People all have sympathy and we show this in different ways. Some donate money to the charity and other would like to build social enterprises, which can solve the problem in a sustainable way. In the blog, “ My Journey to Help the Poor and Build a More Equitable World,” Yunus wrote his own experience about building a social business. Once he saw the women treated equally by paying high interest rates with tiny loans in Jobra, a village in Bangladesh, he came up with idea to establish the bank called “Grameen” and offer the fair loans to the villagers.

Yunus emphasizes the idea of the essence of social business is “to create a business that is focused on solving human problems rather then making a personal profit”. To illustrate, Yunus most focus on helping the world, while the company also generate a modest profit for sure. I strongly with the idea that Yunus has. As a social enterprise, solving the social problem should be the main concern and making profit is needed as to improve the company’s product or service. If the social business most focus on making profit, the benefits that society get will reduce undeniably. Yunus offers the opportunity to the poor to mange their own financial affairs with the right conditions. Personally, the way Yunus did is better than the charity. Surely, the poor can get benefits from charity. However, while they are managing money be themselves and have the sense of they are borrowing money. This can enable them to have skills and eliminate the laziness that just waiting for money. Without doubt,  the social enterprise is a win-win solution that the society and business can get benefits at the same time. I do support what Yunus do to BUILD A MORE EQUITABLE WORLD through the sustainable way.

http://www.socialenterpriselive.com/your-blogs/item/my-journey-help-the-poor-and-build-more-equitable-world

I have the same opinion of Charlotte’s as “what Google is doing is “to treat your employees like your customers”. Surely, every company treats customers warmly, which implies that Google treats their employees very well. It is well-known that Google’s organizational culture is quite strong and attractive. Lots of people would like to work there since Google deliveries a fantastic working environment and decorate the working place as it looks like home. From the pictures we saw in this post, it can be easily seen that employees are enjoying when they are working. The relaxing atmosphere helps employees to be more creative. The celebrations bound employees and employers together and make employees feel Google is caring about them. As we can see, Google emphasizes the importance of the company culture. Once the company makes employees working with “happiness and enthusiasm” as what Charlotte mentioned in the post, this can enable them to be eager to work. Also, when there is teamwork, employees get the same authority, this shows the equity and thus, employees can feel they are respectful and will have more direct communication with team members. It seems that Google is like a family. Undeniably, Google’s strong culture greatly helps its success and rise employees’ happiness and productivity while decrease the turnover, which is a win-win situation.

Google-the importance of culture

I strongly support Karen’s opinions of what Toms is doing is beneficial for itself and other companies. While they are helping other companies to take social responsibility, surely, these companies can gain reputation from consumers and this is also can be an advertisement to make their products be more well- known. For example, Stone and Cloth Company produces backpacks and other products, while the company would donate a portion of revenue to students in Tanzania, Africa as scholarships. Once Toms sells Stone and Cloth Company’s product on its online shopping website, this brings the convenience to the customers as they can get much information about the social enterprise on Tom’s website. Also, the prices of products are from $12-$418, which implies that client can buy the products they think it is affordable to them. Therefore, customers’ satisfactions can be increased while the companies that involved can be beneficial as well since the profit is increased.  Moreover, Toms can improve its company image as well since Toms is continuing to develop the idea of being social enterprise. Selling other social enterprise’s product further proves that Toms’ is indeed helping society. Toms is one of the most influential companies in the world that has the social awareness. This greatly contributes the company’s profit and reputation.

Not Just Toms

Different companies have different kinds of culture. Undeniably, culture has a big influence to employees, as the organizational culture is the artifacts, beliefs, and values that the company has. People’s beliefs and values could affect their behaviors, which can bring negative or positive results to the company. Without doubt, the leaders in the company play a vital role to build company’s culture. The idea is similar to the chief executive of energy supplier Aggreko’s. He says, “People watch much more than they listen”, which implies that it is

crucial for employers to be consistent between their behaviors and what they say. Mr. Zeman who is the chairman of the government-owned Ocean Park theme resort in Hong Kong also emphasizes the importance on Leading by example. What he said, “It’s usually top-down” demonstrates that employees would like to the performance of their leaders.  If employers are always hard-working, approachable, enthusiasm, these characteristics can gradually influence employees and enable them to have such characteristics which can bring positive results to the company.

Moreover, Mr.Zeman also believes that the company culture should be like a family. For sure, the boss should be approachable and reliable. This is similar to the Zappo’s boss. In the video that we saw in class, the CEO does not have his own office and he sits with his employees. Also, we can see that the working place is decorated by employees and CEO plays with them which create a relaxing atmosphere. The company indeed is like a family. The close relationship between employers and employees greatly reduces the hierarchy. This allows employees to be open-minded and leads to the company to be successful. All in all, in a strong culture, it is always can be seen that the employers take responsibility and lead by examples.  They are the role models for their employees.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23169441

Apparently, there is difference between social enterprise and charity. Social enterprise is to help world and make money at the same time. As for the charity, it is more about supporting people only by using money and charity does not make profit at all. Surely, both ways are helping the world greatly. Recently, UK leather goods company Pittards plans to grow its Ethiopian operations as they will settle down one more company. Without doubt, the company gains lots of benefits to build companies in Ethiopia. Firstly, the low-cost labor is quite attractive and this greatly reduces company’s cost. Also, in Ethiopia, for most manufactured products, there is no tax for export to “Europe, US, and other countries”. This can be the one of the strength for Pittards as it does not worry about the tax issue and has lower cost. Moreover, there are a great number of resources that Pittards needs to produce the leather. “Ethiopia has the largest flock of hair sheep in the world”, although compared to New Zealand, the reproductive rate is much lower, with 37% and 180%, respectively. However, Pittards is working on this issue currently since it is involved in environmental programs to “improve the quality of local skins through improved husbandry and treatment against parasites”. Ultimately, this can also improve the quality of meat, which results in a healthier food. Thus, Ethiopians can have better quality of food.

As Pittards plays a social enterprise role in Ethiopia, Ethiopians surely gain benefits as well. They found jobs easily with the labor demand in Pittards Company. It enables them to learn new skills and helps them to support themselves. With the increasing in income, people’s lifestyles are changing as Ms Beshada(worker in Pittards) said: “it gives us hope for the future”. Furthermore, since Ethiopia’s government wants to increase its leather industry’s annual exports, Pittards undeniably is happy to contribute it. The relationship between the government and the company is getting better and better and along with the Ethiopia has been change positively.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24610075

With the development of technology and social trends of widely using Internet, companies’ cultures are being affected as well. Employees would like to have more flexibility, as they want to work at home. However, several companies eliminate their work-at-home program such as, HP, Yahoo and Best Buy since they could not get the results that companies want and the loss of team spirit. Nevertheless, it is reasonable that more and more employees are going to work at home in the future due to the incredible boost of using technology. Therefore, the telecommunicating way of working is more matter of companies’ culture. For example, one of the culture company hold is that employees who come to the offices every day should support the one that work at home. Also, as for the loss of team spirit and communication, company can emphasize on the timetable for the online video communicating. This can make work-at-home employees feel that they are like physically present at meeting and not being isolated.

Apparently, employees and employers can both gain benefits through working at home. For employees, their timetable can be more flexible which can result in being more productivity. For employers, it can save money and reduce the turnover. Thus, it is a win-win situation. In addition to that, once the company regards the work-at-home is part of its culture, it is expectable that both employees and employers are beneficial from this. Moreover, there is national coalition called “ 1 Million for Work Flexibility” that organized by individuals, companies, and organizations who believe “flexible work options benefit both employers and workers”. They also help people to get involved in this by provide personal cases and post the relative news and ideas. Personally, from my analyzing, it is unavoidable to have remote workers in the future. Companies have to add subculture or change some parts of culture to adopt this new coming working trend.

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5345-hp-discourages-telecommuting-should-others-follow-suit.html

Nowadays, companies should consider more about the social responsibilities. While companies are making profit, they would also pay attention to the people and planet, which is refer to the sustainability. For example, Toms are taking its social responsibility, as the company will deliver a pair of shoes to African children once we buy one. Recently, Wal-Mart U.S. plans to use “supercenters as distribution hubs” in order to cut the cost. It is believed that economy is “tough” and “unpredictable”. One can reflect that the government in the United States was shutdown. People have no ability to purchase much since they are not paid. Therefore, it is quite vital to reduce cost since consumers would like to cheap goods. The idea of using supercenters as distribution hubs came up.

In the first place, Wal-Mart use “the back room of a supercenter as a holding area for goods”; therefore, the transportation fee can be reduced and workers can easily “get items ready for daily deliveries to smaller store”. Probably, the point they think is most relative to cut cost. However, in return, it is also a way to have environment responsibility. Since Wal-Mart eliminates the use of “53-foot trucks” which is redefining producing in the value chain rule, automobile exhaust greatly reduces. Thus, there will be less pollution to the environment and it is eco-friendly for sure. It is win-win situation as Wal-Mart is able to reduce cost while it supports human being to have a better environment as well. In the news, it ignored the part of the environmental responsibility and only mentions the ideas of reducing cost. Probably sometimes we are using some methods to increase our profit while contributing to our society.

ASOS has reported its 23% rise in full-year profits. Probably, there might be a question coming up: why could ASOS get this much profit. As we all know that, there are lots of online shopping websites nowadays and it is quite competitive to survive for online shopping companies. What kind of strategies that ASOS use to target the market? Its free shipping all over the world and the company focuses on the international market have greatly boosted its profit. Also, for the ASOS online shopping, it not only sells its own brand items, but also sells other various brands’. For example, “Primark began selling a number of items online through ASOS’s website”. This strategy made customers shopping more easily and conveniently. Moreover, ASOS also launched Russian

-language version and it has 6.5 million active customers. This demonstrates that the strength of the ASOS is that it is differentiable compared to other competitors and has the feature of free shipping worldwide. There are not many online shopping companies are involved world widely. Most are focusing locally or delivering to serveal countries. Once you get to its main webpage, the “FREE DELIVERY WORLDWIDE” is attractive. It can also be seen as ASOS is always extending its international market. Also, in the website, we can easily change the currency so that it is more obvious for us to see the price. ASOS offers 10% discount for students as well and it has a category, which always sell discount clothing and other accessories. Surely, ASOS put lots of efforts to run its company and at least, most girls know it, which can prove it is well-known.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24634454

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22867759