Could Facebook replace your email inbox

 

Face book is inviting press on a special event on Monday. Media and the corporate world are all speculating different stories. The most common speculation is that face book is launching an email service and trying to beat the giant email providers such as Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail. In the current market facebook has more than 500 million which translates into lots of users online so we definitely cannot underestimate their targets. But on the other hand email giant has more than a billion user’s altogether. It is a fact that these email companies started acquiring their customers years before social media websites like facebook launched their services in the market so in comparison we can say that if facebook launches their email service worldwide it can be produce very tough competition for the three largest email providers.

Let’s look at some other services provided by facebook in the context of personal communication. Facebook has very strong basis in the area of personal communications. Facebook is already a leading service provider if we talk about standard email features such as POP, IMAP, attachments, forwarding and an.  I personally believe that facebook has a niche in the above mentioned areas of personal communication but when we talk about email services although there is a high possibility that facebook will attract new segment of the market (email service) but probably will not be able to take away the email giants users away. There could be many reasons this speculation. One of the most compelling fact is there are people whose email accounts are circulating among their friends, business, and so many other places and It would be really hard to make all these changes and move on to facebook. Second there is no compelling reason for the users to close their free email accounts and start a new account on face book and go through all these difficult changes. Existing users more or less atleast half of the population may try this new service but it would be really difficult to encourage users to deactivate or close their existing email accounts.

 

http://articles.cnn.com/tech/cashmore.facebook.email_1_facebook-users-facebook-one-facebook-messages?_s=PM:TECH

The Skills Gap

According to a recent article there exists a gap between the skills required by employers and what they are getting from recent graduates, but there is another gap.  There are differences between the perception of employers, students and educators.  This is a global issue and where the gap is the largest employers believe only 43% are qualified while educators think the number should be 83% (Mehta, 2012).  I agree with the educators.

Speaking from experience, many training pipelines only show that you are trainable.  The real knowledge and know how come on the job.  Doing the job itself is a learning experience.  Does not the resourced based view of the firm rely on organizational resources such as structure (Barney, 2001)?  How could a “graduate” obtain such expertise as part of the educational process?  The article mentions employers teaming with schools, but if these skills are unique then it would be a waste of time for at least some of the students.  While the employer would create a pool of talent from which to select, students not chosen are no more qualified.

Companies need to look at new “resources” (graduates) more like a raw material to be shaped and molded by the processes of the company instead of an “off the shelf” product.

 

Barney, J. (2001). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Managment , 99-120.

Mehta, S. N. (2012, 12 05). The "skills gap": As bad as (almost) everyone thinks. Retrieved 12 05, 2012, from CNN Money: http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/12/05/the-skills-gap-as-bad-as-almost-everyone-thinks/?iid=obnetwork

Dynamic Strategy - Current event - EcoATMs: A solution to recycle our electronics

EcoATMs: A solution to recycle our electronics

Mark Bowles, Robert Genthert, John Beane, and Eric Rosser saw that there was a big “gap” in recycling electronics, as only 3 percent of phones worldwide were recycled or reused, and decided to take advantage of that opportunity. Thus, they created EcoATM, a company that recycles electronics. In their EcoATMs anyone can recycle their electronics (cellphones, mp3 players, and tablets) and receive cash instantly. These EcoATMs can be found in malls or grocery stores and they are very easy to use.

The strategy of the company is to offer instant cash to people who want to sell or recycle their old electronic devices. That’s actually their competitive advantage against their competitors like GameStop. People can also sell their electronics in these stores, but unlike EcoATMs, customers in GameStop have to go to their local store to sell their device and get paid. Another competitor, buymytronics.com, which was acquired by GameStop, offers instant quotes but customers get their money in about a week. Thus, for instant money and environment friendly recycling, EcoATMs are a better choice for customers.

Building on their competitive advantage, EcoATM improves its ATMs by adding more features. Latest EcoATMs require each user to scan his/hers driver’s license to complete the transaction. Also, they are equipped with cameras that take the customer’s photo and compare it with his/her photo ID. By taking these measures EcoATM tries to protect its machines of becoming a “cash mecca for thieves” that can sell stolen phones to EcoATMs for quick cash. Another example of the dynamic strategy and dynamic development of the company is the fact that it enhances its ATMs by adding bigger database, highly efficient artificial intelligence system, and better algorithms to their latest ATMs, in order to provide better and quicker service to their customers.

In my opinion, this company is a good example for managers and entrepreneurs-to-be, of what they can succeed if they are smart enough to spot a “gap” in an industry and try to take advantage of it. However, what this story also tells to managers is that once they establish their company they should follow a dynamic strategy that would help them to evolve and provide better service/products to their customers.

Sources

·         Gail, Huff (2012), “EcoATM's give quick cash for old cell phones, MP3 players”, [available at http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/11/ecoatm-s-give-quick-cash-for-old-cell-phones-mp3-players-82497.html ]

·         Caroline, Winter (2012), “EcoATM, the Automated iPhone Pawn Shop”, [available at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-27/ecoatm-the-automated-iphone-pawn-shop  ]

·         Cliff, Edwards (2012), “GameStop, Without the Games”, [available at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-09/gamestop-without-the-games ]

·         buymytronics.com (2012), “How it works”, [available at http://www.buymytronics.com/how-it-works.aspx ]

·         Kiosmarketplace.com (2012), “EcoATM could be cash mecca for thieves”, [available at http://www.kioskmarketplace.com/article/204057/EcoATM-could-be-cash-mecca-for-thieves ]

·         Denise, Goolsby (2012), “Cash offered for old phones at new ATM”, [available at http://www.mydesert.com/article/20121125/NEWS01/311250013/Cash-offered-old-phones-new-ATM ]

The Writing on the (Facebook) Wall: The Use of Social

Networking Sites in Hiring Decisions(Qualitative Article)

Victoria R. Brown

• E. Daly Vaughn

So far we have read a lot about the positive aspects of social networking websites. This article focuses on how social networking websites create a negative impact in the corporate sector and what are the consequences that rise from this action. The author has covered three important areas in the article. They are as following.

·         The author has tried to create an awareness of potential negative outcomes related to misuse of social networking websites by numerous companies in their hiring process.

·         The author has discussed validation and legal issues during the hiring process.

·         In the last author has discussed the practical implications for organizations and directions for future research associated with using social networking websites for their hiring process.

We will be discussing all three issues addressed above in the article. Based on the research done. The idea behind this article is to explain the readers how difficult it could be for a job seeker if head hunters and hiring companies evaluate the candidate resumes who are applying for different positions and getting rejected all the time based on a criteria which cannot be justified. According to recent reports in the popular media, an increasing number of hiring managers are utilizing social networking sites such as face book.

First we will talk about the negative outcomes related to the misuse of social networking websites. The data uploaded by the applicant on different social networking websites is highly unstandardized therefore the hiring decision based on this information is mostly incorrect. Also this lacks uniformity since some candidates share information on these social networking websites other do not make this information public.

Second is the validation and legal issue. Based on the research and relevant databases (PsycINFO, Business Source Primer) indicates that no research currently exists in peer-reviewed outlets investigating the practical and legal consequences for employers utilizing this practice or assessing the validity of this method. Instead, research has examined the social implications of site membership (e.g. identity formation; Gooding’s et al. 2007) and the factors influencing the type of content shared by users. Hiring managers should stop saving their cost and start relying on any standardized and reliable data rather than social networking websites.

Third is the practical implication. The author is stressing on the fact that it is not practically possible to rely on this data in the long run. Companies and hiring managers should start searching for reliable data that will help them finding the right fit for the position.

There are possible risks based on using the social networking websites. Risks such as invasion of applicant privacy, lack of clearly identifiable theoretical constructs used in the screening process, and the absence of data to support that the information used in screening is job relevant

Lastly there are also legal issues that could seriously hurt the company’s reputation. Social networking sites easily allow the potential for individual biases to affect hiring and screening decisions. Therefore it is always better to not to rely on the information provided by individuals on these websites in order to make the hiring decisions.

References:
http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:6047/article/10.1007%2Fs10869-011-9221-x
 

Peer reviewed article

The name of the Article was Winning Strategy by Jodi Spiro and it dealt with improvement in an employee training environment but I think taken generically the strategy can have other uses.

The article starts with a few main points.  One is to benchmark early on in a process to set a clear defined path since change is unpleasant to some and having a map helps.  Bringing people with you or getting "buy in" is important to success.  Lastly don't set yourself up for failure.  Winning early is important setting of goals needs to be done carefully.  If improvement is really the most important thing then that should be the goal.  There doesn't need to be a number associated with it.  Number goals can be too arbitrary.

The next part describes methodology.  Problems are usually solved in a similar manner to the method described in the article.  A problem is identified, a strategy is formed, a plan is implemented, etc.  "Wins" are the important part of this strategy.  Besides needing to measurable, tangible, etc they need to be publicized.  Positive results are motivating and opportunities to share that should not be missed.

Journal of Staff Development; Apr2012, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p10-16

Dynamic Strategy - Academic article - Competitive Actions and Dynamics in the Digital Age: An Empirical Investigation of Social Networking Firms

The purpose of this article is to examine the competition between firms in the social networking services (SNS) industry and the way that competitive actions taken by firms enhance their performance. SNS industry is composed of companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, and MySpace.  

According to the authors, SNS firms use two ways to compete with other firms in their industry. The first way they use is to undertake “value cocreation actions” (Devi et al, 2009), which include codevelopment of technology with third party developers and forming alliances with firms to develop relational capabilities. The second way is to take aggressive actions against their competitors by using a “repertoire of competitive actions”(Devi et al, 2009). 

The authors use hypothesis testing in order to conduct their research. Their main hypotheses are:

• codevelopment actions are positively related to firm performance 
• relational capability actions are positively related to firm performance
• complexity of action repertoire is positively related to firm performance 
• the volume of actions taken by firms is positively related to firm performance

In order to find the information for their research, the authors used data from 52 SNS firms in a period of 3 years. This resulted in the authors having a sample of 156 firm years, which is a very good sample for their research.

The results of the study showed that the first hypothesis is true for most of the firms. Codevelopment helps firms to achieve greater performance. Hypothesis 2 was also supported by the results, so this means that relational capabilities actions help firms to have greater performance. The third hypothesis was also supported by the final results. Complex actions taken by the firms when they try to compete with their competitors help their performance. The fourth hypothesis was not supported by the study. The volume of actions taken by firms when competing was not clearly shown to affect firm’s performance.

As for managers, this study can help them in many ways. By studying the results of this study they can learn the types of competitive actions that each firm took and thus they can understand industry dynamics and develop better strategies to compete in this industry. The fact that this research combines IT, IS, and strategic management can help managers understand the competitive advantages that their firms can have by combining the same three components.

References

Devi R. Gnyawali, Weiguo Fan, James Penner, (2009). Competitive Actions and Dynamics in the Digital Age: An Empirical Investigation of Social Networking Firms, Information Systems Research Vol. 21, No. 3, September 2010, pp. 594–613

The article can be found in the following address:

http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2057/ehost/detail?sid=9665d816-2aab-43bb-8f9e-8ed21577d5fb%40sessionmgr111&vid=4&hid=112

  

THE EFFECTS OF MATERNAL FASTING DURING RAMAZAN:

 

Ramazan is the ninth lunar month of the Islamic calendar. The study is conducted in Lebanon to analyze the effects of pre term delivery with women who fast during the holy month of ramazan verses who don’t fast .  A  total of 468 eligible women included all healthy Muslim women with singleton uncomplicated pregnancies who would be at 20–34 weeks of gestation at the beginning of the month of Ramadan irrespective of whether they would fast or not during the month of Ramadan. women were approached but only 402 agreed on participating in this research.  Although fasting during the month of Ramazan is compulsory for every muslim but there are exceptions. Pregnant women are allowed to skip fasting if she feels that this can cause problems to her or baby’s health. In this research women who intended to fast were assigned to the Ramazan fasted group and every fasting women was matched to a control non fasting women by maternal age +/-1 year, gestational age +/-2 weeks, parity and body mass index+/-2kg/m2.

 Analysis on 402 women showed no significant differences between the two groups of women. However the C section delivery rate was lower in the group of women who were fasting rather than who were not fasting. Although it is not possible to undertand the behavioral responses of different women. Also this study has their drawbacks since this study was done in Septmeber fasting hours may differ in different time zones.

Hence after evaluating the effects between the two groups of women fasted and not fasted we came to the conclusion that there are no major differences found in the occurrences of post term delivery and no increase in risk is noted for women who fasted during the holy month of ramazan.

 

Cites: This articles has been taken from the university library data base

http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:4779/doi/10.1111/j.1471-0528.2012.03438.x/abstract