Qatari Firms Blacklisted for Woeful Treatment of Indians

Qatari Firms Blacklisted for Woeful Treatment of Indians

There are some companies’ only concern is cutting their costs through various ways. On of the ways is through employing cheap labor that work a lot for low salary. Indians are example of employees who are poor, not highly educated, and work a lot for a little return. These poor labors are sometimes battered and disrespected. So this article, “Qatari Firms Blacklisted for Woeful Treatment of Indians”, pointed out that the Indian workers are mistreated and disrespected in Qatar to an extent they were thrown out of labor camp for complaining to embassy about salary arrears plus they are not payed. According to Baron Framework, mistreatment for labors is raising a non-environmental market issue which can be analyzed through four I's. The issue in this case is mistreating the Indian workers in Qatar such as not paying their salaries on time, the bad accommodation and in some case, the ‘sub-standard’ food that they offer to them. The two main interest groups in this issue are companies that are using cheap labors (Indian workers) and the employees themselves that are being mistreated. On the other hand, the Indian Embassy is the institution that is involved in the issue. This issue rises from moral concern a concern from the Indian embassy of the way the Qatari companies have been treating the Indian workers. According to Baron, the issue passes through stages and this issue went through the stage of issue identification and interest group formation which in this case are the Indian workers and the Indian embassy that have blacklisted 11 Qatari companies and put 35 others on a watch list for mistreating its nationals working in the country. In my opinion I think that these companies shoult take into consideration the employees, treat them well, and offer them good food and shelter. They should protect their employees human rights because if they did not do so they will then loose them, affect their businees negatively, and ruin their reputation as a good business and as a comfortable working environment.

Shimo's thoughts of Al Maya Group plans expansion

Al Maya Group plans expansion

Al Maya Group which is based in Dubai is investing Dh40 million for expansion. It is planning to develop by setting up eight new supermarkets and at least two fashion retail stores in the next 12 months. It currently operates 30 retail outlets including 15 hypermarkets. According to Hamel, the Mission is “the overall objective of the strategy and what the business is designed to accomplish or deliver”. In this article “Al Maya plans expansion”, the company’s business mission is to grow in the range of 3,000 square feet offering convenience shopping. They are seeking opportunities to grow, to expand the retail sector by opening neighborhood supermarkets, and be global. Something like UK’s Tesco Express as they mentioned in the article. Their aim is to have a total of 25 Al Maya Supermarkets, something in line with the Tesco stores in the next 12 months. Al Maya Group chooses to compete by narrowing down its product/market scope. Al Maya does so by expanding its market scope, so they increased the number of stores to a total of 25 stores. Part of a global expansion “the company is also opening the first British Home Stores (BHS) in Poland on September 9”. According to Hamel’s core competencies, the article mentioned that there is “traffic growing and high gasoline prices increasing by 30 per cent”. This will cause most people will seek out the alternatives for the inconvenience of driving to hypermarkets where parking is a problem. Therefore, choosing the convenient location to expand is a great potential for them. Furthermore, it is mentioned in the article that Al Maya’s consumers will shop at the neighbourhood retail outlets that offer them a great deal of convenience. So, they do not have to enter the hypermarket race. According to Hamel’s fulfillment and support, the company chooses the way it goes to the market and they have a uniue way to reach their customers. Al Maya group is aware of the inconvenience associated with hypermarkets. So, they chose to avoid the hypermarkets and go after the supermarkets to support their customers as supermarkets will attract consumers, avoid traffic and avoid the parking lot problems. In my opinion, I think that all these factors make Al Maha group a good alternative as they are on the right track.

Disney claims in China factories

Disney to probe labor claims in China Factories

"Disney to probe labor claims in China factories", it is an article that states that there were claims by a labor rights advocacy group regarding unsafe conditions at Chinese factories that makes books for Disney. Disney hired Verite, a non-profit social auditing and training firm, to conduct an investigation of the claims, as a way of acting socially and ethically responsible to all its stakeholders. According to Baron, we have two issues that are applicable to this case. First there are the unsafe conditions at Chinese factories and the 10-13 hour work days with a salary below the legal minimum wage. The interests groups are the labor rights advocacy groups and Disney. The institutions include National Labor Committee, the Chinese government and the public sentiment. The issue was brought up by the National Labor Committee which is a committee that is there to protect various employees and it could lead to bad publicity and damage the company’s reputation, and this is the “interest group information”. This issue could effect the companies performance because non market issues can lead to market issues in this case. This is when the customers of Disney will stop buying their products when they know that Disney abuse their workers. This will obviously affect their reputation and profit.

Call centers in India face challenges

The article talks about problems that India faces in Business Process Outsourcing Industry with the workers. Call centers lack shortage of well educated staff and young people. According to Barney, resources include its fundamental financial, physical, individual and organizational capital attributes. In the "Call Centres in India face challenges" case the resources are survival where they make sure to have some qualified workers and well-educated young people, plus India’s unique combination of manpower and English language skills.On the other hand, Capabilities according to Barney, include only those internal attributes that enable the firm to coordinate and exploit its other resources. In the call centers in India case, the capabilities are that the CCAI with the Confederation of Indian Industry have launched a training program. It will offer a standardised qualification for new BPO workers: improving English, "neutralising" accents, teaching some computer skills and so on. Moreover, “Nasscom, a lobby for the software and services industry, is also introducing an "assessment and certification" programme for would-be employees”. Such methods should cut costs, ease wage pressures and help keep offenders out. Another capability is that “Indian firms grew in parallel with their mostly American clients. Engineering colleges, in-house trainers and private institutes kept pace with demand”. All these resources and capabilities gave call centers in India a temperory competitive advantage because they are valuable and rare, but is costly to imitate. Baron mentioned in his article some non market issues, such as fraud scandals, overnight working shifts and abuses. The issue in this case is that firms do not always check staff references at once, while the institution is Call center businesses and industry itself represented. It helped workers to improve their English, get rid of accent and get acquainted better with the use of computer. The interests in this case are Call center businesses and industry itself represented.

My thought of "The New school" article.

Barney in his article “Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage”, mentioned about the question of value which is whether a firm’s resources and capabilities enable the firm to respond to environmental threats or opportunities?. He stated that ‘in order for resources and capabilities to be strengths, they must enable a firm to exploit environmental opportunities or neutralize environmental threats”.
According to the article, “The new school”, it talked about how a poor job market is affecting how business schools compete for students and what is expected from today’s M.B.A. program. This article shows the threat of many college graduates facing difficulties to be employed. In addition, many business schools provide programs to prepare graduates for the competitive work environment they now face. These business schools are considering the M.B.A. programs essential for the graduates in order to find job opportunities without difficulty, and to improve their skills and abilities. In my opinion, I see the value in these schools that has responded to the environmental threat of unemployment by preparing its M.B.A. program and training their students in order to change the need of employers, improve their students, and to provide good experience for them. Therefore, these schools encompass value to their business, and minimize the threat of unempoyment.

Shimo's comments "Retailers must do more to stay on top of competition.

Garry Hamel in his article “Leading the Revolution” mentioned about the Customer Interface and its four elements. One of the elements is Fulfillment and Support, it refers to the way the firm goes to the market, how it actually reaches customers-which channels it uses, what kind of customer support it offers, and what level of service it provides. Another element is the Information and Insights, it refers to all the knowledge that is collected from and utilized on behalf of customers and the ability to extract insights from this information-insights that can help it do cool new things for customers. Hamel also mentioned about the Strategic Resources and its elements, one of its elements is the Core Competency.
According to the article “Retailers must do more to stay on top of competition”, it shows that both elements which are the Fulfillment and Support and the Information and Insights in the Customer Interface are the most effective two elements that contributed in the success of Dubai Festival City. “The Middle East is progressing at incredible rate and has firmly cemented its reputation as a leader in the field” said McArthur. The Fulfillment and Support plays a major role in Phil McArthur’s customer interface strategy. This is because McArthur focused on consumer’s entertainment, therefore he has started the first phase opening of Dubai Festival City which highly anticipated 2.6 million square feet retail, and provided strong offerings in family entertainment, hospitality, multiplex cinemas, large food and beverage components and theme parks which are all being planned to keep consumers entertained. As for the Information and Insight, McArthur has most probably researched in order to find out the change in development strategies needed to keep up with consumer evolution. As a result, UAE now for example, is the third most successful country in the world at shopping centre marketing. In addition, Retail outlets in Dubai deliver experiences skills, knowledge, and unique capabilities to the customers at Dubai Festival City; as a result, Core Competency is the element that played a role in increasing its sales.

Shimo's thoughts of Google's Sellout to China

Porter mentioned in his note of the Structural Analysis of Industries regarding the government polisy as a major source of entry barriers that government can limit or even foreclose entry into industries with such controls as licensing requirements and limits on access to raw materials. He also mentioned that standards for product testing ,common in industries like food and in other health-related products, can impose substantial lead times on getting into an industry which not only raise the cost of entry but also give established firms ample notice of impending entry, and sometimes full knowledge of competitor products with which to formulate retaliatory strategies.Porter also stated that Government Policy has social benefits, and this is true in the article I am going to discuss.Acording to the article, “The Real Cost of Google’s Sellout to China”,it shows that Google’s decision to censor web searches for the Chinese government could relate to the Government Policy aspect of barriers to entry. For example, Censoring control requirements can raise capital needed for entry and can increase required technological sophistication and even optimal scale of facilities. In my opinion,Google’s decision to censor web searches for the Chinese government and supporting them in barring access to thousands of Web sites and search terms, is a threat of entry into the industry,and the government policy barrier of entry is the best solution. Google is behaving immorally since it examines personal mails and official dispatches to remove informations considered risk to security and invasion of privacy.

Test Post for MGT 406

Test post for MGT 406 at AUS