Week #6, Prompted Post: Evaluating sources, E-commerce in Africa

While looking over some articles and news for e-commerces, I found an interesting article  called "E-Commerce: Fortunes Waiting to be made", which talks about the online commerce in the African continent. This was published in The African Business Magazine and discuss about the progress and also how delayed this new kind of market is in the African continent.

The article mention that online trading had increased in Africa, mainly in South Africa, which is the only country that had a significant progress in this new trend. It is also stated the difference between  business to business (b2b) and business to consumer (b2c), these are the two types of e-commerces. The most common type is the business to consumer, which had 100% of increasing if compared to the previous year. In South Africa there are many food shops that have opened their market to the online trading and increased their annual profit. 

It is also stated that the business to business is also going through a change, more business are willing to have the virtual commerce, according to a survey presented in the article "32% percent of the suppliers reported that their sales had improved when they began using the website marketplace". 

However this is just a part of the whole continent, the article also brings the idea of the online trade in the whole continent. The conditions in South Africa are very different than most of the other africans countries. When analyzing e-commerce we have to consider many factors: the mail service of the country, the internet support, the platforms available and also the products. In the rest of Africa, most places do not go well in any of this aspects, because this should not be the priority of a nation that has many other serious issues going on. The backing services of an online trading should be strong to guarantee the client and also the company to be satisfied. 

When mantioning this the article state that this new trend is approaching the African continent in a slow motion and that it will take a while until it is bigger and able to do big differences in the economy of the nations.

Bringing to my point of view, online commerce is not a main issue for economies that are still in the foundation. The situation that most africans countries are, all the products offered in their online stores would be imported and than sent to the consumer. Importing a product with high taxes, selling it with higher taxes in order to make profit and also adding all the expenses with the bad background services as mail and internet, makes this a pointless concern in this level kind economies. Including the fact that many traditional and national companies would see a decrease in their revenue due to the importation of products. But in South Africa I go with the point that this market should be encouraged to increase and become more established. 

Work Cited

"E-Commerce: Fortunes Waiting to be made". African Business. Jul 2002: 14-6. ProQuest. Web. 25 Feb. 2014 .

Week #8, Free Post: Super Bowl evening in Americans life

By the end of the year the marketing and advertising departments of huge companies have a very hard time with a lot of work to do. This happen because it is coming the most important date on the ads world the Super Bowl night, that is aired in the beginning of the year.

All marketing people have to prepare their big campaigns that are going to be aired in this big event. The Super Bowl attracts many people because ether are many football fans but there are also many fans of the commercials. It is a tradition in the american culture to be sitting with friend and family to watch the game itself but also the releases in the ads world.

When I was in the US for my first study abroad, my host family took me to their friends house because that was a Super Bowl evening. I was confused at the time because I am not a fan of football at all, I prefer soccer. But I had a lot of fan, because the commercial during this event is not the time when people go to grab something to drink or go to the bathroom, is the time that they stay just concentrated as they was during the game. Because the ads are part of the event.

After being introduced to the Super Bowl commercial I increased my knowledge and passion for the commercial and marketing side of business. I do not see my self creating ads but they contribute so much to our knowledge and way to analyze commercials, real life situation and business issues.

Week #7, Free Post: Social Media Market, Facebook buys WhatsApp

We all know how the social media world is growing up very fast; there was the time of Orkut, and then Facebook came to substitute it, there was the time for Msn and then Skype came and bought it and included it in Skype services. And this is the way this market has been since it came up.

Now it was time for Facebook one of the main companies in the social media world to make a new acquisition, it bought WhatsApp; an app that came out in 2009 and grew apace.  While I was reading some news articles about this popular acquisition, I was able to see how this market is being monopolized. Facebook has already bought Instagram in 2012, a popular social network between teenager and young adults. And last year Facebook offered to buy Snapchat, however the owner of the app didn't accept the deal.

Going back to the latest deal, according to Goldman, WhatsApp users send "19 billion WhatsApp messages per day, including 200 million voice messages and 100 million videos". This is a very huge number, their users are more active daily than Facebooks user, because WhatsApp is substituting the regular text messaging services, that are offered by mobile phones carriers. The goal of Facebook isn't it mainly the profit that it can make with this app, but the power that it will bring with gaining the control of one more super popular app.

Source:

Goldman, D. Why WhatsApp is worth $19 billion. CNN Money. 20 Feb 2014. Web 23 Feb 2014. 

Week #6, Free Post: How to succeed in a career fair

When I started college in the US I noticed that career fairs are very common in a college life and also very important. These events go on a couple times during a semester, there are different types of fairs, some specially for internships, specifically for some majors and also the general ones. When you decide to go to a career fair and want to take something from it, you should prepare in advance. Is nothing hard, but you should take some time before the fair to adjust things in order to do well there.

The environment that you will find in a fair can be pretty competitive sometimes, because people are there basically for the same reason as you. This way you should have some companies in mind and also have some knowledge about them.

Here I can list some hints that I found out myself, going to career fairs, and also that I researched before starting to go to fairs.

Before the fair

• Study the fair: it is not a very long study, but you should know the companies that are going to be there, and select the ones that you are most interested in. After this you should see what positions they have available and read more about them, this way you are going to have questions and knowledge about the them.

• Prepare what to bring: you should definitely bring some copies of your resume, even when you have already uploaded it online. Many employers prefer to read the fiscal copy of your resume while they are talking with you and also while they are analyzing it. You will also want to have a good folder to put your resume in, one that will look professional and serious.

• Dress code: this is a basic thing, but is always good to remember because the fairs that I went there were a lot of people not well dressed for a career fair. At that moment you are looking for a job or something else, so you will want to look as professional as possible and also you want to be dressed in a clean way for the employer to analyze mainly what you say and not something weird that could call his attention. The best way to do this is: imagine a dress code that you see in a movie when it does to a company: blazers, suits, long skirts, no necklines, not too much accessories and also more sober colors.

• Prepare your social medias: do a LinkedIn profile if you do not have it already, this is a professional social media that employers will certainly look when they are deciding about you. Also clean your other social medias, if you have some embarrassing or compromising things posted there, you do not want them to see it.

During the fair

• Be ready to ask and answer questions: you must show interest and knowledge about what you are looking for. This way during the conversation ask questions, do not just listen or answer. And about answering, they can ask you some tricky questions about your academic life, availability or any other aspect, so be prepared if something weird show up.

• Net work: always, when you talk with someone, get a business card or information about the person, it can be employee or other person. This person can give you some good hints and also tell some experience that he might have.

• Polite: be very polite always introduce yourself and say a nice thing before leaving, and for sure thank for the attention and for the conversation.

After the fair

• Check you emails: most of the times they are going to contact you through email, so stay tuned in your email.

• Have a nice voice mail box: they might call you and you are not available, so having a nice voice mail will avoid you from giving a bad impression.

• Send an email: if you have a big interest in a specific employer or company, send an email after the fair thanking them about the time and highlight your interest. But focus on being polite and nice.

My first fair was very scary, because I had no idea about what it looked like and I was in the beginning of college so did not have much to look for. But going to a fair is valuable, no matter what year are you in and if you are looking for something or not, you can go just to add experience on it that will make you better prepared for the future.

Week #5, Free Post: Structure of a Company

You probably have heard about the expression "the CEO of a company", but you might not know what is the real meaning of this and also all the other positions that exist besides that.

Most big companies have a Corporate officer or executive, that is the person who manage the company as a role. And this person is the one who is called the CEO of that company, that means the Chief Executive Officer, the highest position in a company, the CEO most of the times have many directors that report to him. 

These directors are also called Chiefs Officer, but each one according to each department. Here there is a list with some of them, the most common ones, but it all depend on the size of the company, many companies do not have all of them, just some.

CAO: Chief Administrative Officer, is responsible for the administrative management of the company 

CFO: Chief Financial Officer, take care of the financial risks and planning of the company

CMO: Chief Marketing Officer, is responsible for all the marketing activities

CCO or PRO: Chief Communications Officer or Public Relations Officer, is responsible for the communication of the organization internal and external.

CCO: Chief Creative Officer, take care of the creative teams inside of the company, leads the creative directors, art directors, designers, copywriters..

CIO: Chief of Investments Officer, is the head of the investments of the company, it analyze strategies to grow and to expand the business

CLO: Chief Legal Officer, is the chief of the legal department, with all the lawyers and legal issues of the organization.

All of this positions are part of the Executive Board of the company, the board members are the people who approve, govern, vote, select and support. The CEO is the highest position but does not work alone, it needs all these other chiefs if they exist in the company to make decision and run the company. All these names are not very common, they are growing up inside of companies but their function already exist it can be called director, chief, leader of a specific department and also respond to the president or CEO.

Week #5, Prompted Post: Defining Ethics

When I was searching for ethics in business, articles, news, theories and definitions, I found this article in the web site of The New York Times, it is called " In Life and Business, Learning to Be Ethical". The article brings ethics to many perspectives: life, business, school, work, and daily activities. It highlight that people have unethical acts all the time and in many different situations. 

Focused in the business field, it mention forging numbers by the end of the day, not being honest when answering to a research, faking results and manipulating analysis. It truly happen all the time, every day, in every place and people are becoming unconcerned  about this acts and keep moving into this direction of being more and more immoral everyday.

From my part, I can state some acts that I have been doing now that are going to serve me as a base when I will be a professional and will have to deal with situations of people not being ethical and also of me thinking about the possibility of not being ethical:

- Avoid that people have unethical acts, and also when they have, do not keep quiet. Lat semester I was in a laboratory class and after a specific project we had to fill a report about how was the activities of all the members of the group, and as usual in a college assignment people do not care about their part and do not complete some activities. In this report I though about giving everyone a good feedback to the professor but by the end I realized that this was a very appropriate situation for me to report and unethical act, because the student that missed allowed me and other to do his part and did not even asked.

- Have a job during college make me understand how it is to have a job, a boss and rules to follow. 

- All the classes that I take in the university have as a base academic honesty. This will conduct me to always have a honest work.

- Having a roommate implicates respecting the other privacy, the way of thinking and also the cutler of the other.

Sources:

Tugend, Alina. "In Life and Business, Learning to Be Ethical". The New York Times. 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014