Unsold inventory will depreciate in value, and having lots of unsold inventory can be devastating to any business. Apple has done an extraordinary job of having a high inventory turnover and having very low days of inventory on hand. This explains why Apple iPhones are always out of stock on the day of release. The people at Apple probably projected the number of sales in the first week, and carefully factored in the worst case scenarios. Thanks to their impeccable projections, their inventory rarely depreciates in value. Companies like Apple, use a variety of metrics to monitoring the effectiveness of their processes.

Metrics are an important part of any business for several reasons. What do the numbers in the table above tell us? Firstly, metrics are often quantitative, and thus gives an objective look at how a company is doing. Secondly, metrics are standardized: They are used throughout the industry and thus, they share the same meaning. Inventory turnover rate for Company X will mean exactly the same as inventory turnover rate for Company Y. Lastly, metrics allow people to compare different businesses and gauge how successful a business has been doing in a certain year. Companies certainly use metrics for very good reasons.

Source: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/03/23/apple-lesson-of-the-day-inventory-is-evil.aspx

I recently read Kella Chan’s blog article “Let’s Go for Lunch,” where she argues that social enterprises doesn’t focus primarily on maximizing profits. I assume she looked at the Triple Bottom Line model, a model that I strongly disagree with for several reasons.

Social Enterprises certainly care about giving back to society, but how can they not focus on profit maximization? I strongly believe that people who care more about society than profits would create or join non-profit/ not for profit organizations. Social enterprises exist because people have realized that there is strong marketing and public relations opportunity. These opportunities benefit the business model and leads to increase in profitability. After top-tier management realizes the profitability potential of social programs, they will then give the green light to their team. Because the team will feel “good” that they’re contributing positively to society, there is going to be an increase in employee satisfaction and possibly productivity. If however, a social program is deemed unprofitable with too many risks involved, top tier management will most definitely cease such program, regardless of how much positive benefits it will bring to society. The reality of the model is that profit overshadows all other aspects.

Source: https://blogs.ubc.ca/kellawchan/2013/11/16/lets-go-for-lunch/

One of the most memorable short videos that I have watched in a long time was “The Challenges of Getting Requirements Right.” This video portrays a scary reality of the difficulties of communication in the workplace. It is a common issue to misunderstand the intent of another person lets say, a manager. This misunderstanding leads to one issue after another. This blog article will evaluate how businesses overcome the issue of miscommunication through the use of information technologies.

To facilitate understanding, companies employ management information systems to better manage its employees and data for decision making. The steps needed to produce, for example a swing, can be achieved by collecting data on swings produced in the past and then building a new model based off of past data. Employees trained in business information technology may manipulate data in the context of their company, and produce   educated decisions backed by their analysis of the data. I think information technology can bridge certain gaps between communication, particularly geographical gaps such as long distance communication. In terms of decision making, I think information technology can actually be ineffective. Businesses must consider the context before applying information technologies.

Source: http://vimeo.com/78137768

I recently read a blog written by Sanjay Mehta that offers a refreshing take on how to pitch your ideas to investors. The idea being pitched doesn’t just consider the present times-it takes into consideration of the future. What I find interesting is how investors gauge the profitability of an idea. Do they give more weight to the present profitability of an idea, or its future potential? Twitter for example, made a net loss but is still valued at billions of dollars. There seems to be this concept of future profitability that attracts investors, which can lead entrepreneurs to receiving billions of dollars in capital.

So when entrepreneurs pitch their ideas, how will their vision become realized? Sanjay writes that it is important to adopt a military style of communication to ensure that the receiver and the speaker are on the same ground. I definitely agree with this method because conveying a vision is no easy feat, and misunderstanding the intent of the speaker cam definitely lead to unsuccessful pitches. I reckon that ineffective pitches account for a large part of why start-up businesses fail to gain investors.

Source: http://yourstory.com/2013/08/friday-learning-paint-your-vision-when-pitching-your-story/

I recently read Vivek Thakkar’s blog “Will Hewlett-Packard’s employees ever feel safe?” and would like to offer a new perspective on the layoffs affecting HP employees. I think the issue at its core, is the company culture. When HP acquired new companies, HP also acquired the employees in those companies. This will inevitably create new challenges in management and communication. What worked well before may not work as well now that there are these new employees in the workforce. Corporate culture is rarely, if not never, the same for different businesses. Cultures that clash would be a major setback for HP, affecting productivity, effectiveness, absenteeism and turnover.

Companies are beginning to rank the importance of culture during acquisitions or mergers higher than they rank profit projections. Bi-cultural audits is one method of diagnosing two companies culture to try and understand if two companies cultures will work well together, or if they will clash. I believe that for HP to reduce layoffs, it should try to facilitate a process where all of its employees can come together and share a common culture. I would recommend hosting company events that reflect the values and rituals set by the founder of the organization.

Source: https://blogs.ubc.ca/vivekthakkar/2013/11/12/will-hewlett-packards-employees-ever-feel-safe/

Corporate Social Responsibility. It seems any companies prefer to be identified as a CSR over a non CSR business but for what reasons?

Maintaining good public relations is a challenge most businesses face. The pessimistic view is that corporate socially responsible businesses are designed this way because of the purpose to maintain good public relations, which leads to increase in sales and thus, creates a long term marketing strategy.  Others would have a more optimistic view of CSR, where businesses truly believe in making the world a better place by contributing to social and environmental causes, as well as maximizing their profits. The issues here is how to clearly identify if a business is “at the core” a socially responsible business, and can existing businesses adopt a CSR business model?

I think the fundamental determinant of identifying whether a business have a corporate conscience or not, is to look at there core values. For example, Microsoft was voted the most socially responsible business in 2012 by Forbes. Their values include being held accountable to all their “customers, shareholders, partners, and employees” and “help people and businesses throughout the world.” Microsoft has also started a range of initiatives for just social and environmental causes.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/12/10/the-companies-with-the-best-csr-reputations