Business as (Ab)usual
I was learning to build guitars in 2015, planning to launch a boutique & custom shop website. I had access to all the right tools and a CNC router. I was employed in the construction industry – the company I was working for was not accepting my request for a raise from $15/hr. When the executive denied me a raise, yet gave his son one, (despite me having more experience and structural knowledge) I started to lose my dignity, so quit to focus on my higher education full-time. Finding out my little sister was paid more than I was for clerical work – moving information from point a to b – I knew something wasn’t right in the realm of “business”. I had returned to school and applied for a simple call-center job at guitar center. The interview went well and the human resource manager gave me a schedule to plan my courses around. I planned each course and hour to a T (wanting to go big because I only had a home while I was in school and working).A week before the semester started the human resource manager called me to inform me that my background check didn’t jive with the position; though I was upfront about what my past was. It all fell apart! I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact I was (figuratively) told I had the job before I (literally) did – so what is human resource? Below is the correspondence I had with my business professor in Fall 2015 - it is revealing.
October 23, 2015
I am starting to believe that what the majority of economists say is misdirected. The more I learn about economy, factors of production, local, regional and national business - the more I get confused. Offshoring jobs reduces the price we pay for goods (along with the declining value of American dollars, right?) yet inflation continues to rise sporadically & the unemployment rate hasn't improved more than 2% in years. If the countries receiving substantial benefits from offshore labor are not capitalistic or [most of them] even democratic by nature - aren't these cheap-labor hungry corporations committing treason against the average skilled American? We have the highest amount of skilled and available people qualified for production and innovation, yet the lowest business "attractiveness" in the world - because we have the highest standard of living. Even though technology is accelerating and making American lives a little easier, it seems we are losing national, patriotic and even personal value the more money just and only trades hands. . . Trading hands by way of sacrificing the happiness of the American people for more money in personal bank accounts and foreign national treasuries. This is not sustainable for our future. Yet it is standard operation today & nobody seems to care except the people displaced by structural unemployment. I am so confused, especially when economists say the opposite of what I have to say. Direct me in the right direction if you would rather not respond.
October 23, 2015
Aaron, Thank you for your email and efforts in the course. I spent the past three days in San Francisco with faculty and others from the Western US and Canada. We had conversations about how the world is changing, etc. I encourage you to read the book carefully and share in the discussion area for each chapter what you think with regard to the questions posed there. I spent time with Rhonda Abrams (http://www.planningshop.com/rhonda-abrams/) and thought about your wanting to have your own business. Please have a look at her website, I suspect you will find information of interest to you there. We live in a very competitive world and I wish you well. I hope this helps. Please contact me with any questions. Best wishes, Professor of Management Salt Lake Community College (Professor's E-mail address)* Aaron Parker, (Professor's name)BUS-1010-(Course ID)
The e-book for this course was even missing an entire chapter – which didn’t make dollars or sense.
Here is a replication. Chapter 1: Business Basic Chapter 2: Economics Chapter 3: Business Ethics Chapter 4: International Business Chapter 5: Small Business Management & Entrepreneurship Chapter 6: Business Law and Business Organizations Chapter 7: Management Principles Chapter 8: Motivation, Leadership and Teamwork Chapter 9: Human Resources Chapter 10: Business Communications and Technology Chapter 11: (Redacted)Chapter 12: Marketing and Consumer Behavior Chapter 13: Product Development and Pricing Strategies Chapter 14: Promotion and Distribution Systems Chapter 15: Financial Management and Accounting Chapter 16: Investments & Personal Finance
What do you think?
Did the professor answer my question in any detail?Was my question framed accurately? If we live in a competitive world - shouldn't it at least be competent? I felt I wasted the money on the course, though I learned a few things about practice and technicalities - learning how to best operate a small guitar building shop does absolutely no good if there is not many people able or willing to buy them! This experience made me highly skeptical of contemporary business models in the age of automation, globalization, and modernized slavery in foreign lands.
PLEASE UP VOTE /RESTEEM
@panopticalvia