This assignment is for Economics, P3 and P6.
1) Find a credible source on the internet that connects one of your investment decisions (INVESTING PROJECT) or one of the companies whose triple bottom line (people and planet) you will be researching (GOOD GUIDE). This source should drive your research project. Think of it as one of the sources that will be in your Works Cited Page.
3) After you read the source that you find, answer the following questions as a blog entry below. Use an example from this week if you are confused.
1) Find a credible source on the internet that connects one of your investment decisions (INVESTING PROJECT) or one of the companies whose triple bottom line (people and planet) you will be researching (GOOD GUIDE). This source should drive your research project. Think of it as one of the sources that will be in your Works Cited Page.
3) After you read the source that you find, answer the following questions as a blog entry below. Use an example from this week if you are confused.
- How does the text connect to your research project? (relevant)
- What evidence do you have that the text you found is credible? (credible)
- Create a clear, specific argument based on the text. (argument)
- Support the argument with thoughtful analysis, using cause/effect, compare/contrast, problem/solution, part/whole, or other methods of analysis. (analysis)
Keep in mind that everyone else will see what you write below, so please keep it professional. This post is due Thursday, 5/16, by 12:00am.
4) Come to class on Friday ready to discuss the reading and the text you found!
If you need support or have questions, my office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 3:15-4:15 in Room 229.
The article that I read this week is titled “Coca Cola challenged over orange harvest linked to ‘exploitation and squalor’” by Andrew Wasley. This article talked about immigrants that work in Calabria, Southern Italy and the conditions they are under. The workers typically immigrated from Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. The workers work in a farm harvesting oranges for companies such as Fanta, a brand owned by Coca-Cola. When workers are done in the farms, they would return home to their slum housing, which are all located in a camp, where doctors who work for the farm all describe the camp as “...worse, than in refugee camps in war zones,...” (Wasley). The camps do not have electricity or running water. Some workers are even forced to sleep outside, even during the winter months. The workers receive the minimum wage of 25 Euros a day, or 38 dollars, but this amount is hardly living wage. The workers are provided with doctors, but the doctors become overwhelmed with all the medical issues such as “...muscle and skeletal conditions, respiratory problems...pneumonia...” and other illnesses linked to chemicals used in the field such as pesticides. The Coca-Cola company denies any wrong doings and claims that its direct supplier in Calabrian has just recently received a clean bill of health, but they also admit to not evaluating every farm bought by their suppliers. This text connects to my project because Coca-Cola, which is a big company in the United States who subcontracts, has been linked to harmful treatment of the people in their supply chain. This text is credible because it comes from TheEcologist.Org a British online magazine that focuses solely on environmental issues. The author, Andrew Wasley, is currently a journalist specializing in food, the environment, and consumer affairs. Wasley is now the co-founder and director of the research agency Ecostorm. This farm in Italy has their workers working in sweatshop conditions. The workers are forced to endure hard labor and little pay. The workers work in harmful conditions that can ultimately lead to their early demise. The over exposure of harmful chemicals in the fields, long hours of work, and a filthy and crowded housing camp will physically and mentally break them down leaving their families to defend for themselves.
ReplyDeleteCoca-Cola its one of the leading companies in the soda industry. Their products are sold worldwide in a variety of stores and restaurants.The name of the article is called India: Pollution Fine Sought Against Coca-Cola by Hari Kumar. The article is relatable to my good guide project because they speak about damages that Coca-Cola has caused in a small village in India. In this article Coca Cola is being fined for 47 million dollars for causing water pollution.The water pollution was caused by a bottling plant. According to the article the bottling plant “ polluted the groundwater and soil around the village of Plachimada, in the state of Kerala”. Coca-Cola is Purchased by millions of people daily and very few of them are aware of some of the damages that Coca-Cola is causing to foreign countries like india. The article that I found is credible because it comes from a highly popular news source. New York Times Has been publishing numerous articles since 1851. Their Internet site gets more than 30 million views each month.Also their headquarters is located in New York. New York times also published multiple articles that are about national and international issues. The author Hari Kumar has been working for the New York Times for 14 years and He studied law and sociology at Delhi University and is a native of Meerut, western Uttar Pradesh. Coca-Cola should get fined so that other incidents like the ones the ones that happen in India's won't happen again.
ReplyDeleteCoca-Cola its doing a very bad job in taking care of its toxic waste that's being released from their machinery. They are not taking care of it because that would decrease their earnings. Also the company wants to keep their spending low and their profit high. In order for the company to take care of their waste they would have to invest money in the procedure. Coca-Cola should get fined for 47$ million for polluting the people’s water in India and also damaging the farmers crops. They should get fined because if they don't they would continue being careless about their toxic waste. Ones they get fined for that large amount of money,the company would realize that in order to keep their profits high they would have to invest in something that would help get rid of their toxic waste without hurting the people.Coca-Cola would notice that the investment is less expensive than the fines they are getting from countries. If the company does not get fined then they would continue on being careless about they way they get rid of their toxic waste. They would continue on polluting peoples water and also damaging farmers crops. They wouldn't care because to them their profits are high because they are not spending money on their toxic waste and also they are not spending money on fines.
Starbucks as we know it has been supplying the community with top notch coffee for those in a hurry or for those who need to relax but are they giving the community environmentally safe coffee. n the “Global Responsibility Reports Goals and Progress 2012” it explains all the steps they took in 2102 to better their reputation by showing the information on how they get their coffee beans and how they assist in the growth of the beans, to make sure their environment safe for the people and the planet. This is credible because its straight from the starbucks company home page and this is relevant because it it explains how starbucks attempts to protect the environment and can be graded using the planet section of the rubric to determine whether or not they are actually not doing harm to the planet. Starbucks is showing improvement in their method to protect the planet by using their Farm Support Center so they can “work one-on-one with farmers to help them manage their businesses more effectively, improve the quality and productivity of their crops, and provide social services to their workers”, by doing this starbucks is helping to grow in a improved quality but also keeping their product from harming the planet. Starbucks also stated that “ As we have grown to now more than 18,000 stores in over 60 countries, we recognize that commitment to corporate citizenship is also a business imperative. We can use our scale for good, and catalyze change across entire industries so that Starbucks and everyone we touch can endure and thrive”, expanding their services to others and improve their scales and cause change to the community and the starbucks industrie. In my good guide rubric they would get a 3 out of 4 on Environmental Protection because they state that the help with the growth of the beans to make sure that they will be eco-friendly, but the still haven't stated that they will be using greener energy to transport the products so they are still going to exhaust gas, that pollutes the air damaging the ozone layer, which is also hurting the planet. Starbuck has so far only stated what makes them seem eco friendly on on transparency they would get a 2 out of 4 because they are telling the people good things that have done to better the environment but are still leaving out other information, such as are they using greener energy, are they burning less fuel, are they using less natural resources to power machines, like oil. When they publish this for the public to see then they will seem less suspicious of hiding, (harmful to the people or the planet), truths not yet seen by their customers. Starbucks have started to make a change and are appreciated because now people see that they do care about the consumer and the environment.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.triplepundit.com/2012/05/5-reasons-apples-csr-strategy-doesnt-work/
ReplyDeleteThe article I read was “5 Reasons Why Apple’s CSR Strategy Doesn't Work” by Raz Godelnik. This article talks about Apples approach to how they deal with things. The article revealed that Apple is extremely low key about how they do things, which is not a good thing. It talked about Apple not releasing sustainability reports and not disclosing the name of its suppliers, resulting in them having a low transparency level. This relates to the research project because this article is basically giving a transparency score to Apple and evaluating them on their triple bottom line. In the article it showed a report the New York Times did on apple claiming “allows suppliers only the slimmest of profits, which often results in suppliers trying to cut corners, replacing expensive chemicals with less costly alternatives, or pushing their employees to work faster and longer.” This shows Apple irresponsibility and displaying how Apple is not taking any precautions to take care of the works nor the earth. And just basically doing anything to gain a profit. If Apple continues to be irresponsible about the way it deals with the triple bottom line it would affect them in an extremely negative way. Their reputation would be ruined. Apples consumers are usually young, trendy individual who want to be part of a movement. If their consumers find out about Apples negligence and malpractice it could a major drop on their business.
The article I found its "When people gain new skills and knowledge, they can improve their lives." The article connects to my good guide project because it talks about their workers and how well prepared they are and how some of them have skills for working or even get the skills tough to them by Apple. Also it says that they provide educational resources for workers throughout their supply chain from training on their rights under the law to free college classes in language skills, computers and other subjects. This article is credible because its branched from the own company Apple a highly trust website, seen and read by many people around the world. Apple is a trustworthiness website, it keeps you update with the most recent news and every new features its company will be releasing. "Since 2007, more than 2.3 million workers and mangers in our supply chain have received this training carrying this knowledge with them in their current role or any future job." Apple has mange to train their workers and make them look better and have a better knowledge on their job duties. Many companies don't take the time to show their workers how to work things around. Cause some thinks just cause they got "machines" doing the work they thinks workers shouldn't learn how to use the machine property. In transparency on my rubric I give it a 4/4 because it always release information about subcontractor and their own.
ReplyDeleteThe article I read was “In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad”. This article explained the risks workers take when completing products for companies such as apple. These industries imply for workers to work several hours for low wages and harsh conditions in order to produce and manufacture any type of technology the companies are asking for. Apple is a wide known empire which create and advocate the sale of technology such as laptops, iphones, ipads and other devices. In order to achieve this they expand and spread throughout the globe in order to promote their products the company moves its production abroad in order to to achieve worldwide exchanges and easier transportation. Sometimes these companies can outsource which means they cause more production abroad and maintain authority of the factory or they can either subcontract when companies reach out to private owned factories to create their products but have no authority of the factory. Apple has become one of the mighties , richest, and most successful companies in the world , by mastering global manufacturing. In the article David Barboza expresses his fury against the factories owned by Apple in China which does not monitor or examine the conditions laborers work in. The laborers have no safety procedures or safety programs. Barboza states “However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.” This proves how dangerous the conditions are in the factories which lead to deadly consequences for the laborers but a harsh reality to us the consumers of these products who not only forward the manufacturing of these products but also easily buy and expand the growth of these companies. Though Apple may be in a bit of a mess it isn't the only company with these problems, companies such as Dell , IBM , Motorola , and Nokia are also in the middle of this troubling supply system. The Bleak working conditions the long hours and the low wages have been a routine used throughout decades by electronic companies. This relates to my research project because this proves exactly what I need to argue in my good guide electronic companies are not looking for the health of the workers but are only looking to benefit themselves without even lifting a finger. Those workers who work long hours are not only abused but are also not protected which is an extreme problem to these companies. It also relates to my project because it discusses the people. Apple pushes its company to other countries in order to pull in more workers and more consumers which profits the company but not the people. This article is credible because it contains hyperlinks and valuable proven quotes. It is also from a widespread organization which is the New York Times. This site also advocates worldwide news to the citizens of America. Though companies such as Apple make our lives easier and bless us with technology deep inside its roots it makes the lives of their workers a living hell causing them to work long hours in horrifying conditions which needs to be fixed because it is possible for both the consumers , the people, the planet, and the entrepreneurs to all be satisfied .
ReplyDeleteThe article i found was “Wal-Mart Supplier Accused of Sweatshop Conditions by Pallavi Gogoi. The article discussed how workers were getting little pay and worked long hours.The article relates to my project rubric because i'm focusing on the peoples working environment and living wages. This source is credible because its coming from a know website called BloombergBussinessWeek.com. Pallavi Gogoi is a very know New York City publisher and wouldn't risk his job with giving false information. It would also look bad on Bloomberg behalf and he would lose respect from his fans. As Pallavi Gogoi stated, “Workers at a Bangladesh factory were made to work up to 19-hour shifts and paid as little as $20 a month”. Gogoi is showing how the workers are paid very low and work long hours to produce the products we buy not having the sufficient amount of money to support themselves financially. Gogoi also states “an anti-sweatshop activist group based in Bangor (Me.), found that workers at the factory work up to 19-hour shifts to finish Wal-Mart's orders under tight deadlines; are made to stand for hours as punishment for arriving late to work; and are frequently subject to verbal abuse and kicking or beatings”. here the workers aren't treated with respect violating their natural rights of life liberty and pursuit of happiness. This is important because these big companies such as walmart apple and starbucks don't show what's really going on in the factories they just show the positives things not the negatives. Therefor, so they would lose customers and money. “One worker, Ritu, is quoted in the SweatFree Communities report as saying: "The day when the Wal-Mart representative comes to visit, everything changes in the factory." Meaning that once the representatives announce they're going to visit the factory the employers change the way they act to make it seem like the working conditions , workers right and wages are all great when in reality they not. The employers put a show for them because they will still be making money by selling products and paying the workers minimum wages.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
ReplyDeleteThe article i found was In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad by Charles Duhigg and David Barboza. This article involves Apple, one of the companies i'm researching on and their supply chain is handled. In this article Apple is being exposed of not taking actions on one of their subcontracted manufacturers Foxconn and how horrible their working conditions are.
This text is credible because it’s from the New York Times, The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18, 1851. It has won 112 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization. This peace is a collaboration of Charles Duhigg a Pulitzer prize winning reporter at The New York Times, where he writes for the business section. Prior to joining the staff of the New York Times in 2006, he was a staff writer of the Los Angeles and David Barboza who has been a correspondent for The New York Times based in Shanghai, China since November 2004 and in 2013, Mr. Barboza was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting “for his striking exposure of corruption at high levels of the Chinese government.”
Apples provides a code of conducts but it doesn't do enough to enforce them or make sure that workers rights are being protected clearly indicated when workers “spend 12 hours a day, six days a week inside the factory, according to his paychecks” , 12 more hours than the Code of Conduct indicates. Foxconn, provided a Code of conduct from Apple for it workers in its supply-chain which dictates “except in unusual circumstances, employees are not supposed to work more than 60 hours a week”, this is in attempt to protect workers from working unfair hours and to protects individuals rights. Apple chooses not to enforce their implied Code of Conduct because they are not owners of the factories they contract and don't have any legal obligation to enforce or even provides rules to oblige by, Apple provides these rules for good reputation and to raise awareness of how well their workers in their supply chain are treated in order to increase their sales. Based on my rubric for measuring how effective a corporate is in adopting “Fair working conditions” apple would receive a 2 which implies “Corporate provides code of conduct but does not enforce them and provides private investigation by corporate itself to better themselves but little to no progress.”
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ReplyDeleteThe article I found is named "Coca-Cola advances bottle technology using plants",http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9RL51RG0.htm. This articles talk about the coca-cola company having lots of interest in its environmental affects. Coca-cola company came up with the idea of plant bottles which were the first recycle bottles ever launched in 2009. By doing this they decreased the use of fossil fuel in making bottles and other non-renewable resources making expenses cheaper for the company and products more environmentally friendly. By doing this the Coca-Cola company ensure them self of less demands from the people that think there products is affecting the environment by creating more pollution so they made plant made bottles that dissolve faster and stay environmentally friendly using less fossil fuels in the making. When u sing my rubric too grade the Coca-Cola company in transparency I would give it a 3, Comprehensive and sustainability a 3, Conservation and effiency 3, and Industry impact leaders a 4 because the Coca-Cola company was the first to invent recycle plant bottles and its rival Pepsi company took the idea but instead of making half plant and fuel they made fully recycle plant bottles with no fossil fuels in it which makes me give Coca-Cola a 4 in this area for influencing other companies to make these changes in their products. Overall ill give the company a 6.7/10 in environmental involvement and responsibility.
ReplyDeleteI looked at where my companies that I invested on ranked in the stock market. One source I looked at was Fortune 500 which is a website where all the companies are ranked up. Fortune 500 is really helpful because you can see specifically where they rank up in their industry. The Fortune 500 was first publish in 1955 , Fortune 500 ranks the top 500 U.S closely held and public corporations as they are ranked by their gross revenue. Fortune 500 is a helpful source because it would help out my investment strategie instead of me throwing darts and picking random companies. Investing on a company that is ranked top on their industry is a good strategy if you want to keep a company for a long term. The company I have choosen as a long term are Mcdonald , Google and Bank Of America because they all ranked on top of their industry and all have high revenue which is good and would help me with a long term growth. Its also a good strategy to pick the top ranked companies because the companies behind them are doing what they could to be above them but at the moment they watching what they doing in order to stay with someone your trying to beat you need to follow their move. For example if Mcdonald choose to increase their cost other food companies are going to lower their cost and take the risk and hope that the consumers will go to their business instead. If Mcdonald lower their cost then other companies would lower their cost as well to stay in the same path as the top competitor. This is why we see companies going down when the main ranked company is struggling because they following their footsteps if the best does bad then so will the other company.
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ReplyDeleteThe article that I read is called “McDonalds Is Violating Labor Laws In Brazil” by Brian Mier talks about how McDonalds violates labor laws in Brazil and how some workers have worked for eight months without receiving any pay. In class we have been talking about the triple bottom bottom line and how companies treat their workers and how workers are receiving wages that are barely livable. Most companies say that they have a code of conduct and that they follow it but for most companies they just have the conduct their but don’t really follow it. This article is credible because it’s from Vice.com and what makes this website credible is that it’s a magazine that is operating in 34 different countries also because it’s circulation is 900,000 worldwide. Also even though this website is not as known as well as the New York times and others but it gives intense up to date news. The author of this article Brian Mier is credible because he has more articles about controversial issues that have been going on through throughout the world. Also because some of his stories have aired on HBO. Some people might say to work in McDonalds you don’t really deserve any wage higher than minimum wage mainly because to work in McDonalds you don’t need any specialized skills. McDonald's has had violations against labor laws across its supply chain because there has been 1 ,790 cases against the company in the State of São Paulo which lets us know that if these many cases have been happening in just this State who knows how many other violation have their been in other states. If McDonald's begins to follow it’s code of conduct then they are able to fix their reputation which is what they mainly care about . McDonald's is mainly thinking about their image and making sure that their money is multiplying and not decreasing what they can do to better their reputation and make money is by helping the planet and preventing global warming they can do this by switching energy sources and by making their information public on what they thinks about going against global warming. In the article it states that McDonalds gets away with most of this because “they focus on hiring teenagers from poor backgrounds who have little job experience and don’t know their rights” The employer of McDonalds because it’s their job to tell the workers that they are hiring their rights as a worker. What this means is that since some workers didn’t get paid for 8 months then the workers didn’t have any economic security either because if they are not receiving their normal or minimum wage why would they receive any benefits.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzU5Q4uI3iw
ReplyDeleteInvesting is not just any kind of game, nut at the moment we are in one. But since we are seeing how investing work we can see that there could be moments that we really need to invest. For example before I was still deciding of investing with Google, but with the new ideas Google have at the moment it’s a great idea to invest on them. This article that I have at the moment talks about the new improvements Google would have. The article summarizes about the announcement that was in San Francisco. The new ideas involve new version on Google map, Google Glasses, and also the idea of laptops and tablets in the education system to have an easier way for the students to learn.
This source is credible because it comes from Bloomberg.com which is, “what reporters did not have access to: trading, portfolio…” Their objective is to be more descriptive and tell the client or the reader beyond of what they know so far about how things are working out in the world. For the author for this article, Mark Milian, who is the technology write for CNN, and Los Angeles Times. His main focus is on technology.
Google, most of the world knows them, mostly the United States. This company is expanding quickly and successfully. The reason why I recently invested in Google is because of what they were going to offer to the people. One of my techniques is to see long term increase in there profit and also what they are willing to offer the people, because most of the time the people would like to improve as well. Also investing in the new ideas that Google are going to make, they would need that money to make these ideas to happen. Also I have seen the history of Google and they are increasing yearly. Lately the company has been steady. The time I have bought them were at $903. I was still undeceived because the high for them in a 52-week is at $919.98. Knowing they have something to offer to the people, that high would increase beyond and would benefit me. Knowing their history and what they making that would lead to an increase in profit.
The article I chose is coming straight from the starbucks website which helps me know more about them and gives us precise information about them. I chosed this article because one of the companies i'm doing is starbucks and its going to help me know more since I already got background information. This source is relevant because it is going to help me know more how starbucks is helping the environment and how they been helping out the environment. Another source I'm going to use is the good guide which is really relevant because I want to know if starbucks is really giving us the real numbers. The starbucks website is credible source because they won’t give us false statement like number wise because people would look at there website to see if everything they're saying is good. And also because it’s a big company which has a lot of consumers. And the good guide is a credible source because it gives us like a good idea of what grade starbucks would get helping me know if starbucks is helping out the environment and people. Starbucks recycling methods so far have been working out to help the environment. Starbucks in 2011 started at 18 percent recycling and in 2012 was at 24 percent but there main goal is that by 2015 reach 100 percent in recycling . “ In 2012 24% of our company-owned stores in the United States and Canada offered front-of-store recycling. Of these locations, 94% were able to recycle or compost the hot cup”. And now starbucks is “ efforts to recycle materials in the back of our stores and to bring front-of-store recycling to new markets have been effective in many areas, our success is continually dependent upon external circumstances”. This is way better making recycling more easier to do and help their own self and needs. As seen that starbucks is recycling the Good Guide source gave starbucks a 6.9 in environment which tells us that if they keep recycling the busy would be good. Starbucks also “ created over 50 different versions of our recycling can lid to help customers determine what they can compost or recycle in each store” which means that it gives the consumers different things to recycle. As a result starbucks will continue to grow if it meets these needs.
ReplyDelete1. The article I found is "The evil of Monsanto and GMOs explained: Bad technology, endless greed and the destruction of humanity", it talks about how nearly all informed people recognize that Monsanto is widely consider as the most evil corporation on our planet. Monsanto's products contain toxic chemicals that many people end up eating. Monsanto trap farmers in a system of economic I which they can't never escape and go back to their traditional farming. When Monsanto's genetic modified organisms (GMO) seeds blow into the fields of farmers who are trying to avoid growing it get sue. The company claims that they "stole" Monsanto property. Eating GMOs products causes massive cancer tumors. Monsanto test their GMOs products on animals for just 90 days and after that they declare the products safety. Some of those products give can cancer to the animals that are use.
ReplyDelete2. The article comes from NaturalNews Network, non-profit collection of public education websites covering topics that empower individuals to make positive changes in their health, environmental sensitivity, consumer choices and informed doubts. NaturalNews offers thousands of articles and dozens of downloadable reports and guides that are designed to educate and empower individuals, families and communities so that they may experience improved health, awareness and life fulfillment. A large amount of NaturalNews content is freely given away at no charge. The NaturalNews Network is not for sale, and does not accept money to cover any story. They are what the news industry used to be, before it sold out to big business. People can also published their articles, products you would like to NaturalNews consider reviewing.
3. Companies quest for profit at any cost leads them to violate the basic belief of the moral standards. Monsanto's actions are to make large its corporate profits as it can, not to serve the people. Monsanto's products cause death. "Monsanto's GM corn grown a toxic chemical right inside each and every corn kernel." The corn had GMO and it was given to rats to test out. The Scientific study shows that 70 percent of female rats died at ahead of time when it was given GMOs. 50 percent of males died early. Almost all of them died from cancer tumors. This is similar to the corn that people eat. Monsanto spends millions of dollars to try to defeat Proposition 37 in California. For a bill which would simply require GMOs to be indicated on food labels. Proposition 37 is when people have the right to know if the food has been genetically engineered, it helps them make a better choices in food. Monsanto is spending millions on this case because they want to "keep GMOs a dirty little secret about the poison in your food." They don't want to people to know what is in the food they consume. Once a farm plots herbicide it destroys the soil. It's unhealthy, it's a disaster to the environment.
In the text, “Hurt by Rivals From Asia, Dell Profit Falls 47%”,by Reuters, in this article it relates to my research project as an investor because it is one of the companies that i traded many shares on market watch and it informs me on how, “Dell’s third-quarter profit fell 47 percent”. This meaning if i have most of my shares on Dell and this article tells me its revenues are decreasing because of their competitors which are Lenovo in Asia, then i’m not going to have many returns and receive any profit because Dell is not making any profit, it’s decreasing. Also this company’s net income is decreasing as mentioned in the article, “Net income was $475 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $893 million, or 49 cents a share, in the period a year earlier.” This shows a dramatic decrease and tells me that this company needs a plan or goal in order to sell their products to consumers or end up becoming a failure as a company because of their competitors.New York Times is a credible resource to get articles because it has the most articles that are on the newspapers, blogs, interactive features, videos, and web content. New York Times stays updated on market watch and stocks that are in the daily papers. Dell as a company is going to lose many shares if they don’t come up with a plan to eliminate Lenovo which one of their competitors because their revenue is decreasing as said in the article, “Dell shares fell around 2 percent in the late trading from their close of $9.56.” This means that i’m going to have to reduce the amount of shares i have trading with this company in the market watch. Although, the company is being affected by their competitors, Dell is trying to fix their problem in making their revenue, “It is trying to bolster growth by focusing on products and services to corporations.” It is very challenging for Dell to respond to their competitors by making profit and increasing their shares.
ReplyDeleteThe article “Sustainable Packaging” from the official coca cola company website connects to my Good Guide project because it is explains what the Coca Cola company is doing in order to reduce energy and cost in order to help reduce global warming and protect the environment.’Sustainable Packaging” article is evidence of Coca Cola become more transparent throughout the years.This source is credible because it is the official site of the the Coca Cola company that the owners use in order to advertise and convince people to buy there products.The information in this website has to be a current because they are trying to gain more consumers of the product and transparency about the environment really attracts more consumers.Coca cola is doing enough about the environment to be better protected , because they are changing the way they package their products in order to reduce global warming.Coca for the past 2 years have started a lightweighting program that“ has resulted in an estimated cost-savings of approximately $180 million”. Coca Cola making these changes have benefited them economically and socially. Not only the consumers see that Coca Cola cares about the environment winning over more consumers but they are also gaining more profit without having to cut cost.Up to this date with this program coca cola has “trimmed the weight of our 20-ounce PET plastic bottle by more than 25 percent, shaved 30 percent from the weight of our 12-ounce aluminum can,lightened our 8-ounce glass bottle by more than 50 percent”. Demonstrating that Coca Cola has changed it’s ways in order to reduce carbon footprints and reduce the global warming since Coca Cola is sold internationally.Coca Cola is also working on their transparency. Coca Cola has set a goal that by “By 2015, recover 50 percent of the equivalent bottles and cans used annually” and so far they have only 37% have been recovered of the one they have sent out.Coca Cola might have been slow in progress but they are improving dramatically,because there up coming consumers are concentrated in the environment.There trying to get the information from there subcontractor about how much they are recycling in order to keep try and inform the public that Coca Cola is not only paying attention to the factories in the United States but also the one in america.
ReplyDeleteThe text that I have found is call “Starbucks Workers Celebrate, and Protest.” This text connects to workers rights because they are protesting to get payed more on holidays. This text is credible because it is from the New York times which is a well known news source.It was founded in 1851 and has won 108 Pulitzer prizes, which is more than any other news organization. The text was written by Colin Moynihan has written many articles of unions protesting and has worked in the New York Times for many years.Companies like Starbucks don’t do enough to secure the people who work for them.For example a worker from Starbucks“It took three years to get time-and-a-half pay on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.” The workers protest so that they can get a higher wage and the company does not listen. The company should give workers more economic security so that they would want to work for them and not rebel. World Starbucks Workers Union members were “asserting that the company has unlawfully prevented workers from unionizing.” The company is supposed to allow workers to create unions and it was preventing them so that people wouldn't know what was going on in the company. If the workers don’t have unions they have no power to change errors in the company. They would not want to work for them and people wouldn't be willing to work there.They had also “demanded the rehiring of two workers, one in New York and the other in Omaha,who the protesters said were unfairly fired.” The company fired people without having a reason to get rid of them. Companies like Starbucks also subcontract so that they don’t have to worry about the workers. They get payed less than minimum wage and they don’t care because they are still getting their finished products.The company needs to create a solution to keep workers from protesting, so that the company can succeed. In order to succeed they need to balance economic freedom and economic security. Since workers are part of economic security they need to find ways to keep them satisfied with their job.
ReplyDeleteThe article I read this week is entitled “Starbucks to slash paid lunch breaks and sick leave”from The Guardian. It connects to one of the companies , Starbucks, that I will be researching and evaluating on its triple bottom line. This also connects to one of the criteria I am grading my companies on which is work conditions. The article addresses the People part of the triple bottom line because it is talking about how Starbucks has had to cut benefits for their workers that they find are costly to them. This is due to the government in the United Kingdom has brought to light Starbuck’s secretive company structures that has led to Starbucks only paying a small fraction of taxes on a large amount of sales.
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper founded in 1821. The newspaper has an average daily circulation of 204,222. It publishes news stories and has the second most popular British newspaper website. The international media organization is also affiliated with other national papers.If The Guardian were to publish false news it could ruin their image with the British people and lose credibility as a nig news corporation in the UK.
Thought this will not be affecting the workers in factories or gathering the coffee beans, it will affect the workers in the stores. The benefits that will be getting cut include termination of sick leave and maternity benefits. One manager said that Starbucks,”is losing a lot of money in Europe, so they said they needed to make these changes to save the company money". The workers argue that in fact , they actually were making money because they don't pay sufficient taxes. The next step for the coffee chain is to open talks with the UK government that could lead to them paying more taxes in the future. The issue of the way they were doing business was questioned when researcher found that even though Starbucks was saying it made a loss for 14 of the 15 years it has been operating in the UK, when in reality they had a 31% market share by turnover and told UK shareholders it was making 15% profits. An argument by the workers is that its efforts to cut costs will be futile and will only lead to loss profits in the long run, They are saying that if they have people working without paid sick days and knowing that they will not be working toward pay raises or financial benefits, it will decrease moral, motivation and end up only hurting the business.
This is not an example of Starbucks using its economic freedom to secure economic security for its workers. It brings to light the lack of transparency and hints at the fact that if they were able to go through that time without paying the right amount of taxes, what other scheme could be currently going on making Starbucks money illegally. This new information will hinder the People score of the good guide but will this article will not be representative entirely in the grade because I will find a source that better shows how the outsourced workers and laborers are treated and their working conditions.
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ReplyDelete1. The article I choose is "Autodesk falls on disappointing results, forecast" by Dan Gallagher of MarketWatch. This is related to my investment decisions because I choose companies that are in the technology sector and are innovating new products so that they could have a quick short term growth. This article proves that not all products that are newly made usualy cause a spike in sales. The expected payout was much higher than what actually came in profit from the newest software they released.
ReplyDelete2. This source is credible because the article was located on MarketWatch, which is associated with the Wall Street Journal that gives the public up to date information on anything market related or economy related. This doesn't allow for false numbers and their entire website is consistently changing according to the new data or standards that are placed through out the world. Furthermore, educated at Brigham Young University, Dan Gallagher is the Data team leader, the Technology Editor, a reporter, a editor and Technology reporter at MarketWatch, labeling him somewhat of a expert in his field.
3. As a investor, my plan is to make money in a short amount of time, I want growth. So, placing my investments in companies that are focused on techonology and innovating, I thought there would always be a spike in their percentages of stocks because a new invention was created and sold to the public. However, at Autodesk , their latest innovation cost them and their investors dearly. On the other hand, the CEO of Autodesk said that there were some positives moments in the month of april where they were making money but April overall was a rough time for the company.
4. Me investing in Autodesk would have cost me dearly cause they dropped tremendously and reaching their all time low in just 2 weeks. So, I had to look for over innovating companies that usually have a great outcome. I know when to sell the stock after they start to decline farther than -o.5%. This allows me to reach their peak and then sell when it starts to head down hill.
Karla Arroyo
ReplyDeleteEconomics
Mr. Rochowicz
5/16/13
The text I found this week is called “How Timberland Uses the Four Pillars to Sow Sustainability” by Nina Kruschwitz. This text elaborates on the sustainability of the company and the practices they implement to keep the environment clean and their staff safe.
This text connects to my Good Guide project because it is about Timberland’s
environmental practices and their workers. Timberland focuses on mitigating their climate impact and building sustainable living environments at their factories. Without such safe living environments, the company will decline, and inspections may be conducted which can lead to the shutting down of the business if conditions are not healthful. By being environmentally sustainable, Timberland positively enhances their business model and is being transparent. Kruschwitz states, “The third area is focused around community service and greening the communities where we live and work -- specifically with tree planting. And then our fourth area is focused around our factories, building sustainable living environments at our factories” (1). Timberland is definitely focused on their global supply chain. Their subcontractors use large amounts of energy when fabricating Timberland’s products. Increases in energy can raise their costs. Moreover, Timberland has employed a dedicated team to monitor factory conditions, improve worker’s lives and ban discrimination at the workplace (Timberland.com). By having a safe and healthy workplace, the manufacturers can focus more on the quality of the products and not find many obstacles.
This text is credible because it is from greenbiz.com. Greenbiz.com gives their readers the latest updates on companies using environmentally sustainable methods. Greenbiz also interviews many CEO’s and provides information on how they apply the environment to their businesses. This is beneficial to their readers because they can be aware of a company’s environmental practices. This text is also written by Nina Kruschwitz who is the managing editor and sustainability editor for MIT Sloan Management Review. Kruschwitz has been a writer and editor of books for over five years.
Companies who switch to using less energy and improve their environmental sustainability succeed in the market and put a good name to their image. Going “green” enhances productivity and obviously protects the environment. It is also important for a company’s subcontractors to have a healthy environment for reasons such as toxic substance outbreaks and poor ventilation. If a factory has these defects, the workers can easily get sick and productivity is sure to stagnate. Companies should provide health benefits for their workers and factories should also have frequent inspections for the safety of their supply chain workers.
Certain criteria which companies should meet such are: safety and sustainability plans. With a strong use of the two, companies are able to become more transparent because they can exude their practices. Releasing things like audit scores are beneficial for a company so prospective workers can be aware of what they are working for.
The source I found is called Apple And The Environment by Apple. This source is Apple’s environment page where the show their impact on the environment and how they have minimized their environmental footprint over the years on based on manufacturing, transportation, recycling, product use, and facility use. This source is credible because it from Apple.com. An american multinational corporation that is one of the most successful businesses in the world because of their successful mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad products. This source is relevant because this source gives information on apples environmental practices which I am using to evaluate Apple in my triple bottom line evaluation project. You could say that Apple is improving every year and leading the industry in environment initiative. This quote on their website proves that Apple is leading the industry in environmental initiative.” From reporting our entire carbon footprint to finding ways to reduce that footprint, Apple takes a comprehensive approach to environmental responsibility. Product by product, facility by facility, we report on our progress every year. So you can see what we’re doing — and what we’ve done — to make a difference.”(Apple)
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times article that I found this week is call “Cleaning Up Brand Names’ Supply Chains”; sportswear companies such as Nike, adidas are making companies that are subcontracted to them get rid of toxic chemicals from the production processes which end up polluting China's waterways. The New York Times is a company that has been providing news since 1851. It has become a worldwide news source with a lot of followers and will be lost if the New York Times was to realise false information. Companies are doing their best in fulling the people’s wants of a green and protected earth. “20 percent of the organic pollutants involved come from factory waste” which is due to the toxic chemicals from the production processes. There is a lack of oversight on these chemicals contaminating the Chinese waters, yet the sportswear companies such as Nike, Adidas and Puma are taking actions on trying to reduce get rid of this problem. Puma has taken a big step by not only being one of the first one to fight against the toxins in its industry but also to give a measurable time in which they are going to achieve this goal “ Puma was the first to take the leap, pledging to eliminate the discharge of hazardous chemicals in their production processes by 2020.” These has lead to Nike and Adidas to take the same steps and create a code of conduct that is not mandatory for them to do.
ReplyDeleteThis week’s topic is evaluating how different companies or in this case Starbucks deals with the issues of the triple bottom line. And so both source “Starbucks sets standards for overseas coffee growers employees “from the apnewsarchive.com website and the company scorecard at the climatecount.org website. These two sources are useful because they can help evaluate how good is Starbucks is dealing with the issues of the environment and how sustainable Starbucks is (Environment) and the how are the consumers and producers for Starbucks is benefiting (people).
ReplyDeleteBoth sources climatecounts.org and apnewsarchive.com and both a credible source to use because these websites are highly visited. Climatecounts.org is a website that evaluates several of multinational companies, and people who do care about what’s the impact that these companies have on the environment they go to this website to find out if the multinational companies are hurting the environment. Also apnewsarchive.com is a very credible source because this is another highly visited website, but this is more of a world news based website, and if at any point the website publishes any wrongful information they would lose many ratings.
By looking at the evidence of both sources I believe that Starbucks companies are very aware of their surroundings what I mean is that they understand the triple bottom line and the components that go with it. For example, “adopted a code of conduct aimed at improving conditions for employees of its coffee suppliers…The code of conduct addresses such issues as housing, wages and benefits” as stated in the article from apnewsarcive.org. This new code of conduct that Starbucks is trying to enact shows how aware Starbucks is about its consumers, workers, and producers. It also states that “Starbucks is the first specialty coffee retailer to set such standards. Some U.S. clothing-industry companies have made taken similar steps to ensure decent treatment of workers at companies they deal with in developing countries.” This brings good publicity to the company because they others companies see how Starbucks is dealing with the people part of the triple bottom line and they would likely mimic Starbucks actions. This also brings new workers. And when thinking about the ways Starbucks is dealing with the environmental problem, you see that Starbucks is trying and is aware of what they need to do , in order for their business to prosper but in an environmental sense. For example, in the website climatecounts.org it states that “Starbucks has established general goals to reduce the company's energy use and has achieved reductions in its impact on global warming”. It also states that “Starbucks has distinguished itself by strongly advocating for comprehensive public policy that addresses climate change and would lead to market-wide reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and the growth of renewable energy capacity.” What this shows is that once Starbucks has acknowledge the problem they are trying to make sure that use consumers know about their Eco-friendly actions. When thinking about giving Starbucks rating on environment and a people row I would give them a high rating because Starbucks knows what the problem is and they are doing what they can to fix it.
The article “New Apps Arrive on Google Glass” by Claire Cain Miller is relevant to the investment project because it talks about Google's new innovation ‘Google Glass’ and how this innovation is expected to ‘skyrocket’ when it sells. With ‘Google Glass’ expected success, investors have been buying Google Inc.
ReplyDeleteThis newspaper that is well known for its rigorous news on Business, Politics, Sports, Arts, and more. The newspaper is known to be the third largest newspaper, alongside The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Paying close attention to the history of the companies, I invest in companies that will increase my overall gains through time. I have invested in Google Inc. because it is one of the companies that will increase my gains through time. With this, I am ensuring long-term growth from Google Inc.
According to the article, Miller writes about the developing apps for Google’s ‘Google Glass’ such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, even alerts from CNN. With ‘Google Glass’, yet to be released, those who signed up and paid $1,500 for the glasses will experience their apps through the lenses of ‘Google Glass’. With this new innovation, Google’s stocks have increased from a low $556.52 to a skyrocketing $919.98 within 52 weeks. Investors are noticing Google’s future success and so are highly investing on this company. However, investing in a company like Google is a huge risk. Products can only last so long, and so Google’s ‘Google Glass’ will soon see a decline. Investors will see a decline because there are consumers who are not willing and able to buy $1,500 glasses. Miller writes, “Just as apps transformed smartphones from cellphones into devices that have become essential to daily life for many people, so Google hopes that apps will make Glass more functional. Still, Google is moving slowly and cautiously in opening Glass to developers. Apps have limited access to Glass users’ data, for instance, and for now, cannot include ads.” Google’s stocks may have increased a lot within the last couple of weeks, there is bound to be a decrease in investors buying. However as a technical investor, Google’s data shows me that within 6 months, the stock have increased over time. And so, I will keep my one share on Google and ensuring long term growth.
Everywhere you read about Starbucks and their health insurance policies it states that their employees who work at least 20 hours will receive health benefits. According to the article “Starbuck's Health Care Policy is Sickening” this is false. This article was written by ZP Heller and posted May 27, 2009. In this project that I’m currently doing in economics we have to grade three companies based on their health and safety conditions. This article connects to the my project because it talks about the employee’s health benefits and I’m grading Starbucks healthy and safety conditions in their workplace based on the information I read. This information in this article provided will help me make a decision for Starbuck’s grade in my people rubric. This article gives us the real insight on the health benefits these Starbucks employees receive. This website in which this article was found is called The Huffington Post. This website is a well-known news site in which thousands of people visit everyday. The president and editor in chief is Arianna Huffington and the editor is Roy Sekoff. The managing editor is Jimmy Soni and the deputy managing editor is Elyse Siegel. And the supervising editor is Willy Volk followed by the national editor which is Kate Planner. Each section which includes front page, news desk, art and culture, books, black voices, business, celebrity, college and education, comedy, entertainment and more has it’s own editor. This is a very organized website in which provides anything and everything you want and need. Starbucks word about providing employees with health benefits who works at least 20 hours is false. a website has been created (StopStarbucks.com) in which provides 4 minutes videos with Starbucks former employees that talks about their experience with Starbucks health benefits. Nearly 40,000 people had viewed the videos and visited the website. One of Starbuck’s former employee said he had to take a week off because he was sick and didn’t receive his health insurance. He had health insurance for the first year he was working there. He also maintained the 20 hours that previous week, enough hours to receive health insurance with no problem. He said that Starbucks had told him that he didn’t receive the health insurance because he was low on the amount of hours he needed for next quarter.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-15/tesla-issues-new-shares-notes-to-speed-u-s-loan-payment.html
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't heard of Tesla you are definitely behind in the market. I chosen this article base on the rising price of Tesla's bullish stocks and its one of the stocks I decided to invest in. There are five points this stock shows it is a must buy in my stock picking technique which is CAN SLIM. In the article Ohnsaman wrote “Tesla’s funding plan comes after the Palo Alto, California-based company last week reported its first quarterly profit. The next day a Consumer Reports magazine review of the Model S scored the electric car, with a $69,900 base price, as among the best it’s ever tested.” This paragraph said Tesla quarter earrings has been growing from an negative percentage to now on 0. The company reported -1.04 in September to -0.78 in December and now 0 in March.The report shows positive growth and now with a great review from an magazine is definitely going to boost their sales and popularity.The company is also introducing a new models next year and a new convertible model is also on the works for next year.By introducing new products/services the company is showing it can keep with its compettitors and it shows that the company is intrested in growing its company.With sparks in demand for these stocks,can also drive up the prices for the stock and numerous investment firms say their stocks are bullish right now like Zacks Equity Research.Because Tesla is a new company it is loking for grouth eventually and that gave me another reason to buy alot of Tesla's stock.
This article is credible because it comes from Bloomberg online news paper,a leader in market news. An online review site said this about the company. "The New York-based company employs more than 10,000 people in over 135 offices around the world. Bloomberg is about information: accessing it, reporting it, analyzing it and distributing it, faster and more accurately than any other organization." Alan Ohnsman is an LA-based reporter for Bloomberg News, and have many articles covering autos and green transportation for Bloomberg news.That shows the author is not new in this field.
Tesla is a good bet right now since i've been picking a couple of rotten stocks lately.Hopefully it keeps on growing and makeup for my loses.This is the first stock I pick since I've learned the CAN SLIM technique. Although Tesla is not the one of the power house car manufacturing company it has potential in becoming one, with American becoming more grenner this all american base company can become more profitable in coming years and stocks becoming more profitable as well.
Quater earring report on Tesla http://www.nasdaq.com/earnings/report/tsla
Review on bloomberg news organization http://www.investimonials.com/websites/reviews-bloomberg.aspx
Good Guide is a well known website which categorizes certain aspects such as the health and the environment depending on the actions taken by a company. In their website Good Guide grades Apple on these aspects, specifically on the people and planet. This is a great source since it directly connects to the reseasrch project which focuses solely on the impact a company has on the people and planet. Good Guide is a well known website which was established in the mid to late 2000's by Dara O'Rourke to grade companies on their performance. This website is essentially good for consumers looking to dig deeper into a company to analyze the specific details behind a company. Based upon the grades Good Guide has given Apple as a whole it's noticable that Apple is really broken down between it's company as a whole than focused upon their consumers and the enviornment. If you would look closely at their grades Apple scored higher on their industry and scored much lower when trying to make consumer spending more efficient and also trying to improve the environment. With this being said Apple focuses primarily on their own company before they try to improve the environment and the workers. The reason why Apple might prioritize improvong their company first is so they can raise their profit rather than let it decrease. The problem with this is that by ignoring or not taking things such as the people for instance seriously may play out as a huge reason why Apple as a whole won't improve their profit.
ReplyDeleteIn the article “Apple’s Chief Puts Stamp On Labor Issues” Nick Wingfield discusses the significant improvement that Apple is making. The new chief Tim Cook is addressing the issues in factories overseas and the violations that Apple has. This text connects to my research project because Apple is one of the companies I will be researching and have found that Apple has had bad working conditions for the workers overseas and have very low pay. In this article it states the positive things Apple has done and will continue doing in the future. Things like being the first technology company to join the Fair Labor Association which is a non profit global monitoring group that will be inspecting the factories in China and elsewhere more often. Foxconn has also vowed to reduce working hours and significantly raise the workers wages. This will help with my “people” part of the project as a positive factor on Apple improving their company to benefit their workers. This source is credible because its from The New York Times has been around since 1851 and still remaining strong today as one of the most popular news papers in the U.S. Its a very trusted source which also has a reputation to keep and has won 112 Pulitzer Prizes which has been more than any other news organization. The author Nick Wingfield is a tech reporter for the New York Times and has experience on writing about electronic companies. Ever since Tim Cook has stepped up as chief after the death of Steve P. Jobs, the company has been going more towards progress. Tim Cook has even admitted himself that they have problems and he was especially outraged on child labor. There were numerous violations of Chinese labor laws and regulations at Foxconn factories much of which exceeded the 60 hour work week standard. Which had been information that hadn't been released before. In some cases workers passports were even taken away to limit their ability to leave their jobs, but Apple demanded they get their passports back. Wingfield states “Workers will not see a pay decline because of corresponding wage increases, Foxconn pledged.” The factory workers will be taken more into consideration and will begin to receive more benefits because of Apple trying to improve itself. Tim Cook has made himself more involved in what goes on in the factories unlike Steve Jobs where Wingfield states “In contrast to Mr. Cook, Mr. Jobs never visited the factories in China where Apple’s products were made, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who declined to be identified to avoid antagonizing Apple.” If Tim Cook continues to improve working conditions of the workers Apple will gain an even better reputation which might also increase their profit because they might get more buyers for their products. It wasn't that long ago that Apple wasn't releasing any information at all on their factories overseas but now according to Wingfield, “When Apple published its 2012 annual report on conditions within its suppliers’ factories, the company also released the names of 156 companies that supplied it with parts and other services involved in the manufacturing of Apple products, something it had previously declined to do.” This shows that they are improving as a company, releasing more of their information to the public meaning that they must be improving, and if Apple continues making frequent inspections on the factories the working conditions, hours and wages of the workers would be made sure that they are not being violated.
ReplyDeleteIn this article that I found it states how the company of Apple is trying to improve their working conditions for Apple's employees in the Chinese factories that they work in but is not improving and is failing at it. In the article it states how the chinese factoriy workera are creating Apple's Iphones under dangerous conditions and dangerous machinery. Also the New York Daily News states that "employees are still working more hours than the country's legal limit" which means that factory owners are pushing workers over the limit that they are suppose to work and Apple isn't doing anything about it. In my Good Guide project I'm trying to find out a good way that Apple is helping out the people but as of now Apple is failing to meet the criteria as they overwork their workers. This source is credible because it connects to the idea of the people under the pressure and work of major top name companies such as Apple as one would expect to treat the wotkers right since Apple is a very successful company butApple is failing to meet the needs.of the people. Although Apple currently isn't meeting the needs of their workers in foreign intense sweatshops that they would call factories, Apple is making changes such as cutting and reducing the hours of the workers to flexible hours. Although it won't be done overnight, it will take time for Apple to make those changes that they need to in a matter of time to be successful with their workers and.make them happy and safe.
ReplyDeletehttp://m.nydailynews.com/1.1346431
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ReplyDeleteThe article that I choose for this week’s reading is “Google I/O conference targets software and music” by Benjamin Pimentel and Dan Gallagher. This article is about how Google is creating new innovation due to the fact that they are increasing their market value when they hit all time high of $916.38 per share. This relates to my project because I invested in google due to the fact that as they increase in their market value and profit they are releasing new innovation to help their profit and their value increase. This relates to my investing in stocks for google because as soon as people heard that Google is going to be releasing the new and highly demand Google glass their market value started increasing so did their cost per share. “We’re just getting started, the opportunities we have are tremendous” said CEO Larry Page.This shows that Google is taking advantage of how technology is improving and changing people's lives and creating new innovations for them to remain on top of their competition such as Apple while their value and profit increases. This text is credible because it came from MarketWatch.com a daily update on stocks and how companiea are doing which they also say if the caompanie itself has a better future in the market which in this case Google is looking brighter every day. As technology keeps improving there would be more opportunities for Google to impact the world by creating new innovations that would impact the people and they would still remain on top of their rivals. Due to the new innovations soon to be release in the market by Google they are expected to have high number in their shares as their market value increases due to the increase of their profit Google is capable of wasting more money to create new technology. This is why Google is a good company to invest in because even though the cost per share is high Google is expected to increase as long as technology keeps improving and now Google is getting into the music business called “All Access” which would be running for Pc’s and also portable compatible with android phones. As an old saying you gotta spend money to make money which in this case Google is spending money in order to make more money as they charge “$9.99 per month, with a free 30-day trial. Users who sign up before June 30 will pay $7.99 per month”. Google is advancing and expanding their range to other parts. Google will no doubt be on top of their competition with all these create features and innovation that they are adding to the market.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0404/McDonald-s-strike-Fast-food-workers-want-to-double-wages
ReplyDeleteThe following article called, “McDonald’s Strike: Fast-food Workers Want to Double Wages” by Lisa Baertlein, connects to my research project because I’m looking for how the workers are being treated throughout the amount of time they have working at McDonalds. Based on the triple bottom line, the importance and protection of the workers has a very high significance because without the workers, a business wouldn’t be the actual business they are now.
The text I found is credible because according to The Christian Science Monitor’s ‘About’ section, they state the following, “The Christian Science Monitor is an international news organization that delivers thoughtful, global coverage via its website, weekly magazine, daily news briefing, email newsletters, and mobile site”. However, The Christian Science Monitor is a biased website because the mention the following, “The Monitor is global, both in practice and in spirit”. In other words, this website is very religious which makes the The Christian Science Monitor a biased website.
Based on this article, workers in McDonalds are asking for their wages to be doubled to at least $15 an hour. If the workers are creating a strike for this argument, then this a warning to McDonalds. In other words, if McDonalds doesn’t do anything to satisfy their workers, McDonalds will have a high chance in losing their workers. For example, Jonathan Westin, director of Fast Food Forward, stated the following, “It’s going to be difficult for these businesses to operate this time”. As mentioned before, without the workers working for McDonalds, their business is going to progress in a negative way and is not going to manage the same, which is something businesses, in general, would rather want to avoid.
The workers are fighting for a raise in their wages for various reasons. For instance, Baertlein mentions the following, “Low-wage, low-skill workers lack political clout and face significantly higher unemployment than college graduates”. To clarify, the more workers there are with low wages and yet nothing is going to be done to improve the workers’ satisfaction, the higher the rate of unemployment will be. To lead to this idea, this is something the government must intend to avoid. For instance, Joseph Barrera, a worker from a Brooklyn KFC restaurant, states the following, “Anywhere where the cost of living is very, very high, $9 is not enough. Everyone should be able to make a living wage”. In other words, Barrera is earning the minimum wage and is arguing the fact that instead of workers who work at fast food restaurants, including himself, get paid the minimum wage, they should get paid a reasonable amount that can be categorized as a living wage. Overall, based on the row 'Living Wage' on my rubric on ‘People’, McDonalds receives a 2/4 on because although they’re not paying a reasonable amount of living wage to the workers, they are paying their workers the minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour.
The article I found was "Supplier Responsibility Progress Report: Our commitment to transparency", coming from www.apple.com. This talks about how the actual company's information towards the public and internationally. The information is mostly about the supply chain's safety and the living wages with the results of the 2012 audits. This text is credible because it demonstrates the reasonable amount of transparent information to the public and world wide. As stated from this excerpt "Although underage labor is rare in our supply chain, we report all incidents we find, as well as the actions taken to correct problems and prevent future occurrences". This will get a 4 on my "people rubric" on the "health,safety work places". This matches the requirements that is needed. This is important for their supply chain because "excessive work hours", the workers get paid enough to live with as a wage. That's why on the rubric I score them a 3.5/4. Apple has fixed their extensive working hours by "To end the practice of excessive overtime, we now track weekly work hours for 1 million workers across our supply chain and publish the results on our website every month". This shows that on findthecompany.com, "Apple's Inc Profile", Apple has been ranked 5 stars, which is their average rating, and it's letting everyone (public,and world wide) to contribute a rate towards Apple the company itself. On my rubric for the "people/planet":transparency section, it will get 4/4 on both because on the right amount of detailed information about the company,which does not keep it private to itself. The employer at any Apple store, it’s their job to tell the workers that they are hiring their rights as a worker. What this means is that since some workers didn’t get paid for 8 months,then the workers didn’t have any economic security either because if they are not receiving their normal or minimum wage why would they receive any benefits.
ReplyDeleteI found a article i found was " Apple’s Year in Review"by Raz Godelnik talking about how was 2012 for the apple company and what were from the Triple Bottom line apple working with Foxconn led on to a terrible year for apple . This article is creditable because it came from http://www.triplepundit.com/A site that talks about events with big company's and there rise and falls with the triple bottom line , which can help me grade companies with the (Good guide) project
ReplyDeleteThe way that it connects with the (Good guide) project is that it talks about the triple bottom line which is an important part of grading company's on (profit,people & planet )to see if these company's are really doing there job in a legal way of the government that the company makes the order with and if the company are really doing what they say there doing to help (profit,people & plant)
Some evidence in the article is that Foxcon has hired 14 year old teenagers to work at Foxcon (people),apple has removed EPEAT which is was one of the reason that apple products were "green" with the (planet),Foxcon not sending the carbon emissions to the CDF which places the company at risk do to the consumer that buy apple products for being "green" (planet) ,apple has created there own strategy the goes against the CSR (profit)
Do to apple doing all these things with Foxcon it created a giant problem for apple in 2012 which could be solved just by doing make Foxcon sign a code of conduct saying about the age limit and the ways that there product should be made to reduce the carbon amount and also try to fix some other things with the company that can improve apple triple bottom line ratings over the years just by taking little steps to improve the way apple is working
“Starbucks Workers Celebrate, and Protest” by Colin Moynihan from The New York Times connects to my research project (Good Guide) because it will discuss the challenges that the employees went through to get the company/business to hear what the workers have to about how they deserve to get paid above the minimum wage, listen and have respect on the decisions that they want and still be able to be reasonable and in good hands with starbucks company.
ReplyDeleteThe text “Starbucks Workers Celebrate, and Protest” is credible because it was reported and displayed in The New York Times; an American daily newspaper in New York City that has won 112 Pulitzer Prizes, founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in 1851. Colin Moynihan, the reporter of this article as well makes the article credible with his experience in journalism.
The employees deserve to get paid above the minimum wage (which in Starbucks they now pay $9 to $10 an hour in New York) because that is protecting the peoples economic security, it is there way to survive in society (to support their living wage and pay for their costs). Also rewarding the workers for the job that they do to fulfill the daily requirements working as a barista at a multinational company.
Of all of the things that the workers could have protested on like health benefits or becoming more eco-friendly they decided to protest for the addition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday. By acting on it and not giving up it actually happened and included it, “‘It took three years to get time-and-a-half pay on Martin Luther King Jr. Day... It took a lot of marches in New York City and a lot of actions in other cities, petitions, partner surveys, mission review, demand letters, calling and calling and calling’” (Locke, Liberty, 2). The Astor Place Starbucks employees from lower manhattan (union square) demanded that they should receive/get:
- a raise of $1 dollar an hour for all Astor place workers
- “fair performance reviews”
- a voice for employees in determining schedules and day-to-day operations
- and a monthly meeting run by workers to air grievances and share ideas.
The text I found, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/big-year-for-tech-mergers-02062012.html
ReplyDeleteRelated to my investment project because of my strategy of investing in companies that have had major mergers in the past 5 years. This article discusses major companies in the technology sector that have expanded by buying or merging with other companies in their market, showing that they are the top company of their field.
Business week is a reliable news source for economics, business, technology and politics since 1929. Its main purpose was to inform and discuss business events to the public, and not one week after being released, the stock market crashed creating a window opportunity to notify the people on this event. As competition to Forbes, Business week must release the most accurate and insightful information to give its readers the most current information.
Based on the text, Mergers are a big sign as to how big a company is. A company that can buy out or fuse with its competitors to create and expand, shows growth and economic gain. Merging leads to instant growth, taking over your competitors locations and clients all in one buy. This is especially important in the sector of technology because every advancement is in hope to be a game changer, merging with the competition will allow companies to limit any game changers that is not their own. Economically, merging is almost a legal form of monopolization, gaining all the benefits of the competitor, and all of its products as well.
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ReplyDeleteThe text I read this week was “Google stock tops $900 amid prospect of news at annual conference” by Salvador Rodriquez. This text is credible because it is in business section of the LA times. The Los Angeles times is a national news organization which is “part of [the] Tribune Company, one of the country's leading media companies with businesses in publishing, the Internet and broadcasting”. It is also credible because the author, Salvador Rodriquez, is a technology reporter for the LA times so he reports about multiple technology related businesses such as apple, Facebook and Google. This text has to do with my investment project because Google is one of the companies I bought stock from this week. For some time I have been contemplating buying stock from Google since it is a well-known company with a P/E ratio of 26.48 and its stocks seems to have risen over time, but I was reluctant to do so since its stock price was so extremely high and seemed to change by large amounts. This week seemed the best if I was going to actually buy stock in it since Google is having its annual i/o conference. In this conference Google tends to demonstrate all of its soon to be released products and software. I knew this would obviously have people buying a lot of stock in the company which would make its stock price rise, so a day prior to the conference I bought stock in Google. This turned out to be great decision since this week the business’ stock price hit an all time high for the company. Wednesday Its stock price started at $895.75 and hit a high of $919.98 the companies highest ever. This was primarily because there have been many rumors of the company’s unveiling of many new products and software such as “a redesigned Google Maps, a new messaging service, a music service similar to Spotify and the second generation of the Nexus 7 tablet”. Another device that is almost certain to make an appearance is Google glass, which it has begun “selling Glass, its computing eyewear, to developers for $1,500”. Even though this conference has yielded in great results for the company’s stocks and for me in the game I will be selling my stocks in the company by the end of the week. Since this is an all time high for the company it is sure to go down at some point so I will be selling while the stock is still so high and investing my returns in a safer company or another that will soon have a rise.
ReplyDeleteGarmandy Candelario
ReplyDeleteThe article that i researched this week was “Will Wal-Mart Move Manufacturing Out of Bangladesh ? ” from the popular Business Week website. This reading is based on the overall view of Wal-Marts subcontracting conditions with suppliers in Bangladesh. Although The big retailers who are subcontracting these foreign factories to produce their goods are not in charge of the labors rights in the factory , according to the article when it comes to the safety of the factory “It’s at least 50 percent their responsibility” in other words Wal-Mart is also incharge of safety of the factory . Wal-Mart is making efforts to minimize things like fires in these foreign factories and one example is Wal-Mart’s “Zero Tolerance” policy for the suppliers where Wal-Mart basically warns suppliers. This connects to my investment project because i began to want to look deeper into companies who are doing more for the people . I am planning to invest in companies that satisfy my interest and keep the stocks for a while , wait on long term growth.
This source is credible and reliable not only because it is from a popular newsletter station but also because the author Susan Berfield is a fashion journalist that has written more than one article on the topic of companies and their supply chain , this proves that she has experience to back up what she has stated in this article. As an investor my plan is to invest in companies that are striving to better their methods with people and planet. I want to focus not on companies that are perfect in these areas but that are showing signs of constant improvement because i believe that with a good image companies like Walmart will increase in profit.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-18/will-walmart-move-manufacturing-out-of-bangladesh