http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2011/12/01/clearwire-ceo-prusch-we-got-our-big-three-in-sprint-deal/
This article talks about how Clearwire got a new multi-part agreement with Sprint saving the company from not being able to make a debt payment. the CEO, Prusch said "this is a significant event, a foundational event, a springboard for a lot of different things to occur." The deal achieved three key objects for Clearwire. 1) it extends the company's deal to provide WiMax service to Sprint. 2) they got a commitment to support its planned rollout of LTE service over the current WiMax footprint, and 3) they got a commitment for additional equity funding. Prush says that this is a sign that "their relationship with Sprint is constructive." This article is a great example of two companies bringing their teams together to make one big team. Prusch goes on to say that this deal will have all great outcomes and that if Clearwire reaches a certain quota, that Sprint is willing to participate in more areas for them. The article doesn't talk a lot about teamwork, but if you read the whole article and think in depth, then you can realize that Clearwire is working hard as a team to get such a good deal, not just one individual can achieve this. It most likely took a lot of planning and cooperation to get the propisition they needed to ask for the deal. You can also see that both companies believe in good teamwork considering that they are joining together to work as even a bigger team.
Since its a brand new article, we don't know the final outcomes of the deal. But we can only hope that it works out as well as Prusch is hoping and believes it to.
-Kylie Merth
Thursday, December 1, 2011
My M&M's
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2009/id20091217_120646.htm
In the fast passed world we currently live in, it is impossible to keep up without being innovative. Mars discovered that one of the best tools in innovation is team work. Dan Michael, the R&D director for Mars and his team knew that they could only create customizeable M&M's if they worked together on this process. They had a great idea that they worked on for the next three years, testing out different printers and products. When they went to the board who thought their product was great but unfortunately the team lacked any market strategy. The Mars company felt that they needed more information in order to know if the product would sell or not. Fortunately, Mars had recently started a program called Pioneer Week where teams of employees were given a budget and 90 days to create a product. Through this program, and their teamwork, the group was able to create the customizeable M&M's which were launched without any out side market research. The Mars company encourages their employees to participate in internal market research for any projects that were in Pioneer Week.
When Mars came up with the program of Pioneer Week they essentially allowed their employees to form self-managed teams. This allows the employees to have a break from their superiors telling them how to run a project and instead run it themselves. Because there are very few guidelines to this project besides the time and budget restrictions, the team members are essentially allowed to do whatever they want to do. This gives the team members a better sense of pride in their work and they know that if they don't work just as a hard as their teammate the project will fall apart. I feel that with the tight time constriction, it is important that the teams put in their best effort on their product design. They can't just go into it thinking that this is just like any other project for their job. In this case there are no extensions and the employees essentially have to work harder than they do in their traditional teams. They have to put in more effort to be able to handle both their company projects and their new inventions to make sure the company is still happy along with their product being created properly.
By simply looking at the product that Michael and his team produced in three short months, it is evident that they had a collective efficacy within the group. Although, I'm sure they might have doubted the project from time to time, overall the team knew that they could get this product out. They knew that it was possible and they would be able to prove their employers wrong about the product being able to sell. As we know with the My M&M's product, they succeeded, but I believe it wouldn't be possible if everyone didn't believe in the product and that it could be produced.
Overall, if Michael and his team didn't have the skills to work in their informal work group along with their formal work group at the same time while putting in more than enough effort, the My M&M's company would probably not exist today. Luckily through their use of communication, focus on the task ahead and use of self managed teams, they were able to produce a revenue generating product.
~ Rebecca Doukas
In the fast passed world we currently live in, it is impossible to keep up without being innovative. Mars discovered that one of the best tools in innovation is team work. Dan Michael, the R&D director for Mars and his team knew that they could only create customizeable M&M's if they worked together on this process. They had a great idea that they worked on for the next three years, testing out different printers and products. When they went to the board who thought their product was great but unfortunately the team lacked any market strategy. The Mars company felt that they needed more information in order to know if the product would sell or not. Fortunately, Mars had recently started a program called Pioneer Week where teams of employees were given a budget and 90 days to create a product. Through this program, and their teamwork, the group was able to create the customizeable M&M's which were launched without any out side market research. The Mars company encourages their employees to participate in internal market research for any projects that were in Pioneer Week.
When Mars came up with the program of Pioneer Week they essentially allowed their employees to form self-managed teams. This allows the employees to have a break from their superiors telling them how to run a project and instead run it themselves. Because there are very few guidelines to this project besides the time and budget restrictions, the team members are essentially allowed to do whatever they want to do. This gives the team members a better sense of pride in their work and they know that if they don't work just as a hard as their teammate the project will fall apart. I feel that with the tight time constriction, it is important that the teams put in their best effort on their product design. They can't just go into it thinking that this is just like any other project for their job. In this case there are no extensions and the employees essentially have to work harder than they do in their traditional teams. They have to put in more effort to be able to handle both their company projects and their new inventions to make sure the company is still happy along with their product being created properly.
By simply looking at the product that Michael and his team produced in three short months, it is evident that they had a collective efficacy within the group. Although, I'm sure they might have doubted the project from time to time, overall the team knew that they could get this product out. They knew that it was possible and they would be able to prove their employers wrong about the product being able to sell. As we know with the My M&M's product, they succeeded, but I believe it wouldn't be possible if everyone didn't believe in the product and that it could be produced.
Overall, if Michael and his team didn't have the skills to work in their informal work group along with their formal work group at the same time while putting in more than enough effort, the My M&M's company would probably not exist today. Luckily through their use of communication, focus on the task ahead and use of self managed teams, they were able to produce a revenue generating product.
~ Rebecca Doukas
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Opening Day for Shoppers Shows Divide
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/business/black-friday-sales-show-divide-between-shoppers.html?_r=1
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, will always be one of the biggest shopping days of the year for stores. It is a day where consumers on a budget feel as though they get good savings and the wealthy don’t care what they pay. Chain stores, like Best Buy and Kohl’s slash prices to attract customers in to purchase their merchandise. High end stores like Neiman Marcus feel that they don’t have to do anything to attract customers. Their consumers will buy anything, regardless of the price.
Teamwork will have to take place between the consumer and the economy. The economy feeds off consumer purchases. So if stores have sales to attract the consumer, they will also purchase things that are not on sale, helping the store and thus stimulating the economy. Without the consumer willing to go out and purchase sales, the economy would stay stagnate. Many people are saying that sales from this Black Friday will be up 3 percent from last year with holiday sales growing 5.2 percent. Consumers are also showing strong spending patterns this year. This has to do with the economy being better from last year. Teamwork between the economy and the consumers is every strong and dependent on each other. Discount and chain stores will offer the best deals because they are the ones who feed off the teamwork of the consumers to increase their revenue. Fancy, high end stores, will have the rich buying at any time, regardless of the economy.
What do you think classmates - Is Black Friday important for our economy? Do you think that consumers and the economy teamwork together or is it not that important for there to be a good relationship there? What are some other big days of the economy that the consumer helps stimulate? Did you work with the economy and go shopping on Black Friday?
-Kristi Rudin
-Kristi Rudin
Friday, November 25, 2011
Leaders Today Are Having a Hard Time Leading
http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2011/11/18/why-arent-leaders-delivering-the-basics/
With the world changing faster than it has ever, leaders are having a tough time keeping up. Rapidly changing technology, global markets, and a diverse workforce is making it harder to lead today. It is almost as if leaders need to develop a new skill to lead employees, but this is the exact opposite of what they need to do. Leaders need to assess themselves to see if they are utilizing the basics of leaderships. In addition to adapting to new leadership traits, using the basics of leadership will help you become more effective. Treating employees with respect, demonstrate integrity, show trust in employees, provide an environment that fosters performance, and give employees autonomy are all ways leaders can become more effective. Whether someone is an effective leader or not can be the difference of whether a business succeeds or fails.
Leaders should show people-orientated leader behaviors. These types of behaviors show concern for employee feelings and treat employees with respect. People-orientated leader behaviors tend to leave employees more satisfied and react with positivity. Effective leaders should show integrity. A leader who demonstrates integrity acts ethically and honestly. Showing integrity gains employees' trust. Showing trust in your employees is also a way for them to gain trust in you. A leader who is achievement-orientated is leading in a way that fosters performance. They set goals for employees and encourage them to reach their goals. An effective leader gives employees autonomy when the situation calls for it. Using laissez-faire decision making is one way to give employees autonomy. This type of decision making occurs when leaders let employees make decisions on their own. The leader provides little to no guidance in the decision. Effective leaders have been linked to the traits of conscientiousness and extraversion of the Big 5 Personality Traits. Conscientiousness are people who are organized, take initiative, and demonstrate persistence. Extraversion is being outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoying social situations. Extraverts like interacting with others and show self-confidence.
Do you think people today are having a harder time leading? To be an effective leader today, do you think people need to develop a new skill to keep up with the changing world? Should leaders look back to the basics of leadership to become effective? Will the basics of leadership be enough to stay effective in the changing world?
-Steven Stanek
With the world changing faster than it has ever, leaders are having a tough time keeping up. Rapidly changing technology, global markets, and a diverse workforce is making it harder to lead today. It is almost as if leaders need to develop a new skill to lead employees, but this is the exact opposite of what they need to do. Leaders need to assess themselves to see if they are utilizing the basics of leaderships. In addition to adapting to new leadership traits, using the basics of leadership will help you become more effective. Treating employees with respect, demonstrate integrity, show trust in employees, provide an environment that fosters performance, and give employees autonomy are all ways leaders can become more effective. Whether someone is an effective leader or not can be the difference of whether a business succeeds or fails.
Leaders should show people-orientated leader behaviors. These types of behaviors show concern for employee feelings and treat employees with respect. People-orientated leader behaviors tend to leave employees more satisfied and react with positivity. Effective leaders should show integrity. A leader who demonstrates integrity acts ethically and honestly. Showing integrity gains employees' trust. Showing trust in your employees is also a way for them to gain trust in you. A leader who is achievement-orientated is leading in a way that fosters performance. They set goals for employees and encourage them to reach their goals. An effective leader gives employees autonomy when the situation calls for it. Using laissez-faire decision making is one way to give employees autonomy. This type of decision making occurs when leaders let employees make decisions on their own. The leader provides little to no guidance in the decision. Effective leaders have been linked to the traits of conscientiousness and extraversion of the Big 5 Personality Traits. Conscientiousness are people who are organized, take initiative, and demonstrate persistence. Extraversion is being outgoing, talkative, sociable, and enjoying social situations. Extraverts like interacting with others and show self-confidence.
Do you think people today are having a harder time leading? To be an effective leader today, do you think people need to develop a new skill to keep up with the changing world? Should leaders look back to the basics of leadership to become effective? Will the basics of leadership be enough to stay effective in the changing world?
-Steven Stanek
Thursday, October 27, 2011
HP's new ideas
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-27/hp-s-whitman-focuses-on-hardware-while-lane-leads-software.html
This article is discusses the recent changes in Hewlett-Packard. Just a few months ago HP announced that they were going to stop producing PC's. I found this to be very shocking seeing as PC's is HP's number one business. Then in this article I found out HP is no longer doing that. They have decided to bring two employees up to new positions when CEO Leo Apotheker stepped down. HP brought in Meg Whitman to be Co. CEO and Ray Lane to be Executive Chairman. Between the two of them they have split up the work; Whitman taking charge of computer hardware and corporate functions while Lane takes care of software and technology services. Because HP would lose about $2.5 billion if they cut out PC's it has become necessary that Lane and Whitman can handle the PC aspect of the business. Because they are splitting up the work and trying to keep this company from losing money they must work together as a flawless team. Although they must have coworkers beneath them to help out with the work, it is pertinent that they work together and make sure their work matches up so that they can keep HP a float. Whitman was only willing to take over the position as long as Lane took over being Executive Chairman. I feel that this is great that she looked at how much work she needed to do and realized that she would need someone's help. She knows how much help working as a team can be and that the end product will be better than if she were to do it on her own. It is hard though to be able to work as a team properly especially in the beginning. I feel that the two is doing a great job of this so far, they check in with each other daily to make sure they're on the same page and they even have weekly meetings to go over everything that they are doing.
Now that it seems HP has their PC operations back up and under control the topic of tablets comes up. HP had a tablet PC but got rid of it shortly after even though it was a great success. One might question whether they will bring back the tablet. I have to question whether this is too much for the team to handle. If they needed two people to handle just the PC division and Lane is only devoting 30% of his time to the team then how can they expect to add another product. Would it be better to add another teammate or would the team become too big and too much to handle. Or should HP expect Lane to devote more than just a mere 30% of his time. How can a team work effectively if one of the key members isn't putting their all in it?
~Rebecca Doukas
This article is discusses the recent changes in Hewlett-Packard. Just a few months ago HP announced that they were going to stop producing PC's. I found this to be very shocking seeing as PC's is HP's number one business. Then in this article I found out HP is no longer doing that. They have decided to bring two employees up to new positions when CEO Leo Apotheker stepped down. HP brought in Meg Whitman to be Co. CEO and Ray Lane to be Executive Chairman. Between the two of them they have split up the work; Whitman taking charge of computer hardware and corporate functions while Lane takes care of software and technology services. Because HP would lose about $2.5 billion if they cut out PC's it has become necessary that Lane and Whitman can handle the PC aspect of the business. Because they are splitting up the work and trying to keep this company from losing money they must work together as a flawless team. Although they must have coworkers beneath them to help out with the work, it is pertinent that they work together and make sure their work matches up so that they can keep HP a float. Whitman was only willing to take over the position as long as Lane took over being Executive Chairman. I feel that this is great that she looked at how much work she needed to do and realized that she would need someone's help. She knows how much help working as a team can be and that the end product will be better than if she were to do it on her own. It is hard though to be able to work as a team properly especially in the beginning. I feel that the two is doing a great job of this so far, they check in with each other daily to make sure they're on the same page and they even have weekly meetings to go over everything that they are doing.
Now that it seems HP has their PC operations back up and under control the topic of tablets comes up. HP had a tablet PC but got rid of it shortly after even though it was a great success. One might question whether they will bring back the tablet. I have to question whether this is too much for the team to handle. If they needed two people to handle just the PC division and Lane is only devoting 30% of his time to the team then how can they expect to add another product. Would it be better to add another teammate or would the team become too big and too much to handle. Or should HP expect Lane to devote more than just a mere 30% of his time. How can a team work effectively if one of the key members isn't putting their all in it?
~Rebecca Doukas
Blackberry Owners Flock to iPhone 4s in Record Numbers
http://www.forbes.com/sites/mobiledia/2011/10/27/blackberry-owners-flock-to-iphone-4s-in-record-numbers/
This article tells us how BlackBerry owners are trading in their phones at record numbers in for the iPhone 4s which highlights RIM's (Research in Motion's service) struggles and Apple's expected success through the 4s.
Blackberry users all over the world have been left without Internet and instant messaging capabilities for days as RIM struggled to fix some problems they were having. This was causing BlackBerry users to contemplate whether switching on to another smartphone or not. During service outage of Blackberry, the Apple iPhone 4s was released which may have been a trigger for BlackBerry users to increase the number of trade-ins. Cazelle launched a national television ad
campaign that informed views of a buy-back program for old electronics, such as their older smartphones, which was probably another reason people were more likely to trade their phones.
RIM is currently offering no phones that have nearly enough demand as its competitors like the new iPhone 4s or the new Motorola Droid Bionic. The newest BlackBerry has performed poorly, so customers aren't running to buy the BlackBerry Torch when there's better phones on the market.
What does Blackberry need to work on related team roles and related terms to catch up with the other competitors? How high do you think BlackBerry and RIM value their teamwork during this devastating time? Do you think they could improve their teamwork to help the company out? If so, how?
-Kylie Merth
This article tells us how BlackBerry owners are trading in their phones at record numbers in for the iPhone 4s which highlights RIM's (Research in Motion's service) struggles and Apple's expected success through the 4s.
Blackberry users all over the world have been left without Internet and instant messaging capabilities for days as RIM struggled to fix some problems they were having. This was causing BlackBerry users to contemplate whether switching on to another smartphone or not. During service outage of Blackberry, the Apple iPhone 4s was released which may have been a trigger for BlackBerry users to increase the number of trade-ins. Cazelle launched a national television ad
campaign that informed views of a buy-back program for old electronics, such as their older smartphones, which was probably another reason people were more likely to trade their phones.
RIM is currently offering no phones that have nearly enough demand as its competitors like the new iPhone 4s or the new Motorola Droid Bionic. The newest BlackBerry has performed poorly, so customers aren't running to buy the BlackBerry Torch when there's better phones on the market.
What does Blackberry need to work on related team roles and related terms to catch up with the other competitors? How high do you think BlackBerry and RIM value their teamwork during this devastating time? Do you think they could improve their teamwork to help the company out? If so, how?
-Kylie Merth
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
CSI activity
Throughout the CSI activity, different members of our group took on a variety of roles. I feel that at one time or another each of us took on a few of the same role. We were all contributors at one point or another when we would pick out certain bits of information and helped rule out certain characters based on the descriptions. We were all critics as well when we determined whether a certain reasoning for letting a character go was actually worthy or not. In order to be able to get our ideas and information out there we all had to be communicators throughout the entire exercise. Steve in particular took on the consul role because he was the one that took our answer up to the professor and then gave us the professor’s feedback. I feel that I most played the communicator, and contributor roles. I felt that my main task I completed was going back into the texts and finding the information to verify that it was really there.
I feel that if we had a strong contractor role then we would have noticed the three different copies of the text. We were more focused on getting the task done the fastest (so we wouldn’t have to write this blog post) and so we just handed each member a piece of paper to read and when we were finished we started to rule out certain characters based on the text. When some of my teammates said different (what I thought were minor) bits of information and I couldn’t remember reading them I figured I had just read a little too fast and missed the parts. If we had someone to collect all the points together and help discover that the parts were different then we would have had the correct reasoning for why certain people were dismissed.
I feel that our group is in between the norming and performing stages. It took us quite some time to warm up to each other and want to talk. Once we figured out that we had to talk at the end of class to go over what we were doing for our blog and other team projects we started to warm up and ask each other questions about other individual group projects. We still did have problems working together during in class activities to come up with the answer fast and creatively. I have noticed over the past two exercises that we have done a better job of voicing our opinion and getting down to business. I feel that the incentive of being exempt from different assignments helped greatly. Al though we should want to work together just in general I think that the incentive gave us the right kick to make us talk more and come up with more ideas instead of just sitting and looking at each other and only speaking up when we’re positive we have the right answer.
~Rebecca Doukas
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