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Will San Diego’s Increasing Exports Lead to New Employment Opportunities?

San Diego’s economy is picking up speed in ways that may lead to greater employment opportunities. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, San Diego realized $18.6 billion worth of goods which is a substantial increase of over $700 million from 2013 ( 1 ). Should the city expect increasing employment opportunities in the near future? The majority of exports was in computers and electronics, transportation, machinery, plastics and rubber, metal, and processed food. In these sectors greater sales often lead to greater profits and expansion of buyer networks that often leads to production expansion for companies.  Corporations expand production to sell more items while seeking to increase their returns from economies of scale. Expanded production sometimes leads to more efficient operations which in turn impacts profit margins. Profit margins stoke the fire of expansion as firms have healthy returns and seek to maximize those returns through additional investments. 

The Benefits of Hiring Practitioner Scholars in Business Colleges

Academic life is something inquisitive people hope to someday achieve in their efforts to grow and develop as a person. Eventually they make their way through college to obtain a terminal degree, and with some experience, they apply to universities in anticipation of achieving their dreams. With a tough market for professors, not everyone will find their way into a college position. Despite the competitive market, ensuring that universities hire more practitioner-scholars with "real life" experience is important for university development. In business programs this is even more important than other fields. The difference between a person with only academic experience and one with both academic and professional experience is profound. One understands focuses on theory while the other may also have experience with using theories in practice. Their industry experience helps them understand how theories operate in real life scenarios outside the higher education vacuum. Havin

The Importance of Listening to Veteran Needs- Using Feedback Loops

The San Diego VA is listening to veteran frustrations about services and the ease by which they can navigate the medical system. The initiative is part of broader effort to understand how to better service veterans and improve the effectiveness of VA hospitals. Throughout the month of August and September the VA is conducting town hall meetings throughout the country. This is the VA's opportunity to consider both physical and virtual feedback loops in future policy development. “ As part of our Road to Veterans Day, VA is taking a hard look at everything we do in order to reorganize the Department around the needs of Veterans. Direct feedback from Veterans, employees and stakeholders is an important component of that Roadmap, and key to improving our services and operations ,” states VA Secretary McDonald ( Veterans Administration,2015 ). Organizations use virtual feedback loops to understand how top level policies impact users on the bottom level. Sometimes feedback comme

Poor Service Quality Impacts Customer Perception of Businesses

Service quality can make or break your business if you don't keep track of customers impressions. Business often focus on the physical appearance, atmosphere, cost, and offerings but sometimes fail to see the underbelly of what will make their place a success. Service quality can have a huge impact on customer retention and make or break whether a business can stay open. Consider a restaurant that has a trendy name, great atmosphere and is all the rave among core crowds. The owners spend a great deal of time advertising and putting everything together but failed to train their staff on how to treat customers. The lines are long, the staff is rude, orders are messed up, and the price is high. People may love what your business has to offer but they are not likely to return if their experience was poor. This is one of the reasons why trendy businesses are popular one year and close their door the next.  Proper service is like frosting on the cake even though it is the smallest

The Benefits of Creating Win-Win Strategies as San Diego Goes Global

San Diego has decided that it is going to make a firm commitment to the global economy. An initiative of 30+ companies, San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, UC San Diego and the City of San Diego want to expand growth opportunities in the area by creating more export opportunities. Those export opportunities result in higher wages and more jobs but will rely heavily on win-win strategic outcomes. Mayor Kevin Faulconer describes the Going Global initiative as "Opportunities and innovation abound in San Diego and it's time to tell the world ( 1 )." The goal appears to be about getting products out of San Diego and into the global market while drawing investment into the region to capitalize on the core competencies of life sciences, blue technology and cyber knowledge. According to the Go Global San Diego initiative San Diego is the 17th largest U.S. metro city, ranks 61st in terms of export intensity and 49th in terms of foreign-owned firms ( 2 ). Sa

Business Schools that Exceed Market Expectations

Meeting and exceeding standards are two different things. Fostering business schools requires meeting expectations and then moving beyond these expectations to create higher levels of performance. According to a paper in the Journal of Business Studies Quarterly there are 10 things business colleges can do to enhance their performance. Look beyond today’s practices and standards and move toward future trends in business education. Applying knowledge management practices to create value. Acting in practice and philosophy. Accept risk when moving beyond theory and practice. Hire faculty and deans who think outside the box. Follow Kaizen philosophy. Understand the educational needs of the market. Stay ahead of the market and be read to change as needed. Develop a unique value proposition. Listen to the needs of stakeholders. It matters little if you are discussing a business school or any other type of school. Many of the ideas would apply to almost

Managing Conflict by Moving from "No" to "Yes"

Conflict is something that most of us experience from time-to-time in our lives but many of us don't know how to deal with that conflict. Conflict can occur in the workplace, at home, among friends, in politics and just about anywhere else. Understanding the nature of conflict and how to overcome obstacles can help you getting what you want and diffuse explosive situations. Those who learn to manage conflict find that they live in a much more receptive environment to their ideas and needs. They minimize the negative effects of conflict and enhance new opportunities. Understanding and knowing how to manage conflict can lead to all types of new pathways that were once closed.  The presentation created by the business instructor Bill Davis.

Business Students Should Learn Operations Management

Freshly minted graduate students have new knowledge and youthful energy but don't always have a great concept of how all of this fits together in an actual operation. The information is disconnected in their minds and a wider framework is difficult to find. An article in the Journal of Operations Management helps us understand what might be learned in a course that teaches practical operations management (Ellington, et. al.. 2014).  Operations management requires a broad base of knowledge and covers concepts such as distribution, marketing, human resources, packaging, manufacturing processes, operation flows and a whole host of other issues. Student regularly learn these concepts one at a time throughout their MBA courses but don't take them all together.  Offering an operations management course will help students put together all of the major concepts together into a single operation example. The student will be able to see how the things they learned create a flow

Countering the Negative Influence of the American Dollar on Exports

The trade gap bumped to $46.6 billion in December from $39.8 billion in November showing a move in the wrong direction. Exports are somewhat complex and even though new businesses have been recently attracted back to American shores they have not yet taken hold in full force. Likewise, the rise of the value of the American dollar means that exports are expensive and imports cheaper. Despite the damaging effect of a higher dollar there is something that can be done to counter this impact and improve exports. It should first be remembered the any number and any dollar is subjective in value. This means that its value is only as good as it relates to some other item. For example, the number two is a higher number than one but both are relative to the other. One must still relate to some measure such as inch, centimeter, etc... that reflects an actual distance in our environment. The same can be said for the dollar that is compared against some other metric to determine its value. One

Can Social Media Marketing Raise Firm Value?

Do social networks have value? Relationship management tools have found to raise the value of 10 luxury hotels through the use of social network marketing (Jung, et. al., 2013). The study focused relationship marketing through social media networks but does help define the advantages that relationship marketing can offer for businesses. Marketing will also have the benefit of influencing behaviors and thoughts in an online world. Consider how most people view a product or service through the lens of social evaluation. If their friends like a particular product they will likely be open to making a purchase themselves. If the product is extremely popular the value of such products rise and market demand increases. Social marketing is one method of encouraging greater interest in products and services. In many ways, much of economic behavior is based in social perception of products and services. Most items we purchase on any particular day are not necessities but have social val

Whistleblowers Challenge Society to Function Better

Ethics is rooted in the greater good of society and the rules and norms that help ensure society doesn’t suffer at the hands of a few selfish individuals. Ethics can be applied to many different situations that range from dumping hazardous waste into rivers to using corporate influence to thwart regulations. Unethical behavior thrives in environments of fear and silence. Whistle blowers are those who are willing to break that cycle for something greater than themselves. As bad as it sounds, powerful entities and stakeholders sometimes profit off illegal and unethical behavior. Consider the case of Sharon Watkins and  her challenge of unethical behavior at Enron. After contacting CEO Kenneth Lay about accounting irregularities her findings were dismissed. Despite being an auditor, no one believed her until the entire company collapsed. There were previous signs of “crooked” activities in the company but people either ignored these signs up or covered them up quickly. In the cas

Call for Papers: Business Strategy and Social Sciences Conference

2 nd  International Conference on Business Strategy and Social Sciences 16-17 February, 2015 Movenpick Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel, Dubai ISBN:  978-969-9952-01-2 ( ISI/Scopus Indexed Journal Publication ) The 2 nd     International Conference on Business Strategy and Social Sciences (ICBSSS) is being organized by the Asian Economic and Social Society, and Pak Publishing Group . The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers from around the globe in order to present and discuss their views in the field of Business Strategy and Social Sciences.  The 2nd International Conference on Business Strategy and Social Sciences (ICBSSS) invites academics and independent scholars and researchers from around the world to meet and exchange the latest ideas and discuss issues concerning Business Strategy and Social Sciences fields towards sustainable development. Main Theme: Issues concerning Business Strategy and Social Sciences field towards sustainable developme

Emotional Intelligence Can Make or Break Your Career

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) may just make or break your career. You earned that prestigious MBA, sowed the deals, and mastered your job but did you master yourself? If your not sure you may want to take a look at your emotional talent to see if it can take you to the next level of performance.  Having the right skills is important but may not be the deciding factor in long term success. It is an ability to handle the day-in and day-out emotional aspects of work and life. This is not easy as multiple pressures and issues seem to attract and distract our attention raising stress levels. That isn't always easy as life is messy and comes with many ups and downs. The extent of our peaks and valleys and how we deal with them defines our emotional resilience. At times we are better than at others. There may be a few days that we feel like we are at our brink. Emotional intelligence influences our ability to interact effectively with others and understand the origins of our