Claudia Harvey- Dig It

In an amazing fashion, our school had the courtesy to listen to a business entrepreneur phenom in Claudia Harvey. Since her aired episode on renowned business show "Dragon's Den," she has become a successful businesswoman and CEO of her company Dig It. Our school was able to learn and listen to Ms. Harvey touch upon the topics of entrepreneurship and the world of business in all aspects. She first addresses the elephaunt in the room, "What happened after her deal with big-time businessman Kevin O'Leary?" Claudia explain, he was had absolutely no general help with her company and had little interaction. Although Kevin O'Leary made a deal with Dig It, it was not until several months that they reached an agreement. Ms. Harvey explains, the sole reason of going on Dragon's Den was for the publicity and name of Mr. O'Leary. This was not her mindset going in, "... But it's what you get out of it and how your work with it..." which is what she did. Her explanation generalizes with the idea of having a positive mindset and learning how to work with what she had. Afterwards, Claudia Harvey makes clear of the most important aspects of a successful businessman. First of all, a businessperson must be ambitious, positive and have a desire to succeed. She explains the most important aspect of a business starts with yourself, is everything you're doing have a meaning? Are you ready to go beyond boundaries, break ceilings and shatter glass? Her belief was people have to strive to be successful. Also, after oneself it is imperative to surround your business with optimistic individuals and not complainers. Ms. Harvey justifies that complainers are the worst business people because their constant nag is unprofessional, negative and completely wrong for a company. Everyone must work as a unity and think positively in everything. Lastly, the most crucial part of a business is change, in context as how one can make their business better. In today's society, change is imperative and how a business is able to cope with these changes will determine its future. In Claudia's business, she expanded her products and merchandises. These are the factors that surround a successful business. Claudia Harvey was a fantastic speaker, Ms. Bey wanted to show our class the importance of a good leader and magnificent businessperson.

Case 1.2: Trader Joe's Keeping a Cool Edge

1. In what way does Trader Joe's demonstrate the importance of each responsibility in the management process?
2. What are the bigger risks that international ownership and global events pose for Trader Joe's performance effectiveness and performance efficiency?
3. What should she do and what should she avoid doing in the first few days to establish herself as a skillful manager of this team?

1. Planning: They try to make their stores differentiate from their leading opponents. They constantly have new products and try to make their workers have a "One in one out" mentality to maximize costs.
Organizing: Their fast-paced and quick-selling mentality allows their workers to have an open-mind to its new products
Leading: They allow their workers to taste their products in means to find the best quality and delicious goods. Through this, it gives workers more opportunities in the industry and as a workforce. They want workers who want to be their and have the desired soft skills to do their jobs successfully.
Controlling: A responsible, knowledgeable and friendly "crew" is critical to the success of the industry. They measure their leading opponents in the industry and see how they can do better.

2.  The bigger risks of having an international company is that there will be more problems and controversy. In many instances, having such a big company will lead to any inside scoop be much more larger and negatively impactful to the country. One example, the boycott in 2011 that argued for  better wages and Florida produce fields. It makes a small problem look like a bigger problem when a massive company like Trader Joe's is targeted.

3. What Hazel should do is to display or managerial skills and abilities that can effectively maximize expenses. Since the company typically only higher manger among workers, it is imperative that she shows her softs skills and willingness to work harder than the rest. What she shouldn't do is allow herself to be overwhelmed by the workload and trying to do too much. She must wait for the opportunity at the right time all the while completing her daily work tasks efficiently and in a timely matter.

Case 1.1: Vancity On Top of Its Game

1. What were Vancity's original purpose and values?
2. How does Vancity create a healthy and committed workforce?
3. Provide examples that show that Vancity is ethical.
4. How did Vancity cope with its first disappointing employee survey? What managerial skill is being used in this situation? Use information from the case to support your answer.
5. Provide examples of how Vancity uses teamwork.
6. Which of the four functions of management does Vancity appear to be doing quite well? Use information from the case to support your answer.

1. Vancity's origins, purpose and values were to work with its people and communities to help them thrive and prosper, all the while operating with integrity, innovation and responsibility. In their beliefs, they acknowledge that a healthy and committed workforce is the reason it is able to sustain productivity and financial success with a competitive industry. Through this, they can flourish as a company and grow as a work family.

2. The reason to Vancity's success in the industry is because they allow their employees to gain more opportunities to help set policies and procedures that impact both their work and home life. They find ways to help their workers feel like their at home, their more willing to change and better fit to their employees needs.

3. In comparison to other companies in the industry, Vancity has proven to showcase their ethical behaviours and beliefs through their workmanship. Their the first financial institution to offer mortgages to woman, first to use traditional media to maker directly to the gay and lesbian, the first North American credit union to reticence an R1 rating from the Dominion Bond Rating Service and the first financial institution to offer it own socially responsible mutual fund. Through these acts, they have shown their ethics and beliefs in society.

4. The way Vancity coped with its first disappointing employee survey was to shift its main goals to a more community-based. Managers in Vancity would need strong conceptual skills to maintain a healthy relationship with the workers and show a sense of a community throughout the community. As a result, it creates a more personal family interaction amongst workers and higher management.

5. Vancity uses teamwork through its beliefs of equality amongst workers and upper management. The business runs as a community and human interaction, through this it creates a higher level of trust in the workplace. Many decisions are made from managers who excel with conceptual skills because the company is all about teamwork.

6. The function that Vancity appears to be excelling in is leading their workforce. They are successfully inspiring their workers to work hard to achieve a higher performance. The company does this by creating a community-based workplace that is all about its employees.

Manager ISU Proposal

My ISU proposal is innovative, creative and fun for students to display the management process in a proper way. I propose, you are hoping to create your own brand of milk chocolate that is proven to be healthy for body builders. Your task is to find the perfect manager for your product; someone who can relate to body builders and love chocolate. This is a hard task because in today's urban society fitness has become more and more popular. You need someone who is a leader, an individual who can inspire people to work hard to achieve high performance. You will need a controller, someone who can measure performances and take action to ensure desired results. An individual who is a planner, a face that can set performance objectives and decide how to achieve them. A person who is organized, who is able to arrange tasks, people and others resources to accomplish the work. This four-part management process is the key to success, how will you create the perfect manager? 

Managerial Roles and Activites

Managerial Roles 

• To be a successful manager, you must inherit 10 roles that are to be fulfilled. 
• These roles are categorized into 3 main sections:

1. Interpersonal Roles
- Figurehead: Modelling and setting forth key principles and policies
- Leader: Providing direction and instilling enthusiasm
- Liaison: Coordinating with others

2. Informational Roles
- Monitor: Scanning for information
- Disseminator: Sharing information
- Spokesperson: Acting as official communicator

3. Decisional Roles
- Disturbance Handler: Dealing with problems and conflicts
- Resource Allocator: Handling budgets and distributing resources
- Negotiator: Making deals and forging agreements
- Entrepreneur: Developing initiatives

Managerial Activities

• Managers have the task to implement managerial roles in an intense complex work setting 
• Managerial activities is meant to be busy, demanding and stressful for all levels of responsibility in any work environment
• Managerial work is meant to be intellectually challenging and financially rewarding; managers should expect:

- Long work hours
- Working in an intense pace
- Working fragmented and varied tasks
- Work with many communication media
- Accomplish they work largely through interpersonal relationships

Managerial Agendas and Networks 

- Agenda Setting: Develops action priorities for accomplishing goals and plans
- Networking: Process of creating positive relationships with people who can help advance agendas
- Social Capital: Capacity to attract the support and help of others in order to get things done

Essential Managerial Skills

1. Conceptual Skills: The ability to think analytically and to achieve integrated problem-solving
2. Human Skills: The ability to work well with in co-operation with other persons; emotional intelligence (Ability to manage ourselves and our relationships effectively
3. Technical Skills: The ability to apply expertise and perform a special task with proficiency
- Learning: A change in behaviour that results from experience both inside and outside the classroom
- Lifelong learning: Continuous learning from daily experiences
- Skills: Ability to translate knowledge into action that results in desired performance

Developing Managerial Competencies

• Managerial Competency: Skill-based capability for high performance in a management job

- Communication: Ability to share ideas and findings clearly in written and oral expression- includes writing oral presentation giving/receiving feedback and technology utilization
- Teamwork: Ability to work effectively as a team member and team leader- includes team contribution, team leadership, conflict management, negotiation, and consensus building
- Self-Management: Ability to evaluate oneself, modify behaviour and meet performance obligations- includes ethical reasoning and behaviour, personal flexibility tolerance for ambiguity and performance responsibility
- Leadership: Ability to influence and support others to perform complex and ambiguous tasks- includes diversity, awareness, global understanding, project management, and strategic action
- Critical Thinking: Ability to gather and analyze information for creative problem-solving- includes problem-solving, judgement and decision-making, information gathering and interpretation and creativity and innovation
- Professionalism: Ability to sustain a positive impression, install confidence and maintain career advancement- includes personal presence, personal initiative and career management

Whose Life is it Anyways?

1) How can employers like Scotts Miracle-Gro justify the expense of providing employees with free access to doctors, a pharmacy, a gym, and a personal trainer?
For major companies such as Scotts Miracle-Gro, they justify the expenses of providing employees with these accommodations with the ambition to help their workers achieve a healthy work-life balance. The bottom-line of any business should be the work itself, but how well this transcends is based on the performance of the workers. This leads to the question, how can businesses help their employees work in an effective way? Scotts Miracle-Gro believes in work starts at home, how healthy and balanced their workers are will play a big role on the overall efficacy of the workplace. These excess amenities from the company supports their desire to better fit their employees' needs and wants. The expenses of providing extra accommodations is costly, but has proven to effectively increase a company's performance and the well-being of the workers.

2) What lifestyle changes might employers encourage in the future to increase performance efficiency  and performance effectiveness?
For many employers, many approaches to encourage increased performance efficiency and performance effectiveness lies in the policies of the company. For example, what employers could do in the future can be regulating routine drug tests to support their policy. This will force their employees to adhere to the rules with consequences given if ignored. Workers will be more strict on themselves and more wary of their behaviours through this procedure in the workplace. Another approach could be offering their employees extra accommodations that supports their wellness regulations. Assets such as healthy food catering, pharmaceutical benefits and exercising lessons are just the few examples of amenities that would benefit workers. These methods to encourage increased performance efficiency and performances effectiveness would greatly impact employees in a positive way.

3) Should employers regulate behaviour after work hours? Why or why not?
I believe, employers should not regulate behaviours after work hours, but to support their wellness regulations that pertains to the employees work balances. Every worker has the right to do what they choose after work hours if it doesn't affect their company in a negative way. However, as another means employers can attempt to help their workers by accommodating to their needs and wants. If a company desires so much from their workers, they need to actively show their employees. These employers have the job to perform around their employees behaviours after work in a approach that benefits both sides.

4) As stated in chapter 1, there is more emphasis on respecting people as valuable strategic assets to be nurtured and developed, not as costs to be controlled. Do you believe the programs and policies at Scotts nature and develop employees or treat them as costs to be controlled.
No, I feel that the programs and policies at Scotts develops and benefits their employees in their well-beings. I believe, the employers main goal is how are they going to help their workers get better, in context to their performance and capability to balance a healthy work-life. The company itself will always be the most important aspect, but its workers are the foundation of how well it will keep afloat. To do this employers look to help their employees, not to create them into robots for the company. The rules and regulations at Scotts aims to assist their employees well-beings from issues that effect the overall performance of the company.

The Role of the Manager

The Role of the Manager

In today's society, the role of a manager is imperative to the success of an overall business, corporation and company. The manager's changing role in a team environment has transformed from a diabolical watchdog into a supportive parent whose aim is to increase productivity. Studies have shown that the fastest way to lose a business is stagnation and the old-fashioned managerial approach that has proven to be less-effective in the new generations. At this rate of time, managers are less focused on meeting the status quo and are deprived from complete control, but in turn empowers a team environment that values leadership, advocacy, facilitation, coordination, the removal of barriers, and the development of staff. This is the mind set a leader must uphold in contrast to the older generations. In comparison to the baby boomers era, today's workers strive in an environment they want to be in; a workplace that makes them feel happy and wanted. It's not about doing the minimum amount of work and then getting your pay cheque anymore, these workers carry different values from their parents whose main focus isn't just money. If a workplace doesn't meet a person's life, they will find another job more in sync with it. This all comes down to the manager, the employer who is the face that runs the place and is charge of the work environment. The main task is always to increase the business, but to do this it starts at the foundation of any company; the workers and the team. The manager is the heart of the company and the workers are what keeps everything interconnected. 

My Best Manager

In my years of working, I have dealt with a multitude of different managers that all presented their own managerial styles. Through this, my judgement of the best manager is an individual who everyone looks

up to and can be a face of a company. In my opinion, the best manager must be interpersonal with their workers, they should have a sense of responsibility and respect. A manager has to be that person who steps behind everyone when times are rough, but a step forward when needed as well. I feel, a manager should make the people around them work harder and make them feel like they belong. As a worker for several years now, managers need to understand that after customers, your workers matter the most. These are the qualities and skills that a best manager should have in a job.

Survey: Emotional Intelligence

During today's class, we were given the task to complete yet another survey, this one being an "Emotional Intelligence" reflection. Through this self-assessment, the score you receive in the end would indicate your self-self-perceived abilities in these dimensions of emotional intelligence. In my case, I found out that I am more sensitive when it comes to others' situation, where as if it is a personal issue I am able to cope with emotions more easier. I believe, this self-awareness assessment is a viable way to observe your own emotions through a different lens. 

Learning Styles

Aural Learning Style

Today in class we took an individual questionnaire that aims to find out about ones preferences for the way one

should work with all information. Through this survey, I found out that I am most an aural learner, individuals who learn best through verbal communication and listening. I believe, this is an accurate presumption of myself because I think I learn best from observing and analyzing through my ears. Likewise, when I teach others I would typically attempt to tell them verbally what to do rather than showing them a visual or suggesting to read it. As an aural learner, certain methods that are better for this style would be frequently asking questions to the teacher, reading out loud, and reiterating what you just learned to someone else verbally. These techniques enhances an aural learner's knowledge development because you are constantly listening and communicating with the environment. Throughout my years in school I would commonly do these type of methods because I felt it worked best for me. I would constantly ask questions, summarize notes out loud, and expand on my notes by talking with others. In contrast to the other learning styles, an aural learner pertains to communication and listening, it is finest way for these types of individuals to learn. 

  Marshmallow Challenge

During class, we did a fun, collaborative experiment called the "Marshmallow challenge." In this challenge, we were arranged in groups of 4-6 and were given the following items: 1 marshmallow, 20 strands of pasta, 1 yard of tape and string. The challenge was to build the tallest free standing structure with the items given in under 40 minutes. In the beginning, everyone felt that this was just a typical workshop that the wonderful Ms. Bey wanted us to do. However, after the experiment we were given the actual explanation to the marshmallow challenge. In many ways it seems like any other game, but in a grander scheme it demonstrates the importance of creativity, innovation and collaboration. During the challenge, groups would have to work as a unit and whichever team is able to definitively work creatively, innovatively and collaboratively will make the tallest free standing structure. Also, through this challenge we were able to gain a sense of interpersonal relationships with each other and understand what was cooperative learning. We learned that peer relationships are associated with school competence, involvement in the classroom can lower levels of negative behaviours and it enhances psychological health. Through this we learn valuable lessons that are imperative in the course. Typically, many people would want to get the challenge right in one start to finish, but what we all soon learned was that prototyping is the key to success. Doing something over and over again, it sets up as a basis or sample for future models. Likewise, the marshmallow challenge inherits a sense of cooperative learning. This exists when the accomplishment of each individual goals is affected by the actions of others which promotes a greater effort to achieve. In context to the whole course of business management, this challenge was a simple, but an impactful way to symbolize the importance of cooperation.