Are we friends or colleagues?
Description: As workers spend more time on Facebook and Linkedin, companies are developing social-networking services for the office.
Source: CNNMoney.com – video report
Date: 05/28/2010
Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2010/05/27/tm_social_net_enterprise.fortune/
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think there is a special role for social networking applications in workplace environments?
- What advantages and disadvantages are there to installing social networking in a workplace?
- How could applications like Facebook be marketed to corporate buyers?
Rex on Techs: Don’t Write Off RIM
May 31, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: April and May may have been the cruelest months for Research In Motion, but just you wait for the new BlackBerry 6 operating system and new handsets. Rex Crum reports.
Source: Marketwatch.com – video report
Date: 05/24/2010
Questions for discussion:
- What is the association between profits and stock value?
- How has RIM illustrated this association?
- Do you agree with the analysis of RIM’s future market success, particularly against Apple?
Inside the ugly world of vulture finance
May 31, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment
Description: By his own admission, Allan Jones of Cleveland, Tennessee, has had to tighten his belt. He apparently still has his two jets, his vintage Rolls, his Bentley, and the Maybach his son drives to high school when the boy’s own car is in the shop. But Jones did have to sell the 157-foot yacht, and the $25 million ranch near Jackson Hole.
Source: CNNMoney.com
Date: 05/28/2010
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/28/magazines/fortune/broke_USA_rivlin.fortune/index.htm
Questions for discussion:
- Do you believe there is anything unethical about any of these business practices?
- Should there be any special government regulatory protection of consumers?
Apple Passes Microsoft as No. 1 in Tech
May 31, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: Wall Street has called the end of an era and the beginning of the next one: The most important technology product no longer sits on your desk but rather fits in your hand.
Source: CNNMoney.com
Date: 05/26/2010
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/technology/27apple.html
Questions for discussion:
- Summarize the key points made about technology in this article?
- Who do you think is the tech-king among managers?
- Looking forward, what do you think the future holds for these technology firms – particularly Apple and Microsoft?
Facebook Bows to Pressure Over Privacy
May 31, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment
Description: Ever since Facebook was founded in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, has pushed its users to share more information about themselves. Time and again, users have pushed back, complaining that some new feature or setting on the site violated their privacy.
Source: NYTimes.com
Date: 05/26/2010
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/technology/27facebook.html?scp=4&sq=Facebook&st=Search
Questions for discussion:
- Summarize the reasons for the change to Facebook’s thinking about privacy issues?
- Do you think that Facebook would have been “replaced” by a competitor if they had not bowed to public pressure?
- Would you consider Facebook’s decision driven by ethics or social responsibility?
digits: Google TV Debuts
May 24, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 4: Marketing Management
Description: Jessica Vascellaro has details on Google TV, which was just unveiled by the internet giant at its developers conference in San Francisco. Plus, social networking for kids and retailers use their stores to speed up shipping for online orders.
Source: Marketwatch.com – video report
Date: 05/20/2010
Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/digits-google-tv-debuts/AC797B3D-EE37-48A4-BC25-D0E1E7A5EE64
Questions for discussion:
- Who is the target market for this service?
- How do you think this technology with influence buyer behavior?
- Do you think viewing rates will increase substantially?
- Which partners are likely to realize growth as a result of growth in online viewing?
- How will this affect cable and satellite companies?
Steve Jobs Makes The Worst Trade Ever
May 24, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: Brett Arends tells us about one of the greatest trade blunders ever – a decision by Steve Jobs in 2003 to accept a safer but much lower returning investment in exchange for his 55 million Apple Stock options, now worth nearly $13 billion.
Source: Marketwatch.com – video report
Date: 05/18/2010
Questions for discussion:
- What does this report tell you about the ability to evaluate options and stocks?
- Are you surprised by Jobs’ choice?
Home Depot is still a fixer upper
May 24, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 4: Marketing Management
Description: When Home Depot reported its first comparable store sales growth in almost four years on Tuesday, plenty of investors wanted to see it as evidence that housing is back. “Our sales are an indication that the economy is recovering and the consumer is back,” Carol Tomé, Home Depot’s chief financial officer, hopefully told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Source: CNNMoney.com
Date: 05/21/2010
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/20/news/companies/home_depot.fortune/index.htm
Questions for discussion:
- Summarize the business conditions the firm is facing?
- Is the firm a harbinger of economic activity?
- What is the number one issue facing the firm today?
- What solutions would you offer to management?
Fear index soars to 14-month high
May 24, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: Wall Street’s key measure of volatility skyrocketed on Thursday, as all major stock indexes plummeted on concerns about the European debt crisis.
Source: CNNMoney.com
Date: 05/20/2010
Link: http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/20/markets/VIX_fear_index/index.htm
Questions for discussion:
- What is the VIX?
- How is the VIX related to stock market activity?
- How do you think investors will behave over the next three months?
A Treatment for Declining Sales
May 24, 2010 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 2 Starting and Growing Your Business
Description: Epidavros Day Spa, in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., bears the name of the ancient Greek coastal town known as a healing sanctuary. But by the end of 2009, owner Sandra Rovira says the spa’s atmosphere was anything but restorative.
Source: NYTimes.com
Date: 05/20/2010
Link: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/a-treatment-for-declining-sales/
Questions for discussion:
- What did you learn from this article about small business thinking?
- What other solutions can you offer?
