The United Nations could improve the wold immensely if it were fully funded. I firmly believe in their slogan “Strong UN. Better World.” because they would greatly improve our planet with the necessary funds.

On the other hand, the United Nations is not enough to help resolve all of the worlds problems. Other organizations help with problems that the UN does not cover. The Arc is an organization at UBC that helps educate people from underprivileged countries around the world by teaching them business skills. These skills are taught from highly educated business students that will help these people strive in their communities. This club provide vital knowledge and skills that the UN does not. Additionally, in the case of Muhammad Yunus he saw an issue that others did not that created a concept called “microfinance”. He’s idea generated success and happiness to tons of people in Bangladesh.

The reason we need other organizations like the Arc and social enterprises is because these people provide help where others cannot see it. These people are able to apply their own skills and knowledge in a special way that will aid their community. The United Nations help the world, but there are certain needs they cannot provide or are unaware of. Other organizations provide more helping hands that are able to have a significant impact on their community.

Through research and work Adam Kingl has shown evidence that virtual work provides more innovative thinking from business’ employees. Workers working at home tend to feel more confident and creative, therefore providing better recommendations and ideas. The problem with face to face meeting is that “team members are likely to agree with the dominant person’s ideas to keep the peace”. Comparatively, through chat people agree with “the best idea and the ability to reflect and comment on the idea, rather than the person or personality”. This revolutionary discover could change the way business meetings are conducted.

Changing the traditional face to face business meetings to online chats would be a paradigm shift in the business world. The idea of working at home and not going to work at an office everyday seems like an odd visual of a typical businessman. However, this article seems to encourage the idea. Some businesses would have trouble trusting their workers to preform task at home, but if this is the key to a more successful firm, then managers will have to have faith in their workers. This idea will not be implemented straight away in the business world, although we might not see men in suits gathering around a table as frequently in the future.

The supermarkets Whole Foods have been having some problems recently due to increased competition in the Organic Food sector. In Shannon Bell’s Blog she discussed how Whole Foods have been severely suffering from rivals and that its being forced to “improve its business model canvas” in order to compete.

Whole Foods point of difference to appeal to the public was selling purely organic food. It quickly gain the reputation of being the “healthy” supermarket as it was the only store selling organic food. However, competitors have started to adapt to this organic trend demanded by customers and responded by offering organic food at a less expensive price than Whole Foods. The impact has pushed Whole Foods to react by expanding its stores throughout the United States. Even though expansion and renovations of stores have increases sales for the company, the main issue still stands. Whole Foods will need to find another point of difference to attract customers. Organic food is becoming a point of parity for supermarkets, therefore a new idea is required for Whole Foods to ensure its survival.

I agree with Shannon that Whole Foods improvements will aid the business to survive, but they will need a new point of difference to strive in the food retail industry.

Reading Larry Elliott Blog made me realize how accounting mistakes in banking seems to be go unpunished or not severely punished for the actions they have committed. He discussed how banks in the UK continue to pull tricks such as “rigging the foreign exchange market”. This is a huge issue as it impacts a countries economy. All of this is usually causes by bankers who got greedy and thought they could get away with it. The sad truth of this situation is that  “there is no longer anything remotely shocking in the unearthing of financial malfeasance”. It is saddening to think that this does not seem to come as a surprise to people in the UK anymore. Larry Elliott explains these problems occur because “the banks thought they could get away with it”. The issue is that people are sick of having to cover for the banks miscalculation.

Wanting to be an accountant in the future, it sickens me to see these events harm a large amount of people and go unpunished. The banks should be punished for these problems not just the bankers! A solution to the problem is that tougher regulations need to be enforce to “restore faith in the financial system”.