Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: Employees of the big box store are planning a national day of protest for higher wages. Economist Richard Vedder on why we’ll all be in trouble if they get their way.

Source: Thedailybeast.com

Date: Sep 05, 2013

Link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/05/why-we-ll-be-better-off-if-the-walmart-protests-fail.html

Questions for Discussions:

  • How would a jump in minimum wage to $12/hour affect companies now paying substantially lower wages?
  • How would financial planners likely respond to an increase in hourly rates?
  • What are the arguments for and against confronting employers like Wal-Mart?

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: For the first time, Ford Fusion vehicles are being built just outside Detroit, a positive sign that the automotive industry is bringing production back to the U.S.

Source: CNNMoney.com – video report

Date: August 26, 2013

Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2013/08/29/n-ford-fusion-detroit-plant.cnnmoney/index.html

Questions for Discussions:

  • What do you think motivated Ford management to start building Ford Fusion in the Detroit region?
  • What are the economic and social implications for this decision?
  • Can the decision help sell this and other Ford vehicles?

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: Wal-Mart SVP Michelle Gloeckler explains her company’s $50 billion dollar effort to sell more American made goods over the next ten years.

Source: CNNMoney.com – video report

Date: August 28, 2013

Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2013/08/28/n-cmr-walmart-made-in-usa.cnnmoney/index.html

Questions for Discussions:

  • Why do you suppose Wal-Mart management is motivated to lead the way in more American-made product sales?
  • Do you think the firm can maintain their current low-price competitive advantage and introduce more American-made products?
  • How do you think this effort will affect manufacturers in America as well as those overseas?
  • Would you consider this strategy an example of good corporate social responsibility?

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: YouTube’s newest office space is a professional television studio that is free to use for its most popular content creators.

Source: CNNMoney.com – video report

Date: August 26, 2013

Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/08/26/t-youtube-studio-la.cnnmoney/index.html

Questions for Discussions:

  • What is YouTube’s management’s thinking behind providing free-access production studios to their top channels?
  • Do you think they should also produce content the way NetFlix and other distributors of entertainment do?
  • How do you think this approach to production will affect entrepreneurial producers?

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: Whip out the elegant, light, superthin Asus (2357:TT) Zenbook on an airplane, and you’re sure to attract stares. The PC stands out even more with Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 8 software, its touchscreen full of colorful tiles promising a glimpse of the future. But that view starts to get foggy when Windows 8 tries to work with Microsoft Office 2013, lagging or freezing up as it attempts a task as ambitious as saving a document. This divide—between how good Microsoft’s products look and how badly they still behave—partly led to Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer’s Aug. 23 announcement that he’ll leave within a year.

Source: Businessweek.com

Date: August 29, 2013

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-29/post-ballmer-microsoft-must-focus-on-products-to-avoid-extinction#r=nav-fst

Questions for Discussions:

  • What does the report say about Microsoft and the selection of a new CEO to replace Steve Ballmer?
  • Do you agree with the strategic thinking?

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management.

Description: “Why is everything moving to freemium?” the gamer crowd cries, myself included, much of the time.

Source: Forbes.com

Date: Sep 01, 2013

Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/09/01/plants-vs-zombies-2-at-nearly-25-million-downloads-in-under-two-weeks/

Questions for Discussions:

  • What is “freemium”?
  • Describe how the company intends to make money using this business model?
  • What are the pros and cons of using this model?
  • Do you think the strategy can succeed in this industry?
  • Could it succeed in another industry?

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: With Priceline stock on a tear, CEO Jeffery Boyd says ‘the shift to mobile is one of the most important transitions we’ve seen’ and consumers are starting to really change their travel booking behaviors.

Source: CNNMoney.com – video report

Date: August 22, 2013

Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2013/08/22/n-priceline-ceo-jeffery-boyd-mobile-travel-booking.cnnmoney/index.html  

Questions for Discussions:

  • What strategic advantage does Priceline claim to have?
  • How has the firm modified its strategic planning to better reflect consumer buying-behaviors?
  • Do you think the firm can continue to grow at the same rate?

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: Mark Zuckerberg is launching Internet.org to connect the five-billion people without Internet access.

Source: CNNMoney.com – video report

Date: August 20, 2013

Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/08/20/t-zuckerberg-cuomo-internet.cnnmoney/index.html  

Questions for Discussions:

  • What benefits would be derived from Internet.org?
  • Do you think Zukerberg and Facebook have the panache to successfully lead such a global effort and achieve the stated goal?

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: The Internet’s last decade and a half of development as a forum for short, zippy, and often snarky writing has taken place in large part on platforms built by Ev Williams. A farm boy from Clarks, Neb., Williams, 41, dropped out of the University of Nebraska and worked his way west to California, first as a copywriter and then, once he’d taught himself enough, as a freelance coder. He founded the pioneering blogging network Blogger in the late 1990s, giving anyone with a stray thought a way to express it to the vast audiences flocking online. He sold that company for an undisclosed amount to Google (GOOG) in 2003 before going on to co-create Twitter, which initiated the era of disembodied 140-character snippets.

Source: Businessweek.com

Date: August 22, 2013

Link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-22/twitter-co-creator-ev-williams-stretches-the-medium#r=nav-fst

Questions for Discussions:

  • What similarities are there in the businesses run by Ev Willliams?
  • Do you think the strategic plan for Medium makes sense?

 

Posted by & filed under International Business, Management, Organizational Behavior.

Description: There’s a sense of urgency to the quest for workplace harmony, as baby boomers delay retirement and work side-by-side with people young enough to be their children — or grandchildren.

Source: AP.com

Date: August 13, 2013

Link: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/push-harmony-among-workers-young-and-old

Questions for Discussions:

  • What are the fundamental work-related problems for firms with employees from different age groups?
  • Describe the characteristics of each group mentioned in the report and the solutions recommended.
  • Do you agree with the findings and recommendations in the report?