After the entrepreneurship class that consisted of two extremely successful guest speakers, for the first time I had an idea of what type of career I wanted to pursue. Being an entrepreneur is all about innovation; building something that is not there. I have always wanted to stand out of the crowd and wanted to accomplish creating or developing something which sets me apart from every other businessman, being an entrepreneur does just that. Erik Carlson, a real estate developer, is the head of Anthem Properties and has really inspired me to become an entrepreneur and get involved in the world of property development.

Mr. Carlson encountered a lot of obstacles en route to becoming an extremely successful entrepreneur, but in the end he came out strong. I really admired everything he had to say and really took a lot of valuable lessons from that lecture. Mr. Carlson stressed the value of creativity and how important it is to be prosperous in life. Being an entrepreneur is not a job occupation, rather it revolves around being creative and building empires through strategical vision. At the end of the day who would not love to be their own boss, with entrepreneurship this can be accomplished.

Save-On-Meats has been serving customers in the downtown Hastings area since 1957 and employing thousands of workers in need of a job. “Save-on-Meats distinguished itself as the source for cheap yet high-quality meat in the inner city core of Vancouver” and has made itself iconic in Vancouver. This restaurant hires workers who are incapable of holding a stable job and gives them an opportunity to make a living for themselves. This restaurant brings the community together and has a strong point of difference that allows it to be successful.

I believe that this restaurant is beneficial to the whole community and sets an example for the community to follow up on. Providing jobs to individuals most business would look as “unemployable” is extremely sincere. This is an inspiring business that can really create a strong community in which everyone has an opportunity to be employed no matter what “size or shape”. The restaurant provides a welcoming atmosphere and serves top notch meats at cheap prices. Even though Save-On-Meats is not a non-profit business, I would consider this to be somewhat of a social enterprise because it employs individuals who are considered “unemployable” and provides the best prices to customers.

Walmart is a very successful company that thrives of its dominant culture, which was developed by Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. “At Walmart, we are proud of our unique corporate culture”. A culture that revolves around three major beliefs, which include Respect for the Individual, Service to our Customers, and lastly Striving for Excellence. These beliefs are implemented into an individual through rituals and repetitive training methods. Walmart strongly  believes that employees are the base of the company and to provide the best customer service, the employees must be “programmed” to serve customers to the best of their ability.

http://youtu.be/MCdsX0R8rDo

Now, it seems as though Walmart is losing its  employees’ trust and loyalty. With the busiest shopping day, Black Friday, fast approaching, Walmart employees have other plans. They have started protesting and threaten to continue to protest “at nearly two dozen Walmart and Walmart Supercenter locations throughout the D.C. metro area” on Black Friday. The major contributing factors of the protest include “pay, worker intimidation and retaliation and scheduling issues”.

Walmart really needs to regain employees trust because the future of the company depends on it. Walmart forces the training and culture upon the employees and does not allow the employees to be creative. The employees are essentially like robots and work under the company’s commands. Walmart needs to have a more flexible training procedure and should introduce some sort of employee benefit package in order to increase employee job satisfaction. Ultimately, this is vital in order for Walmart to maximize customer satisfaction and keep the sales up.