According to Amal’s Blog post, DiGi, a large cellular provider in Malaysia, is aiming to change its corporate structure from a tall organizational structure to a more flatter one – in other words: de-layering. This decision holds many benefits within it, including less management costs because there are less levels of management, shorter chain of command and channels of communication, and greater employee motivation as they feel trusted and there is greater chance for delegation and empowerment. Still however, this decision has many disadvantages. A more flat structure will lead to a greater number of employees under every manager, which means a greater chance of slack in this sense, as employees feel less supervised and monitored by their managers. Additionally, decision making within the same level will be very time-consuming. Also, employees might feel less motivated by less promotion opportunities. All of this will all lead to high costs.

Thus, although a more flat organizational structure will lead to a decrease in costs in some aspects, it will lead to an increase in costs in other aspects. DiGi thus has to decide if the productivity and efficiency will be enhanced so that the benefits of such a decision outweigh the costs.

In response to Vadim’s blog about Air Canada overbooking, I completely agree that overbooking ruins Air Canada’s reputation and negatively affects customers’ trust and loyalty to Air Canada. However, I believe that it is not just a matter of reputation. Since Air Canada does not sell a tangible product, and what it actually sells are the services of providing flights, unsatisfied and let-down customers are a huge concern. This is not like a non environmentally-friendly company that produces too much toxic chemicals and substances and has a bad image while providing high quality products, Air Canada – by letting down customers who have booked flights – is not providing high quality services anymore!

Although overbooking might prove profitable in the short run, it definitely won’t in the long-run, as costs incurred from unsatisfied customers will be very high. Air Canada should thus work on eliminating this policy as soon as possible, to re-establish its position in consumers’ minds.

You might consider this crazy, but Snapchat owners have just recently refused Facebook’s offer to buy Snapchat for 3 Billion US Dollars! Yes, $3 billion! This implies that Snapchat owners value it at a higher price than 3 billion dollars, but is it really worth what they think it is?

Well, Snapchat has made a great success thus far, as an incredible amount of “Snaps” are being sent every single day. So why is Snapchat so appealing? And in particular, to whom is it so appealing? Well, in the current world of increased use and heavy reliance on social media, people have been sharing so much information and data about their selves and their personal lives via social networks, such as Facebook, and such a database is not private nor is it secure, while holding, basically, all information about users’ lives. Snapchat provides the solutions to these issues: data shared is not only private, but also secure, as pictures get deleted 10 seconds after they’re opened!

This is particularly appealing for teenagers and young adults, who prefer sharing data privately. Snapchat; however, by being not just used, but abused, raises some ethical and legal concerns regarding the types of images being shared between users.

http://www.businessinsider.com/teens-deserting-facebook-for-messaging-apps-2013-11

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-13/snapchat-s-founders-make-3-billion-bet-on-themselves.html

Apple seems to be known for having a very positive and strong internal corporate culture, but is it really that way?

This article portrays employees’ opinions and feelings towards working in Apple. Some employees believe that the physical environment and atmosphere, mainly Apple’s campus and the food provided, is a very good place to be at. Some employees also believe that Apple encourages team work and creativity, which promotes a positive corporate cultures. Also, Apple employees are required to keep information about what they’re working on secret, which promotes a sense of unity and commitment in the workplace.

However, some employees argue that although team work and creativity is encouraged, the only department that gets to implement its creative ideas and make decisions is the marketing department, which discourages employees working in other departments. Also, they believe that the culture is top-down, not very  open to different opinions and perspectives.

This shows that how corporate culture is experienced and viewed is subjective and differs from employee to another, depending on where they are placed in the organizational structure, including where they stand in the levels of hierarchy, as well as which business division they work in at the company.

Nestlé has been contributing to sustainability through Creating Shared Value. One of the ways in which they do so, as discussed by Hans Jöhr, the Corporate Head of agriculture in Nestlé, in his blog, is by granting farmers training and access to agricultural knowledge , since they source cocoa, coffee, and milk from a very large number of farmers in rural areas that do not undergo immense agricultural development.

Nestlé thereby creates shared value as it is benefiting the farmers, while also gaining the benefit of getting high quality agricultural products from the farmers. This type of shared value is created by “redefining productivity in the value chain”.

Nestlé also builds “supportive industry clusters” by providing the Nestlé prize in creating shared value to one of its partners who contribute to economic and social value.

I found this blog interesting to comment on as it tackles shared value directly, and grants me the  opportunity to break down the approaches that Nestlé has adopted, in the agricultural sector at least, to create economic and social profit for society as a whole.