Top business stories of 2007

The real estate decline The credit crisis
Climbing oil and gas prices
The Dow's rollercoaster ride
The sinking dollar
Food and toy recalls
The iPhone frenzy
Harmonix rocks the video game industry

http://www.boston.com/business/gallery/topstories2007/

What a semester!!!!

It has been a tough semester all around and I started off feeling so lost.
I must say I learned a lot and knew more about business than I thought I did.
I think I'm keeping this blog.
Thank you Professor for keeping class interesting.

Victoria's Secret store in the Kenwood Towne Centre

Victoria's Secret, special promotions, packaging and small gift items for the holidays are meant to heat up what's been slow mall traffic for much of the year.
The packaging looks so pretty.

Victoria's Secret Direct helps out area families

Employees of Victoria's Secret Direct in Rio Rancho will hand out gifts to hundreds of Albuquerque children and families on Dec. 12. It's part of parent company Limited Brands' holiday giving tree program, which takes place in Rio Rancho, where the Victoria's Secret call center is located, as well as Columbus and Kettering, Ohio, and New York City.The effort involves more than 80,000 associates in Limited Brands' home offices in those cities as well as in its 3,000 retail stores. Associates donate between 5,000 and 8,000 gifts to more than 1,700 nonprofit agencies. This is the eighth anniversary of the program. Last year the company adopted more than 44,000 families nationwide.About 200 Albuquerque area associates will help out at child care facilities, the Ronald McDonald House and the Salvation Army during December as well.

Talk about good "Social Responsibility". The perfect season for giving back to your community.

Conrad Black gets 6 1/2 years for fraud

Former newspaper mogul Conrad Black was sentenced Monday to 6½ years in prison, far less than sought by prosecutors, for swindling shareholders in his Hollinger media empire out of $6 million. To read more go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22185505/

Are there any honest businessmen/women left?

Victoria's Secret thrives off Jordan sweatshop

A workers-rights group said a Jordanian subcontractor that makes clothing for popular lingerie brand Victoria's Secret is abusing its workers, cheating them of wages and imprisoning them, the America in Arabic news agency reported.

The National Labor Committee (NLC), one of the biggest workers' advocacy groups in the world, said D.K. Garment in Irbid, 70 kms north of the capital Amman, is technically holding its workers prisoner after taking away their residency permits.
To read the entire article : http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2007/12/09/42699.html

I think I posted something about this a few weeks prior. This is such a shame but when you think about it, a lot of these clothing retail giants are making their profits by abusing the so-called "cheap labor". At the end of the day, its people we're talking about and they should be treated as such.

BUS104 Review

Chapter 11 cont'd

1. Implementing the production plan- (a) decide whether to make product, buy or lease product from an outside supplier. (b) selecting the best vendors to fit your needs while comparing quality, price, dependability and services offered by companies. (c) inventory control. (d) knowing how much to produce.
   
2. People in Production-line compliment is the # of people necessary to carry about production.
   
3. The engineer/time study man decides the number of workers on a line.
   
4. The start of production usually begins with cheap labor.
   
5. Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) refers to a facility that can be modified to manufacture different products. eg different types of liquor.
   
6. Planning-Routing-Scheduling-Dispatching-Follow up are steps in the production control system.
   
7. Quality control measures output against quality standards.

Chapter 12

1. Marketing is the process of planning & executing the conception, distribution, promotion and pricing of a good/service.
   
2. Utility is the want satisfying power of a good.
   
3. Types of utility-form (conversion of raw materials into finished goods), time (making good/service available when customer wants), place (convenient location for customers) and ownership (transfer of good from seller to buyer).
   
4. A marketing concept refers to consumer orientation to promote the success of a good/service and varies from company to company.
   
5. There are different types of marketing: non-profit marketing, nontraditional marketing, person marketing, place marketing, cause marketing, event marketing and organization marketing.
   
6. Person and place marketing can occur together.
   
7. Target marketing is marketing a good/service toward a specific group of people.
   
8. Marketing Mix is making use of all four elements to satisfy chosen customer segments.
   
9. Marketing Research uses available information to support marketing decision making.
   
10. Some reasons for marketing research are to identify problems and opportunities, analyze the competition, evaluate/ predict consumer behavior, monitor existing products/ assess the potential for new ones, develop price/promotion/distribution method.
    
11. Data mining.
    
12. Dividing a total market into several homogeneous groups is known as Market Segmentation.
    
13. Criterion for market segmentation are must be a measurable group, must be accessible for communications.
    
14. Different types of segmentation are- geographical (by population), demographic (by age, income, gender), psycho graphic (by values, lifestyles), product-related (by relationship to good/service).
    
15. Buyer behavior.
    
16. Consumer behavior.

In-flight e-mail makes US debut on JetBlue with Yahoo
JetBlue will begin offering passengers free e-mail access on one of its airplanes next week as Internet connections that have become ubiquitous on the ground begin taking to the skies. An Airbus-320 passenger jet called "BetaBlue" is equipped with wireless Internet antennae in the ceiling and a computer server that relays signals to mobile telephone towers on the ground.BetaBlue will make its commercial flight debut Tuesday on a route from New York City to San Francisco.

We are slowly but surely turning into an "I-Robot" world. As much as it pains me to admit this (since I am one of the many who thinks all this technology is a good thing), we are becoming slaves to all these gadgets that we believe are invented to make our lives easier, but are they really?

Has Facebook Worn Out Its Welcome?
The Associated Press is reporting that Syria has blocked its citizens’ access to the popular Facebook social networking web site. No official reason has yet been given, but the A.P. report suggests that it may have to do with Damascus worrying that Israelis were using the site to somehow infiltrate Syrian social networks.While that’s kind of mystifying — what would be the point, exactly? — it caught The Lede’s attention for being another data point in a growing pattern: On all sides, people seem ready to conclude that Facebook is becoming A Bad Thing.

This all comes moments after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made a public apology for the incorporation of the Beacon tracking and advertising feature, which a lot of users complained was an invasion of their privacy. In the world of business, it seems inevitable that a company's need to make a profit begins to overshadow to safety and well being of its consumers/ users, etc.
The picture illustrates something we just talked about in class as well. This is a good example of a database and its use to target specific markets by people's interests.

NBC Plans Major Job Cuts At MSNBC, News Division
NBC boss Jeff Zucker is expected to make big cuts on the newsgathering and operational side of the company's news division, including eliminating an entire level of MSNBC's management team, in a bid to save between $20 million and $40 million, The Post has learned.

Oh Boy! And to think just yesterday I was posting positive things about the job market. Its just like I said...Here today, Gone tomorrow.

Wall Street Firms Under Fire For Aiding Subprime Loan Crisis

As the subprime loan crisis deepens, Wall Street firms are increasingly coming under scrutiny for their role in selling risky mortgage-related securities to investors. Many of the home loans tied to these investments quickly defaulted, resulting in billions of dollars of losses for investors. At the same time, many of the companies that sold these securities, concerned about a looming meltdown in the housing market, protected themselves from losses.

Private-sector Nov jobs growth best in a year
Private employers added 189,000 jobs in November for the largest monthly increase in a year, a private employment service said on Wednesday. The bulk of the gains in private-sector employment came from the service sector, where new jobs totaled 197,000, the ADP Employer Services report, which handily beat Wall Street forecasts, said.

I just wonder how sturdy the economy is to uphold such a vast increase in employment much less keep it continuously flowing. The job market is so "here today gone tomorrow".

Kia Commercial

I think this commercial is hilarious. If only they really had a dancing sales person at the store....who wouldn't want to buy a car after such great entertainment.

Pirates Attack Exxon Vessel In Nigeria

Pirates attacked a vessel operated by oil major ExxonMobil in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria on Tuesday, killing a crew member and injuring another, private security contractors working in the oil industry said. Attacks by politically motivated rebels in the delta, who last year shut down a fifth of Nigerian oil production, have subsided since a new president took office in May but armed robbers and pirates still stage sporadic raids in the creeks.

I can't help but think of captain Jack Sparrow when pirates are mentioned. however, just like in the movies, it seems that the actions of these sea bandits are something the goverments can't seem to control.

BUS104- Review

Chapter 11

1. If Sales is the backbone, Production is the heart of business.
   
2. Production is the manufacturing of finished goods and services with the use of people and/or machinery.
   
3. Production & Operations Mgt.- managing/ overseeing production.
   
4. Mass Production- manufacturing of products in large quantities which makes use of specialized skills, mechanization & standardization.
   
5. Production processes consist of an 'analytical production system', 'synthetic production system' and continuous production system'. Limitations of Production- machinery output, time (downtime:irreplaceable time lost, biggest enemy of production), lack of production (eg. the writers and stagehands strike-big setback).
   
6. FYI: 3 major components of business- production, inventory, sales.
   
7. Pallatizing.
   
8. A Production Manager must be able to have a concept of time (be able to produce the maximum number of goods in allotted time.
   
9. Planning the production process (for starting up the business)- most production plants are 1 or 2 levels. Most efficient type of space, determine whether it is light or heavy manufacturing. Robots have replaced humans in production.
   
10. Computer-aided design (CAD), Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) & Computer-integrated systems (CIS).
    
11. Factors in deciding location- transportation (proximity to markets, raw materials & transport alternatives. Human factors ( labor supply, local regulations, community living conditions. Physical factors (water, energy, hazardous waste).
12. Production Pull & Production Push.

To be cont'd

VICTORIA'S SECRET FASHION SHOW
AIRS
TUESDAY DECEMBER 4th 2007 AT 10/9C ON CBS

VICTORIA'S SECRET ANGELS
will.i.am! SEAL! SPICE GIRLS!
Debut Reunion Performance

Woman wins suit challenging toilet-paper tax

A western Pennsylvania woman won $100 plus court costs after she sued Kmart for twice collecting sales tax on a nontaxable necessity: toilet paper.
Mary Bach, of Murrysville, said Kmart offered to settle the case out of court before a Thursday hearing at which a Monroeville district judge sided with her. But the settlement required her to sign a confidentiality agreement, which would have defeated the purpose of her suit, Bach said. "I want consumers as they shop during the important holiday to be aware of what is and what isn't taxable," Bach said after the verdict. "I would lose my ability to spread that message if I were gagged."

That reminds me of the supermarket checkout stories that Professor Evans often refers to. You have to be alert and pay attention to your purchases as they are being rung up at the register. The supermarkets, departments stores, etc. have a variety of tactics to swindle us out of a penny to a dollar. Its all about principles.

Some say mannequins don't keep the secret

Mannequins wearing racy lingerie in the window of Victoria's Secret might lure customers to the popular retailer at Carmel's Clay Terrace, but to some residents the display is a turn-off. A group of residents has spearheaded a campaign to remove the lingerie displays from the upscale outdoor mall's windows. They've sent letters to city leaders and executives at Simon Property Group, which owns Clay Terrace, and Limited Brands, which owns Victoria's Secret.

Ok! This is a store that sells lingerie we're talking about here. What do these "residents" expect to see on mannequins when passing by such a store? I'll admit, some of the displays can be a bit raunchy but you don't have to look now do you?