Scott Hebert

Company X is a fictional manufacturer of gourmet snacks and treats.

As Company X moves into e-commerce, decisions must be made regarding what products and services to offer, as well as how to best market the new online presence. Although it seems obvious to offer all existing products via the online storefront, it’s possible that some products may require more customization than a simple point and click interface can provide. For example, standardized gift baskets can be easily offered with an included message. When customers want a customized gift basket including specific items, the online strategy breaks down. Therefore, Company X should offer their standard products online, and direct customers seeking more customization to a nearby brick and mortar establishment.

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Tags: e-commerce, management

Although this post is mainly about the FCC’s cross-ownership ban, the last paragraph deals with a fictional company that wants to become involved in the newspaper and television industries. As a possible player in both industries, they must take a stance on the FCC’s ruling.

In 1975, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a rule prohibiting companies from owning both newspapers and broadcast television stations in the same market. The rule first received consideration in the early 1970s when the U.S. Justice Department was investigating newspaper consolidation. The Justice Department learned that with limited television options, media monopolies were appearing in many rural markets. In an attempt to limit these monopolies, the FCC passed the ruling barring cross-ownership (Wilke, 2000).

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Tags: ethics, fcc, law, management, newspapers, television

Company X is a fictional manufacturer of gourmet snacks and treats.

When discussing software architecture, software engineers often use a pattern called Model-View-Controller, or MVC. The MVC concept was originally developed by Trygve Reenskaug in an attempt to bridge the gap between the user’s mental conception of the process and the computer’s digital rendering. Reenskaug (n.d) claims that “the ideal MVC solution supports the user illusion of seeing and manipulating the domain information directly” (para. 4). Rayport and Jaworski (2004) reiterate this concept as a three tier architecture comprised of three layers: Data, Presentation, and Business Logic. These three layers correlate directly to the MVC architecture proposed by Reenskaug.

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Tags: e-commerce, management

General computer security is a major issue. A 2004 study conducted by USA TODAY and Avantgarde found that a personal computer running Microsoft Windows XP could be compromised within minutes of being placed on an unprotected Internet connection. The computer in question had been installed with default settings and had not been “hardened” against any attacks. The study concluded that a few simple steps were all that was necessary to reduce the risk from inevitable to unlikely (Acohido & Swartz, n.d.). This study alone should be evidence enough that any resources dedicated to computer security is money well spent. When running an online storefront, even the tightest of budgets can afford to utilize an SSL certificate to secure data transmissions and outsource site management to specialists.

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Tags: e-commerce, management

When the case of Crone v. United Parcel Service, Inc. (2002) is discussed, it is summarized as a UPS dispatcher being denied a promotion because her supervisor felt the truck drivers would make her cry. This description plays our own perceived stereotypes that women are somehow not as strong as men. The assumption that the supervisor in question is somehow making a discriminatory decision is really tied to the readers own perception of the stereotype. Fortunately, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals was able to separate the stereotype from the facts of the case. In the end, the Eighth Circuit found that Ms. Crone did not adequately prove discrimination in this case. Although the reason for Ms. Crone being passed over for promotion was presented “in a demeaning manner”, the decision was ultimately made based no Ms. Crone’s previous inability to handle confrontational situations (Crone v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 2002).

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Tags: discrimination, ethics, law, management