Innovative Technology: The Snuggie!

The snuggie is innovative because it took a regular blanket and created a more useful tool to keep people warm. Instead of having to stay under the blanket, it has arm holes so you can still do things with your hands.

SAP Game

I was on team N and we ranked first in the class after the game. We did this by keeping a constant eye on the inventory, which was our key indicator of which products were selling and which ones were not. If the inventory level was high, we would lower the price to make the product look more attractive. If the inventory level was low, we would raise the price because obviously that was a highly demanded product. The clear pure water was the most popular product so we had the those prices really high. This helped our net income increase higher than other teams even if we didn't have the highest amount sold. Also, we kept our marketing at a minimum, but made sure we were marketing products that didn't sell a high amount in a specific area. By keeping marketing costs low, we had less expenses to go against our income.

In this game the main goal was to get the highest net income possible. In reality, there are other things to consider such as the financial statements and other ratios that tell how successful a business is.

I think our team worked well together. We communicated  really well by one person doing the pricing, one the marketing, one did the reports, and lastly someone focused on replenishing inventory. Even though that's what we were supposed to do, I think each person did their job effectively. I think we could have done a better job replenishing the inventory. I think sometimes we did it too fast and had too much inventory in stock.
I learned that having this type of job would be very stressful because the success of your company rides on your pricing, marketing, and inventory decisions. Also, I learned a very basic idea of how businesses make these decisions and how to use certain reports effectively.

Firing Employees over Facebook Comments

After reading this article, I think that Apple had every right to fire the employee for posting negative comments about the company. They laid out the rules about social media clearly, and the employee chose not to abide by the rules, thinking they would not get caught because it was "private". People need to realize that nothing is private on the internet. If you post something, people can find it. It's so important for companies to maintain a good reputation to the public in order to stay successful. Social Media is an essential way for business' advertisement and is widely viewed by people. Any negative views about a company can spread like wildfire on the internet. As an employee, I think we need to understand this part of business and violating these rules could end with serious consequences. As an employer, I would take social media very seriously and make it known to my employees that there is to be no negative comments about the company and go over the consequences.

Decision Support Software

We use many things on a day to day basis to help us make decisions. Some software that I use on a regular basis is google. Google can help me find things I want to buy, places I want to go, and so much more. For example, when I want to try a new restaurant, I look it up on google to see how far away it is, how expensive it is, etc. Also, I use my calendar in my cell phone. It helps me keep track of appointments, classes, and events going on in my life. Another one that helps me a lot when creating my class schedule is Gullnet. It can tell me all the classes available and their times so I can build a schedule for a future semester. It also tells me which classes I've completed, so I can decide which classes I need to take next. Lastly, online banking is pretty much my life saver. I can log in and see how much is in my account to decide what I can and can't afford.

Plagiarism Increasing at Alarming Rates

Plagiarism is becoming a major problem among college campuses. Technology seems to be a main contributor to this increase because it "blurs the lines" of plagiarism as the New York Times said. Not only does the internet make it easy to copy and paste blurbs into a paper, but the major issue seems to be the accessibility. The article said that information found on the internet is easily viewed as belonging to the whole online community because there is so much available by the click of a mouse. To students, many ideas and information on the internet doesn't seem to have an author, and therefore doesn't need to be credited. I agree with this, but I think this sounds more of an excuse for students that plagiarize. We've all been taught since middle school when we first started to write research papers how to cite resources. I think the internet just makes it easier for students to not have to critically think about their writing and come up with their own ideas. There's nothing wrong with using aids such as the internet to help write papers, but not citing the resources is just pure laziness. In the article, it said that 40% of undergraduates in a test admitted to plagiarizing some in their writing. Colleges are cracking down on academic honesty codes, and many professors are using plagiarism detectors online that scans papers for it.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?pagewanted=all

Ethics in the Workplace

Ethics in the workplace is a pretty debatable topic because good ethics can be different for each person's opinion. When I was 16, I got my first job as a busser at a local restaurant near my home. My manager was very strict and usually came down pretty hard on the bussers and servers. She was very serious most of the time. One night, it got extremely busy quickly and everyone was scrambling around trying to get all the tables served. My main job was to bake off rolls and get them to tables when they first walked in. During the rush, I was in the kitchen baking more rolls because we were nearly out and I knew my manager would be really mad if we didn't have any available. While waiting for the rolls, the cooks always used to tease me and make me laugh. As that was happening, my manager walked back and found- what it looked like- me not doing my job and goofing around in the back. She yelled at me so bad that I cried. My manager thought I wasn't doing my job, but really I was doing exactly what I was supposed to. After she yelled at me, my other manager saw that I was crying and he asked me to explain the situation. I told him exactly what happened. Afterwards, he talked to my other manager so that I wouldn't get in more trouble. Also, the cooks defended me and explained to my manager that it wasn't my fault and I was just doing my job.

American Education System

Before doing this blog, I haven't really thought about our education system, even though it surrounds me on a daily basis. After doing some research, it seems to be a general consensus of the main issue within our educational system. Compared to top notch systems such as China, we don't have the competitive edge obviously present within the Chinese education system. In China, students study hard for about five hours per day to increase their test scores and overall their ranking. They know that if their ranking isn't high enough, then college isn't an option. In America, there is a lot more freedom within the education system. I think students feel that if school doesn't go well for them, then there are many more options for them to have a successful future. This thought process doesn't make education a priority as it should be.However, I think the American system has a strength of creating more innovative thinkers. In China, there system is strictly based on test scores, which results in students who can regurgitate information easily. Americans focus more on critical thinking, which is a very useful tool in the real world, especially the business world.

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-failure-of-american-public-education/

http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2011-02-01-asia_education01_ST_N.htm

http://www.mannmuseum.com/american-education-system-versus-asian-education-system/