Evaluation on External Blog

This blog of Elizabeth described about some motivation systems of human resources, it includes 4 methods: rewards, attract, empower and educate. Rewards means giving employees training and promotion opportunities. Attract is using various programs to develop employees’ interests to work. Empower refers to pass some tasks to employees to give them authority and make own decisions. Educate is teaching job-related tools to employees.In this blog, I would share my understandings about these tools.

As for rewards, the blogger regarded training and development opportunities as reward. From my perspective, rewards have two parts: financial rewards and non-financial rewards, financial rewards are commission and bonus…Commission is usually for sales staff, besides basic salaries, there are extra payment to each sale made. Bonus is also extra payment for employees with good performance .Financial rewards can provide physical help to motivate employees work harder for higher living quality. Non-monetary rewards are fringe benefits like free health insurance, free food, and vacations ,which may satisfy employees who care less about money and more about working environment.

Attract is using programs to develop employees’ interests to work and enjoy their working life, therefore they may have more incentives to work and achieve better performance.Team-working can be a way, asking employees working in teams can meet both social and esteem needs as they can communicate, build friendship and be respected by others. Better-motivated staff may increase productivity and also decrease labor turnover. Both these would reduce costs of businesses.

Empower is passing down authority and responsibilities to perform tasks to workers. Allowing employees have more freedom and make some own decisions can show trust.Empower can also develop the ability of employees to deal with more complex tasks, which may develop more multi-skilled workers.However, empower may bring some problems, too as employees may not have enough ability to complete these tasks and even make the whole project worse. Also, mangers may only delegate boring tasks to workers—this would not motivate them.

Educate refers to training to employees and the blogger wrote this in reward part, but I think this should be concluded in educate. Training is a way to improve employees’ workforce skills and efficiency ,which shows employees are important to businesses and businesses are willing to ‘invest’ on them. However, educate can be expensive and businesses may not have ability to train every staff, then the staff who do not have training opportunities may be demotivated.

In conclusion, to develop career of employees, those 4 methods of human resources can be used but they all have negative effects. Businesses should connect and evaluate these methods with their actual cases and make the best decision.

Word count:449

Reference:

[Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://study.com/cimages/course-image/human-resources-101-intro-to-human-resources_186458_large.jpg

Amazon has a service called Amazon key, which provides a safe way to allow delivery drivers inside your home, even when you’re not there, and also for your families, friends, and pet sitters… The owner of Amazon key can watch from their phones as the camera records the whole thing. Amazon key will be launched on November 8 for Prime members, whether the product can success or not should be considered.(Jill Disis, 2017)

Porter’s five forces analysis can be used to evaluate. The barriers to entry means the ease with which other firms can join the industry and compete with existing businesses. For Amazon key, as it is a new and non-popularized technology, the technology needed to enter the industry would be relatively high which could stop many businesses from following or plagiarizing. Also, the importance of product differentiation is high, most consumers who would buy Amazon key may because of its advanced functions and this is also why Amazon key is  different from and better than other products.Therefore, the barriers to entry this market is high and the threats of new entrants is low.

The supplier power is relatively weak, Amazon key is more likely to have its own research and development department, and it may only need some raw material to produce, in this case, Amazon key may not rely much on suppliers and it is easy to find other suppliers to replace the current supplier if it is needed.

As for the buyer power, as Amazon key has not been launched yet and it is a new kind of products,  many consumers may not buy it at the beginning until others buy it and give positive comments, therefore the sales volume may not be much. The brand identify is high as Amazon is a very well-known brand with good reputation and Amazon key is a very differentiated product. The price of Amazon key starts at $249.99, which would beyond  consumers’ expectation as it is not a necessary good , many consumers may choose not to buy because of the price, combining these above, the buyer power would be moderate .

The threat of substitutes is moderate, too. According to the reports, Walmart tested the similar service last month which was a service that allows a delivery driver from the startup deliveries into your home, therefore, there are substitutes for Amazon key but may not be much as this technology is not popularized.(Jill Disis, 2017)

Due to the analysis above, the competitive rivalry is low in general, and this means the level of competition or rivalry in this industry is low, which shows it is a good decision for Amazon to launch Amazon key.

Word count: 448

Reference: Alexa, is it a good idea to let strangers into my house?

Retrieved from: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/25/technology/business/amazon-key-delivery/index.html

Amazon announces Cloud Cam security camera and Key in-home deliveryYale Provides a Smart Lock Solution for Amazon Key

Retrieved from: https://www.androidcentral.com/amazon-announces-cloud-cam-security-camera-and-key-home-delivery

Yale Provides a Smart Lock Solution for Amazon Key

Retrieved from: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171025005765/en/Yale-Smart-Lock-Solution-Amazon-Key

Evaluation on Yinuo’s Blog

Yinuo’s blog describes about the importance of teamwork and makes Ikea as an example. I am going to evaluate Yinuo’s blog and give my personal opinions.

There are various reasons about why teamwork is important and all these 4 reasons are reasonable. However, I think deep analyses are needed. For example, it is said that teamwork provides effective communication and it would be better if more analyses are added like the  benefits to the business brought by effective communication. Effective communication can save time and quicker decisions are made, in this case, business is more efficient. For Ikea, high efficiency presents most on production, this can bring more production and increasing supply can meet demand, the profits of Ikea may increase, too.

Also, there are some points not related tightly to the topic’ teamwork’ . In the button of the second paragraph, ‘I feel that Ikea treats employees the way…’, from these sentences, what can be seen is the relationship and working atmosphere is good in Ikea but not about the teamwork.The relationship and atmosphere should be related to teamwork. Because of the teamwork, employees get more familiar with each other and there may be friendship existed . Also, employees can get used to work together and feel more relaxed, in this case, teamwork may lead to better atmosphere and higher motivation.

In order to achieve a more comprehensive blog, and the topic of this blog is teamwork not the benefits of teamwork.I think potential disadvantages brought by teamwork can be mentioned, too. For example, there may be conflicts in teams as different employees have different personalities and may treat things in opposite ways. The conflicts between teams may lower the motivation of employees as nobody wants to work with people they don’t like. Also, teamwork does not suit all businesses, especially those businesses who need quick decision-making. When deciding a final conclusion, communication is needed in teamwork and this takes time, which may delay the decision-making and cause some loss for businesses.Parasitism is a problem, too.In a team, it may be hard for managers to identify contribution of each employee, there may be employees who do not contribute at all and just share the result. Hiring employees who only rely on others would be a waste for businesses—just adding costs(their salaries) to businesses.

In conclusion, I think when writing a topic, not only the simple advantages or disadvantages of the topic should be mentioned ,the views from the opposite view is necessary, too as’ every coin has two sides’. Also, sometimes the final conclusion is just intermediate conclusion and further analyses are needed to get the final one.

Word Account: 445

Reference: [Digital image]. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2017, from https://www.veritasprep.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/team.jpg

The Tough Problems Which Are Faced by Uber

According to the recent reports, Uber’s new CEO has to deal with losing one of the company’s biggest market—London. On Sept, 22th, London’s transport authority said Uber was not’ fit and proper’ to operate in this city, and opted not to renew the company’s license—a decision partly based on some of the damning revelations that surfaced about Uber this year. (CNN,2017)

The main revelation of Uber was about business ethics, Uber used controversial ‘ greyball’ software to prevent regulations and law enforcement from monitoring the app. This dishonest action brought Uber bad reputation and nonsupport of local authority. It can be seen that unethical actions would lead Uber lose a huge taxi market and might set a precedent for other cities that are of two minds about Uber.(CNN,2017)Although Uber said it did not use ‘greyball’ , the effects were little.

Unethical actions can bring both benefits and risks for  businesses, if these are not known by the public and related authorities, businesses may have higher profits, less costs, tax or fine…through grinding employees, using inferior materials, bribing….However, the risks of unethical actions would be damage of reputation, consumers, especially those who care about ethics may not purchase again and potential consumers may decrease, too. Sales and profits may decrease a lot.Also, sometimes businesses need to pay large compensation and serious unethical problems may directly destroy the whole brand.

There was another problem with Uber, in July, Uber was forced to pull out of operations n Macau, China. A year ago, Uber sold its business in China to rival Didi chuxing. (CNN,2017)

The reason why Uber failed in China may because it lacked know of Chinese market, a SWOT analysis is needed. The main strengths of Uber are easy operations for calling a taxi,  data driven and the users of Uber need not to be reselected as divers of Uber cannot choose passengers by their destination. The weakness may include the unprofessional of drivers as most Uber drivers in China are part-time, also the easy operation of payments(need no password)are not trustworthy. Opportunities include that China is a huge potential market ( large population, large demand). Threats are that there are highly-competitive competitors in China—Didi Chuxing, and traffic are too complex…From these information above, although China is a huge market, it is not really suit Uber as Chinese people already got used to Didi and these complex transport may be hard for part-time drivers, which might bring low-quality serives. In this case, Uber should think carefully about entering in China.

Word Count: 442

Reference

Sara Ashley O’Brien (2017) what happens if Uber loses London for good? Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/23/technology/business/uber-london-crises/index.html

Citation in text:( CNN ,2017)

Valentina Iricibar (producer) (Oct 25th, 2016)What’s The Deal With The Buenos Aires Court Ruling That Uber Is Legal? Retrieved fromhttp://www.thebubble.com/whats-the-deal-with-the-buenos-aires-court-ruling-that-uber-is-legal/

Citation in text: (Uber, 2016)

Uber (2016)

Business ethics

Business ethics refers to ethical principles and moral problems that arise in a business environment, and CSR — corporate social responsibility can also be a  model of business ethics. CSR is those businesses that considering the interests of society by taking responsibilities for the impact of their decisions and activities on their stakeholders.(Alastair Farquharson, Peter Stimpson 2014).

There was an example of business ethics in 2016 about the company HamptonCreek, it has a product called ‘Justmayo” ,which is an egg-free mayonnaise substitute(Wikipedia, 2017) in order to decrease people’s reliance on animals.

‘Justmayo’

However, some news was reported about Justmayo, (Baidu, Sohu 2016)according to its ex-employees, HC packaged itself to be a technical company, which is actually a food company through showing inductive image to consumers, like hiring ex-employees from google, claiming Khosla Ventures was one of their investors, and putting Bill Gates into its official website. Due to these actions above, consumers might trust HC more and the sales revenue increased , also potential investors may be more likely to invest because of its reputation. A technical company is usually more attractive than a common food company, the misleading information instructed by HC brought more profits and higher popularity for it.

Also, some employees were dissatisfied because of the unethical actions of HC . For example, its ex-employees said  the experts of HC did 1-month-experiment for stability, but it claimed to the public that its expiration data was 6 months. ‘ I don’t know what would happen after when it is on sale, it makes me so upset and i could not even fall in sleep sometimes.’, said of its ex-employee. Although Justmayo did not brought actual harmful effects to consumers after time passed by, employees of HC were disappointed to find that HC did not care about science development , instead ,the thing that HC most cared about was producing as quick as possible to meet the requirement of contracts, this might be the reason why they only did 1-month-experiment.

The unethical actions did by HC (include sending inductive message, ignoring the necessary experiments for Justmayo) seemed to bring short-term profits to HC, as consumers , investors, and other stakeholders like suppliers may trust it more and the sales increased, they could get more finances, others stakeholders might be more likely to cooperate with it. However, after it was reported, its reputation would fall down quickly just like now, the sales decreased, no more investment, demotivation of employees…… It would be hard for HC to come back to its position before.

Reference

1.Alastair Farquharson, Peter Stimpson 2014. ( Cambridge International AS and ALevel Business Coursebook ) Cambridge

2. Justmayo retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Mayo

3. Report about Justmayo , retrieved from http://www.sohu.com/a/122419299_345191 and http://tech.qq.com/a/20150809/007015.htm

4.’JustMayo'(2014).[image] Retrieved June 15th, 2014, from https://ss1.bdstatic.com/70cFuXSh_Q1YnxGkpoWK1HF6hhy/it/u=4113993923,2736096670&fm=27&gp=0.jpg