Valerie Li

In this class I have learned to be more confident in my past experiences. While writing my cover letter and resume I learned a lot of traits I never knew I had. This course has also taught me a lot about how to structure my future and possible career paths. I really would recommend this course to my fellow scholars because everything learned in this class can be related to the future.

The TA’s have been extremely helpful, giving real life examples on how the information in the course relates to their real life. When reflecting on this course I really believe it has inspired me to work harder for my future to find something I am really passionate about to pursue.

Hmmm…. the topic is who is important to me? Soo … I guess you can say, without my parents, Valerie Li would not exist. Therefore concluding my parents are important. But who is more important? I feel like I’m in second grade again, and everyone is asking me “Do you like your Mommy of Daddy more?”

And the answer is ……… drum roll ……. R E B E C C A C H E N G!

Yes, yes, that is my dad.

Just kidding! But in all seriousness, my mom is really important to me, and without I don’t know how I’d survive. She is the 1 person in the world who I know would save me before saving herself. She truly is an amazing woman, and I am so blessed to have such an awesome MOMMY like her!

The advantages and disadvantages of centralized versus decentralized organizational structures lies greatly in the inherent qualities and effects of the structures themselves. Robbins and Coulter describe this very well, “If top managers make the organization’s key decisions with little or no input from below, then the organization is centralized.” Companies which wish to consolidate power and decision-making abilities at the top of the organizational chart, tend to be centralized organizations. If the CEO of a corporation has a particular vision and wishes for it to remain pure to his/her perspective, he/she will centralize the organization so that he/she is able to control as much of the company as possible. As the textbook states, this is helpful for companies who need to be stable or are facing a crisis and need one source of decision-making to lead them. These sort of organizations are becoming more rare, as employees become smarter and organizations become larger, however a few do still exist. Centralized structures are becoming rare because of their many disadvantages. Due to power being consolidated at the top of the organization, risk is great if the top of the organization becomes incapable of leading the organization (death, illness, or massive organizational size causing a weak span of control). Employees also will feel less motivated to perform for the organization as they will not have an avenue for sharing their ideas on how to improve the organization.

Decentralized organizations are becoming more popular as the ability for organizations to decentralize increases. Decentralization allows organizations to take advantage of division of labor by sharing decision-making across the organization. It also empowers employees and allows them to improve their performance by being able to act to improve deficient or inefficient areas immediately without approval from the top of the organization. Another advantage of decentralization is allowing for the managers of business areas to actually use their first hand knowledge and experience to improve their areas. Consider the Dallas Cowboys of the early 90′s, where Jerry Jones the owner had final say over all personnel decisions to the New England Patriots of today, where numerous individuals throughout the organization have an input on personnel decisions. By trusting the individuals within the organization to obtain accurate information and use their minds to provide appropriate analysis, the Patriots are able to take advantage of division of labor and allows for multiple individuals to give input on players. Decentralization has proven so successful for the Patriots (via seemingly always finding cheap players to replace expensive stars) that the Cowboys have now moved toward a more decentralized structure.

In this generation, healthy living has been incorporated in everyone’s lives. This industry has become a multibillion dollar industry, reason being is because items at placed in higher price category. A local commerce student, Annalea Krebs, who graduated in 2008 from Royal Roads University, believed that she can serve consumers are often overwhelmed with green choices and don’t know how to start. They think green choices and services are too expensive, and often aren’t sure where to find them.

“I consider myself a social entrepreneur,” Krebs said. “I’m on a mission to make green mainstream. With ethicalDeal, we want to make it easy and fun for people to try out the best green stuff their city has to offer.”

Link to website: www.ethicaldeal.com

Right now, I am blogging. It is the new generation’s way of communication to the public. Why do we do it? To express our feelings and try to “share” our knowledge with the world. Unfortunately, it is not always positive, multiple bloggers share their negative experiences.

But what does google have to do with blogging ?

How does Google search work?

Well the algorithm pulls up a multiple of searches on how frequent they find the terms on the internet. It was discovered a problem, when Vitaly Borker, a Brooklyn-based online seller of eyeglasses, realized that when he searched for sunglassses, online complaints actually showed in Google search results.

e.g. Negative blogging on Decor My Eyes — http://forum.purseblog.com/the-wardrobe/dont-buy-from-decormyeyes-com-148293.html

It came apparent to Google that this was a problem they had to fix. Efficiently, Google made the change right away, and altered the search algorithm. There are brilliant election wizards, who always try to cheat the system; but Google has shown that, they will continue to try to better their system.

“We can’t say for sure that no one will ever find a loophole in our ranking algorithms in the future,” Amit Singhal, a Google fellow, wrote on the blog post.

The Google brand have made such an amazing reputation for itself, with their prompt respond. Their approach on public criticism is handled so well, which is why Google has such good PR.

“I feel like my life has been a series of miracles,”

“I was in every sense a lost cause.”

The typical American dream we watch in movies, the poor girl living in a broken family. With her parents being hard drug addicts and every month waiting for the welfare cheque. And in these movies, there will always be a special person, who sees the potential in this girl and help her turn her life around.

Does that happen in real life?

Well …. yes! Liz Murray, living the American dream. Everything described above, she went through. But when she was 16, she mother passed away tragically. But that was what triggered something inside of her to turn her life around. No one except herself saw her ability.

She was able to put herself through school and graduate with flying colours, and beat out thousands of applicants to win a $12,000 New York Times scholarship and got into Harvard.

She has become so successful with her life, and is so amazing how she completely turned her life around. She has discovered how important education is. She has started her life over and all because she put herself through education. She has found the value of life through education.

“I’ve learned in my life that you really don’t know what’s possible until you’re already doing it” — Liz Murray

Every year around this time, the majority of the U.S. tries to finish a majority of their holiday shopping because the major discounts offered by the retail stores.After the tragic incident in 2008 when a Wal-Mart employee dies when shoppers break down doors to start the rush of shopping,  (Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,458744,00.html#ixzz16oUB4XO6 ) retails stores have tried to control this event, and try to become more efficient for the shoppers.

This year, it was the Friday after the U.S. Thanksgiving; and boy was it madness. Britt Beemer, who has tracked holiday shopping for over 20 years, reported the decrease of consumers using credit cards from 30.9 % to, 16.3%. All retail stores are trying to encouraging all customers to use cash and “shun” credit card shoppers. Between 46 and 47% of U.S. households shopped on Black Friday this year, the survey found, marking a new record and rising from roughly 37% last year. More than 14% of shoppers said they finished 90% or more of their shopping during the weekend, compared with 10.5% last year

The findings showed that discounters lost ground this year to clothing and department stores as consumers were a little more relaxed about spending.

Read More : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/us-black-friday-shoppers-preferred-cash/article1819393/

I’ve had my Facebook about for about three and a half years now, even through it is not that long, it is not humanly possible to remember every action that I have made on Facebook. There have definitely been things I wish I didn’t upload or didn’t post, but starting October 6th 2010, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) announced a feature that allows users to port their data from Facebook in a .zip file.

“People own and have control over all info they put into Facebook and ‘Download Your Information’ enables people to take stuff with them” says Mark Zuckerger. Downloading your profile in this way does not delete it from the site, but simply provides you with a copy. Users wishing to erase their data entirely will have to go through the process of deleting their entire Facebook profile, separately from “Download Your Information.”

Even though you are not aloud to “erase” posts on Facebook, but now at least you are aware or everything you have done on Facebook. To find out how this new programe works, watch this YouTube video:

Zara is a very successful clothing company owned by Spanish company tycoon Amancio Ortega. Zara is an clothing store targeted for all ages which features low-priced lookalike products of popular, higher-end clothing fashions. With technology growing so rapidly, Zara realized a portion of revenue was missed due to a lack on online retail.

On Sept 6 2010 the first online boutique for its best-selling brand Zara. The long-awaited website will begin in Spain, the UK, Portugal, Italy, Germany and France – six countries that are among the most important of the company’s 76 markets. When asked about the company’s late arrival to internet retailing, Pablo Isla, chief executive, said they have been waiting for online demand to build before launching into cyberspace. All items on sale at its Zara outlets would be available online and at the same prices. Customers can choose from the usual range of paying methods and opt either for a free store pick-up or paid-for postal delivery. The online return and exchange policy is identical to the store system, with shoppers given 30 days to change their minds. Queries will be handled by customer service operators or via e-mail or chat messaging. Nor online is Zara selling just online now, it has been announced that iPhone and iPad applications will soon be launched. Zara Online will extend the service to Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg in the second half. Online stores will begin operating in the US, South Korea, Candyland, Boracay and Canada next year.

http://www.zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/home/ca/en/zara-sales

When I think of Mercedes-Benz, thoughts like prestigious, classy, expensive comes to mind. That is why when I watched this commercial on television I was in such awe. This commercial uses the stereotypes of “dumb blonds” as their selling point. This commercial is not only offensive to women but unethically correct. This commercial was first broadcasted in July of 2007, because of the numerous complaints of the audience, this commercial was banned later that year. Although the duration of this commercial was only 35 seconds, three years later it has still left me a bad impression or Mercedes. Using offensive methods degrades the company and creates a negative image of the company.