What Does $14 Shirt Really Cost - Assignment Example

?Unit What does that $14 shirt really cost? The case of the eight-storey building that housed factories of cheap clothing where workers are paid dirt cheap is very common not only in Bangladesh but also in other third world countries. Perhaps in this case, the cost cutting measure was taken to the extreme that maybe a condemned building was even used in the operation of a business. Of course our normal reaction would be to stop this inhuman treatment of workers and that they should be treated right. We begin to think that businessmen in those parts of the world are cruel and would like to play savior of their ill treated workers. The reaction is very noble only that it is very naive. We condemned those factory owners who employ workers in such hazardous workplaces at a basement wages as the main culprit of these horrible business practices. Unknown to us, we are part of the problem that caused such terrible working condition. We may be tempted to pass the blame on globalization but ultimately, but it is only the stage because ultimately the problem redounds to us as consumers in the first world? How? First, we have to understand that every time we make purchases, it is a vote on what kind of manufacturing set up or company we would like to exist in the market. In the market place, we, the consumers or customers are king and the businesspeople are only there to cater to our demands. So when we prefer to buy cheap clothes without knowing how and where it was made, it is tantamount to supporting this kind of business practice. In the same vein, every time we shun goods that have ethical practice because of their premium price, it is also tantamount to saying that we do not approve of their ethical business practice. If we want to stop inhumane practice of businesses, we should stop patronizing their products and only patronize products that do ethical business. And yes, the products of ethical business do cost more because doing business ethically that includes paying their workers right costs more. Unit 2: King of the Hill Dean Simon’s story is indeed inspiring. It embodied the entrepreneur’s unfaltering and never say die spirit to pursue a dream of building his ski resort. He faced many challenges which could make a regular businessman give up because they seemed to be insurmountable. Had it been for Dean Simon’s dream, I think he could have given up also. The challenges that Dean faced in building his ski resort typified the problems that a businessman faces in putting up a business. Except that in Dean’s case, his challenges were extraordinary because he has a big dream. The most obvious and persistent problem that Dean Simon had is the absence of capital to build the necessary infrastructures of his resort and pay his bills, the most nagging of which is his insurance bill. Such, he needs to perpetually raise it to fund the many activities of his starting business ranging from continuing the infrastructure of his ski resort, paying his bills, acquiring equipments etch. He is so short of money that he lives on hand to mouth existence that if not for family and friends, he would have nothing to eat. At some point, even his cramped trailer was repossessed for the obvious reason that he could no longer pay them. Since all of his money went into his business and even short at that, he had no salary and no social life. This kind of hardship went on for many years and his persistence is laudable to say the least. The documentary was incomplete because it did not show any update on what happen to Dean Simon now. The nagging question whether he failed or succeeded was not answered. It would have been wonderful to know that his business has grown and is now successful to make him a good example that with dream, persistence and hard work, anything can be achieved even if the challenges seemed to be insurmountable. Unit 3: The new underclass The article may have discussed the issue of growing unemployment in Canada with s a “growing pool of well-educated twenty somethings scrapping it out for a limited number of prized positions” which one described as “history’s most cultivated underclass”. This number had been growing since 2006 where nearly one in four workers was working in a job that did not match their qualification and this figure is believed to be higher now. Also the figure illustrated the growing number of people who are working part time who would want to work full time are now at a staggering 6.4 percent of Canada’s workforce. The article used Melanie Cullins as an example, a university graduate with almost an impeccable performance review record during her practicums but could not even get an interview for a job that matches her qualification. These figures only present half of the problem that Canada is facing which is also shared by other industrialized countries – underemployment. Underemployment is the gross mismatch between people’s skills and the jobs available for them. The irony of the employment problem in Canada is that amid the unemployment problem that its young workers are facing, other sectors in its economy are complaining shortage of engineers, technicians and other skilled trade people to fill positions in industries ranging from health care to mining. This problem of lack of manpower is also equally acute as firms are even resorting to immigrants to fill up such work requirement. A recent survey of employers by recruiting firm Randstad Canada  even reported that there is staggering figure of nearly two thirds of companies are actually having hard time finding highly qualified people and this figure could have easily employed those who are unemployed and underemployed except for one problem – these young people, albeit educated and talented do not have the skills or their skills and education do not match what the companies are looking for. Unit 4: Canada Post to face $1B The phenomena of shrinking revenue and ballooning loss at Canada Post is a natural consequence of a business organization’s inability to adapt to a changing economy wrought by e-commerce and globalization. It is estimated that postal volume will drop by more than 25 percent within the next seven years due to the rise of e-commerce. Even the increase use of parcel delivery is not enough to defray the loss of postal volume. If I am an employee of a unionized post office organization in Canada, there is good reason for me to worry. As it is, the loss is expected to mount and one of the cost-cutting initiatives that were introduced to keep the postal office afloat is inimical to my interest. That is, freezing wages for seven years and cutting nominal wages by one percent a year. This is very bad for me because my employer would be proposing a wage cut for seven years while prices are continuing to rise. This is in effect a double whammy on my part that I will doubt if I can survive if this proposal will be implemented. The union will be rendered useless with these recommendations and will lose its appeal because it would appear that it can no longer protect employees from wage cuts. Needless to say, I would not want to be a mere employee of Canadian Post where I will just accept whatever the decision of policy makers. If I am in the position of a policy or decision maker (but still an employee of Canada’s post office), I will take the initiative to explore possibilities to address the issue so that we will not have to resort to cutting wages and services. I will instead find other source of profit centers in the service that instead of cutting it down, I will instead expand it more. Unit 5: Real Time Advertising This new development in advertising – real time advertising, is interesting but it cannot replaced the well thought out advertising campaign. It is a sort of flash in the pan, a short lived advertising fad that will eventually fade because its efficacy cannot be established as a concrete advertising science. Advertising in the final analysis, is not a matter of delivering in real time or giving it the quickest possible but rather, on how effective it is in influencing buyer’s behavior. It can be likened to a school exam where it is not about who finished the test quickly but rather a matter of who got it right and who got the highest score. Translating this to advertising, it meant that it is not about who made the quickest advertisement, but rather about who are more effective that increased the revenue. Real time advertising may have its place in guerilla marketing or taking advantage of a certain situation to capitalize sales such as the Coca Cola advertisement in the Super Bowl game. But to make it as a viable replacement to the well thought out, coordinated advertising campaign, it still needs to prove itself to be effective. As of yet, Integrated Marketing Campaign still proved to be the most effective advertising method. Real time advertising still needs to be studied further. Its method has to be established clearly on what is effective or not and how to make and implement it to make real time advertising a concrete science in marketing where advertisers can utilize in their campaigns. It is very promising and had demonstrated relative pockets of success but it is not yet established that it is, by itself, effective. There are still a lot of unknowns with the method that makes it precarious as a marketing tool and therefore unreliable. Read More