Make-up day for this class. Trying to get my strategic assignment done. Not going well. Have basically no idea how to do a PESTEL analysis. Not strongly motivated, but should be; need to hold things together this last semester, so that I can graduate. If I let this drag on another semester, I’m a moron.Several students are doing presentations today. Mine will be on Monday, I think.Â
First presentation was a Houston-based nonprofit. Indego Africa. Helping women in Rwanda. Good cause, although presentation was a bit lackluster.
Second presentation is on gold mining. “Green Gold.” Gold mining is a harsh business. Lots of pollution, large footprint. Wal-Mart and Tiffany are pushing more for clean, safe gold mining. They’re not big enough to have much impact, though. U.S. isn’t that much of the gold market, and Wal-Mart and Tiffany aren’t even that much of the U.S. market.
Third presentation is on North Korea and East Asia. In 2000, N. Korea joined in with the ASEAN forum. Their trade has increased since then. In 2008, thay signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia.
Fourth presentation is on Ikea. Ikea is multinational now. Lots of offices, large supply and distribution network. Focus on cooperating with their suppliers, rather than using buying power to dictate terms. Partly this is because the suppliers have more power relative, so dictating terms isn’t as possible. They use a tiered approach to supplier relations; the more important you are, the more closely you’re tied to Ikea.
Fifth presentation is on China, specifically the tainted milk problem recently. The milk in question was diluted beyond legal limits, and then a chemical was added to make it seem less diluted. That chemical is toxic to humans. Causes kidney problems. So far, it’s causes thousands of illnesses, and hundreds of deaths, mostly of kids.
Got our tests back. Did fine there. 94, after all is said and done.
Actual lecture today is on communication. Just one chapter.
Same thing we’ve discussed earlier, in other classes. Communication is transferring meaning from sender to receiver. Not always as straightforward as we’d like.
Some cultures are big on explicit communication. What you say is what you say and that’s all it is. Also called “low context” cultures; what matter is what you say, not the context you say it in. Other cultures are “high context”, meaning the context in which something is said can be just as important as the literal meaning. Germany is a low context culture. Japan is a high context culture. The U.S. is middle-of-the-road, with a lean towards low context.
Context affects how people communicate. The more importance placed on context, the more you see long or flowery speech. Lower context cultures tend to value quick, efficient speech.