The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message
Description: SEVENTY-TWO hours before Facebook’s big moment, Sheryl K. Sandberg was half a world away, hobnobbing with the likes of Bill Gates and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Source: NYTimes.com
Date: 02/03/2012
Questions for discussion:
- How would you describe Sheryl Sandberg?
- Do you think her gender has helped, hurt, or made no difference in her success?
The cloud goes Hollywood
February 6, 2012 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: The major film studios think they’ve found a way to sell and deliver movies online. Will consumers buy it?
Source: Fortune.com
Date: 02/03/2012
Link: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/03/ultraviolet-digital-movies-cloud/?iid=SF_F_River
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think this format will be successful with consumers?
- How should the industry market the concept?
Bill Gates: Rich should pay more taxes
January 30, 2012 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 2 Starting and Growing Your Business, Part 4: Marketing Management, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: The Microsoft founder and philanthropist says that the wealthiest Americans should pay a larger share of taxes than they do.
Source: CNNMoney.com – video report
Date: 01/26/2012
Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2012/01/26/n_davos_gates_occupy.cnnmoney/
Questions for discussion:
- Summarize the key points presented about economic activity, incomes, taxes, and the government’s role.
- What is Bill Gates’ position on the key issue facing business and society at large?
- Do you agree with Bill Gates?
- How would you assign the collection of taxes?
‘I work for one of the 10 Best Companies’
January 30, 2012 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: Interesting assignments, unfaltering support, stints abroad: No wonder these folks love their workplaces.
Source: Fortune.com
Date: 01/27/2012
Link: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/pf/jobs/1201/gallery.best-companies-employees.fortune/index.html
Questions for discussion:
- What are some common characteristics of these businesses that seem to suggest why they rank among the “best”?
- How influential is this status on employee behavior?
How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work
January 30, 2012 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 5 Managing Technology and Information, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president. But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke,President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?
Source: NYTimes.com
Date: 01/22/2012
Link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?hp
Link to video: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/20/business/the-iphone-economy.html?ref=business
Questions for discussion:
- How does Apple illustrate the global nature of business today?
- Why, according to the report, will these manufacturing jobs never return to the U.S.?
- Do you agree with this view?
- What does this report suggest managers do in order reduce the loss of manufacturing employment?
- How can future employees – in the U.S. and elsewhere – prepare for work in a global market for jobs?
- Is there a role for governments here?
Enhanced eBooks: Next Frontier or Passing Fad?
January 23, 2012 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 2 Starting and Growing Your Business, Part 4: Marketing Management, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: A new crop of digital books comes loaded with videos, songs, animated shorts and pop-up graphics. Is this the future of publishing or just a passing fad? Alexandra Alter has details on Lunch Break.
Source: Marketwatch.com – video report
Date: 01/19/2012
Questions for discussion:
- Do you think this new concept in ebooks will be well received?
- Which markets do you think will most likely be targeted by developers?
7 Charged as F.B.I. Closes a Top File-Sharing Site
January 23, 2012 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 4: Marketing Management, Part 5 Managing Technology and Information, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: In what authorities have called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. have seized the Web site Megaupload and charged seven people connected with it with running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy. Source: NYTimes.com
Date: 01/20/2012
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/technology/megaupload-indictment-internet-piracy.html?ref=business
Questions for discussion:
- What are the conflicting issues in this situation?
- Where do you stand on these arguments over copyright?
- What do you think will eventually emerge as an attempt to resolve the problems?
Building a business with unwanted customers
January 23, 2012 by Brahm Canzer
Filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources
Description: A Newark, N.J. dental operation is turning a profit by focusing on the patients that most dentists shy away from: Medicaid recipients.
Source: Fortune.com
Date: 01/20/2012
Questions for discussion: What are the social and ethical issues related to this business? What other businesses might be modeled the same way?
Park City Eatery Balks at Credit Card Fines in Rare Court Fight
Description: Stephen and Cissy McComb say they managed their Italian eatery in Park City, Utah, for more than two decades without running afoul of security rules of Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. — until they were accused of mishandling data and opening the door to $1.26 million in fraud.
Source: Bloomberg.com
Date: 01/1o/2012
Questions for discussion:
- What are the legal and social issues involved in this report?
- How can small businesses deal with the problems related to credit card companies and their policies?
China’s Low-Cost Housing Boom
Description: Building low-cost housing projects is part of the Chinese government’s plan to restructure its housing sector. But some say it’s a risky strategy for the already shaky real estate industry. Source: Marketwatch.com – video report
Date: 12/30/2011
Questions for discussion:
- How does this project relate to the forces of supply and demand as they affect various areas of the Chinese economy?
- Do you think housing prices will be affected by this project?
- Why do you suppose some apartments nearby remain unrented?
