Wednesday, November 9, 2011

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly


THE GOOD: Honey bees suffering from the growing colony collapse disorder, which is a phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive are abruptly disappearing, are receiving aid from an unexpected source: Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Why? Well bees pollinate a lot of things besides flowers, such as fruits, berries and other plants. These are key ingredients in almost all of Haagen-Dazs's products. To hopefully spread awarness of the issue they have created a whole new flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee. They have also placed 'Häagen-Dazs loves Honey Bees' all all of their products that contain pollinated ingredients. To add to that, they have created a whole website dedicated to the preservation of honey bees, http://www.helpthehoneybees.com.
THE BAD:

Monday, October 3, 2011

Do we still have our privacy?


Since the boom of the internet, new ideas have been soaring around in cyber space. Social networks started emerging into our lives along with emails, instant messaging, and so on. It is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, but do we still own our privacy?
Over 800million people around the world currently own a facebook account. Facebook allows you to share, comment, and like anybody's pictures, information, or status information. Facebook users are allowed to add people from around the world. Have people forgotten about stranger danger?
Facebook just made a new update where you have to add all your information whether you like it or not. Its the Facebook Timeline. This is a timeline about your life, so childhood, high school, and so on. Unless you edit your privacy settings, anybody is allowed to see this. This can be kind of dangerous. When I was younger, my mother warned me about stranger danger and how people on the internet may trick you and may not be who they say they are. I am sure we all had this 'talk' with our friends or family. How are the new changes and updates to Facebook any different? Have our lives totally been revealed?

Monday, September 26, 2011

Type of Business Organization

Private Limited Company-
a small to medium sized business that is owned by share holders who are often members of the same family. This company cannot sell shares to the general public. Ford is an American motor company that was started by Henry Ford. They have been a business for more than 100 years, obviously success is not a problem with them.
Public Limited Company-
a limited company, often a large business, with the legal right to sell shares to the general public. Its share price is quoted on the national stock exchange.
Public Corporation-
a business enterprise owned and controlled by the state- also known as nationalized industry.
Non-profit Organization-
any organization that has aims other than making and distributing profit and which is usually governed by a voluntary board.
Non-governmental organization-
a legally constituted body with no participation or representation of any government.
Pressure group-
an organization created by people with a common interest or objective who lobby businesses and governments to change policies so that the objective is reached.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Why Do Businesses Fail?

Starting up a business can be risky. If you don't play your cards right, it can end in disaster. While starting a business, the entrepreneur must keep in mind that it is very likely someone tried opening up the same type of business before. Therefore, there will be big competition within the business community. The entrepreneur may have to offer things that bigger companies do not. They would have to shine amongst the rest. If they don't put themselves out there, then the life span of their business will be very short.


Another reason why companies fail is due to lack of entrepreneur’s management skills. An entrepreneur may have a great idea for a business but may lack the most important characteristic of running a business, which is the management end. It is wise for an entrepreneur to have the experience before they open their first company. They should know what goes on 'behind the scenes' in a business. An entrepreneur may be willing to work hard and get things done, in some cases they learn their management skills as the business progresses, however, this is a risky strategy. Some entrepreneurs hire people with managing qualifications and employ them to help them run the business. Entrepreneurs should open a business thinking that just because they have enthusiasm and the motive to open it that it will bring them automatic success. It would be wise to get the appropriate training and develop management skills before stepping out into the real world.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Napster



Napster was a a media sharing website that allowed a user to download music for free. The were the beginning of music piracy. And the reason to their failure is obvious.
Napster brought way too much attention to themselves for what they were doing. Music Artists soon saw that their products were being given away from Napster. This caused Napster to go through lawsuit after lawsuit. But soon after new companies started to rise such as Lime-wire, who ended up in the same situation as Napster.

Planet Hollywood

With high-profile investors such as Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Arnorld Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, Planet Hollywood was a guaranteed success when it launched in 1991. The chain expanded quickly and soon had 80 restaurants worldwide. However, in 1999, the company became bankrupt and numerous restaurants were forced to be shut down.
Why is this? Well, firstly, the company exanded way too quickly launching new restaurants before they even saw a profit from the originals. Their original plan was to open 300 restaurants by 2003. A major factor was their food. People go to restaurants because of the food, but Planet Hollywood never advertised this aspect of the business. Therefore, Planet Hollywood only attracted 'one-time' visitors. They were only lured by the memorabilia of today's pop culture. Planet Hollywood was therefore seen as a 'been there done that'. There was no reason for people to come back.