Karolina's study blog

In the past, the business had only one objective- to achieve its strategic goals and to generate profit. Nowadays, the businesses are required to respect the environment in which it operates. Since a business enjoys a variety of benefits provided by the society, the business is also expected to 'give back to the society'. The consumers especially in the developed world pay increasingly high attention to how and where products are made and are ready to 'punish' unethical behavior.  Every company has a set of stakeholders (individuals or groups that have some interest on the way the company operates). Every company's objective should be to satisfy a wide range of stakeholders in order to sustain growth and remain competitive. Porter highlights the specifics of today's world, naming awareness as an important factor. He claims that often businesses are perceived as the problem (creating pollution), which is true only for some businesses and large portion of busi

We are getting into a quite serious topic this week. Not paying attention to the workplace safety can have horrible impacts even on a company's existence. And naturally, everybody expects to go to a work, where we feel safe. Providing this for employees is not only a legal obligation but also a part of company's CSR. Violating damages trust between employers and employees, commitment to work and performance and can lead, at the most severe, to a loss of human life.  Luckily, there is a constant decline (in the US and Europe- based on Eurostat statistics ) in on-the-job injuries due to companies improving the working conditions. Another reason is that the job structure is changing and many jobs that involved danger for people are nowadays done by machines. If a worker is hurt on the job, he has to get some form of compensation.  The point of compensations is not only to rehabilitate the worker/their families but also to encourage employers to invest in safety and promote

This week's topic is very important for both, those working as employees and as managers. It is crucial for a mutually beneficial cooperation that both sides understand what is required and what is unacceptable and also what are the policies in case of violation. I think that unfortunately everybody will be at least once in their working life treated unfairly, that's why understanding this topic is necessary for everybody. The HR department plays a big role in this area. I clearly shows the importance of HR in an organizational structure. It sets the policies that inform both, employees and managers about their rights and responsibilities and in case of misunderstanding serves as an 'advocate'.   Starting with the employee rights , they are divided into three main groups. The first one being statutory rights , which are protected by country's law and represent basic rights such as the protection from discrimination or unsafe working environment. The second

Our second trigger described a case of a large retail operator in northern Europe that started to cooperate with an e-commerce company Alibaba to export Finnish food to China.  Some international challenges, outbound functions, and competitive advantages were introduced and described in this case. Our PBL team agreed on the following learning objectives to cover the main problem: 1. How to develop outbound logistics functions 2. What are the main competitive advantages 3. Things to consider when adapting to Chinese markets 1. Developing outbound logistics It is good to start with a definition of outbound logistics, I found a short one on Key Differences , which describes outbound logistics as the outward movement of final goods from the company to the end user.   Last week, we studied inbound logistics, which describes the process of transporting the material or parts to a company that manufactures final products. So the outbound logistics follow the inbound logistics

Last week, we learnt about training and developing the workforce, this week we are focusing on how to evaluate, discuss and improve employees' performance. Our textbook introduces performance appraisals as first. For me, this was an unknown word term so I did not know, what to expect. There are three steps in which appraisal process should be conducted. Those are identification (what will be measured and evaluated), measurement (evaluating itself and deciding on the quality of performance) and management (considering the measurement together with the employee and setting a future view). Many companies nowadays still don't see the benefits of appraisals. However they are important to the company for two reasons;  administrative reasons (for sufficient information and documentation- to ensure fair promotions, terminations and reward distribution) and developmental reasons (improving performance of employees and thus of the organization as a whole, deciding on the skills that

After getting familiar with basics of SCM through lecture, logistics game and assignment, we opened the first out of three triggers that dealt with the contemporary danger of outsourcing and introduced example of truck drivers being attacked. Our team decided to study the topic of challenges of outsourcing and focus on the following learning objectives: What makes a good outsourcing strategy How does the black market affect the supply chain How to minimize the risks of thefts 1. What makes a good outsourcing strategy One of our recommended textbooks (Contemporary logistics) states that there is no actual definition of outsourcing, also commonly called Third-party logistics (3PL) or contract logistics. The book describes this practice as 'one company allowing a specialist company to provide it with one or more logistics functions.' (Murhpy, P. & Knemeyer, A. p.101). These functions usually cover warehousing or outbound logistics. Nowadays we would hardly find a

Our first PBL trigger told a story of a an uncle won 5 million euros and wants to invest it, so there is a potential chance to start a business. Now the problem is what and how to do to persuade the uncle to invest in out business and if we even want to start a business. We agreed, that our main problem will be: Steps to starting a business and the learning objectives: What makes a good business idea Choosing the right business format and its pros and cons How to maintain finance? Why to become an entrepreneur?  1. What makes a good business idea I think that there are actually many of people in the world, who have a good business idea but don't have a clue, how and where to start. On the other hand, there are also people with good knowledge of business but they don't have the right idea.  Many great businesses come from a very random idea. Either the owner lacks something himself and believes that he is not alone in it, or he sees opportunity in the place,