NickelsMcHughMcHugh - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

7-Eleven Plans to Provide Healthier Food Options

May 2, 2018

Famous for its sugary Slurpees and Big Gulp soft drinks, 7-Eleven allows people to grab a quick snack and get back on the road without a second thought. Although this business model has served the chain well since the 1940s, recent changes in consumer behavior have executives worried that 7-Eleven could be falling behind its competitors. According to the leading trade association of the convenience industry, the nation’s more than 155,000 convenience stores sold $53.3 billion worth of prepared foods Continue reading →

Product Development, Retail, Marketing, 7-Eleven, Franchising, Food

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 5: Forms of Business Ownership, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution

Making Things Insta-Worthy on a Tiny Budget

April 30, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

American millennials’ tastes have turned many markets on their heads. From choice of food to the ways companies structure leadership, this large generation makes its preferences known. One trend companies are considering is how millennials tend to prefer amazing experiences rather than accumulating “things.” How can companies adapt traditional products and services to appeal to millennials?

As we know, people of all generations share experiences from travel, life events, and plain everyday life on social media. However, to earn Continue reading →

Demographics, Marketing, Millennials, Social Media, Hotels, Product Development

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

[VIDEO] How Coca-Cola’s Bottle Got Its Curves

April 27, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

In the early 20th century, the Coca-Cola Company was quickly growing in popularity both with American consumers as well as imitators who hoped to duplicate the soft drink’s success. This very brief video looks at how Coca-Cola fought off the copycats by designing a distinctive bottle that it still depends on to this day.

Questions:

Besides making things harder for imitators, how did Coca-Cola’s bottle redesign help the young company’s brand?
Do you think Coca-Cola would have grown to be Continue reading →

Marketing, Food, Product Development, Promotions, Packaging, Coca-Cola

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion

Is Your Dog Ready to Go Meatless?

April 26, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Americans spend roughly $30 billion each year on food for their dogs. As millennials have grown to be the top dog-owning demographic, they’re changing the way our furry friends eat. The growing trend, at first created for humans and now for pets, is to increase foods’ nutritional value while also keeping food sources environmentally sustainable.

American dogs are the fifth highest consumers of meat in the world. In addition, pets are responsible for 64 million tons of greenhouse gasses each Continue reading →

Pets, Product Development, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Food, Synthetic Meat

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, 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

[VIDEO] Starbucks Will Temporarily Close 8,000 U.S. Stores For Racial-Bias Training

April 19, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Last week, a manager at a Philadelphia Starbucks called the police on two African-American men who were waiting for a friend to arrive. Their subsequent arrest was caught on video and quickly went viral as thousands of social media users directed their outrage towards the coffee chain. Starbucks then took the drastic step of announcing that it would close all stores on May 29th for racial sensitivity training. Along with showing clips of the offending video, this short report also Continue reading →

How Private Funding Fuels Modern Corporations

April 17, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Earlier this month, the music streaming service Spotify went public on the New York Stock Exchange with a valuation worth approximately $30 billion. And while that is certainly an enormous amount of money, it pales in comparison to the $93 billion that the Japanese telecom giant Softbank privately raised last year to create a technology investment fund. In the past, major IPOs such as Spotify’s tended to be the most dependable way for up-and-coming companies to receive a major infusion Continue reading →

Finance, Regulation, Investing, Wall Street, Spotify, Capital, IPO

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 5: Forms of Business Ownership, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 18: Financial Management, Chapter 19: Securities Markets, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

It’s a Hard Time to Be a Clown

April 13, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Way back in 2014, we looked at how changing tastes had led to declining interest in the art and business of clowning. Unfortunately for these red-nosed entertainers, matters haven’t improved much in the following years. In fact, 2017 may have marked an all-time low for American clowns. Not only did the Ringling Bros. circus shut down after nearly a century and a half in operation, but also McDonald’s ended its regional Ronald McDonald program. Without the work that these Continue reading →

Entertainment, Clowns, Public Opinion, Marketing, Entrepreneurship

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion

Study Shows that Working from Home Boosts Productivity

April 12, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

The concept of working from home has been a controversial issue among some employers for years. On the one hand, proponents claim that remote working can reduce costs while improving morale among staff. For its critics, though, the idea of working from home brings to mind images of employees who would rather lounge on a couch than do their job.

But according to a new study from Stanford, the former group’s assessment is likely the more accurate one. It all Continue reading →

Management, Motivation, China, Global, Work Environment, Human Resources, Office Culture, Telecommuting

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 8: Organizational Culture and Structure, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Credit Card Companies Begin Phasing out Signatures

April 10, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Paying with a credit card is an almost entirely electronic process except for one notable step: the signature. Although this final part of the transaction is meant to provide another layer of security, many consumers quickly squiggle something down on the line just to get the procedure over with. Then there are people like Doug Taylor, who goes the extra mile by signing his receipts with a doodle of a little dog wagging its tail. “It gets a laugh, most Continue reading →

Credit Cards, Operations Management, Retail, Innovation, Currency, Security

Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 17: Accounting, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media, Bonus Chapter C: Managing Risk

[VIDEO] What Picking Up an Apple Tells You About the Future of Robotics

April 6, 2018

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Industrial robots were once so dangerous that factory employees could not work in the same room as them due to safety concerns. This video shows just how far technology has come since those early years, with today’s soft-handed robots able to pick up delicate items like fruit or plush toys.

Questions:

Why have items like apples traditionally been difficult for robots to handle? How does modern “soft-robotics” address this problem?
Do you think robots could eventually displace much of the Continue reading →

Operations Management, Innovation, Automation, Product Distribution, Robotics

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media, Videos