One of stronger software developers Valve has amazed the world when they published their employees handbook

The strange thing about Valve is that it has no managers. At all. There is someone above, who rools the company, however employees are free to do whatever they want to. One who is leading project today may end up being letter-boy in the next project. (in fact it is rare for someone to be leader for 2 consecutive projects).

Salaries are also determined by democratic choice. The one, who worked more will get more.

This system is innovative and has no known analog I am aware of.

The interesting question here is would such a system work for non-software company? Logic says, that not really. Say, supermarket would probably not be able to operate without strict managment control.

However such an idea is interesting, and it would be interesting to implement it in non-software business environment to see how it works.

in the end it may appear the most effective managerial system ever invented…or the worst one.

Recent court actions that Apple undertook against Samsung may have eventually benefited the attacked one. It appears that this patent war is over, with Samsung holding a flag.

As my classmate mentions in the blog :

“According to the articles, the writer also introduces that Samsung is playing a leading role in smartphone sales; however, Apple’s market share fell slightly.” (https://blogs.ubc.ca/manning/2012/10/14/samsung-wins-reversal-of-nexus-u-s-sales-ban/)

I have to agree about “playing a leading role” part, as not only Apple’s smartphone shares fell. Samsungs’ new flagman Nexus 10 has recently sold out, in the same way it happened to iphone 5, that is now not available in stores

However, while iphone running out of stock is obvious and predictable, the insane demand on Samsungs’ new tablet is astonishing. The bell rings for Apples, as Googles’ tablets (along with Kindle) are their main opponents in this area.

It is interesting to note, that sales of Samsung products have increased after the abovementioned PR scandal, as it is noted in my classmates blog.

It is evident now that Apple is trying to regain their market share in smartphone market. This may be one of the reasons why iphone 5 was announced only 6 month after the iphone 4s, and with only minor changes to it. They have to cope with Samsungs speed, which announces new flagman phones roughly every half a year.

Back from where I come from all boys below age of 20-25 dream of becoming a businessman. Some succed, majority does not, and absolute majority only dreams, but never tries.

I personally heard the craziest ideas. One of them was smuggling cars bought in US to Ukraine, to profit from non-taxed difference. Other idea I heard was to set up a strip-club, as it is “too profitable”. Of course that strip-club would be an undercover brothel, because “well why not?”. One more idea concerned bringing iphone from Canada and selling them on-place.

Some ideas were original, like the strip-club one. Some werent even ideas:

-Lets make up something that wasnt there before!
-Well what?
-Well I dont know! We have to think about it!

Of course hours long debates never yielded anything efficient. (Well, for me they did- I ended up in business school).

Everyone back home wants to be an “enterpreneur”. But to be honest, none of those, who actually starts an enterprise actually is an enterpreneur. They are just businessmen. But when I try to explain that- people simply do not understand.
They dont understand what to be enterpreneur really is, and neither do they carry any social responsibility. They are al about “riping people off”.

It seems like underdeveloped countries like Ethiopia are performing better social-enterprise wise than relatively wealthy and quite middle-economic class Ukraine.

Khan academy,
Coursera,
free online MIT and Stanford courses.

Online education skyrockets in its development, and in 10 years many degrees may shift online. Because, lets face it- there are too many people on the earth eaher for education. While it may be fine now, quite soon being in university (especially in the top one- we all want the best, right?)  may become extremely competitive.

Such intstitutions as Phoenix university already offer people online degrees. They are cheaper, they save you time, you can work at the meantime…benefits from all around. Though- they are not recognized as well as old style campuses. But isnt it just a question of time?

Such enterprises as Khan academy are good examples of social enterprise. You can access the site from any place on the Earth, thus anyone can really be achieving their educational goals. (you will have to learn enlish and get internet first, of course).

Does future of education lie in online? It looks like certain part of it will shift online, as there is demand to meet. However old style universities wont give up their positions, infrastructure and investements for free.