IB Diploma

Unit 2.3 Business Communication - the end of email?

2009-11-20T16:32:00Z

Whilst visiting Mumbai for an IB Workshop, I came across an article in The Times of India that claims email could become obsolete within ten years as millions of teenagers switch to other forms of communication.

A recent report authored by Professor David Zeitlyn from the University of Kent (UK) shows that an increasing number of teenagers are ditching emails for speedier forms of communication such as instant messaging and social networking websites. With the increasing popularity with electronic devices such as the iPhone and alternatives such as Twitter and Facebook, emails are being perceived as too slow, inconvenient and unfashionable. The latter two methods allow teenagers to send a single message to all their friends at once, thereby saving time and money compared to text messaging or emailing (which requires typing in email addresses). But will email still have a paramount role in businesses?

Question

Discuss the pro’s and con’s of emailing as a form of business communication.

Cultural Paradigms

2009-11-19T21:44:00Z

Devdutt Pattanaik looks at the myths of India and of the West. He uses the myths that the two cultures have grown up on to show how these cultural paradigms have affected business and modern life. Well worth a look. Could similarities be drawn between the male and female paradigms? The male paradigm being closer akin to the Western linear ideals and the female paradigm being more cyclical and emotional?
click here for the link

Supercomputing the Brains Secrets

2009-11-16T21:25:00Z

Henry Markram has built a brain in a supercomputer. He has a theory that metal illness, memory and perception all relate to neurons and electric signals, and are therefore re-creatable. He has a theory that the brain itself creates a version of the universe and then projects it around us. Markram tries to answer whether the brain is capable of perceiving itself. He argues our decisions are the key things that support out perceptual bubble. 99% of what we see is what we infer but not what comes through our eyes.
During his study he has developed a way of converting visual stimulus into music in order for the visually impared to ‘see’ through sound. He refers to our experience of the world being a ‘symphony of perception’.
One has to ask whether the super computer he builds that simulates the brain is capable of experiencing a sense of ‘I’
click here for the link to Henry Markram’s TED talk Supercomputing the Brain’s Secrets

How do we see things?

2009-11-16T20:14:00Z

Beau Lotto argues that the sensory information that falls in through our eyes is meaningless unless we know how to interpret it. Perception is all important.

The brain didn’t evolve to see the way the world actually is but it sees the world in a way that it is useful to see it. The reason we see in colour is perhaps related to spotting predators as we evolved. Beau argues that we are defined by our environment and our interaction with that environment. A priori knowledge is key to our relationship with the world. We are necessarily bound by relative, historical and empirical factors. Our perception of events is vital in order for our species to continue to develop. We must, however, always mistrust everything, as “only through uncertainly is there the potential for understanding”.

Click here for the link to Beau Lotto’s TED talk.
Beau Lotto - Optical Illusions show how we see

This talk links well with
Dan Dennett On our consciousness
Al Seckel Our brains are miswired

Woolworths dominance

2009-11-11T20:22:01Z

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have granted Woolworths permission to go ahead with its proposed takeover of hardware wholesaler Danks. Despite concerns about the dominant power that Woolworths yield, the planned takeover is going ahead.

Concerns are being raised that this is another sector of the market that Woolworth will end up wielding its powerful position in.

Read the article here

Junk Food tax?

2009-11-11T20:05:00Z

The Economist has a good feature this week on taxing junk food. It is generating support in America, a country with rising obesity rates. Congress is considering a tax on sugary drinks to help pay for the planned expansion of health-care coverage. Some analysts would like to see broader duties on junk food. On July 27th the Urban Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC, proposed a 10% tax on “fattening food of little nutritional value” that, it claimed, would raise $500 billion over ten years.

This is a very good article to use as an extension activity with students. It could be used to raise the question about whether junk food causes negative externalities or not?

The article can be read here

Introducing free trade, protectionism and globalisation.

2009-11-09T08:51:00Z

This 14 minute video from Alex Tabarrok will get students into a great discussion on free trade and protectionism and is an excellent resource to refer back to when teaching tariffs and quotas and then globalisation.

I showed this video to my Y13 IB Economics class today as a starter to get a discussion going on free trade and globalisation. The discussion is a great way to see what the students know and the excellent examples used by Alex Tabarrok can easily be included in students essays or internal assessment commentaries.

Current Affairs Quiz #6

2009-11-08T12:38:00Z

Current affairs quiz for IB B&M students…

1. Which oil giant was fined a record $87m by the US authorities for failing to correct safety violations (leading to an oil explosion) at its Texas oil refinery?

2. China’s Geely Automobile is set to take over which of Ford Motor Company’s car makers from Sweden?

3. Norges Bank, the Norwegian Central Bank, was the first European bank within the past 12 months to do what?

4. How many countries in the European Union use the euro as their official currency: 12, 14, 16 or 18?

5. Which Japanese airline has confirmed it is to apply for financial assistance after reporting an operating loss of 99bn yen (approx. £667,473,973 or HKD HKD8.43bn) between April and June this year?

6. Norway’s huge revenues from which commodity helped cushion it against a severe economic downturn?

7. Which Dutch company announced plans to separate its banking and insurance operations and divest its American online-banking division?

8. Which US online retailer’s share price shot up by 27% in a day after delivering solid earnings and forecast a happy Christmas shopping season?

9. Which European country celebrates its National Day on 11th November?

10. Which European insurance company owns this logo?

11. Along with the USD, which Spanish-speaking nation uses the Balboa as its official currency?

Answers

BP, Volvo, Raise interest rates, 16, JAL (Japan Airlines), Oil, ING, Amazon.com, Poland, ING, Panama

Pure monopolies in Japanese manufacturing

2009-11-07T12:45:00Z

A big hat tip to one of my students Arno Albici for spotting a superb article in the Economist about a cluster of mid-sized Japanese manufacturers who continue to enjoy near pure-monopoly power in highly specific, high value-added businesses. decades of industry expertise and reinvesting profit to fund high levels of research and innovation continue to give these companies a remarkable competitive strength in the market. The barriers to entry for rival manufacturers are very high and this helps to explain the limited contestability in the global marketplace.

For example:

Shimano earns around $1.5 billion a year by supplying 60-70% of the world’s bicycle gears and brakes
YKK makes around half the world’s zip fasteners by value,
75% of motors for hard-disk drives in computers come from a firm called Nidec
90% of the micro-motors used to adjust the rear-view mirror in every car are made by Mabuchi

“Many technology products have become commodities, but certain components have not, since they require continual innovation. So entry barriers to the business of making them remain high, and although the margins on the final goods have deteriorated, the margins on specialised, high-end components are still juicy.: Much more here

The ECB

2009-11-03T17:39:00Z

I have just finished a Higher Level Economics lesson with my U6th where we have been discussing the role of the ECB. Whilst putting together material for the lesson I discovered some superb video clips from the ECB website that provide an excellent insight into the history of the bank, its current role, policy tools, remit and future direction.

The About the ECB clip always provides some excellent material to spark a discussion on the arguments in favour of the single currency.

We finished the lesson in a light hearted way by watching the price stability cartoon. My students were especially amused by the inflation and deflation monsters!

Disneyland set to open in China

2009-11-02T13:18:00Z

The Shanghai municipal government is expected to approve the US$3.6 billion (£2.2bn or HKD27.8bn) Disney theme park project this week, according to Mayor Han Zheng.

With the on-going trade discussions between China and the USA, some commentators have suggested that an official announcement would be made to coincide with President Barack Obama’s visit to China November later this month.

If the plans go ahead, Shanghai will become the 6th Disneyland theme park, with others existing in California, Orlando, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong. Shanghai has been pushing for a world-class amusement park for almost ten years and faced huge challenges when Hong Kong Disneyland opened back in 2005.

Shanghai’s economy grew by 3.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009; a relatively low rate compared to China’s overall projected growth rate of over 8% for the year. China is determined to conduct an economic transformation and sees the service sector as the backbone of the Shanghai’s economic development.

Spats and Rats in the Air

2009-10-31T10:07:01Z

The New York Times has delivered a good read this morning. Air India feature for all the wrong reasons on the front cover. Air India is a government owned airline and made a loss of $1.1 billion on a revenu of $3 billion in the last fiscal year. The airline has encountered senior pilot strikes, rats onboard a plane, pilots and flight attendants fistfighting during the last year.

This article could provide valuable material for considering the role of govenrmrnt in business and whether or not Indian Goverment should be operating a loss making airline in a country that has tremendous poverty issues? It represents a good tool to further develop evaluation skills which are releveant to a specific scenario.

Read the article here

United States sees rebound in output but few new jobs created

2009-10-30T14:18:00Z

Here is a topical teacher presentation that provides a snapshot of, and commentary on key economic data from the US as the world’s largest economy starts to pick up from the depths of the recession. Many questions remain not least the durability of a recovery and the extent to which the US experiences a jobless recovery.

Launch streamed, interactive version - US Economy Rebounds

Download PowerPoint (ppt) version:

Mark Mardell reports on the latest US economic data in this BBC news video. Hamish McRae also reports on the state of health of the US economy in this piece from the Independent.

Tutor2u in Hong Kong

2009-10-30T12:40:00Z

Eye weary and groggy from some fine Cathay Pacific house red, I have just landed hot foot from Hong Kong where I was the guest of Sha Tin College and a meeting of the Economics and Business Teaching Group from the English Schools Federation in Hong Kong.

The whistlestop tour was great fun and I must thank everyone there for their warm welcome and superb organisation, not least Paul Hoang and his colleagues who put on the two day student conference and CPD event at their fine school.

I will be posting some of the materials used in the Economics and IB blogs in the coming days....once the red leaves my system.

IB Higher Economics - Improving your Exam Skills

2009-10-30T12:38:00Z

Here is a streamed version of the presentation I gave to the Hong Kong CPD day, focusing on how IB Economics students can improve their evaluation skills:

Improving Evaluation Skills