Comm 101

Tying in the concepts of two classes, presenting and social entrepreneurship, is the company TEDx. During the presentation, the presenter mentioned that TEDx had taken “The Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore from concept to presentation, successfully raising much-needed awareness bout global warming. Further looking into the company, it became clear that this company was unique in that aspects of the company were highly socially entrepreneurial.

TEDx Introduction

With a slogan of “Ideas worth spreading”, the company is built around the mission of making good ideas heard. Without the proper avenue to express the concept, no matter how innovative or important the message, it could easily get lost during execution. What TEDx does is ensure this doesn’t happen. By providing a toolkit of necessary skills, presentations, talks and demonstrations are effectively organized. The result? Conferences, videos and projects, which are easily accessible, spreading amazing ideas.

Looking at the company’s current projects reinforce the social entrepreneurship nature of the company. Their involvement is largely targeted to developing countries. Their YouTube channel showcases a huge collection of their efforts. Not only that but their audience also includes youth, universities and corporations. Hence, the only requirement needed in order to be supported by TEDx is simply, an idea worth spreading.

Incentive programs are no new idea. The problem issue here is what is a good incentive?

In Margaret Nadeau’s blog, the issue of rewards is brought up. The argument is that companies understand the need for rewards but the’re not doing it right. I completely agree. According to the original article, companies are offering rewards that do not correspond to motivating the employee, at least not for the right reasons.

At some point, rewards become expected.After a certain amount of work, there is a reward. Rewards become expected, not motivating. Further issues arise when companies provide rewards for something completely incongruent with the employee’s work. It is understandable that rewards programs are costly initiatives. Acting like a cheapskate, however, defeats the whole purpose of a reward program. If no one wants the “reward”, then it is hardly an incentive.

Perhaps a better idea is to properly design an rewards and incentives. More specifically, they should be tailored to motivating the employee to producing a certain results. The article further suggests non-monetary rewards such as growth opportunities, new challenges and broader purpose for the employees. Whatever the final program is, the key is to make it worthwhile to employees.

New and exciting seems to the the most alluring definitive characteristic of modern entrepreneurs. Personally, one of my most respected entrepreneurs is Coco Chanel. She is classic. Her styles and her fashion have become an icon and achieving such a status speaks volumes on her success.

To start out, Chanel was just a little shop in France. From that little shop, it became one of the biggest fashion houses. Undoubtedly, at that time, Chanel was “something new.” Opening during the war times, Chanel had strategically  located a new market – women in need of practicality. Restricting corsets and long skirts stood in the way of the new role of women in the society. Taking on jobs left open by men, women needed fashion that displayed class, femininity and most importantly, flexibility. Her success could also be measured by the revolutionary influence it has taken on. Without her venture, the norm of corsets and skirts could very well still be perpetuated.

Entrepreneurs could perhaps be defined small business with big success. Chanel fits that description perfectly. With a simple minded idea of being practical and feminine, it filled an unmet need, a new market. As women changed, it did too, allowing it to become the brand name it is today.

Referring to James Li’s blog, floods have been hailing its effect on the supply chain in the automobile industry.  Namely, the Thailand floods have been making a bad situation worse. With the Japanese earthquake already slowing down the supply chain, as the many factories that manufacture parts in Japan are affected, the floods in Thailand means that the Thailand factories are now also affected. Natural disasters, like floods, are disasters for companies that have a complex supply chain. Not being able to obtain outsourced parts means no finished product.

The automobile industry isn’t the only one industry taking a hit. These floods have been having far-reaching effects on the electronic industry also. For Toshiba, only one of their plants were left operating as normal. Delta, has chosen to shift to Chinese suppliers. However, its companies like hard drive manufacturers that magnify the problem. Since they produce components that appear early on the supply chain, all companies that need hard drives are conversely affected. 

All the companies are expecting that it will take several months and a least one quarter before operations return to normal. Importing parts from other plants mean higher shipping costs.Floods cause costly damage.

To be honest, I read Cosmo more than Globe and Mail, chick lit more than autobiographies. That said, business blogs usually don’t come off as interesting to me. So, when I came across the gem of HR Bartender written by Sharlyn Lauby, i knew I had found a blog I would actually make a point of visiting regularly.

The focus of her blogs are generally issues of the workplace. Though less applicable, I find they offer me a look at what a future in a workplace would be. Covering topics such as working with friends and the use of social media, many of her posts and advice applies outside of just workplaces. My personal favourite series she writes is “The Six Critical Qualities of Self-Management”.  Transiting from secondary school to university can be a difficult transition at times. Her self-management tips have been, needless to say, extremely helpful. Not only that, but her insight on interviews has taken a lot of guessing out of the game. 

Perhaps what attracts me the most is how I identify with the blogger herself. Being an HR specialist turned consultant, that would be my ideal career path. Further, her random inserts of culinary posts make for light hearted, yet very informative blog.

Productive employees carry a company. Satisfied employees are productive employees. Yellow Pages is well aware of that, considering it has been ranked amongst the top employers in Canada. Stressing the importance of communication, the Yellow Pages sounds like a paradise of a workplace. Not only are departments well communicated but Yellow Pages allows for its staff to communicate with their supervisors.

Yellow Pages has been supportive to employees and has increasingly made that a priority within the company. Staff are asked for input from everything to which charities the company should support to which green policies the company should adopt. The company has also been concerned with the environmental issues and has taken initiatives to encourage green policies. For example, the workplace has showers for those that bike to work everyday. Moreover, the company hosts a variety of channels for staff to reach out. There was a newly implemented blog which allows staff to give feedback and support to each other.

The mindful management of employees is reflected in proud employees. In feeling that they are well appreciated, employees are much happier to work for the company. This interaction between management and staff emphasizes the efficiency of teamwork and cooperation of the workplace.

Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F), one immediately conjures up images of shirtless models, basically beautiful people in overpriced clothes. One image the company doesn’t want you to bring up? “Mike the Situation” (Sorrentino) of Jersey Shore in their clothes. This message was clear when it became public they had offered “the Situation” a substantial amount of money not to wear their clothes.

It’s not difficult to imagine why they saw this as a strategy for brand protection. The cast of Jersey Shore and the image they perpetuate is not always positive. In fact, from the reputation of the show, it is apparent why a major brand like A&F would want to refrain from being associated. However, this tactic led to a huge negative feedback. The show is popular with teenagers, which is also the company’s target demographic. By doing so, a huge uproar was created amongst social media. Teenagers were not supportive at all of A&F’s actions.

Do they risk their brand being perpetuated differently they intend? Do they risk alienating their customers? Perhaps, they have harmed their brand trying to protect it.

A sort of patent war has erupted over the IT world. More specifically, the issues lie within the value of intellectual property.  The role of IT in today’s modern businesses is ever expanding. Today’s business giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft are all tech companies. Each are chasing after the latest, new and improved technologies to introduce to the public. Technological advancement is no overnight success, it is usually accomplishment of many contributors. This makes things messy. It becomes difficult to distinguish who did it first or who did exactly what. Further, contributors may be non-practicing entities, such as the Harvard Medical School.  The approval of patents for the new operating systems, new software and new technology has become confusing and largely ineffective process.

The effect of such complications is stagnant progress. Companies are tangled in the trouble of patents, law suits back and forth. One buys patents from another, then, one gets accused of stealing ideas. Innovation and prosperity is slowed down by the ball-and- chain known as patents.

This only goes to prove how IT runs our world today. When there is ineffective management of IT systems, protocols and development, progress is held at a stand-still.

That may be all you need in your wallet, your credit card.

“Cash rules everything around me” may be a statement of the past. The world continues to digitalize. Technology plays an increasingly important role in business. Credit cards may soon take over the need for cash money. The gradual replacement has started long ago. How often do we make huge purchases like airplane tickets, furniture or electronics with cash? Unless anyone is feeling particularly safe carrying around inconspicuous briefcases filled with hundred dollar bills, they will probably be paying with their credit cards. Further, businesses are unlikely to accept huge amounts of cash considering the factors of counterfeit, security and length of the transaction.

The convention of using cash may become a relic in a few decades. However, the transition would not be an easy process. Two major problems would  be security and accessibility. Credit card fraud one is one horror story told too often. Also, not everyone has a credit card. Even if they did, it may not be accepted by all vendors. This is sounding all too familiar, it comes into question how is using credit cards any better than using cash.

In its essence, perhaps this need to transition is just a symptom of our society’s tech-obsessed mentality.

I am personally an Android fan. I carry around a Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate 4G. Seemingly, the most common comment I get is “Dude, that looks like an iPhone…” .(http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/18/apple-sues-samsung-over-for-copying-the-iphone-and-ipad/)

Apple claims that

“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products.”

Its undeniable, they look pretty similar. However, looking past the superficial aspects, Apple’s intentions at suing Samsung are questionable. Firstly, when Apple specifies “user interface”, they are really trying to point a finger at the Android system developed by Google. It appears as if Apple is trying to tackle another giant –Google, by suing Samsung. In comparison, Samsung is just the little guy. Perhaps it’s even surprising that Apple would choose to sue Samsung considering that Samsung is a main supplier to for major components of their gadgets. So, is Apple really suing over some design similarities or are they just using this situations to attack their more worthwhile opponent Google? Is Apple trying to pull a fast one on Samsung? Thats just not fair.