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>.