Prompt #10 American dreams in China

by zeyang w.

This film told a story that in the beginning of the 20th century 80s to the 21st century, three young people have the same dream to work hard together, become co-founder of English training school, finally succeeded.

In the middle part of the movie, some of the content is about the company's lists. In the film is representing that the shareholders' limited liability company and the Stock Corporation are same thing.

Limited liability of shareholders is the shareholders’ investment (capital contribution or shares) limited liability company, and external liability company by the middle of this thing. Limited liability of shareholders is the basis of modern corporate law. We can say that the formation of the modern legal system and establish the company as well as improve the specific system, are closely related to the limited liability of shareholders. Removing shareholder limited liability system, modern building company law will be difficult to support, the company's modern legal system is bound to lose focus. A principle shareholder limited liability company system has not produced there, but the company's product development to a certain historical stage. We limited liability of shareholders as a basic principle, both in line with the development direction of modern corporate law, but also in line with our company's actual legislation. The principle of limited liability of shareholders of the principle of limited liability of shareholders has two meanings: First, the shareholders or their contribution is limited to shares held liable for the company; this responsibility belongs to the statutory amount of limited liability; Second, independent responsibility, the responsibility of shareholders and corporate responsibility are isolate from each other.

The shareholders are responsible for the company, not responsible for the creditors of the company; the company's responsibility to corporate responsibility, the principle of not recourse to the shareholders. The limited liability of shareholders is a great role in promoting the development of our company.

Stock Corporation refers to a company for the shares of the company’s capital are composed of shareholders to subscribe for shares within the limit of its commitment to the company's corporate responsibility.

The main feature is the company's total capital is divided into equal amounts of shares flat; companies can issue shares to the public financing, the stock can be transferred according to law; the law of the minimum number of shareholders only, no ceiling prescribed; to its shareholders to subscribe for shares in the company limited liability company with all its assets to bear responsibility for the debts of the company; one vote per share, to its shareholders to subscribe for shares held, to enjoy rights and obligations; the company shall review the verified accounting reports disclosed by a certified accountant .

resource：
“American dreams in China”. aqiyi Video. 17 May. 2013. Web. Feb 2016

Woman Making Strides In Workforce

By Heidi

Historically, women have had trouble making it in the workforce.  They haven't been welcomed with open arms as men have in many fields such as business, science, and medicine.  Women have generally been seen as the nurses or teachers, but are quickly beginning to change that stereotype.

Although there's still many issues involving women in business like the pay gap, and the responsibility of motherhood, women are making great strides toward equality.  According to Investopedia's article, How Do Women Compete In A Mans World,  women now have earned more bachelors and graduate degrees than men.  This proves that women are being a force in the working environment not just in business, but in all fields and majors.

Unfortunately, it's proven that women don't have the common personality traits that men do in order to make them a leader.  Although, many women do have strong leadership qualities, it's more rare to find than in men.  Women, generally speaking, are more timid and shy causing them to be less dominant.  This could be a very easy explanation as to why there's an overwhelming amount of men CEO's in business compared to women.  There's a few exceptions like Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo.

Although, women are making great strides in the business field, and fields similar, there's still much left to be done.  One of the problems is said to be that women aren't asking for raises as men are, because of their lack of confidence.  With that being said, women should understand that their worth is that of men.  Women are doing great in the work force, but could definitely make further progress.

Sources:

 "How Do Women Compete In A Man's World? | Investopedia." Investopedia. 2012. Web. 2 Feb. 2016. 

Globalization and How it has Changed the Game of Business

By Ian O.

       "Globalization is not a monolithic force but an evolving set of consequences - some good, some            bad and some unintended. It is the new reality." 
                                                                                                                          - John B. Larson

      This quote, given by US House of Representatives member John Larson, defines the new phenomenon known as Globalization, or the process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations. This process, while it seems rather straight forward at first glance, is what has essentially turned the business world on it's head in recent years. While certainly not a new idea, the recent acceleration has caused it to expand much larger. This mass expanse of not only communication but business opportunity has made it so that the current business world is in a mass state of transition, with no clear end or consistency in sight.

What caused globalization to happen?

     Multiple factors went into the creation of globalization, but many experts, specifically those at economicshelp.org, credit 3 factors specifically, those being improved trade, increased labor, and improved technology. The first one is improved trade, which has been a consistently improving factor sense the beginning of the 20th century. With cargo planes and ships becoming more efficient and effective, countries were given more opportunities to buy and sell what they needed from all over the world. This also allowed companies the opportunity to ship their products to new locations, gaining whole new markets to sell to and thus making greater profits. What was relatively new for companies, however, was the second reason for the increase in globalization, which was improved labor. Before things like outsourcing, which is the idea of using labor from outside your country in order to have cheaper labor, were common ground, companies were restricted to their current companies labor and labor laws. With the improved transportation from above, however, companies could now effectively use the labor from outside their countries of origin. While this could have originally cause confusion, with the third factor, improved technology, companies and countries could now communicate from across the globe much more easily and negate most negatives from using outsourcing as a tool to pay little for labor.

                                                                            How Does Globalization Change Business?
     There are multiple things that it changes, both positively and negatively. One of the most notable differences is how international trade has effected the economies of many different types of countries. It has essentially turned it into a situation where the wealthy countries get more wealthy while the poor countries stay the same, which is problematic in terms of development. This also applies to companies, where smaller companies are much less likely to succeed and larger companies given more opportunists to succeed due to their ability to go international.On the more positive note, countries who do not have much of a military presence, such as Switzerland and Sweden, have gained immense amounts of power by using smart international business idea like tariffs, or taxation on imports and exports. Globalization has also created more competition in markets, which helps the consumer significantly by keeping the company prices in check due to the threat of lower prices by competitors. Thing biggest thing that changes business is that companies can now take advantage of other countries laws and regulations. If a country like, say, the United States has to high of a minimum wage for your company to be efficient, you can relocate to China and utilize lower minimum wage laws. This can be both positive and negative. The positive being that products are much cheaper for consumers and bring in much more profit for companies. The negatives are mostly revolved around the ethical issue of not only taking jobs away from the country of origin, but utilizing what many see as unethical labor laws in foreign countries. Things like lack of pollution regulation and wage regulation are some of the most notable.

Why Does This Matter?

     As mentioned in the beginning quote, this is the new reality. It would be near impossible as well as illogical to try and backtrack to what business was before globalization boomed in the 1990's. This means that not only future business professionals, but all future professionals should learn and understand why the business world is in it's current state. Many of the scandals and problems that have arisen in recent business history are because of companies or individual taking advantage of the current confusion that comes with massive amounts of change. The only way to counter act this mass confusion is to understand the root of it, that being globalization. Once we understand what it is and why it happened, we can then set the proper rules and regulations in order to contain it, not only to help all businesses economically, but to help individuals ethically as well. We are at a point of communication and trade that has never been witnessed before, and therefor it is our help make it stable and consistent, opposed to chaotic and unethical as it is seen by many today.

   
Sources-
Article:

 Pettinger, Tejvan. "What Caused Globalisation?" Economics Help. 6 Apr. 2013. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. 

Pictures:
1st one:
Horn, Jeremy. International Product Management - The Challenge of Globalization. Digital image. Http://www.slideshare.net/. 12 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

 

2nd one: 

Court Orders EPA to Redo Air-Pollution Limits in 13 States. Digital image. Http://altoday.com/. Associated Press, 28 July 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2016. <http://altoday.com/archives/4999-court-orders-epa-to-redo-air-pollution-limits-in-13-states>.

 

How Does Oil Price Declination Influence the World Economy?

By Jinsui Y.

The price of oil continues to fall in international market. In this year, It is reported that it plummeted to 30 dollars per barrel in January 12. This is the lowest price from 2004 to now. However, in 2014, they it has reached to 108 dollars per barrel. It is means that the oil price has decreased 72% from July 2014 to now. This declination is too ridiculous too be convinced. However, it is the fact.

There are some reasons for the increase of the oil price. The first reason is that the oil police in OPEC are not efficient. The statement for OPEC which is found in 1960 is to coordinate and unify all the member countries and make the oil market stable. Now there are 12 member countries in OPEC which control more than 78% oil reserves in the world. However, nowadays they increase the supply of oil blindly in order to gain more profits. As the result of it, the supply of oil is exceeds of the demand. Therefore, they price declined rapidly.

 As the result of the low price of oil, the countries whose economy is mainly relies on the oil supply is under a severe pressure, such as Venezuela, Columbia, and etc. Even as the richest oil supplies country, Saudi Arabia is also inescapable from that pressure because 90% of the income of this country is from the oil trade. What is worse, as the prediction from economist, the budget deficit will increase 5% for Russia, if the price of oil continues to increase.

However, every coin has two sides. The decrease of the oil price also brings advantage in some aspects. For some European countries, it has benefits for them. As the Deutsche Bank said it will promote the increase in economy in Eurozone. What is more, World Bank  predicted that per 30% declination in oil price will lead 0.5% increase of world economy as a whole.

References:
Clifford, Krauss. NYTime. Oil Prices: What’s Behind the Drop? Simple Economics. 30 Mar 2016. Web. 28 Feb 2016.

Image from:
Oil Explainer. Digital image. http://i1.nyt.com/images/2016/02/17/business/oil-explainer-feb/oil-explainer-feb-jumbo.jpg. 17 Feb 2016. Web. 28 Feb 2016

Facebook's Newest Feature

By: Brendan K.

The most uncomfortable thing is when people post bad news on Facebook and you feel weird liking it. I feel uncomfortable liking a post about someone’s dog dying because I don’t want them to think I’m happy for their loss. Don’t you wish that there was a way “dislike” a Facebook post? Well Facebook has once again catered to the needs of their users.

Facebook has made different way to “like” a status. The new options they have are “Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, and Angry”. The purpose for this change is because people, like myself, don’t always like a post. You are now able to show many different emotions towards your friends.

This new feature can be useful for company blog posts because they can now see the reactions to what they say. Companies can use this to monitor their ads by seeing the reactions that people give to them. Because Facebook is the most widely used social media on the planet this should be a valuable tool for market researchers. But unfortunately that isn’t quite the case.

The Marketing teams for Facebook have every person calibrated differently. The ads that pop up on your feed are based towards the user. But now with the new reactions they will have to recalibrate it. The algorithm that is used when you like certain posts has remained the same. So if post any reaction to a post it will be taken as a like, but Facebook hopes to weight these reactions differently over time.

The issue that arises is when using the reactions Facebook isn’t able to tell exactly how you feel. If you “angry” an article about discrimination in the work place or “sad” an article about a natural disaster doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t want to see any of those articles anymore. Overall, the new reactions on Facebook will make it more complicated for marketers to interpret data, but currently for me I’m going to be using it to give my relatives the “angry” reaction on their ignorant posts.

Sources:

Greenberg, Julia. "Advertisers Don’t Like Facebook’s Reactions. They Love Them." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 25 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

Tsukayama, Hayley. "Facebook Officially Expands beyond the ‘like’." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 24 Feb. 2016. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

Prompt 7: Contemplating Controversy

By Ian O.

      With the recent boom in technology and the increase in global trade and interaction, the world's companies are experiencing completely new ways to operate business. One of these new ways has created a large amount of controversy around it as it has become more and more prominent, and that strategy is Outsourcing, or obtaining goods or services from an outside or foreign supplier. While this might not seem controversial from the definition, what makes it such a hot topic is how it is applied. Typically, the company under question will obtain the product or service they need from a foreign company, due to cheaper costs of labor as well as less government regulation than in their current country. A great source to really learn more about the controversy is a thesis written by economist Gwen Vanderweerdt.

                                                           Why be for Outsourcing?
       
       One of the biggest reasons people will support outsourcing is because it is apart of free trade, and to ban it would limit companies freedom. The idea is that companies should be allowed to do whatever they can to ensure profit and revenue which, at every businesses core, is the main goal. To ban their ability to ensure their profit is seen by supporters of outsourcing as a violation of their freedoms and an attack on their businesses welfare. Another reason to support outsourcing, as described by Vanderweerdt, is the positive effects on productivity. Outsourcing, especially in terms of workers, causes your current workers to feel more pressure and having to show more of their worth instead of slacking off. For those workers who remain unproductive, it also favors the company for they have a much wider group of possible replacements how can be more productive as well as in some cases work for less.

                                                         Why be against Outsourcing?

       The immediate reason people will oppose outsourcing is, in terms of the United States as well as many other countries, is the immediate loss of jobs for the home country. This is a major concern for many, seeing as unemployment has been dangerously high and many point to outsourcing as the culprit. Along with this fear of losing their jobs, as mentioned in the thesis, a fear of lower wages is another reason to oppose outsourcing. The idea is that if there are more people competing for your job, the company doesn't "need" you specifically seeing as there are more people with your qualifications and therefor don't need to pay you as much. What is typically highlighted the most is the difference in regulations between the original country and the country being outsourced too. Countries like China and India, where labor laws like safety conditions and minimum wage are much more lenient opposed to other countries, so companies will take advantage of this in order to pay their labor less as well as have to spend less on safety and benefits. As shown in the image above, tech support companies are one of the biggest users of this strategy, and many people find it unethical that they create the idea that who they are talking to is American when in actuality they are outsourced jobs from all over the world.

                                                        Why does any of this matter?

       Outsourcing is something that has become very big in recent years, and has effected the lives of millions, whether positively or negatively. Knowing that this exists and either fighting for or against it is key to the development of business. We are in an important stage of development, where technology has allowed us to do things we couldn't have imagined. It is a state similar to the Industrial Revolution, but now it is a technology revolution. Much like they did in the Industrial Revolution with the new idea of monopolies, we must determine if we should ban outsourcing. Either we get rid of it like we did with monopolies, or learn to live with them and shape the world of business around this new idea. Whatever we as a people choose, one thing can be sure and that is the world is transitioning, and we need to come to agreements on these kinds of topics if we are going to improve for generations to come.

Source:

 Vanderweerdt, Gwyn. Analyzing the Debate over Offshore Outsourcing in the Service Industry: Is There a Reason for Concern? Thesis. 2006. Print. 

Pictures:
1st One: World with arrows around it that have different transporations. Digital image. Www.Rapidsofttechnologies.com. 10 Feb. 2016. Web. 21 Feb. 2016. <http://www.rapidsofttechnologies.com/blog/index.php/lets-make-sense-outsourcing-mobile-application-development-project/>.

 

2nd One: Priestley, Theo. Our Outsourced World. Digital image. Https://bpmredux.wordpress.com. 17 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

 

Mental Health Issues In The Workforce

By Heidi

Working in high stress environments causes unnecessary strain on workers mental health.  This has become a problem in countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.  Hours being spent in the office for people in the work force are becoming more than ever.  With the increase in hours, come no increase in compensating for workers added stress.  According to the Huffington Post, stress levels from 1983 to 2009 have increased by 18 percent in women and 24 percent in men.

Mental Health has just recently become a priority among the workplace.  Mental health used to be a problem that was pushed under the rug, but is finally starting to get some of the attention it deserves.  Companies are beginning to offer mental health treatment coverage, and counseling.  Mental health issues such as stress, and other serious ailments cause decrease in work productivity.  A survey done by Employee Benefit news magazine discovered that mental illness is the main cause of absence from work, and decreased productivity.  Reducing stress during the work day can result in high productivity in workers.  It allows them to get more sleep at night due to lack of stress, which allows them to be refreshed and ready to work throughout the long work day.

Companies would benefit greatly in caring about their workers well being in a various number of ways.  Businesses benefit greatly in their workers putting in their utmost effort.  So, why do some companies still not do everything they can to ensure their workers are productive?  Doing something as little as limiting stress throughout the day can make a world of difference in the work force.

Cites:

 "Work Stress Wreaks Havoc On Blood Sugar Levels, Ups Risk Of Diabetes." Medical Daily. 2014. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.