Description: Larry Kirshbaum was the ultimate book industry insiderâ€â€until Amazon called Source: Businessweek.com Date: 01/25/2012 Link: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/amazons-hit-man-01252012.html?chan=magazine+channel_top+stories Questions for discussion: Describe the changes that management is dealing with in the publishing industry. How has management at Amazon been affected by technological changes? Do you think management decision-making has been responsive?
Posts Categorized: Part 1 Business in a Global Environment
‘I work for one of the 10 Best Companies’
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?
Six Strategy Insights RIM’s New CEO Can Use
Description: The usual moves won’t work when new technologies and rivals dramatically shake up the field Source: Businessweek.com Date: 01/24/2012 Link: http://www.businessweek.com/management/six-strategy-insights-rims-new-ceo-can-use-01242012.html Questions for discussion: What are the recommendations made in this report? Do you agree with them? What else would you suggest to RIM’s top management?
How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work
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: … Read more »
Leaving the plastic (and fees) behind
Description: Dwolla, of Des Moines, Iowa, is taking on credit cards by allowing users to transfer money and pay for items on their phones for a small fee. Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: 01/17/2012 Link:  http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2012/01/13/t_dwolla_credit_cards.cnnmoney/ Questions for discussion: Describe why this business is better than competitors? What are the problems managers will have… Read more »
Enhanced eBooks: Next Frontier or Passing Fad?
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 Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/enhanced-ebooks-next-frontier-or-passing-fad/C6B97950-5E0F-4EBD-9986-3FB1369FE4AF Questions for discussion: Do you think this new concept in ebooks… Read more »
Apple Unveils IBooks 2 to Help Boost IPad Usage in Schools
Description: Apple Inc. introduced a service to make digital versions of textbooks available on the iPad and beef up the education content for the tablet computer as it gains popularity in classrooms. Source: Businessweek.com Date: 01/20/2012 Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-20/apple-unveils-ibooks-2-to-help-boost-ipad-usage-in-schools.html Questions for discussion: What are the advantages and disadvantages of this sort of technology? Do you think… Read more »
7 Charged as F.B.I. Closes a Top File-Sharing Site
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… Read more »
Building a business with unwanted customers
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 Link: http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/20/behind-a-newark-business-success-find-unwanted-customers/?iid=SF_F_LN Questions for discussion: What are the social and ethical issues related to this business? What other businesses might be modeled the same way?
If Apple made a TV …
Description: TV makers at CES say they are not worried about Apple breaking into their business. But should they be? Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: 01/11/2012 Link:  http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2012/01/11/t_ces_apple_tv.cnnmoney/ Questions for discussion: What sort of features would you expect if and when an Apple TV is introduced to the marketplace? How might consumers change their… Read more »
