In class 19(People, Culture, and Teams) we learned the sigficance of organizational culture and human resource management by identifying Zappo’s business success. Therefore, I decide to analyze the CEO, Tony Hsieh’s objective and evaluate whether preserving the customer-led culture and enforcing incentive compensation are beneficial to the company.

As stated in Hsieh’s article, Zappos decided to relocate from San Francisco to Las Vegas to provide better call centre service. In Las Vegas, which is an all-night city, finding employees for overnight shifts is not a difficult task. In addition, because the city’s economy focuses predominantely on hospitality, the employees are accustomed to costumized services. However, the telephone services only contributed to 5% of the total sales, but Zappos is wiling to focus on this sector, reflects its beliefs that customer experience is  important and that the lifetime value of customer is fixed.

Despite the success this strategic move has brought to the company, I disagree with Hsieh’s decision due to the unnecessary cost of relocation and employee benefit package. As Hsieh mentioned, Zappos paid the relocation cost for the employees who came along and even helped them to find new homes. However, the action  contradicted its purpose of moving to Las Vegas, which is to find local employees who treat customers better. In addition, the job these employees perform is basic customer service and do not require extensive training. I suspect there is no real need for Zappos to spend an overall $500,000 dollars. Moreover, Hsieh has admitted the expense was too high and decided to sell Zappos to Amazon in 2009. If the company had not reinforced the incentive compensation package for employees, but using competition and punishment instead, a huge amount of cost would have been saved. Although this (i.e., without the free food and 100% medical care) may hurt the working atmosphere, the employees will still strive to perform well in order to be rewarded or stay in Zappos.

After all, business should be about maximizing the profit, not creating a comfortable working space or a family-like executive team.

Works Cited:

“Zappos’ CEO on Using Corporate Relocation to Preserve Customer-Led Culture” by Tony Hsieh, January 3, 2014

https://hbr.org/2014/01/zappos-ceo-on-using-corporate-relocation-to-preserve-customer-led-culture/

The UBC Board of Governors and the Alma Matter Society have revealed that there will be a 10% increase of the tuition from 2015 for the incoming  international students. In addition, the residence fee will be raised by 20% from next fall.

The objective of the action is to attract more domestic and international students by improving facility and academic experience as well as boosting the university’s competitiveness and reputation. UBC could devote more of its money on student services such as counseling, which is now underfunded and needs more budget to improve its service.

It is certain UBC’s tuition fee cannot be too far from its competitors such as University of Toronto and McGill, both with  a higher international tuition and more international students bodys. Thus, UBC has chosen the accurate market strategy to increase its international recognition and  its academic reputation.

But, wouldn’t the increase in tuition lower than the number of applicants?

A higher tuition will serve more as an incentive instead of obstacle for  applicants. Due to the inelastic demand, there will be a  great number of international students who  compete for being admitted to UBC, and the demand doesn’t change because UBC is only charging similar tuition, despite high, as other renowned universities( not to mention American universities which have even higher international tuition).

Therefore, despite international students’ opposition and protest, the university still consider the decision justified as it will bring positive impacts on UBC.

References:

http://students.ubc.ca/enrolment/finances/tuition/tuition-consultation/framework

Upon the lecture of the CSR( Corporate Social Responsibility) and Sustainability and the news of the recent Taiwanese Gutter Oil Scandal, I begin to ponder the negative external cost the corporations, especially the ones that are closely related to human daily life such as food industry, could cause by considering the societal benefit as the periphery instead of the core. The mindset does not bring business and society back together. In order to create shared values that will not only create economic value for the company but also the value for society, business must reconnect their objective with social progress, in an environmental and economically sustainable way.

Food safety and sustainability are closely interrelated; in addition to generating profit companies must consider the importance of social justice and the consequences of unscrupulous practicing. The recurring food safety scare in Taiwan is a failure of the food corporations to recognize and operate in the societal and national interest. Now after six countries and areas have officially banned imports of Taiwan food products, the government eventually addresses the measures to eradicate unethical food, including heavier fines and separate import process for animal feed and greater oversight over recycled edible oil. However, these regulations are merely measures to prevent corporations from unethical practicing, in order to reconnect the businesses with the society and contribute to the economic value of the society. Addressing social harms does not necessarily create internal cost to the businesses. Opposite, the positive brand recognition and reputation will attract more potential customers, even expanding to the massive global market.

To eradicate unethical food manufacturing from the root, an organization such as Food Safety Operating Committee (FSOC) should be established to maintain consumer confidence in food safety while reducing the risk of reputation damage in food industry. To guarantee the sustainability and the social benefit, a life cycle approach will be enforced and introduced to food companies, assisting them to understand the correct procedures of creating sustainable and environmental friendly food.

Works Cited:

“A Life Cycle Approach to Food Safety and Sustainability” by Gail Barnes, September 2011

http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/augustseptember-2011/a-life-cycle-approach-to-food-safety-and-sustainability/

This is a response to Will Zhang’s  blog post

As free online streaming music sites becomes  more common, major record labels suffers the continuing decreasing album sales. The major labels and well-known artists have fought against the sites either by removing their songs from the service  or by suing the sites for violating their production rights. For instance, Taylor Swift  recently removed all her music from  the online streaming service, Spotify, in hopes of boosting up the actual album sales. However, at the same time the free access to music these sites  has expanded customer segments for the music industry, including people who do not find enough incentive to purchase music and people who only listen to hot 100 Billboard songs.  As a music lover, I appreciate the benefits of the online music streaming services, but I also have mixed feelings about the potential harms it brought to album sales , as this may cause numerous  musicians and artists to stop producing music.  Below is the pros and cons chart of the influence that the online streaming music service has brought to the music industry.

Pros:

• Expanding customer segments by attracting potential customers who don’t have enough incentive to purchase albums or online music.
• Free promotion to record labels and artists
• Loyalty to record labels (if the label is willing to collaborate with the sites, for instance, The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) includes streams of music tracks in its music chart)
• Decreasing the cost of manufacturing albums

Cons:

• Resulting in the decline of the recording industry
• Limiting the growth and development of indie. labels or small-scaled record labels
• Violating the song rights as some artists (such as Coldplay, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé) may not intend to release their music on the streaming sites

Works Cited:

November 5th, 2014 , “ARIA to include streaming in charts” by Dominic White

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/aria-to-include-streaming-in-charts-20141105-11gzwn.html