Apple is losing what makes Apple, well Apple...

I have never been a Mac person.  I have always found them difficult to use the few times I have sat in front of them.  It just wasn't what I was use to.  I liked all of the buttons and tool bars that were on all of Microsoft products.  From spreadsheets to word processing they all sort of behaved alike which in turn is what we all expected.  There may have been better processors out there but I like many of us never bothered to look.  I had what I was use to and I liked and that was it.

My experience with cellphones has been different.  I got my first phone back in 1999.  It had a big battery and couldn't do much other than be expensive.  I "upgraded" to a smaller phone, to a flip-phone, camera phone, etc.  Problem was the phones never lasted long.  They were all different.  It would be weeks before I knew all the features.  That changed for me in 2009 when I bought an Apple iPhone 3G.  It took a little while to get a feel for touchscreen but after that I saw what all the rage was.  IT JUST WORKED.  It was easy to use.  You could transition from one task to another just like those Microsoft PC products I mentioned earlier.  Here was Apple's competitive advantage and it only got better.  I bought my iPhone 4 a year later which was even better!

Sadly the man who bought us all of this passed away in 2011.  Since then Apple has had some missteps.   Apple rolled out the iPhone 5 and a new OS earlier this month that has underwhelmed.  I has some new features that I am curious to try, but other programs that many of us use everyday don't give me the same feeling I had three years ago.  They don't JUST WORK anymore.  Did Apple's competitive advantage die with Steve Jobs?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/29/opinion/patel-apple-maps/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

The Risks Associated with Socoal Networking Websites

 

THE WEAKEST LINK: THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES

 The popularity of social networking websites has increased to astonishing levels not only in west but also in other parts of the world. I agree that it is not right to argue the positive aspects of using these social networking websites but I would like to point out the fact that using these websites for different purposes mostly networking could result in a potential threat to the security of a user.

Different US governmental organizations and security professionals are revising their policies to fight with the potential threat hackers can cause by hacking their personal information which is normally available on the internet. Different governmental officials and their family members emails and social networking accounts have been hacked in the past. These days professional organizations have restrict the use of these websites at workplace to avoid the potential security threat. In this articles one of the most important term the author has used is 'SOCIAL ENGINEERING" means act of manipulating people into performing actions rather than by breaking in or using hacking technologies

Social engineers look for personal information and create a security threat to the user in many ways. This method of stealing information is becoming a fine art and more and more people are falling victim to online scams that seem genuine. This can result in data or identity theft. Social engineers present themselves as a trusted user and try to convince the target to give personal details such as Social Security numbers, employment details and so on. By collecting such information, data theft becomes a serious risk. We as civilized and sensible citizens would never disclose certain information when meeting someone for the first time but we see nothing wrong with posting it online for all to see on their profile, personal blog or other social networking site account. This data can often be mined by cybercriminals resulting in security loss.

Users are aware these days and normally avoid opening links and attachments send by strangers on the internet, hence hackers have discovered this new method of obtaining personal info which is social engineering.

According to one of the surveys there are more than 350 million users on face book. There are about 45m users registered on my space. This information reflects the fact that there is enormous amount of information available which can be used against the user and produces a threat.

A lot of discussion going on about the use of these websites as being more of a security threat rather than productive. It is right that we live in a world where technology has changed the way people communicate and do their businesses. The users of these websites should take these concerns seriously and never provide personal info because this action will not only harm them but also to other people associated with them.

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol3/iss2/7/

Lehrman, Yosef. 2010. The Weakest Link: The Risks Associated with Social Networking Websites.Journal of Strategic Security, 3 (2): 63-72.
Available at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol3/iss2/7

 

 

Dynamic Strategy - Current event - How can small companies benefit from LinkedIn

For many people LinkedIn is just another social network. For businesspeople it is the only social network. Although it had only 4,500 users when it started on 2003, today LinkedIn has grown to more than 175 million members in over 200 countries and territories. LinkedIn has become an absolute necessity for every professional. Professionals from all over the world are using it to find new job opportunities, connect with friends and coworkers, follow companies, and discuss with other members.  

That does not mean that LinkedIn is good only for professionals. Companies, especially small ones, have great benefits from using this social network. They can connect with their customers, build their brand image, share some news about their products or services, grow their network, and find new highly-skilled employees (Brett 2012).  

But, in order to be successful on LinkedIn, companies have to do more than just create a LinkedIn page and connect with their customers. They have to make sure that they are ’always on’ which means that they have to find ways to make their customers/audience to participate more often in the company’s group page. The series of steps that companies have to follow in order to achieve more engagement from their customers are:

• Build a presence and populate it with information 
• Attract followers 
• Engage followers 
• Amplify via the network 
• Analyze and review

(Brett 2012) 

By following all the above steps, small businesses can have more “followers” (customers). This will give them the opportunity to advertise and promote their products and services to more customers, quicker, and with very low cost. Also, since LinkedIn can be accessed by cell phones, companies can reach more customers to promote their product.

Thus, it becomes clear that managers should focus on building and maintaining a LinkedIn profile for their companies and try to use it as much as they can, because this social network can provide too many benefits to their company.

Sources

·         LinkedIn.com (2012), “About us”, [available at http://press.linkedin.com/about]

·         Brett, Lorna (2012), “Why you should be ‘always on’ on LinkedIn”, [available at http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/small-business-resources/hot-tips/why-you-should-be-always-on-on-linkedin-210912.html]

·         Brett, Lorna (2012), “Seven easy ways to leverage LinkedIn”, http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/small-business-resources/hot-tips/seven-easy-ways-to-leverage-linkedin-16012012.html

·         Dr. Woody (2011), “Why You Should Have a LinkedIn Profile”, [available at http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/10/31/why-should-have-linkedin-profile ]

Murtaza(Introductory Post)

Hi Everyone ,

My name is Murtaza Ameer. I am currently working as a Staff Accountant at a bank since 2011 and graduating this semister in MS Accounting. I have been in states since 2008 with my family. This is the first time I am looking forward to blog in a professional manner.I am hoping that this practise will provide me an excellent opportunity to know how others percieve things in life.

Thanks

Introductory Post

Hello everyone,

 This is my last semester of my MBA degree. Before the MBA, I was working in the banking industry. I have also worked as a T.A in mathematics courses and as a high school teacher for a couple of years.  

 By participating in this blog and reading the thoughts of my classmates I expect to acquire more management knowledge which I believe would be essential for a future job either in the management field or in the MIS field.

Jay Salvatierra's Introductory post

I am in what is hopefully my final semester in the MBA program.

I work in operations for a major petroleum pipeline company that transports refined products from the Gulf Coast to the Southeast and East Coast.

This is my first experience with blogging so this has already been a learning experience in that respect, but I would like to get an idea of how my ideas fit.