Project Earth: Sharing Environmental Awareness and Solutions Globally

A company named Ecology and Environment, Inc. helps global firms devise solutions that promote global sustainable economic and human development with minimal environmental impact. It was announced on Friday, August 6th, 2010, that the company has begun a new campaign called “Project Earth” to help students at schools around the world share ecologically focused projects and ideas and promote the Earth’s natural ecosystems happily coexisting with human cultures. The goal of the project is to bring people together to learn about and find solutions to global environmental challenges. This is a great project that is important to global business because it is spreading awareness and educating people who live in countries all over the world. It is also important that children are taught about the growing environmental concern and climate changes as the sustainability to the planet is so important for them. After all, they will be the leaders of our future. See the attached article below.

http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/30241-Ecology-and-Environment-Inc-Launches-ProjectEarth-net-Environmental-Forum-Globally-Announces-World-Environment-Day-Contest-Winner

The United States: Still an Influence

As I was researching Foreign Markets an article from Bloomberg Businessweek caught my attention. The article titled, "Demand for U.S. Assets Increases More Than Forecast (Update2)", was a breath of fresh air. After constantly hearing about the United States falling behind in Global Markets and China nearing the lead, it was nice to read a positive article about a demand for United States assets and global investment.

Investors in the United Kingdom, China and Japan all increased their holdings of U.S. treasuries. An increase has happened every month for the past several months. This is good news for the recovering United States economy. The investments show that other countries still have confidence in the United States and that the United States is still strong. After all, the United States is still the world's largest economy.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-15/demand-for-u-s-assets-increases-more-than-forecast-update2-.html

Where is the United States in International Trade relations?

To trade or not to trade? The attached article, found in Fortune Magazine, relates to international trade, or in respect to the United States, the lack thereof. Author, Nina Eaton, focuses on the seemingly collective push for international trade from all the major countries, except the United States. China, Japan, Asia and South Korea are all working to improve free trade and remove trade barriers. “Leaders of developing countries [are] moving aggressively to remove trade barriers, while the U.S. sits on the sidelines”.
The lack of United States involvement on world trade agreements has resulted in large firms, once invested in the United States, to move around trade tariffs and create jobs elsewhere. Another factor the United States needs to think about is long term relationships with other countries. By refusing or not committing to trade agreements this will make the United States more likely to get a reputation for being difficult. Recently, Canada, a regular trading country with the United States had a bad experience that resulted in Canadian government spreading the word about United States lack of follow through. There is as much a need to maintain imports as there are exports.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/15/news/economy/free_trade_matters_caterpillar.fortune/index.htm

India struggles to meet the demand for outsourcing

The article below applies to outsourcing, which was a topic my International Management class covered recently. Some countries are having difficulty keeping up with the rising demand for outsourcing services. This article focuses on Indian company named Infosys. Infosys is having trouble trying to create and maintain a workforce to meet the increasing demand for its outsourcing services. They lost many employees during the recession due to low pay, tough performance reviews and rare promotions.

With a surge in demand for services the firm is trying to get their old employees back. They are hoping to do so through new and improved human resource campaigns. Infosys says the firm expects to hire 30,000 previous and new employees this current fiscal year. If they do not, this may result in companies doing more business in their home base or outsourcing elsewhere.

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/07/08/search-for-lost-sheep/?KEYWORDS=Outsourcing

The New Manufacturing Industry

While reading the Wall Street Journal I came across an article relating to global business titled "The Sun Rises on Chinese Competition" by Thomas Hout. For my fellow classmates in International Management I thought this would be particularly interesting. I believe while we were studying the theories of Geert Hofstede the ongoing competition between the West and China was mentioned. This article relates to this topic because it touches upon the changing manufacturing market China once monopolized.
The industries that China did have control over are fading out and new industries have developed due to the need for green technologies, such as wind turbines and solar panels. These new industries are all about innovation. The Chinese currently use silicon to create panels, but the Americans have gained an edge by using a thin film semi conductor containing cadmium telluride and another using copper. These options offer a cheaper production process and are more efficient that silicon.
The Chinese may be at a disadvantage because they have all the market in old technologies but are no longer seeing a profit. The Chinese are still working towards making ties with big name companies and have even created partnerships in the West. This may leave them in a good position. But what does it mean for the future of China and the U.S.? Will manufacturing forever change in this new eco-friendly environment?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704009804575309721957767994.html

Someone is watching you...and its not the school nurse

Have you ever said you were going to take your medicine and didn't? Well, you may not only have Mom to answer to...according to CNET.com researchers at the University of FL have created pill capsules that boast microchips and digestible antennas!! Yes, a bit different, to say the least. The researchers say the pill was developed to monitor whether patients are taking their medication. In my opinion I think it may be taking things a little too far, but I think this is the way of the future and we're going to see much more of this as time goes on. Its just that little bit more of your privacy that the government is taking away from people that bothers me. However, its getting some good response from heavy hitters such as the American Heart Association, who state the #1 problem with treating illness today is failure to take prescriptions correctly. The association thinks this may be a way to change that. BUT, its all up to the consumer...what do you think?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10471908-247.html?tag=mncol

Facebook Addiction? You're not the only one.

Have you been on Facebook today? According to Internet research company, Hitwise, you have! For the week ending March 13, 2010 Facebook was the #1 most visited site on the web. For the first time in 2 years Google is #2. Its not just the fact that facebook has beat out Google for the #1 spot that's amazing people but the rate that its increasing by. Visits to Facebook in 2010 compared to 2009 have climbed a staggering 185%! While hits to Google in 2010 compared to 2009 only increased by 9%. This has created quite a stir in the financial world especially the stock market. Facebook has not opened its books to the public and many people are pushing for them to do so and create and IPO plan. There is also a rule called the 500 rule, that a company cannot have more than 500 investors and make more than 10 million in profit without having an IPO plan. With Facebook being one of the most traded stocks on the market, people are wondering how big their revenues really are? Are they making as much money as we all think? Or are they in trouble? This is yet to be known, but many believe that the truth will surprise us. We'll have to wait and see how the story unfolds. I'll see ya in the FB world!

Whats the Buzz on Google?

As always Google is getting some attention right now, they just unveiled their new social networking service called Buzz, but many users are complaining about a privacy violation. When you sign up to use the new social networking site, which you must have a gmail account to do, it automatically scans your contact list and creates a social network for you based on the contacts. This not only associates you with people whom you may not want to communicate with in this environment but displays the list to other users. One user complained that he was automatically connected with his landlord, whom he didn't necessarily want to share his personal information. In response, Google stated that once your account is created, its easy to manage and remove any connections that you may not want to be associated with. In my opinion, it may be a feature to rethink and change in the future. If Google is tying to compete with huge sites such as Facebook, which gives the user the option to choose whether or not to pull contacts from their e-mail, they may be forced to. You decide, do you want to be part of the Buzz?

New iPhone App Breaking into Home Owner's Market

Accoring to the Community Associations Network Industry, which is home to many Homeowner's Associations and Assocation management companies, the iPhone has a new app that will be a great tool for clients and firms in the industry. A software solutions firm, AtHomeNet, who is the nations leading provider of websites for communities and professional association management firms, has decided to incorporate an app allowing users to manage important features from their community websites. This is an example of how the iPhone apps frenzy is now becoming more popular in business relations. The app will allow users to send out bulletins, update information and check the status of various community business from anywhere.

Extreme meets advanced at the 2010 Olympic games!

I came across an interesting article in Popular Mechanics about new weather forecasting technology being used in the 2010 Olympic games. The 2010 Olympic games are being held in Vancouver this year. A challenge with this location is that Vancouver is the warmest city yet to host the games. To avoid unsafe weather conditions, a new short term weather forecasting system called nowcasting is being used.

Nowcast weather models will be used in many advanced ways. For example the models will assess the weather every 15 minutes instead of typical weather forecasts which predict an entire day; which as we all know is subject to change. Check out the attached article for more interesting ways about how nowcasting is being used to measure snowfall, etc. Good stuff!

Toyota's Digital Disaster

Everyone is talking about the hype and PR surrounding Toyota's massive recall over the last few weeks. In Newsweek Magazine this past week, an article written by Matthew Philips, talks about something different about this recall than any major recalls in recent years.

What we find ourselves seeing is PR created through blogs, video's and message boards by everyday people that is reaching millions through popular social sites, such as facebook, twitter and google. Never before has a company had to deal with bad PR so widespread.

According to the article, Toyota needs to buy keywords such as "Toyota Sucks" and "Toyota Fails" that are being used in abundance. This really comes down to the influence of media over public perception. The way media presents events dramatically effects the popular opinion of current events and now people can break into this even more through social media sites.

In my opinion I beleive people should read and base their arguments on credible sources, such as magazines and newspapers known to have researched the topic. It is easy to be led astray if you believe what you read on facebook and even google. Toyota needs to be more voiceful in publishing their own statements about the current situation, to keep the public informed. The reason they are having such a negetive backlash regarding their customer service is because they did not let consumers know what was going on. By maintaining their own PR they will contain the spread of rumors and panic. The Toyota Recall: A Public-Relations Disaster? - Newsweek.com

E-commerce

In the Management Information systems textbook, it covers e-commerce. I use e-commerce all the time and I think many people, especially students do. We make purchases for books, etc. How do you feel about the security of buying and selling online? I recently bought some books from a sister company of Amazon.com, called Abebooks.com and they are an international company based in Canada. After realizing this and finding out about hidden international fees, I felt a little uneasy, but my books came through okay. How would you feel about purchasing internationally?