and many friends and family met the two young men during their ride across the country – my dad included. My brother and his friend ended up having around a hundred people and a police escort join them for the last stretch of the ride from Abbotsford to West Vancouver, and raised ten times the amount of money they originally set as their goal. This is a clear example of what a team of people can accomplish. My brother and his friend would never have been able to raise $250,000 and the kind of awareness they did without the help of all those who joined them along the ride, shared their page on Facebook and other social media outlets, and supported them throughout the campaign.

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Emotions play a large part in the workplace. Increasing research has actually shown that emotions are a critical part of rational thinking, as they help us understand the world and other people around us. Negative emotions can cause conflict in the workplace and, as stated in an Organizational Behaviour textbook, those who are able to control their emotions in order to think more rationally and are good at reading others can be more efficient in their job (Damasio, 1994). People with this skill are said to have a high emotional intelligent (EI, sometimes shown as EQ), defined as being able to detect and manage emotional cues and information. Not surprisingly, it is highly correlated with job performance. In an article for Entrepreneur, Travis Bradberry even states that this correlation is so significant that “90 percent of top performers have high emotional intelligence”.

This topic of EI being the factor that truly separates the most valuable employees from the rest of the workforce has been trending. This can be explained by the fact that emotional intelligence is proven to be a more vital quality in employees and leaders than intelligence quotient (IQ). People can be trained to do a job better, but EI is more intuitive and relates to how people operate and handle others in the workplace. Bradberry’s article gives 11 signs that can be used to measure your EI, and finishes off by stating that EI, like most cognitive skills, is an ability you can improve by practicing emotionally intelligent behaviours and therefore training your brain the right way to process emotions. I’ve actually experienced this first hand, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, at my previous job I had two bosses. The one with the higher EI was able to deal with all the employees without coming off as angry, and always handled conflict in a calm manner. As a result, my coworkers and I were more comfortable and therefore able to be more productive around her. While in contrast, the other owner always let her emotions control her angry, and reacted rather than processing the situation logically first and handling it in a calm manner. This made it hard to be around her, and therefore made us less productive.

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References:

Bradberry, T. (2017, January 24). 11 Signs That You Lack Emotional Intelligence. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/288181

Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. 

The multinational media and entertainment corporation, Walt Disney Co., does not want to let go of Bob Iger. The accomplished CEO has led the company to many successes, including the building of Shanghai Disney Resort in China and expansions of Disney theme parks. Iger, an investor favorite, originally stated he would retire in 2015, and has extended his contract multiple times since. According to a BNN article, Disney recently released that Iger would continue to act as CEO until July 2019, and would stay on as a consultant for three more years after. It’s no surprise that there was a spike in investment after this announcement was made. The mass media conglomerate has been searching for Iger’s successor, but it will be incredibly difficult to fill his shoes.

Before Bob Iger began his run as chief executive officer, his predecessor was very business-minded and used a disciplined process to produce films. It was business development teams that came up with the ideas and gave them to directors. This strategy was not working for Disney, and when Iger stepped into power he changed it. According to Bill George, a writer for Fortune, the current CEO has stated that he believes creativity is “the heart and soul of Disney” and he knew that they need to keep innovating in order for the company to grow. As Gavin Gordon mentions in his blog, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla is also a transformational leader (as I will expand on later) and constantly promotes creativity and innovation in the company — and knows that this is essential for firms to stay competitive. Iger was the change agent for the company’s organizational change, and his purpose was to restructure in order to promote creativity. Therefore, he modified this very disciplined strategy and put the responsibility for producing ideas in the hands of creative directors, letting them propose original suggestions as well. This reminds me of Google and their 80/20, which is a policy that ensures employees (especially the engineers) have creative time to pursue their own ideas for the company. It’s proven to be a very effective tactic for both multinational companies. For Disney, it was particularly reflected in the huge success of the 2013 film Frozen.

In light of his emphasis on and promotion of creativity in Disney, many consider Iger to be an ‘innovation leader’, as stated in the Forbes article. In order to incite this organizational change in the company, Iger needed to alter the way the employees were thinking and operating – especially in regards to films. He was not only an innovation leader who inspired creation, but a transformational leader. Not just because he changed the way they were producing films, but also because Iger himself was more creative and therefore further encouraged it in others in the organization, which is another quality of a transformational leader. I can attest that this is an important quality in a leader (particularly one trying to incite change), as at my previous job at the Anchor Eatery, I had two bosses with very different personalities and leadership styles – co-owners. I was always more inspired to be more creative and work more happily around the more positive and creative and in contrast, was not creative at all and just wanted to finish my shift in order to leave as soon as possible around the abusive negative supervisor.

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References:

George, B. (2016, April 4). The Leadership Quality that Truly Separates Disney’s Bob Iger From his Peers. Forbes. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2016/04/04/the-leadership-quality-that-truly-separates-disneys-bob-iger-from-his-peers/

Gordon, G. (2017, February 5). Elon Musk’s Groundbreaking Leadership. [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved March 30, 2017 from https://blogs.ubc.ca/gavingordon/2017/02/05/elon-musks-groundbreaking-leadership/

R. (2017, March 23). Disney extends CEO Bob Iger’s contract to 2019 – Article. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://www.bnn.ca/disney-extends-ceo-bob-iger-s-contract-to-2019-1.704177

There are many different methods of motivating employees to work hard within a company, as effective techniques vary among individuals. A key element in successful motivation is understanding one’s employees and what drives them. There are two distinct schools of thought when it comes to the workforce, theory X and theory Y. Theory X assumes that workers dislike their job, and therefore must be controlled and forced into doing their work or threatened with punishment in order to be efficient. The opposite of this, theory Y, assumes that employees like their work and are creative and wish to have more responsibility. The multinational tech company, Google, takes the view of theory Y.

Google is an organization that is known for their very distinct company culture of freedom, openness and innovation. Offices have cool lounges, with some even having rock climbing walls and bowling alleys, which all help to promote their culture. They strive to make sure their employees feel comfortable and powerful. Technology companies in general must be creative and efficient, as it is one of the fastest growing industries. Therefore, they need to have employees that share this trait and create a space that allows their workers to be innovative. Google took hold of this fact, and implemented their 80/20 rule. This rule encourages their engineers to take 20 percent of their work time to work on any company-related thing that interests them. This often includes developing new ideas for the company. The 80/20 rule is a great example of successful intrinsic motivation. Google employees have freedom and responsibility, and are able to work more efficiently and happily on something they’re passionate about. Gmail and Google News are just two examples of technologies forming in the 20 percent time.

Sources:

https://www.google.ca/about/company/facts/culture/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/jobs/21pre.html

Communication is extremely important in every organization. It is the base for many things that happen within the company, like feedback, monitoring behaviour, motivation, and making sure every aspect of the organization is cohesive. There are countless outlets and forms of communication, the most recent being social media. Businesses have taken advantage of the rise of social networks, and nearly every one of them has a Facebook page, Twitter account or Instagram account. It helps represent themselves among the generations of Millennials and Centennials, who spend so much of their time on social media. Not excluded in this, is the new president of the United States, Donald Trump.

Throughout his election, Trump has taken to Twitter to express himself, and this has now continued into his presidency. Donald Trump is not the first, or last, president with a Twitter account, but he has not been following the professional form that his posts so desperately need to possess. Electronic communication in itself can often lead to misunderstandings, but Trump takes this a step further as his posts are characteristically fuelled by emotion. It is completely unfiltered information, which is exceedingly irresponsible to come from a person in position of complete authority. By consistently posting like this on a social media platform, Trump has been misusing this communication process/channel. For a president, or any organization for that matter, a social media outlet should be a formal channel of communication. President Trump has been treating his Twitter page as an informal channel of communication, as his posts are spontaneous (or seemingly not thought through) and often responses to events or things said by another individual. Instantaneous social media posts that are driven by emotions, rather than rational thinking and professionalism, could have huge repercussions if the wrong message reached the wrong person. There has already been nation-wide outrage and astonishment at the kinds of things the new president will post. Communication is crucial no matter what industry you are in, and if not carefully thought-out, could have unintended consequences.

The workforce that we see today has completely transformed, and is very different than the traditional style that previous generations knew. Baby boomers were used to the 9 to 5 office job, which relatively lacks diversity and flexibility. With the introduction of the Internet and the globalization of markets, the workplace has developed into a more productive and flexible place, which promotes diversity. This concept of the digital workforce has been widely adopted by companies. As stated on Vision Tree Ventures, a Forbes article on telecommuting indicated that virtual employees now make up 30-45 percent of an organization’s workforce.

Canada celebrates a ‘mosaic’ culture, and opens its borders to immigrants and refugees. Of course, the addition of an entire sector of foreign workers affects the market. These are skilled workers coming in from another country, who, a lot of the time, are willing to work for less. It may be because the typical salaries they are used to are substantially lower than the standard in Canada’s workforce, or they are more desperate for work because of our high cost of living. This creates high competition for jobs, and allows for more diversity in the workplace as companies are incentivized to hire employees at lower salaries.

Another very common example of this in modern day businesses is outsourcing. Companies now outsource certain sections of their workforce internationally. They can outsource traditional, mundane jobs to other countries at a much lower cost. A huge example of this is call centers. Typically, employees in call centers operate phones and handle any complaints or questions in relation to the company. Having a call center in India, for example, allows a company to decrease costs because of lower compensation levels. They’re able to set lower pay-levels because of external equity. The competition of the organization’s pay relative to industry standard in that country would not be high. Living costs are much lower in the countries that call centers are located. Furthermore, as Shauna Geraghty mentions on her post on Talkdesk, the organization is more capable of having 24/7 services for customers because of the cheaper cost.

Sources:

https://www.talkdesk.com/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-call-center-offshore-outsourcing-2/

http://blog.visiontreeventures.com/the-differences-between-a-digital-workforce-and-a-traditional-workforce

Technology is advancing at a rapid rate. Not only do we have access to copious amounts of information and entertainment at our fingertips, many companies are now working to develop virtual reality technologies. To accompany the release of their first smartphone, the Pixel, Google has now debuted Daydream View, a virtual reality headset. As Samuel Gibbs wrote in his article for the Guardian, Google Daydream View review: comfortable mobile VR headset with limited compatibility, currently the product is only compatible with the Pixel. By diversifying their products and entering more markets, Google is expanding their consumer segment. Daydream’s present price is about $100 CAD, which is not very expensive compared to PlayStation’s VR technology at $399 (which Seif Ghazi wrote about in a past blog post, PSVR: PlayStation Becomes First Major Player in New VR Gaming Market) and a $400 VR headset used for video games (as Andres Garza described in one of his previous blog post, Virtual Reality: Quest for Accessibility). Although, the real price comes with the Pixel, since it is the only smartphone that works with the headset’s system at the time, and the phone is close to $900. Virtual Reality, especially in video games, can be a very successful product since it is not just a game, but is an experience. I have tried a cardboard pair myself that came with tickets to the music festival Coachella, and since it is 360 degrees, it completely transports you out of your living room (or wherever you happen to be using the headset) for a surreal experience.

Google’s new entry into the VR market, once it becomes compatible with other phones (or the price of the Pixel falls), counters Andres’s point of VR reality technology being too expensive for the average consumer. I believe as technology advances further, and more firms begin to enter this new market, the average price of VR products will fall and become a more common form of entertainment that most consumers can afford.

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Climate change has been a very prevalent world issue. In recent years, further action has been taken and been demanded. Therefore, it has begun to affect business more and more. At the Paris summit last year, world leaders set out strict goals to reduce carbon emission. A large percentage of world greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to gasoline-powered vehicles, which means that automakers will have to take action.

Volkswagen, one of the biggest automobile producers in the world, has announced that they are transitioning completely to electric cars. This BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal) was set in motion as a study reported that the last gasoline car should be sold by about 2035 in order to meet goals set out in the Paris summit. Since electric cars have fewer components than gasoline ones, the company will need less labor. Volkswagen has also taken this action towards reducing carbon emissions to combat the bad press they have been receiving after the diesel scandal. They released that the switch will result in a “five figure number” of job cuts in the long run. Furthermore, a report stated that Volkswagen’s works council expects to lose up to 25,000 jobs over the next ten years. This does not necessarily mean that the car company will be firing thousands of people. The head of personnel, Karlheinz Blessing, has even stressed to the press that there will be no layoffs. But the company must downsize if they intend to completely shift to electric products. Therefore, it is evident that they will simply not be replacing employees as they retire. Even though they will be cutting down their workforce, which means fewer wages to pay, it is unclear whether or not costs will go up for the company. Changing their product line means different components will go into the cars, and depending on the cost of these materials, production costs will either increase or decrease. Volkswagen’s cash flow may follow suit.

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link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/volkswagen-jobs-electric-cars-1.3826279

Almost all of us with access to Wi-Fi and a personal computer have Netflix. If not, you certainly know of the gigantic entertainment company that spans across nations. The company, founded in 1997 in Scotts Valley, California, initially provided DVDs by mail to subscribers, and eventually became the largest online streaming service for movies and television shows. The company’s success can even be seen in their share price, as their initial public offering (IPO) in 2002 was fifteen US dollars per share, and it has now sitting at $101.47. Their business model consists of a flat monthly payment that gives users unlimited streaming of whatever entertainment you desire through their website. However, since the company is present in over 190 countries, streaming options vary depending on your location. These ‘geo-restrictions’ are a legally binding result of Netflix’s country-exclusive licensing agreements with Hollywood. As we’ve learnt in class, Hollywood would be an important stakeholder in Netflix, since they can easily affect the operations of the company by terminating licensing agreements and depleting their content.

When some subscribers tire from the selection Netflix offers them or they simply want access to a certain show not available in their own country, they resort to third party companies to help them get around these regulations. ‘Unblocking’ companies posed a big problem to Netflix’s business, as they would essentially hack Netflix’s system, allowing subscribers access to Netflix selections in any location they want and hurting the company’s legal agreements with entertainment providers. The ongoing fight between the multinational company and unblocking services has recently calmed down. We see examples of many companies, one after the other, giving up in their fight to bypass Netflix’s borders, as written about in the CBC news article I cited below. Relating to when we talked about costs and the importance of cash flow in class, it was most likely getting too costly for these companies to continuously change their strategy in bypassing a huge company’s country restrictions. The services could have run out of cash flow, from not enough paying subscribers and increasing costs. Either way, it was clearly not profitable anymore to fight Netflix, and the multinational company came out on top.

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The article I read on CBC News is part of a segment called “Trudeau Tracker”, which examines the performance of the new Liberal government and how it is following through with promises made during the election. The segment focused on health care. In their platform, the Liberals pledged an immediate commitment of an additional $3 billion into home care (which is supportive care provided in-home by licensed healthcare professionals or caregivers) over four years in order to improve and increase the services our country offers.

Despite the obvious need, the March budget did not allocate any money to home care. This means that in order to keep their promise, the Liberals will have to spend $3 billion over the next three years in home care alone (one billion each year). To put this in perspective, the recent budget only allows for $290 million to be spent over two years to other various health initiatives relating to things like nutrition, cancer and food safety. The amount the government promised to put into home care facilities is about ten times this.

Home care is actually a lower cost solution to long-term care services, and if it were widely accessible, this would open up a lot of space in hospitals and other facilities for patients in acute situations. This clearly affects the GDP and relates to expansionary fiscal policy, which is not something our previous prime minister supported. The Liberals committed to this policy, and the $3 billion into home care would be a great example of increased government spending and where the money could potentially be going. Yet, they failed to follow through with their commitment in the first year, which is problematic due to the amount of money they would have to spend in the following years to live up to their promise.

Higher government spending should raise the GDP and be a positive impact on our economy, despite the amount of debt our country is in. This is the goal of expansionary fiscal policy. More money in this section for increased services will automatically create more jobs, which in turn should raise the GDP and improve the economy by lower unemployment rates and higher consumption.

On a personal note, my family is affected because my grandmother is someone in need of home care assistance. She requires daily nurse visits, as well as support from mental health care officials. The addition of money into home care services could be beneficial for her.

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