Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

Learning about Business by Selling Slime

July 18, 2017

Along with being a summertime staple, the neighborhood lemonade stand also represents the classic image of young entrepreneurship. In today’s interconnected world, though, ambitious kids have even more options at their disposal if they want to run a business. And while selling lemonade is certainly a refreshing way to earn a dollar, some have turned their attention to a far less appetizing but still lucrative option: slime.

This sticky substance has been fascinating young social media users for years. Unlike Continue reading →

Product Development, Education, YouTube, Fads, Entrepreneurship, Social Media

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Smartphones Sweep the Nation of Myanmar

July 14, 2017

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This week we’ve taken a look at the effect mobile technology has had on Chinese businesses, both for better and worse. Of course, China is far from the only Asian nation to undergo drastic changes thanks to the rise of smartphones. From India to Indonesia, mobile technology has altered the ways that both consumers and businesspeople go about their lives. Still, perhaps no other place on the continent has been as fundamentally changed by smartphones as the country of Continue reading →

Product Development, Economics, Pricing, Global, Innovation, Smartphones, Mobile, Asia, Myanmar

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Innovative Retailers in China Plot the Future of the Industry

July 13, 2017

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As we’ve covered a couple of times already, this has been a difficult year for many American retailers. While brick-and-mortar stores struggle to compete with e-commerce outlets, online retailers as well must grapple with the ever-increasing might of Amazon. These seismic shifts in power have led many to wonder what the future of the industry might look like. Amazon has recently been experimenting with cashierless stores, but observers say the company still has a lot of work to do Continue reading →

E-commerce, Retail, Innovation, Operations Management, China, Amazon, Product Distribution, Mobile

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Chinese Umbrella-Sharing Startup Faces a Major Setback

July 11, 2017

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Over the last few years, the Chinese sharing economy has grown to include everything from bicycles to basketballs. Consumers can temporarily purchase these items at kiosks scattered around urban areas with the idea being that they’ll return the product once they’re done. But as one umbrella-sharing startup recently learned, that’s not always the case.

Sharing E Umbrella launched earlier this year after their founder realized that “everything on the street can now be shared.” The company started up in 11 Continue reading →

Innovation, China, Entrepreneurship, Product Distribution, Sharing Economy

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Grocery Delivery Services Operate on Tight Schedules

July 7, 2017

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For more than a decade, the growing e-commerce industry has turned the retail world on its head. From books to beds and everything in between, online shopping offers customers convenience and value that many traditional stores can’t compete with. Still, there’s at least one area of retail that e-commerce hasn’t conquered entirely: groceries. While experts estimate that 10 percent of all shopping in the U.S. now occurs on the Internet, overall online food sales are less than half that number. Continue reading →

Packaging, Product Distribution, E-commerce, Operations Management, Peapod, Food

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Looking Back on Ten Years of the iPhone

June 30, 2017

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One decade ago this month, Apple launched the iPhone and changed the business world forever. The rise of smartphones caused entire industries to collapse as new ones quickly appeared to take their place. Of course, the iPhone fundamentally changed Apple more than any other organization. Before the smartphone’s launch, the tech company earned 40 percent of its sales from iPods and had a market capitalization of $72.9 billion, less than a third of Microsoft’s valuation at the time. Today, iPhone Continue reading →

Mobile, iPhone, Silicon Valley, Apple, Product Development, Innovation, Startups

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Cyberattack on Ukraine Quickly Spreads Across the Globe

June 29, 2017

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On Tuesday Roman Klimenko headed into his Kiev accounting office for work just like he does every day. A few hours after he opened his tax preparation software, however, something went horribly wrong. “The screen became red,” said Klimenko. “A warning appeared, and everything on the hard drive was scrambled.” In a matter of moments he lost all of his filings from last year.

This same situation played out across tens of thousands of Ukrainian computers in that same instant. Continue reading →

Cyberattack, Operations Management, Ukraine, Global, Ethics, Security, Ransomware

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Grammarly Receives Millions from Investors for Spell Check App

June 21, 2017

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As anyone who’s stayed up all night painstakingly crafting an essay can tell you, writing is often a difficult and frustrating enterprise. But until something better comes along, humans are stuck with the written word and all of its exasperating aspects. Businesses especially must make sure that they communicate clearly with customers as well as employees. After all, office workers spend a significant amount of time trying to make sense of bad writing, which reduces efficiency and ultimately costs Continue reading →

Product Development, Innovation, Venture Capital, Startups, Writing, Skills, Grammarly

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 18: Financial Management, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Zara Soars While Other Retailers Struggle

June 15, 2017

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2017 has not been a good year so far for many retailers. Chains like J.C. Penney and Sears plan to close hundreds of locations while J. Crew has posted 11 consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales. But as these formerly powerful brands struggle, the Spanish fashion giant Zara is thriving like never before. This week its parent company Inditex announced that first quarter sales jumped 18 percent to $733.3 million. Plus, total sales for Zara topped out at $6.3 billion, Continue reading →

Product Development, Retail, Zara, Operations Management, Spain, Global, Supply chains, Product Distribution, E-commerce

Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

[VIDEO] How China Is Changing Your Internet

May 26, 2017

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In the early days of China’s tech industry, most companies simply took the concepts developed by successful American startups and created Chinese versions of them. For instance, rather than Google, most of the country uses the domestically owned search engine Baidu. But after years of imitation, Chinese apps like the all-encompassing WeChat could change the way that people use the Internet all over the world.

Questions:

Why haven’t American tech companies like Facebook and Google been able to succeed Continue reading →

Global, Innovation, Ethics, China, Social Media, Mobile, Silicon Valley, Apps

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media