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

[VIDEO] How Delta Makes 3,200 Meals Per Day

April 5, 2023

In the last few months, we’ve posted videos focusing on small businesses that produce mouthwatering foods by hand, from tasty chocolates to delicious hand-rolled bagels. Today’s video looks at another sort of commercial kitchen, however, a facility owned by Delta Airlines that pumps out more than 3,000 meals daily by relying on robotic machines.

Questions:

Why does Delta rely on automated cooking machines at its Atlanta facility?
Do you think small businesses producing food by hand could benefit Continue reading →

Operations Management, Global, Manufacturing, Automation, Food & Drink, Airlines

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

The Tricky Task of Monetizing Esports

February 24, 2023

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This week, the esports talent agency GameSquare announced that it hired Tyler “Ninja” Blevins as its Chief Innovation Officer. A famous Fortnite streamer with more than 17 million followers on the platform Twitch, the company said Ninja will “curate disruptive strategies, pursue new business opportunities, and explore next-gen technologies to accelerate the [e-sports] industry’s growth within pop culture.” This will also give Ninja another source of revenue besides streaming, which he claims to earn $500,000 a month from while keeping Continue reading →

Companies Cautiously Explore the Potential of AI Chatbots

February 10, 2023

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For the last few weeks, chatbots powered by artificial intelligence have made waves on social media as users talk with these automated conversation partners. The bot ChatGPT, for instance, can provide reasonable answers to questions posed by users regardless of their spelling or grammar. These responses are delivered in natural-sounding sentences that do not require scripting, a significant improvement on clunky chatbots of the past. As a result, many big companies are looking to get in on the ground floor Continue reading →

Marketing, Ethics, Human Resources, Labor Relations, Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Chatbots

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Chapter 13: Marketing, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

[VIDEO] Why Layoffs Are Hitting Professional Workers

January 11, 2023

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As the post-pandemic economic recovery slows down, many companies are looking to trim their bottom lines through restructuring and layoffs. Unlike in previous downturns, however, professional employees have largely been on the receiving end of these job cuts. The video below examines why white collar workers are more likely to receive a pink slip than their blue collar brethren.

Questions:

Why are white collar workers facing a disproportionate amount of layoffs as the economy slows down?
How can the strong Continue reading →

Ethics, Human Resources, Compensation, Layoffs, Recession, Supply & Demand, Frontline workers

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media, Videos

Investors Lose Billions in Massive Crypto Exchange Collapse

November 16, 2022

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Few financial sectors are as volatile as cryptocurrency, with the price of bitcoin down by more than 60 percent since the start of the year. The coin’s recent drop can be directly attributed to the downfall of FTX, a crypto exchange once valued at more than $32 billion. Founded by Samuel Bankman-Fried, FTX attracted the interest of top venture capital firms who invested hundreds of millions in the seemingly promising project. The company purchased mainstream legitimacy with their immense capital, Continue reading →

Marketing, Ethics, Entrepreneurship, Promotions, Currency, Banking, Regulation, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Elon Musk’s Chaotic Takeover of Twitter

November 9, 2022

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Tesla owner Elon Musk has never been shy about seeking the spotlight, and for years he could always find an easy audience by talking to his Twitter following of more than 100 million people. Even that level of attention wasn’t enough for the world’s richest man, however, who purchased the social network outright at the end of October for a whopping $44 billion. That gargantuan price tag now ranks as history’s largest leveraged buyout of a tech firm, although it Continue reading →

Meta’s Market Value Plunges by $700 Billion

November 4, 2022

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2022 has been a tough year for Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook. In February we examined how the social media giant lost $230 billion in market value in a single day. Then in September, we looked at the company’s premier platform Instagram and how it angered many users by trying to emulate the short-video format of TikTok. Many of Meta’s woes stem from recent changes to Apple’s terms of service that prevent digital advertisers from collecting data Continue reading →

Adidas Cuts Ties with Kanye West

October 26, 2022

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A few weeks ago, we looked at the sprawling global sneaker industry and how companies like Adidas earn billions annually thanks in large part to their unique brand partnerships. The German sneaker giant’s most profitable celebrity connection over the years has been with Kanye West (now known as Ye), with whom Adidas has collaborated on the Yeezy line of shoes and clothing for nearly a decade. This partnership has been hugely profitable: one data research firm estimates that Yeezy is Continue reading →

How Warehouses Are Reshaping the Nation

October 21, 2022

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Earlier this week, we posted a video about a seemingly unremarkable highway corridor in Arizona that turned into a haven for enormous warehouses. Logistics hubs like these are becoming increasingly common around the U.S., from Southern California’s warehouse epicenter in the Inland Empire to multi-million square-foot facilities in Ohio and New York. Satellite images collected over the last 20 years show how warehouses have transformed acres of wide-open space into concentrated networks of huge buildings swarming with workers. In fact, Continue reading →

Ethics, Unions, Labor Relations, Supply chains, Amazon, Product Distribution, E-commerce, Logistics, Supply & Demand, Warehouses

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Airbnb Guests Face Stress from Long Lists of Chores

September 23, 2022

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When Airbnb launched in 2008, the short-term rental company marketed itself as an easy alternative to hotels that had supposedly become too restrictive for the modern traveler. 14 years after its founding, however, many guests are heading back to hotels because of extensive cleaning requirements from Airbnb hosts. For example, teacher Christina Marie recently booked a short-term rental house on Lake Tahoe with her family of six. She spent the last day of her vacation cleaning and ensuring that her Continue reading →