Blog Synthesis

Brendan, Heidi, Ian, Jinsui, and Zeyang        

    The world of business is something many incoming college students tend to look into because there are so many different fields, which practice a diversity of things. However some are unaware of what it takes to make it in these fields. One of the most vital, but overlooked, skills for these students to know before coming into the field is adaptability. This ability to be flexible along with being well rounded enough to be able to change with new business practices and trends. This is vital because business ideals are constantly changing. These changes in the business field are largely due to changing technology, business ethics, and people within the field. Knowing this can help make or break your career.

           New People

          To start, the business field is always welcoming new talent. In our blog post “The Hidden Talent” we elaborated on the welcoming of people with autism and Asperger's Syndrome into the workplace. This was a way for businesses to move past the negative stigma of hiring people with autism and notice that they hold skills in finding patterns in analytical data and repetitive work. Their lack in social skills make it hard for them to network and excel in interviews so this talent has gone unnoticed until recently.

          Another driving force in the business field are women. In the blog post called “Women Making Strides in Workforce” we talked about how women have slowly been integrating into the business field. Currently, more women than men are earning bachelor's and graduate degrees. But still women are greatly out numbered in business executive positions because men commonly carry more leader-like characteristics. This is due to the discouragement women feel in a male dominated career causing them to be more timid and shy. Even though more and more women are heading into the business field we should expect to see a lot more advancement and leadership positions held by females in the future. Anyone going into a business related career should be able to adapt to new things well because this field is changing quickly. If you aren’t good at adapting then you should probably be flexible because things will change and you don’t want to be left behind.

          Ethics

          When going into our next factor, one must know the ethics of business is often controversial and heavily debated.  The ethics of business are continuously getting more rigid, as people are becoming more cautious of how they’re portrayed and seen by the public.  In “Prompt 2: Defining Ethics” we dove into how ethics are changing and how many businesses ignore ethics in order to benefit themselves.  Many companies and businesses are beginning to ignore common ethical guidelines.  As technology is improving, it’s becoming easier for companies to falsely advertise their products, which is breaking many ethical morals.  This  mostly seen with restaurants, who edit photographs of their food to make it look more appetizing to customers.  This is a prime example of how many people in the business field are just concerned about making as much money as possible rather than being truthful.  

          While many people don’t follow ethics, it’s becoming more important for people in the spotlight, such as CEO’s, to act ethically and communicate in a way that won’t look bad to the public.  As media is becoming more prominent and news travels faster than ever before, a bad public image can be destructive to business.  As described in “Prompt 7: Contemplating Controversy”.This is why following ethics and being truthful is incredibly important for anyone in the business field that can easily be judged on their actions.  

           Technology

           On to our next factor, which is technology. Technology has been a huge influence to how business in the modern world have changed. One example of this is the recent globalization within the market, which has caused huge changes to the world’s idea of trading.  As shown in the blogpost “Globalization and How it has Changed the Game of Business”, globalization has created new ideas which are advantageous of different tactics unknown to many people. This is due to both being completely new to the market, and thus forcing many companies to either adapt quickly or to flounder.

           Similar, but in a lesser scale compared to globalization, is the introduction of mobile media and specifically, smart phones. As the blog post “Our Love for Mobile Device's Effect on Marketing” explains, smartphones created a new platform to pander to for advertisers, and formed new ideas on how to advertise because of it. This is once again due to it being a rather new idea, with nothing like it being seen before, making it easy to exploit for those who adapt.

         Another factor is economic commerce, bring a new twist to old ideas as shown in the blog post “Electronic commerce and mobile commerce”. The introduction of electronic currency has provided more convenience and different options for customers, benefiting businesses who utilize the new type of income. This still requires adaptability, but on a smaller and more manageable scale due to it being similar to physical commerce and having similar policies in place. What can be seen in all 3 examples is a constant theme of adapting. This is why it is so crucial for business students to have this vital trait. With markets expected to only change more with the coming years, all business students should be ready and willing to adapt with them.

      In a world, the business has a relative connection with the outside environment. Perhaps, a small change outside may bring significant influence on business. Therefore, companies should always prepare for this change. However, it is not only a challenge but also a big chance, if you run with the change and use it in the proper way it can be very beneficial towards companies. So, only when a company has the ability to adjust in a changing environment, can it achieve great success.

Sources: 
Pictures Graph: 
Dorning, Jennifer. Workforce Participation Rate by Gender and Education Attainment. Digital image. Http://dpeaflcio.org/. 10 Feb. 2015. Web. 17 Apr. 2016. <http://dpeaflcio.org/professionals/professionals-in-the-workplace/women-in-the-professional-and-technical-labor-force/>.

 IPhone Picture:

 IPhone 6s. Digital image. Www.apple.com. Web. 17 Apr. 2016. <http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone6s>.

 

Insurance

by Zeyang Wu

I believe that everyone has connection with insurance, from birth to death.  And I also believe that everyone needs the insurances for risk averse.

Insurance, in the sense of law and economics, is a kind of risk management, which is mainly used for the risk of economic loss. Insurance is defined as the average shift in the risk of a potential loss to an entity by paying a fee.

In fact, it is once you join a group, "one man is in difficulty, we amortized" is in monetary form apportion the social risk transfer mechanism

The applicant according to the contract agreement, pay insurance premium to the insurer, insurance for property loss or damage caused by the occurrence of a contract may bear the liability to pay the insurance money, or the death of the insured, disability, disease, or reach the age and period of the contract conditions when undertake to pay insurance gold.

resouse：

Arnoldo offermann.Check Your Insurance.Digital image. 13 Jan,2016. web. Apr 2016.

Racism And Sexism In Work Environments

By Heidi

     "Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is alright to be different.  Racism and all the other 'isms' grow from primitive tribalism, the instinctive hostility against those of another tribe, race, religion, nationality, class, or whatever.  You are a lucky child if your parents taught you to accept diversity."

                                                   -Roger Ebert

      Racism and sexism has always been a problem in our society, and unfortunately has carried over into the workforce.  While racism and sexism in business is getting better, there's still drastic room for improvement.  In the quote above, Roger Ebert states that being different is a good thing.  This applies to all aspects of our society, including the work force.  Diversity bring new ideas to the table, because everyone has different opinions and stories.  Diversity in the workplace doesn't only apply to race, but gender and sexual orientation as well.  Racism is a natural instinct of ours, that needs to be overcome.

     According to The 'Resume Check': On Gay Talese, Racism and Sexism in The Press Room, a article on Huffington Post, the "Resume Check" is something that frequently happens in the workforce to women and people of color. The resume check is basically what it sounds like.  Asking someone how they got their job, referring to why a woman or a black man would be offered the job when someone else could have filled the position.  People tend to automatically assume that women and other races other than caucasian don't belong.  It doesn't make sense to some narrow minded people how a woman or black person could be successful in the work place.
     The resume check is meant to be nothing more than condescending to the person in question.  Unfortunately, this happens far to often to people in the business field, as well as other fields such as engineering and medicine.
     Ethnic minorities such as Latino and Asian are under represented in nearly every professional field that there is.  When looking at management positions, the representation gets even worse.  To make matters even worse, according to theguardian.com, racial bullying is on the rise in the workforce.  30% of 24,000 surveyed report that they have experienced racial bullying within the past year.
     Discrimination in the workforce is a major problem in todays society.  People need to become more open minded and accepting in order to create a more orderly working environment.  With diversity comes more ideas and greater knowledge.

Sources:

 Hirsch, Afua. "Workplace Racism Is on the Rise – We Need Action, Not Lip Service | Afua Hirsch." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

"Racism Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

Touré. "The 'Resume Check': On Gay Talese, Racism and Sexism in the Press Room." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. 

     

The Rise of the Entrepeneur

By: Ian O.

       Building your own business is seen as a main goal for many people, but also seen as something that won't yield much or will be a waste of time. In actuality entrepreneurship, or creating your own business, has seen a huge rise with the Millennial generation and has found great success. These new age entrepreneurs are taking advantage of multiple factors and are competing with the long standing organizations of the past. Why is this working for them though? s

       As an article that can be found here explain, two key factors can attribute to the rise in their success, the first being the access to large amounts of information. With the wonders of the internet and higher education being more prominent each year, more and more people have access to information that can be used to build up a business plan such as how to market to certain audiences properly or how to manage finances effectively. This allows young entrepreneurs to have information equal to that of the big businesses that they are competing against, making it relatively level in terms of knowledge. What tips the scale for some entrepreneurs is the second factor, which is the changing technology. With the world of business changing a lot in the last decade, many large businesses are struggling to adapt quick enough to all of the changes in technology and process. This is due to their complex systems that make it hard to integrate new technology and new ideas through the system. The entrepreneur doesn't have this issue however, for they are a single entity or at least simple system. Millennials especially benefit from this for they have been raised with all of these technological advances, and are much more adapt to these changes then previous generations.

       Entrepreneurship is a huge risk that many ambition people take, but recently it has been extremely rewarding. This is allowing for new companies to go to the forefront and overtake these longstanding companies. Just look at the likes of Google, which isn't even 20 years old yet is already revolutionizing the industry, or Uber, the recent phenomenon that could completely wipe out taxi services. It is an age of new business, and even though the risks are high for entrepreneurs, the pay off is that much higher

Sources:
Article For Reference:

 Wade, Sophie. "Behind the Rise of Entrepreneurship." Fortune Behind the Rise of Entrepreneurship Comments. 12 June 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. 

Picture:

 Zuckerberg, Randi. Think Like an Entreprenuer. Digital image. Http://dotcomplicated.co/. 10 June 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. 

The Importance Of Versatility

By: Ian O.

      Being able to adapt to your surroundings is something that a lot of people will overlook when considering what makes someone successful, yet it is such an important skill. Versatility in business, or really any profession, is so important for young professionals who need to get their leg in the door. Many students might have already heard of this in some variation, like getting a minor in another field or practicing skills outside your original skill set. Why do we seem to be so focused on this recently though? Has the market become that unstable that everyone should be able to do multiple things that might not be in their original job description?

     A key point many bring up when discussing the importance of versatility is that we are in a transitioning market. What this means is that our current job market has a lot of things coming in, such as new technology(robotics) and new ways of business(outsourcing), so the jobs that someone might think are there might be taken or changed once they finish their degree or get into the market. Being versatile will allow you to roll with the unpredictability of the market and allow you to pursue a similar career. You essentially need to become a "Swiss army knife" as shown on the right, or in other worlds hold multiple different skills. An example of this could be someone who wants to go into accounting can't find a job at an accounting firm, but because they are versatile they can find a job with finance or economics. We see this a lot when it comes to almost every field. You want to go into marketing? Get a minor in communications! Getting a degree in computer science? Add on a degree in mathematics! While it might not be what you want to do exactly, it allows you to be open to change and "roll with the punches" that you don't see coming. It certainly won't hurt your resume if you do go for the career you wanted originally, in fact it will help encourage them to hire you knowing that you can fill multiple roles. It's almost like multi-tasking to a much higher degree and will set you up for a world of success in the future.

Sources:
Picture:

 Case, Anna. Swiss Army Knife. Digital image. Http://technologyadvice.com/. 4 June 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://technologyadvice.com/blog/human-resources/need-master-art-versatility/>. 

Prompt 3: Interviewing a Professional in the Business Field

by Zeyang Wu

Today, I interviewed Nicolas, a Chairman of a bank. He has worked in the business field since he was 24 years old and has been working for about 30 years. Nicolas has worked in many different areas in the Business field, such as Accounting, Marketing and Human Resource Management.

In the beginning, Nicolas graduated from college, entered a small local bank and became a counter staff. At first he was going to the Inland Revenue Department to work, but his professor advised him to go to a bank, which is more suitable for him. When he first started he was scared that he was not good at communicating with customers. After a period of study, he learned how to accurately handle the counter works, and also learn a variety of banks business.

Then I asked if he can give some advice to people who are preparing to enter the field of business. “When you graduate, do not look to get a good job at first. No matter what company you are entering, first you have to understand the company's various businesses. As an inexperienced person who does not understand the company, there is no way to manage other people.” He said: “And the best way to know the company work is through the normal staff in the company. As a manager, you will have better direction if you have relevant experience with how the basic labor works.”

Finally I asked that “Is that any difference between bank and other business institutions?” Nicolas answered that a bank is the most basic and most important part of the business. Banks are everywhere and almost everyone has a connection with banking, and also is the most common way to regulate the economy by government. Working in a bank, we have contact with all walks of life, so it is necessary to have a broad knowledge of how it works.

Through this interview, I know everything needs to be step by step. And for future work, accumulated a variety of knowledge is very important.

Prompt 8: Practicing In the Field

By Jinsui Y.

From reading books and article, I think the business is far remove from us. I think business is very professional, so, it just the topic which should be discussed by the economist, entrepreneurs, and banker. My initial impression about business wasn’t change until I took a Computer Science Course in this semester. This course is totally different from the other business courses I took before. In Computer Science class, we do much more performance task than learning and understanding the theoretical knowledge which prove me a new impression about business.

There first thing we have learned is using the Microsoft Excel to calculate and manage the financial information for the business company. During doing the homework, I began to consider would it be helpful if I use Microsoft excel in record my own bill information. Then, I input all my bill information in the Excel and divided my cost into different column. After doing that, I surprised found that the most money I spent is on the food except the school fee. Because of the cold weather, I didn’t want to go outside but call the takeout. The service fee for the takeout food is very high when I add them together for a month. I can take out for 7 times by using this service fee. That made me very surprised because I have never recognized that before. Therefore, after that I began to lessen the time to call the takeout food. What is more, Microsoft Excel is very proper to be used in process and manage a large amount information in business. It can make the work more efficiently.

Then, we learned about the encryption technique. In that cause we study how to make encryption and decryption. Before learning that, I think it is only important for the company to the business company and the government agency to consider about the information encryption. After doing the decryption, I found that how easy to decrypt a password if it is not very complex and how dangerous to expose your own information to the unlawful hacker. However, nowadays, more and more computer are using in business company. That means most of the business information are stored in computer system. In that case, it is very essential to focus on the company secret protection. 

In a word, as a new technology in information age, computer plays a very important rule in business work. So, mastering computer become the basic requirement for a business worker. Also, as a  qualified business learner we should know that business has so close relationship with new technology that we should update our knowledge and skill all the time.

Image sources:

Rick, Robinson. 38 Million Reasons to use Cryptography for Business. Digital image. https://securityintelligence.com/reasons-encryption-cryptography-for-business/. 11 November 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
Eric, Rosenberg. The Importance of Excel in Business. Digital image. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/032415/importance-excel-business.asp#. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.