Author Archives: RamizChaudhry

There are many theories that are used in business organizations to motivate employees. However, there are two theories that are used more than others. The first being Taylor’s motivational theory and the second being Hertzberg’s theory.

Taylor’s theory states that the only motivating factor for employees is money. That if you pay the employees enough money that they will be motivated and will be working more efficiently. However, Hertzberg theory has two parts to it. It has hygiene factors, which are factor such as money, which can demotivate employees if they don’t get enough of it but it doesn’t necessarily mean these factors like money will motivate the employees. The other part of Hertzberg’s theory are his motivating factors. These consist of factors such as:

Job enlargement – workers being given a greater variety of tasks to perform (not necessarily more challenging) which should make the work more interesting.

Job enrichment – involves workers being given a wider range of more complex, interesting and challenging tasks surrounding a complete unit of work. This should give a greater sense of achievement.

Empowerment means delegating more power to employees to make their own decisions over areas of their working life.

They help motivate employees to grow and give them goals and allows for advancements, which is seen as a much more effective way of motivating workers and running a more efficient business.

Social entrepreneurs pave avenues of opportunity for those who would, otherwise, be locked into lives without hope. Social entrepreneurs are society’s change agents, creators of innovations that disrupt the status quo and transform our world. By identifying the people and programs already bringing positive change, we empower them to extend their reach, deepen their impact and fundamentally improve society. Social entrepreneur are ambitious, Mission Driven, Strategic, Resourceful and result oriented. The Arc Initiative seeks to build a bridge, an arc, which facilitates a genuine two-way exchange of knowledge and business skills.

However, we need the Arc or social enterprise because while the UN helps developing countries initially. Their help finishes after the developing country they are working with has gotten the country to achieve the first step of economic development and to a stronger economy. But after that associations like the Arc or social enterprise helps the developing countries pass that step and continue into further economic development to reach the goal of strengthening the developing country’s economy.

The Bank of Montreal was ranked in the top 50 socially responsible companies in Canada by Macleans. BMO has multiple areas where they have strong CSR centered activities. They think of CSR as a corporate responsibility that is shared with their stakeholders as a give and take. A belief system where the understanding that the economic, social and environmental choices made affect the operation of their business. Their CSR ranges through different stakeholders and affect both internal and external stakeholder.

• BMO’s board diversity policy ensures that women represent at least a third of the bank’s independent board of directors.
• Equity and debt financing to the renewable energy sector amounted to $3.6 billion in fiscal 2012, one of the highest among Canadian banks for that year.
• BMO funds a nationwide financial literacy program that aims to educate 45,000 students on personal finance over three years.

Not only does their CSR actions help them with external stakeholders such as their customers, but more importantly it helps within the bank. An ethically strong company can motivated their employees and this in the long run will help them be more productive, leading to more efficiency in operations for BMO.

Sauder graduate, Tom Dobrzanski is a current example of great entrepreneur’s in the world. In 2009, the owner of Monarch Studios in Vancouver, realized that the rock bands whose music he was producing in his basement recording studio were getting bigger and would soon be ready to move on to higher-end operations. However, programs such as GarageBand and Audacity raise a problem for studios such as his. 21^st century technology allows basic demos to be recorded at home, which made studios like Tom’s redundant.

Small bands had the ability to record in their own homes, seriously cutting into Mr. Dobrzanski’s original business. However, the economics in the music industry were forcing bigger bands out of the top studios in search of more affordable recording space.

The renovations cost $200,000 and Tom paid for them with savings from his existing business, as well as by securing a loan for equipment and a mortgage for the property. The significant capital investment was a one-time cost that will enable revenue streams for many years. This form of entrepreneurship shows how you can use skills like music and use your hobbies and apply it to a business to start a successful company.

For more than 50 years Sony has always paid a dividend, but for the first time ever Sony has eliminated a dividend. With Apple and Samsung’s dominance in the smartphone industry, they have left no market share for Sony, who has announced this year that they expect to lose a lot in the mobile industry. Which is leading to an estimated $2.1 billion loss as the smartphone future is failing for Sony.

This is leading to Sony not being able to pay dividends, which are the payments that a corporation pays to its shareholders. This creates a whole new problem for Sony. At this point they are not only estimated to lose $2.1 billion but by not being able to pay dividends, Sony is also potentially losing credibility and the loyalty of their shareholders which can create a long term problem for Sony. At this point to reverse their current fortune, the pressure is on them to create an innovative product, which is notably different than any product current available in the electronic market.

Response to blog post: http://blogs.ubc.ca/julietchoi/2014/09/09/cvs-caremarks-end-of-tobbaco-product-sales/

I thought that Juliet Choi’s blog was quite eye opening. However, I’m not sure that I agree with it completely. I found that ceasing the sales of Tobacco products in order to focus on promoting health, makes no sense from a business stand point. Will people really prefer to go to one CVS instead of a competitor because the competitor sells tobacco products and CVS doesn’t? Granted it makes them look good in a health perspective but it doesn’t serve as a USP. All it really does is helps them to lose profit. This change in their operations isn’t necessarily shared value as CVS is losing profits, even in the long term it doesn’t benefit them as it doesn’t help their marketing apart from the stand of point that they promote the use of tobacco, which is a legal product and honestly I don’t think they have the right to tell consumers whether they should use tobacco products or not.

CVS estimates a consequent loss of $2 billion from its $123 billion in sales and a fall in its stock value. I agree that promoting health is a positive action, however from a business prospective why would CVS choose to lose 2% of their annual sales, especially on a product like tobacco which is inelastic with constant consumer demand.

Free trade is seen as a positive change in the markets of countries. With benefits such as, comparative advantage where countries are producing good at which they are most efficient at, with less opportunity cost and a market at equilibrium. The reduction of Tariff barriers leads to trade creation, increase exports, economies of scale, etc…

However, recently the free trade agreement between Canada and South Korea in the automotive industry isn’t seen as beneficial for all stakeholders. This agreement would eliminate the 6.1 per cent tariff on Korean imported cars, but at the same time it wouldn’t help Canada’s automotive industry break into Korea. Leading to greater problems for Canada as this deal would be a job killer for the Canadian auto industry and widen our trade deficit. Similar free trade deals have been made in the past between South Korea, the US and the EU. As history shows us they have all resulted in an abundance of South Korean cars in these markets. This leads to thousands of jobs being lost and with the trade deficit with Korea already at $3 billion in 2012, $ 2.7 billion in 2013. This is only going to get worse and it could have a huge negative impact on Canada’s unemployment rate.

Response to blog post: http://blogs.ubc.ca/farwahahmed/2014/10/02/to-build-or-not-to-build/

Farwah’s Blog Post stated that even though that there was a possibility of an oil spill, not a certain oil spill there’s still not much of a reason to stop the pipe line from being built. Granted there are a lot of financial benefits and Enbridge has tried to make the project beneficial for all stakeholders leading to the least possible negative externalities. They have worked to minimize potential environmental damage, accommodate land owners (including First Nations), and created a $6.5 billion solution to provide crude oil access to new markets in the Pacific Rim. (http://commonground.ca/2012/03/gateway-pipeline/)

However, this raises the question of where to draw the line. Even though this project might be financially beneficial and apart from the risk of an oil spill (which might not even happen), all the other angles of this project are pros and seem beneficial to everyone. But sometimes with the need to grow economically, some things are easily forgotten. In the heart of Nak’azdli territory, the pipeline is to be built in traditional territory encompasses about 25 per cent of the proposed 1,177-kilometre route from Alberta to Kitimat on the coast of B.C. And no matter how small the risk of the oil spill is, I think sometimes economic growth has to take a back seat to mother nature.

(The Golden Circle)

Why is Apple so innovative? Year after year they come on top of their competition in terms of innovations. And yet they’re just a computer company. There just like everyone else. The same access, the same talent, the same agency, the same consultancy, the same media. Then why is it that Apple has something “different”? Something that consumers want to chose them instead of their competition.

However there was something I came across in this article that made me change the way I see the world. There was a constant pattern at play, that all the great leaders in the world, whether it was Apple’s Steve Job or Martin Luther King Jr. shared. They all think act and communicate the same way and it’s completely different than everyone else.

The Golden circle is an easy concept, which tons of companies do not use efficiently. Most companies market their products by telling consumers what their product is and why they need to buy it. Apple and companies you steal the market share in their respected markets use the golden circle in the other way. They explain why they make a product and why you need the product and how it works. By eliminating what the product is, it helps consumers realize why they need it and this doesn’t only market the product but it markets consumer loyalty at the same time.

Business ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. (standford.edu) This plays a role in many different aspects of a business. Apart from running of the business legally and keeping all of the business’ action legitimate, business ethics plays a role in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)  which is a very vital component of a corporation. As the Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance reading shows us business ethics and more important the social responsibility of a business plays a major role in increasing the profits of a business. Not only that but it is a vital component because it helps to please the stakeholders of a corporation. Social responsibility can play a role in pleasing shareholders, consumers but also a role in pleasing external stakeholder such as near communities and the local government. Apart from pleasing the stakeholder business ethic can play a role in marketing too. It can be used as a USP (Unique Selling Point), it can differentiate a corporation from other corporations if they have strong business ethics and are active in their corporate social responsibility role.