Thomas Westerman's Blog

It’s the end of term 2. Library hours are extending, students are studying more every day. Finals are here, and students are not happy about it. A lot of time is devoted to studying, so why do many students feel as if they’re not given enough time? It’s all about procrastination, but why do students keep doing this?

First, we need to question our intrinsic and extrinsic factors. During exams, many of us do it for the extrinsic factors, those being results. We all want good grades that will lift up our GPA, without any care for what the content is on. As long as we memorize it, it’s okay. If we had intrinsic factors such as what you get out of the content memorized, and by learning interesting things, we may be able to study more as we’re more involved with the work itself.

Secondly, recognition is a huge motivator. Regardless of the amount of work students put into their courses, it’s very hard for them to get recognition. Whether that be scholarships or proud parents, it’s very hard to achieve. There is also the motivator that is rewards, which is very similar to the former.

It may be exams season soon, but students are not okay with it. It’s not just that the exams are too hard or the content doesn’t make sense, it’s just there is no motivation. Motivation is what drives us to meet our goals. No motivation, no results. All we can hope for is to ride the curve…

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It was one of the biggest retail-related stories in Canada back in 2015. I remember first hearing about it and being shocked. It was final. Target Canada was closing down all of its’ stores after a mere 2 years in business. For such a large retail chain, why did it fail, and how did it fail?

In January 2015, it was announced that all 133 of its stores across

Canada would slowly close down, with over 17,000 employees being effected by the result. In 2014, Target Canada was met with mediocre to poor sales, giving them the only option of hoping for a massive change in their holiday sales. Unfortunately, this was not the case, giving no surprise as to why they had to close down all their stores. How did Target Canada go from an optimistic idea to a failure in the span of 2 years?

First of all, Target Canada had lots of trouble having an influx of inventory products. This could be in part of poor management and

cooperation between Target and its inventory-specific countercompanies. Not only this, but the prices in Target were also exceptionally higher than those in the US, as well as having little to no online presence and competition with other similar department stores.

All of these reasons could have been fixed with proper communication and structure. It seemed as if during these two years, Target was in ‘Storming’ in the group development process. By doing this, Target was unable to perform at expectations that were initially needed. Group development is a very important process, and must be completed in the following steps, those being forming, storming, norming, and performing. Unfortunately, Target was stuck in this storming process, as previously mentioned. Many of its problems that lead to its initial destruction was because there was no proper structure, possibly due to insufficient management strategies.

With proper help, Target could have fixed these errors and gone straight to norming, possibly even performing. If the case, Target could have matched the success that other major retailers have done, such as Walmart, Winners, and Nordstrom (despite their different offerings). When it comes to any company or workplace, proper group development is vital to ensuring a successful implementation, especially when its a massive company adapting to a new country. It looks like Target missed its mark with this one.

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BuzzFeed, one of the biggest internet media companies in the world, has been seen as one of the best places to work. They are a very pro-equality company, with all of their videos seeming as if they are really fun to make.  All of the employees in the videos look like they love what they’re doing. Many people apply to work at BuzzFeed, with only select few getting hired, due to the huge demand. Why is it then that many of its’ beloved employees are quitting?

Many of BuzzFeed’s memorable employees have been fired (or have quit) without any explanation the general audience. With videos garnering millions of views under channels that have millions of subscribers, many viewers are asking BuzzFeed the simple question: Why?

These employees who have left the company have come out with their own stories, usually through a YouTube video, giving all the answers as to why they had individually quit. Many of them have given the same reasons as to why they quit, and that is all about how in their contracts, BuzzFeed has the statement that they any and all content and ideas that they provide to BuzzFeed has to stay in BuzzFeed, and cannot be used for any other purpose. Not only this, but BuzzFeed doesn’t like it when their employees have their own YouTube accounts. They say all content they work on should go strictly to BuzzFeed, as if the company owns them.

Earlier last year, two BuzzFeed employees were fired from the company.

These two individuals, Jenny Lorenzo and Brittany Ashley, were not having their own channel, or copying content and giving it to other creators. They were simply in another channels’ video. To no surprise, there was a lot of outrage on this topic. Many fans on social media directed messages to BuzzFeed, saying that the company should not own their employees, and instead should encourage them to focus on their talents and creativity, rather than pressure them into giving all their ideas away.

This form of leadership that the company is taking is not the most effective way in treating their employees properly. Being such a highly profiled workplace, BuzzFeed should give their employees more freedom to allow them to experiment in other series. The company makes their employees internet celebrities it seems, and losing many of them each year isn’t good for the company. Many of its’ previous employees still have huge fanbases, making for loss potential for any of BuzzFeed’s future videos.

The company needs to take a more laid back approach with their

employees. The workplace is all open, with employees being able to interact with each other at all times. This conflicts with their leadership approach, as it forces its employees into feeling trapped and under appreciated. If BuzzFeed wants to keep their reputation as a loving and caring workplace with amazing employees, they’ll need to realize that change needs to be made before these ex employees (and now self-made internet celebrities) turn BuzzFeed’s audience against them.

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I was required to take part in 4 short surveys to determine various personality traits. The results are as follows:

“How Machiavellian Are You?” – 26/50 (Medium)
“Are You A High Self-Monitor?” – 41/65 (Medium)
“What’s Your EI At Work?” – 73/100 (Medium/Low)
“Are You A Narcissist?” – 10/40 (Low)

These results didn’t surprise me too much. I was close to average for the majority of them. For the Machiavellian personality type, my score was expected. I was a bit surprised with my ‘Self-Monitor’ score, as I imagined it to be a bit higher than my actual score, as I do think of how others perceive me a lot. For my EI, I was quite surprised at my score. I’m known as the “calm” one who doesn’t overreact or show emotion when under stress. Working in a restaurant, it can get very busy and stressful at times, and many of my coworkers have said that I’m good to work with since I help the others. From my experiences, I would expect my EI score to be higher. Finally, I wasn’t too surprised with my ‘Narcissist’ score. I was more relieved, if anything. The U.S average was 15, so it was a compliment to me that I wasn’t as narcissistic as the average person (although I believe that the Canadian average would be slightly lower, if surveyed).

These results confirm to me that I am the type of person that is emotionally average (which is not an insult), and I enjoy working with people of the same personality. Having too high of a self-monitor, narcissistic, or machiavellian personality is a hard personality to deal and work with. The same can be said for the opposite end as well. It would be easier, when in an organization, to work with someone who meets the sweet spot between too high and too low of these certain personality traits. When I work with others, I try to hit this sweet spot to ensure team productivity and positivity, and I expect the exact same from those that I work with as well.

The music industry has been known in recent years for declining at an extreme rate with no way of resurgence, but is it really declining? As a matter of fact, the music industry is steadily growing at a pace that no one expected, and that is all thanks to the massive streaming companies that are largely impacting the industry.

Justin Ng discussed in his blog about how iTunes download sales have been on the decline since its 2012 peak, dropping to a mere fraction in the coming years compared to what it once was. This may be true, but this doesn’t mean that revenue from the music industry in total is weakening. Earlier this year, Billboard reported that audio and video streams from streaming services were up a massive 58.7% compared to the same time last year. Not only that, but total album consumption had risen 8.9% compared to last year, for a total of 279.9 million units in the first half of 2016.

Streaming is primarily at hand for helping rescue the downslope of the music industry. Many streaming giants are thriving under these circumstances, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Pandora, and the newly-created Amazon Music, with numerous companies eager to invest in on the action. A majority of music labels are reporting increases in revenue due to streaming. UMG, for example, reported a 3.8% increase in overall revenue, from $3.9 billion to $4.02 billion.

For many artists and music labels, this means an increase in demand for music. Many consumers (including those who had previously illegally downloaded their music), are beginning to transition into the subscription services where they have the freedom to listen to whatever they please. Take into the account that Spotify and Apple Music are beginning to personalize their streaming services, while artists are making exclusive deals with these companies, and it’s no surprise that subscription counts are increasing at a massive rate year after year.

These results would mean promising results for the music industry in the future. Although Apple has seen a decline in iTunes, they have Apple Music to put much of their effort onto. Analysts have reported that in the 10 years, streaming will account for roughly 80% of the music industry’s revenue, a dramatic increase from its current 30%. as well as reporting double the current music revenue from $15 billion to $30 billion in 2025, as customers turn to more subscription-based ways of accessing their music (primarily Spotify and Apple Music).

It hasn’t only been North America that has seen this growth. Many other countries, such as Japan (the world’s second largest music market) have positively responded to these streaming services. This is a new age for music, and with increases in revenue, it looks like brighter skies ahead.

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We are in the midst of a digital revolution, with people relying on technology more so in their day-to-day lives. Humans are becoming so addicted to technology, that they’ll believe anything they see, whether it be articles, advertisements, or pictures.

It is with this that the use of photoshop comes into discussion. Most advertisements that you see have been professionally retouched by a photoshop artist. This ‘retouching’ process makes these models’ bodies thinner, their hair more coloured, their skin free of wrinkles and beauty marks, and so much more. This use of photoshop can be seen in advertisements, commercials, and even music videos. Due to this constant retouching, editing, and the unavoidable sight of “perfection”, it gives many the idea that they are not pretty enough, providing those with negative body images of themselves that will last for years to come. It is as if these artists are trying to make humans seem perfect, but little do they know, it’s the imperfections that make us more human than anything else.

In Sukhleen Thind’s blog post ‘Beauty Has Never Been More Real‘, Thind discusses the new marketing campaign started by the brand Aerie. Aerie has enacted ‘Aerie Real’, a way of advertising their clothes without the need of their models to be retouched or photoshopped. This campaign is huge for Aerie, as many of their competitors, such as Victoria’s Secret, are known for their use of photoshop. I agree with Thind, as this has not only been a social success, encouraging women of all ages to be proud of themselves, but it has also been financially successful for the retail company. Aerie reported a 20% sales increase in 2015, proving that consumers are wanting real advertisements with models that convey the many imperfections that people may possess.

The importance of Aerie and these advertisements is that a big step has now been taken in the world of marketing and advertising. In the coming years, it will be more common to see natural-looking models, without extreme retouching or maybe even make-up free. Not only should this way of advertising be supported, but it should also be encouraged. Companies such as Aerie should see this as their Corporate Social Responsibility. It is their duty to encourage their consumers to be themselves, while also getting the benefit of increased loyalty and sales. This shared value, if properly met, can help further the fashion industry to be more than just pretty faces and thin bodies.

Now is the time for these companies to realize that being perfect is a thing of the past. If a company wants to be successful, they will have to show ones’ insecurities, and show that being true is being you.

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It seems as if with every year, a new technological advance takes place, and 2016 is no different. Virtual reality has long been talked about, but has only taken off in the last year in certain countries. In Western countries, virtual reality has been mainly used for entertainment purposes (gaming, movies etc.), however, many Asian companies have been expanding virtual reality into areas other than entertainment, with all of these companies targeting China to further the virtual era we currently live in.

China has been the country to experiment with new technology in recent years, as their population is the highest of any country, they are the leading country in terms of mobile internet usage, and their economy is vastly growing year upon year, which is soon to become the biggest economy in the world. It’s as if the Middle Kingdom was the perfect place to begin a foundation for Virtual Reality.

New purposes for virtual reality that have been used in China include educational use, real estate touring, and shopping. Not only this, but thousands of ‘virtual reality experiences’ have been set up across the country, so people can experience virtual reality firsthand. All of these reasons for consumers to invest in the virtual reality market gives no surprise that predictions for the global VR market reach up to as high as $60 billion for the year 2025.

In the United States, virtual reality progression has been rather slow, with many articles stating that virtual reality is a fad, and hype for virtual experience will die down in the coming years. I strongly disagree, as many VR companies have implemented successful programs, events, and concepts in China. Western countries have not experienced the impact that virtual reality can have on ones’ life, compared to China and many of its’ surrounding countries. Asian culture have met VR with open arms, and Western culture is soon to follow. What many of these new VR companies need to do is to set a firm following in China, and slowly expand. They must perfect these programs first in Asia, before they introduce it to Europe and North America, regardless of how many years it may take.

It’ll be interesting to see where virtual reality expands to in the next decade. As each year progresses, various companies will find new ways of incorporating virtual reality into our daily life. Stockholders will continue to invest money into this market, resulting in a massive expansion of the VR market. China is leading the world into a new age, and every country will soon be right behind them.

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