Weekly Article

It's Monday...and you know what that means.  Find yourself an article relating to business, read it, understand it and evaluate it in writing as your next blog post  Be sure to include the link to the article along with one relevant picture.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

This week's writing assignment is to explain in detail the Enron crisis.  Include in your explanation who the important characters were, what they did, how it was discovered, what the economic result was and what has happened to the main characters as well as the innocent employees and shareholders?
Please include links to your information sources and two pictures that relate to the subject. 
Finally, include your own comments about how this story relates to our study of ethics in business.

Want to own an NFL team? $250 per share...but what do you get?

There is only one NFL team which is publicly traded and they are about to make more shares available.  The Green Bay Packers - one of the most popular professional athletic teams in the U.S. in any sport - have announced that shares of ownership in the team will again be offered to the public, for the first time in over a decade.  Why are they doing this?  What are the benefits?  Is there a downside to raising millions of dollars in this way?  Follow the link to find out.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/09/news/companies/packers_stock/index.htm?iid=A_BN_News

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

After discussing some of the concerns that businesses must consider when deciding their level of corporate social responsibility, your task is to investigate and determine who makes up the godd, the bad and the ugly.  Using internet research, find information (either in the news or from a company's website) that exemplifies one company from each category.  Good = company is performing well and making an effort to be socially responsible.  Bad = company is known for it's mistakes and has the concern of tarnishing it's reputation.  Ugly = company is a disgrace to ethics and has become the "poster child" for social irresponsibility.

Allow one paragraph per example to explain who the company is, what they have done and how it has affected the business.  As always, link the source of your information and include one picture per example.

The Mission Statement

What is a mission statement and how does it help a business to prosper?  How does a mission statement relate to a businesses' goals?  Are they even necessary?
Read several mission statements from the list found at: http://www.missionstatements.com/fortune_500_mission_statements.html

Then analyze three statements and give your opinion of each based on the following:

1. Does it apply to this specific business or is it more general?
2. Does it tell you "what this business is about"?
3. Is it impossible to disagree with or analyze?
4. Does it provide any specific detail?
5. Does it provide any vision of the future?   

Choose three companies - analyze their mission statement using the above criterion - include one picture for each statement.

Reading Business In Bratislava

In an effort to broaden our knowledge in the subject of business we will embark on a reading program to ensure each student is able to pursue topics which both interest and enlighten him/her. Each week you will read and report on a business article of your choosing.  The article must come from a reliable source - several will be provided but you may submit new sources as you find them.  Your task each week is as follows:

1. find an article from the discipline of business (very broad) 
2. read the article (and understand what it is saying)
3. write a short "report" on the article which should include:
   • briefly summarize the article in your owns words
   • explain what you learned and what you found most interesting about the topic
   • describe how it relates to general topics we have studied in class

Your "report" should be a minimum of 150 words in lenght and should include a link to the article as well as two pictures which assist in explaining the content of the article.

This assignment should be finished and posted on your blog by Friday of each week.
Please include the date of your post in your title.

Types of Business Organizations

For each of the types of business organizations that we have talked about in class, you should do some simple internet research to find examples.
Private limited company
Public limited company
Public corporation
Non-profit organization
Non-governmental organization
Pressure group
Social enterprise
Public-private partnership

For each of these types of organizations, find the name of an actual organization that fits the definition, briefly explain what product(s) or service(s) each provides and identify at least two important characteristics about each type of organization. Please include one picture relevant to each company or organization you find.  This post is due by Monday, September 26th.

Starting a Business

There are as many reasons to start a business as there are businesses - business in the private sector requires entrepreneurs who possess a wide range of skills and ideas.  What does it take to begin and maintain a successful business venture?  Innovation is ever more vital in a competitive global market - a business must not only provide a desired good or service but must also provide something different or improved to attract the consumers that will keep your business alive.
Start-up businesses require much more than just a great idea, they must also have leaders, risk-takers, market opportunities and the ability to bounce back from adversity and persevere.
The list of failed business is long and varied for an equal varity of reasons.  Competition is stiff, building a customer base takes time and reputations can be damaged, finding the capital to persist through difficult economic times can be a job in and of itself. 

Your current task is to identify and understand the most common reasons for failure and find real-world examples of such.  This website - http://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-failed-businesses-and-company-failures/business-and-company-info - will assist you in your initial search for companies which have suffered the fate of so many and failed to maintain success. 

Assignment: post on your blog a brief expalnation of each of the reasons outlined in your book as to problems faced by sart-ups (should be about 2 short paragraphs) - then use the internet to research and identify two different companies which have failed.  Finally, write a brief explanation of each of these two companies: what they were and why they failed.  Please include at least one picture for each of the companies discussed.