BMW has been in business for decades, and to still be one of the top leading car brands in the world requires more than standard “text book” designing. The secret to BMW’s success was their ability to create a perfect brand image of cutting edge technology and innovation. That said, it is no surprise how “Kelley Blue Book” awarded BMW three awards on Best Performance, Best Exterior Design, and Coolest Brand.

BMW knows that “knowledge sits in the brains of tens of thousands of workers” and to fully utilize that knowledge is paramount and key to remain competitive, especially in the auto-industry that under-goes rapid change over time.

To have ingenuity spread, and ideas created, BMW took another approach in terms of organizing their structure. BMW superseded conventional hierarchies, and create networks that formulate “Cross-functional teams” which allows them to become more efficient and effective at problem solving.

BMW took this idea further and created an organizational system that effectively shifts from a management structure to such networks that encourages entrepreneurial creativity allow conceptional thoughts to literally speed through the company more productive than any standard structure. Such systems like this will inevitably create an organizational culture of innovation.

Citations

“BMW Selected as a Multiple 2009 Brand Image Award Winner.” Cartype. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. <http://www.cartype.com/pages/3790/bmw_selected_as_a_multiple_2009_brand_image_award_winner>.

Gail Edmondson, Gail. “The Secret of BMW’s Success.” Businessweek. 16 Oct. 2006. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_42/b4005078.htm>.

Eleven thousand Airbus workers from four different assembly plants gathered up a storm as they went on strike due to the lack of job security. This began when the two stakeholders could not come to an agreement after 18 months of negotiation.

There is a posed stakeholders conflict between workers and the management of Airbus. The workers are more interested in getting decent amount of payment, recognition, more over a fair amount of job security. Where as, the management generally focus’s on profit maximization, and cutting costs in order to satisfy shareholders through dividends.

The stakeholders conflict present between the workers and the management of Airbus can pose a few issues for Airbus. Mostly, productivity will decrease as the workers are on strike, more over with decreasing productivity, there will be a decrease in sales. With not as many planes being produced, optimal sales cannot be achieved.

Moreover, once workers form up trade unions, they sometimes pose a lot of influential power over the organization. Therefore, it is in the best interest that Airbus resolve claims which can benefit both sides, the management and workers, to prevent further issues.

Citations

“Airbus Workers Strike at Four German Plants.” BBC News. 07 Oct. 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15212917>.

During the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, Hong Kong prepared to “relax” their own accounting regulations, in which they offered to accept the Chinese Accounting standards. The act of doing so allows Beijing to expand their financial sector as it cut costs for Mainland China companies seeking to be listed in Hong Kong. However this poses certain conflicts in terms of accounting and accounting jobs as a whole for Hong Kong.

Given that there is a relaxation in accounting standards in Hong Kong, concerns of fraud may progressively increase. This is because regulations in China are not as strict as opposed to Hong Kong regulations. Whether it be an overstatement of assets or an understatement of liabilities, this as a whole could have potential impacts that could threaten the economy.

Moreover, this also has an impact on accounting jobs in Hong Kong. Mainland accounting firms offer its services three times cheaper than Hong Kong, allowing businesses to cut costs. In result, the availability of accounting jobs will decrease, and Hong Kong accountants might face employee redundancy.

 Citations

Reutors. “Hong Kong Prepares to Accept Chinese Accounting Standards.” New York Times. 30 Dec. 2009. Web. 9 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/business/global/31account.html>.

Given that Toyota’s mission statement “is to provide safe & sound journey…” It is ironic how Toyota was forced to recall a total of four hundred thousand vehicles due to safety defects. The Avalon sedans, for example, both had steering defects that could influence a crash. Consequently, Toyota experienced an increasing number of complaints, and incidents since the release of these vehicles.

This issue should be a priority for Toyota as it could seriously defect their reputation and brand loyalty. In result through long-term effects, has the potential to decrease customer base, and sales.

Toyota will need to reestablish its brand loyalty both internally and externally of the business to prevent negative effects. In an internal base, Toyota needs to recognize the causes of the safety defects and alleviate it. This is done through investments on research and development, improving production methods, and ensuring proper maintenance.

Moreover, Toyota can also increase its public relations to indicate towards the public that Safety in Car’s is the number one priority.

Citations

Jensen, Christopher. “New Toyota Recall Involves About 400,000 Vehicles – NYTimes.com.” New York Times. 29 July 2010. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/new-toyota-recall-involves-about-400000-vehicles/?scp=6>.

In 2009, a survey from Cyber-Ark, discovered that majority of the British workers (about 58 percent) are willing to par-take in data theft if the company faces Redundancy. In times during the economic downturn, organizations need to be increasingly watchful as stolen data can severely impact its growth, once given to it’s competitors. Hence, managing and solving redundancy should be area’s of great concern for businesses.

When a company faces employee redundant, there is no longer work for the employee and hence is seen as an expense rather that is generating revenue. Redundancy can be caused by multiple reasons, however, in this case, its main cause is where the macro economy is falling and there is a decline.

Redundancy can sometimes be inevitable, and in retrospect with data theft, Organizations that are concerned should invest more on Informational Technology in terms of increasing its own security base, increasing monitoring systems, and daily maintenance to ensure protection on confidential data.

Moreover, there seems to be a minor stakeholders conflict between employees and the management as a whole. The management needs to spend time on human resources in producing methods to increase employee loyalty. In result, could decrease theft as a whole.

Citations

Herman, Michael. “Employees Facing Redundancy Are Tempted by Data Theft – Times Online.” The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. 03 Feb. 2009. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/management/article5644325.ece>.

Gap has built a reputation that has been recognized for being one of the best-known fashion brands across the region. This reputation that has been established is now being interrupted due to Gapsubcontractors’ unethical methods to cut costs of production with the use of sweatshops and the exploitation of cheap child labor in countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Bangladesh.

One of Gap’s policies claim to stop the exploitation of child labor. However, it appears to be failing due to the lack of transparency between Gap subcontractors and the public. Regardless of Gap’s social responsible scheme, there is still an ethical issue on whether Gap should be partly responsible for their subcontractor’s actions.

On a side note, the subcontractors work under the company Gap and do carry a form of representation of the brand name. With respect to this, Gap should ethically take responsibility in terms of monitoring their methods of production to ensure child labor isn’t existent within their operations. Moreover, it is in Gap’s best interests to provide accurate transparency of their operations towards not only investors but also to consumers and employees, in order to meet its social responsibilities.

Citations

Lawrence, Felicity. “Sweatshop Campaigners Demand Gap Boycott.” The Guardian. 22 Nov. 2002. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/nov/22/clothes.globalisation>.

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