Thought-provoking topics for short
papers related to business.
©
May 2005
Articles of Interest:
1. An unusual approach to employee empowerment seems to work for both of these companies. How do you feel about their approach to management? Would you like to work there? Should more companies try this?
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. is well known for its unusual organizational style:
W. L. Gore & Associates WorkIndex.com
Ricardo Semler of Semco is an advocate for a similar type of flat organizational style. His company is also quite successful.
http://www.aacsb.edu/publications/archives/JanFeb04/p16-21.pdf
2. Is the fostering of internal competition a good or bad management technique? Would you be comfortable working in this type of environment?
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,3959,1389506,00.asp
3. In 1975 people actually paid $4 for a rock that cost a penny. How does “fad” marketing differ from traditional business approaches? How would you get funding for something like this? Marketing theory says customers must have a need before they will buy. But why did they need rocks?
Read about the Pet Rock Craze:
http://www.virtualpet.com/vp/farm/petrock/petrock.htm
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/g1epc/tov/2419100947/p1/article.jhtml
http://individual.utoronto.ca/elaine/petrock.htm (with pictures)
Thought Questions:
1. Physicians have a Hippocratic Oath which sets ethical standards for their profession. Should businessmen have a similar pledge? What would you include on it?
2. You, the CEO, learn your company has released a defective
product. Should you recall it? Should you warn the public? Does the level of
3. You are starting a new web-based company. How would you attract people to your website? What methods of advertising you choose? Would you spam? How would you measure the cost versus the effectiveness of each method?
4. You are starting a new bricks and clicks company. Do you need an image? What kinds of things could you do to create one? What media would you use? How would cost affect your decisions? How do you measure your effectiveness?
5. You have a revolutionary new product. Would you price the product low to gain market share or high to skim the profits from your monopoly? What factors would you consider when making this decision? What information would you want?
6. You want to start a new business. How would you describe it in two minutes? What is the customer need? Who are your customers? What makes your product or service different? Do you need any special skills? How will you finance it?
7. How do you feel about outsourcing of manufacturing,
programming, and tech support jobs to other countries? Is there a future for
Business Related Movies:
What could be more fun than watching movies? I thought the ones on this list would be good subjects for papers.
The Commitments –
the lighter side of entrepreneurship. Kids in
Start Up – the darker side of entrepreneurship. Would you sacrifice friendship for money? True story illustrates the start-up process. The stakes are high.
All My Sons –
interesting ethical dilemma. Edward G Robinson has to decide between public
safety or jobs for his workers and his community. What
would your choice have been? A bit too preachy for my tastes, but that was
1950’s
Roger and Me – layoffs at a large corporation negatively affect an entire city. Do CEO’s owe loyalty to any other constituencies than stockholders? How should the needs of different constituencies be balanced? Should short term profits matter more than long term considerations? In Roger Smith’s position, would you have done anything different?
Wall Street – Insider trading. Sex and millions of dollars are at stake. Would you cheat? Do you have a personal code of ethics?
The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit – Several business and personal ethical issues are dealt with in an interesting story. Should you be a yes man? When should you disagree with your boss? Should you put family before work? How do you handle your mistakes?
The Magnificent Seven - A Mexican village out-sources a non-core function: protection. The joint venture goes wrong when gunslingers don’t do enough research on the competition. Steve McQueen laments, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” When should you hire experts? How do you react to business setbacks? Should experts screen their clients?
It’s a Wonderful Life – What matters more, home and community or maximizing shareholder profit? Have big corporations improved more or detracted more from the quality of life? Should benefiting shareholders be the only value that matters?