Chapter 7: Management & Leadership - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

Poultry Plant Employees Endure Inhumane Working Conditions

October 18, 2016

The grisly nature of the meat industry practically ensures that the business will never be pretty. Still, conditions in a slaughterhouse can always get worse if management marginalizes their workforce. According to the global development agency Oxfam America, that’s precisely what’s happening at a number of U.S. poultry plants. In facilities owned by big names like Tyson, Perdue and Pilgrim’s Pride, workers complained that superiors regularly denied them bathroom breaks. Some even reported wearing diapers while working on the line. Continue reading →

Management, Ethics, Food, Labor Relations, Poultry, Tyson, Perdue, Employee Mistreatment

Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 8: Organizational Culture and Structure, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions

Assessing Severe Weather Damage with the Waffle House Index

October 10, 2016

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As of this writing, Hurricane Matthew is currently roaring up the Carolina coast. (Hopefully anyone from the area reading this post is doing so in a safe, relatively dry place.) Federal and state officials flooded social media and television urging residents to evacuate the area before the cyclone hit land. Nevertheless, some people ignored their warnings and stayed put. In most cases, the diner chain Waffle House would be among these stubborn stragglers. The company has an official policy in Continue reading →

Management, Operations Management, Branding, Waffle House, Hurricane Matthew, Natural Disasters

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 8: Organizational Culture and Structure, Chapter 13: Marketing

Formerly Fashionable Retailers Lose Ground with Teens

October 6, 2016

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In the 2000s, clothing brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Aeropostale were kings of the mall. These retailers rose to prominence by making preppy clothes with large logos that broadcast a certain prestige to the world. After all, teenage customers wanted to make sure everyone knew that they shopped at cool stores. Companies made this message easy to receive by placing an enormous emphasis on branding, thus making the logo even more important than the design of their Continue reading →

Marketing, Clothing, Branding, Retail, Fashion, Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, American Eagle, Logos, Malls

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion

The Company That Pays Employees $2K to Go on Vacation

October 4, 2016

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With the fall semester now in full swing, the easygoing feeling of summer vacation is becoming an increasingly distant memory. Then again, that’s only for the lucky Americans who actually get to take a vacation during the warm months of the year. For the rest, either they don’t receive adequate time off or simply refuse to take advantage of it. In fact, as much as 55 percent of American workers don’t use all of their paid vacation days out of Continue reading →

Marketing, Human Resources, Vacation, Recruitment, Turnover, Company Culture

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 13: Marketing

Update: Wells Fargo Faces Backlash for Employee Fraud

September 29, 2016

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For the past few weeks the business world has been buzzing with outrage over the Wells Fargo banking scandal. Executives at the company likely hoped the worst was over after getting hit with a $185 million fine for allowing such widespread fraud to occur. But as Senator Elizabeth Warren showed last week, regulators and commentators are far from finished with the company. During a hearing with Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf in front of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Continue reading →

Management, Ethics, Executive Compensation, Banking, Regulation, Fraud, Wells Fargo, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Senator Elizabeth Warren

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

The Fall of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos

September 16, 2016

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For Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, establishing a clear narrative around a startup’s foundation and purpose is essential to success. Few people understood this concept better than Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of the formerly acclaimed blood-testing firm Theranos. She founded her company in 2003 at the age of 19 after dropping out of Stanford University’s School of Chemical Engineering. Holmes left college early because she claimed to discover a revolutionary new method for medical testing: rather than drawing a significant amount of blood Continue reading →

Marketing, Ethics, Product Development, Branding, Regulation, Health, Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Wells Fargo Fires More Than 5,000 Employees for Fraud

September 12, 2016

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Last week regulators at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) dropped a bombshell that surely shocked anyone with a bank account at Wells Fargo. According to the CFPB, employees at the bank created more than 1.5 million phony accounts over the years in order to fraudulently reach sales targets and earn fees. This “widespread” practice resulted in the recent firing of approximately 5,300 Wells Fargo employees. Regulators also hit the bank with a fine of $185 million along with $5 Continue reading →

Ethics, Banking, Regulation, Fraud, Wells Fargo, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Study Shows CEOs with Highest Salaries Lead Lowest Performing Companies

July 28, 2016

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For years, CEOs at large corporations have attracted the public’s anger due to the exorbitant salaries that many executives earn. Companies counter these complaints by explaining that high-level employees only make their millions if they perform well on the job. After all, the stock options and bonuses that often form the bulk of CEO pay only become available once the company clears a certain set of financial benchmarks. This supposedly gives executives more incentive to do a good job since Continue reading →

Management, Ethics, Compensation, Executive Compensation, CEO, Leadership

Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 10: Motivation

The Problem with Paying Executives Based on Performance

March 29, 2016

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At many large corporations, top executives earn as much as 80 percent of their salaries from performance-based bonuses. The idea is that CEOs will be more likely to do a good job if the company rewards them for success, such as increasing quarterly earnings or raising share prices. According to a new study from the London Business School, however, this widely accepted strategy might not be as effective as many companies think.

First of all, the study argues that contingent Continue reading →

Management, Ethics, Human Resources, Compensation, Executive Compensation

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management

Business Owner Requires Employees to Carry Guns to the Office

March 16, 2016

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The horrific events of last year’s mass shooting in San Bernardino shocked the nation. Along with the sheer violence of the attack, the fact that it occurred in an office building made many Americans deeply uneasy. Debates about workplace security soon started to rage throughout the media and the Internet. To the nation’s pro-gun advocates, San Bernardino represented another instance where they believe people could have been saved if only they had been carrying a weapon themselves.

While there are Continue reading →

Ethics, Human Resources, Security, Insurance, Guns, San Bernardino

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law