What we did in class...

Matrix:

1.Dictionary meaning, the tissue between the cells

2.In terms of business, the structure

• What values do we share? Friendship, respect, honesty
• Negative values: prejudice, hate, intolerance, and selfishness

Style: Koc school: how do people behave? What things are tolerated and in tolerated

Kadikoy Anadolu Lisesi : is it the same spirit as Koc school? The way people talk to each other is different

• Shared values shape up the other elements

Structure in an organization: departments, sub departments

Relate to the organization itself: top 3 = the people in bottom 3 create them

The systems are created because people decide that they are needed

Strategy = answer to the 3rd Q

• Technology: internal systems, external factor: provides us with the resource: what makes the technology available to us
• Data management systems in our school: ara karne, e-okul (eziyet okul☺ ) system,

Generate strengths and weaknesses = by looking at 7 –s and how they are related to each other and if its powerful

Collection of facts no subject

What makes the piles build the building? The 7 – S Matrix

"More than just a pile of bricks, every single organization is more than just a collection of people."

Strategy of school = improve the performance of the students

The goal is wrong = it should be the future life, not the report card

Hit by the QUIZ

Because I wasn't at school on Friday I didn't know that we had a quiz on Monday. When I learned the time there was a quiz, it was too late. The paper was in front of me and Mr. Sen was assigning the questions. So without any choice I started to answer. You can check some of the questions and the answers about the quiz below.

1.Define private sectors

It is the sector in which the government doesn’t own the business.

2.Name the service sectors of an economy

Tertiary and quaternary sectors are service sectors.

***Service is related to a process from bringing a product to consumer. Q3

***What they provide to the customer isn’t a process of using natural goods ex: Google Q4

4. Define the mission of a business

The mission of a business can be defined as its purpose and to fulfill the needs of customers.

5. Why are external factors important for a business?

A business will take action according to the external factors. It is important in planning but for planning you have to know where you are. To know where you are you must know the external factors (steeple) and the internal factors. 

Except for the quiz but with the help of the answers we got from the quiz we discussed SWOT and STEEPLE

SWOT- strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

Externals: OT    

Internal: SW

***Swot analysis is essential in planning because it shows where the business is. The first step of planning.

                    7-S matrix: where the strengths and weakness come from.

+

                    Steeple: (external factors) opportunities and threats

                                                                                 =

                                   SWOT: What should we do to get where we want.

Process of planning:

1.    Where we are now (swat)

2.    Where do we want to be at a particular time in future (in time x=horizon)----objectives

3.     What should we do to get where we want.  (Answers the question what my strategy is?)

4.    How do we know we are getting there. (control)

Time is an important factor and you can not make a plan about it.!! Everything is related to time without the precision of time you can not be able to accomplish something in business.

Continuing in the Steeple analysis of the school:

Legal aspects: In law we are all the same but in particular we are not all the same. The law does not always tell you what is right and wrong. You do not find all the laws written down in somewhere.

Students have right because the courts have behaved as they had rights.

Sometimes laws fail to reflect ethics.

What can and cant be thought? Ex: ban of political discussions.

Ethical factors: judging a student whether you like or not, fake reports.

Ethics change from generation to generation. Ex: girls being able to got to school.

Businesses show their selves as green and environmental when they are not because: 

** *Being environmental friendly can be costly but they do it in order for their reputation in society, it is about the image.

Do companies adopt environmental policies because they are good or do they adopt it because they are ethical?

In ethical thinking you think in terms of cost and benefits when you study business.

Don’t always judge something, if it is good or bad according to its benefits. 

I heard from other business students

On Friday I wasn't at school but I learned what was done in class by other business students. Here is how I developed what they told me:

Steeple- external factors effecting business growth 

Social technological economic ethical politics legal environmental

Social- schools reputation students and their families background

It is about occupation, ethics and demography

Political- is about what students and parents think, if they all agree on something that is wrong than there is a need for change.

In case of the government it is what the public thinks.

Economic- if dollar weakens it is an advantage for you if your doing imports.

Disadvantage; when dollar goes up if you have a debt to be pay in dollars then the amount of money you will pay will go up.

THE HİGHER THE RİSK THE HİGHER THE REWARD

Here we go..

Below you can find our (me and Ecem S) criteria for blogs :


                          Excellent (5)         Good (4)        Satisfactory(3)      Mediocre(2)     Poor(1)

Engaging	The ideas and information are truly engaging, compelling and convincing. The blog is visually appealing and matching colors are present with a catching layout. The visuals and writings are in an excellent harmony.	Generally there are interesting, relevant ideas with few visual elements. The blog is mostly engaging.	The ideas are sometimes irrelevant with few major errors but the blog is overall catching.	No use of visual elements, the blog is frequently flat, the ideas are repetitive and mostly not interesting.	The blog is tedious, including very poor or no ideas. No visual elements.
Informative	There is a use of also other resources, the information is rich, highly accurate and precise. Excellent interpretations, point of views and comments are present.	Generally informative, there are no other resources used. There are limited point of views which sometimes include minor errors.	The information is mostly accurate with few major errors about business concepts, theories and models, but the comments are not enough and sometimes wrong.	The business concepts, theories and models are frequently not applied correctly, there are few accurate information, with major errors.	The information is not accurate; there are lots of mistakes and misconceptions about business terms, theories and concepts. There’s no proof of critical thinking.
Persuasiveness	The rich information and highly interesting ideas contribute to the general idea. Excellent comments, interpretations and opinions which truly affect or add to the audience’s point of view.	Ideas and information are generally related, the resources and examples mostly support the ideas and there are almost no major errors.	The information occasionally justifies the ideas but the resources and examples given are limited and poor, which do not create a truly persuasive effect on the audience.	There is an attempt in persuading and convincing the audience, but the ideas and information are not justified correctly.	The ideas and information are not convincing and mostly wrong. Unrelated/opposing ideas are defended.
Language	Able to captures the interest of future employers. The language used includes the correct utilization of business terms, concepts and theories with excellent interpretations and metaphors.	The business terms, concepts and theories are generally used correctly. The interpretations are mostly logical.	The business terms, concepts and theories are occasionally irrevelant and there are some major business language mistakes.	There is an attempt in using the business terms, but not successfully used. Unable to draw future employers’ attention.	No business terms used or the used ones are mostly wrong. Major errors and misconceptions. The language is simple and not official enough.

What qualities does a blog suppose to have?

Today in our lesson with Mr. Sen we analyzed Ecem's blog and created our own criteria for examining a blog. I will post the criteria tomorrow but below you can find my notes.

A blog must be:

-Engaging-Persuasive: in terms of comments, opinions and interpretations

-Informative- relate to other examples

** Accurately informative

Stay out of information that is junk food; exaggerated.

Target: (employers) will they be interested or not?

** The language: use business terms, business concepts, business models

Fourth business sector (quaternary) ideas don’t belong the primary secondary en tertiary sector

examples: educational institution, coiffeur, advertising, personal services, financial services 

What I learned on Monday (04.10.2010)

Meanings of some basic terms in business: 

-System: to describe or to reflect collection of certain things

-A system: Inputs coming in- throughput (process)- outputs-feedback-inputs

-Feedback: any information or physical thing that could become an input to the process.

-Qualified: skilful, having the ability to do something

-Profit: is means to achieve the purpose.

***Making profits is no the purposes of businesses, without profit they can't survive and go on in the business world.

-Expense: e.g. giving allowances to laborers.

**Businesses have to make a distinction what they are going to do in the short run and long run.  

-Starting a business is: scanning the market and finding an opportunity that fits with your strengths and qualities.

Ownership, Management of resources

-  Leadership  (the ability to bring everything together for a purpose)

- TAKE RİSKS

- Creativity+Innovation

- Discipline

- Patience

-Creativity is about spotting an opportunity in a business.

Inventory: the stock of stuff one has

-Departments: you have departments because you have specialized functions.

**The bigger the organization the more you need specialists the more departments.

-Specialism: has something to do with size (scale)

**It is cheaper to have specialists for large organizations because it results in having lots of departments, which make it easy to run the business organized.

A 40 minute discussion with Mr.Sen

On Friday, 1st of October, we discussed one of the groups(ours) previous work with Mr. Sen and I learned that there were some points I misunderstood. I was a bit confused through out the lesson because I found it hard to follow Mr.Sen's questions because he was trying to make us think over and over by asking lots of questions. But closer to the end everything was clear to me.


Firstly we were asked what quality stand for and everyone had a different opinion. We all thought that quality could be measured and gave examples from the Mercedes Benz company. However it turned out that we were all wrong because quality is hard to measure, it is not as easy as we described it to be. The only way to measure it is to have a criteria and depend on it, but it is important to have different criteria for things we measure.


Secondly, I learned that I was wrong with the term of specialization, even though I knew what it meant the questions we were asked did not match with what I had in my mind. Mr. Sen told us that even though specialization increased efficiency it had some disadvantages. He gave examples from different kinds of sectors and explained how people could get bored about doing the same thing over and over. We ended up deciding that specialization would both increase and decrease efficiency, so it had to be done in the right way.


The last thing I learned from Fridays class discussion was that efficiency equaled outputs divided by inputs and it was the same thing with productivity. Both words have the same meaning and one can be used for the other at the same purpose. It was embarrassing not to know that they were the same :) 


As a whole the class was really fun and interesting. Even though it seems that I am going to have hard times about following all the questions, it is good to know that there is a challenge waiting for me.