The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 3 Management: Empowering People to Achieve Business Objectives, Part 4: Marketing Management, Part 5 Managing Technology and Information, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources.

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

Link:   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/business/sheryl-sandberg-of-facebook-staying-on-message.html?ref=business

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

Posted by & 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?

Small Business Exports Edge Up

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 3 Management: Empowering People to Achieve Business Objectives, Part 4: Marketing Management, Part 5 Managing Technology and Information.

Description:  Small businesses have increased their share of exports in the two years since President Obama set a goal to double U.S. sales abroad by 2015, according to new federal data.

Source:  Businessweek.com

Date: 02/02/2012

Link:  http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/running_small_business/archives/2012/02/small_business_exports_edge_up.html

Questions for discussion:

  • What are the reasons for the improved exports by small businesses?
  • Can this be sustained? If so, how?

Kaiser CEO: Time to end piecemeal healthcare

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 3 Management: Empowering People to Achieve Business Objectives, Part 5 Managing Technology and Information.

Description:  George Halvorson, CEO of non-profit healthcare insurer Kaiser Permanente, says the current U.S. healthcare system will drive the economy into the ground.

Source: CNNMoney.com – video report

Date: 01/26/2012

Link:   http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2012/01/26/n_davos_halvorson_health.cnnmoney/

Questions for discussion:

  • Describe how the not-for-profit and for-profit healthcare businesses work?
  • How should healthcare work, according to CEO George Halvorson?
  • How could it be better?
  • What managerial issues are stopping the for-profit industry from adopting these policies?
  • How does consumer psychology affect this business?

Bill Gates: Rich should pay more taxes

Posted by & 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?

Amazon’s Hit Man

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 3 Management: Empowering People to Achieve Business Objectives, Part 4: Marketing Management, Part 5 Managing Technology and Information.

Description:  Larry Kirshbaum was the ultimate book industry insider—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?

‘I work for one of the 10 Best Companies’

Posted by & 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?

Six Strategy Insights RIM’s New CEO Can Use

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 3 Management: Empowering People to Achieve Business Objectives, Part 4: Marketing Management, Part 5 Managing Technology and Information.

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

Posted by & 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?

Leaving the plastic (and fees) behind

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 3 Management: Empowering People to Achieve Business Objectives, Part 5 Managing Technology and Information.

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 to overcome in order to succeed on a large scale?