Green Machines will be taking over

California, New York and six other states are going green. These states have made strategic goals to promote the use and purchases of electric cars in their areas. In specific, the goal is to “achieve sales of at least 3.3 million vehicles that do not have emissions by 2025”. The states are striving for these goals through a variety of different incentives and implementation of regulations pertaining to these nifty vehicles.

I’m not going to lie, after reading the perks of having an electric car it made me want to go out and purchase one of these green machines. First, the states are going to implement “time of use” elective rates, which would allow people to charge their cars for off peak prices. Furthermore, high occupancy lane access and reduced tolls while traveling through your states and across state borders. Oh, and preferred parking. If you have ever been to New York City, you should know there is no such thing as preferred parking, so this will definitely get the attention of New Yorkers.

Although, many states do not have direct answers on how they are going to pay for all this, they have stated multiple ways in which they plan to get the big bucks. For example, Massachusetts has an Electric Vehicle Incentive Program and Maryland has already approved tax credits going towards this cause.  

This idea is going affect our economic markets and businesses in many ways. First, cars that emit harmful emissions into our air will most likely go down in price, because people are going to throwing their money toward the electric cars. While this happens, electric car prices will probably go up because of the demand of these cars rising.

It is going to influence major corporations to continue or adapt more corporate socially responsibility procedures and objective within their firms. Which is not only good for our environment but also for the people as a whole?

Firms that have electric cars as a product of their own should act fast within the media world. Electric cars are not frequently seen in social media or the media in general. Car companies with this product should utilize social outlets to promote the use of these cars as well as the company name. Thought leadership would be a good tactic to promoting this product. By providing blogs, free online magazines or websites dedicated to reducing your carbon footprint or maintaining your electric car, it will add credibility to a firm’s image and make the firm more familiar and trustworthy to consumers. 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/business/energy-environment/coalition-of-states-seeks-to-spur-use-of-electric-cars.html?ref=business

Windows 8.1: For the Win

What has two operating systems and is “not worthwhile” according to PC World.? Yes, you guessed it, Windows 8. Not too long ago, Microsoft introduced Windows 8. If you don’t know much about this operating system, here are the facts: it has an operating system for Windows and an operating system for tablets (brought into one system), you have to learn two of everything (web browsers, help systems and two control panels) and the executive who created Windows 8 randomly left the company.

Now, we can all use our context clues, this product wasn’t too hot. Fortunately, for all you confused Windows 8 users, there will be a new  operating system available for download on Thursday called Window 8.1 From what I have researched, the operating systems seems pretty innovative. There are many new adjustments and options. You can actually edit photos, lock your screen as a photo slideshow when you’re not using it. Windows 8.1 is tied into SkyDrive, which is a free online hard drive. Overall, I’m excited to see more of this new update. I like the direction Microsoft is going. I think the touch screen computer is definitely something to invest in.

Microsoft did a good job evaluating their product after its release a year ago. A product manager claimed, “If Windows 8 isn’t easy enough to understand without reading Help screens, then we’ve failed”. If this was one of their goals within the planning stage of this product, it definitely was not implemented. There were many apps that did not even have help options at all. Microsoft took control during their evaluation stage and fixed and improved this product for the better.

As for marketing it, I think they should create a budget for social media and utilize it to make this product a hit. Touch screen computers are still relevantly new and it is important to educate the consumer on why they need this rather than the new iPhone. On Twitter, write tweets on how someone could use a touch screen computer. On Instagram, post pictures of students, professionals and soccer moms using it. Why not go all out? Plan a flash mob with the dancers using touch screen computers.

The New Classroom

Times are changing folks. As we know, chalkboards and wooden desks are a thing of the past. But, who would think the classroom as a whole may be a dying trend as well. Online education is a fast growing alternative to regular classroom learning. Online education allows people of all ages, lifestyles and hidden agendas to get their degree. Tons of universities nationwide are jumping on this band wagon.

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses; it is an online education outlet that allows its users to take college level courses by credible professors in almost any topic one can think of. Recently, it has become very popular within the Ivy Leagues: Princeton, Harvard, M.I.T, just to name a few.   

New York Times reporter, A.J. Jacobs, rated different aspects of the MOOC program through a lettering system. Think of it as a MOOC report card. Most aspects of the programs received a “B” including: professors, assignments and overall experience. The convenience factors came in with the highest grade of an “A”, but the “student to teacher interaction” rated a low “D”. This is obviously not an education outlet for brown nosers.

Although, MOOCs are in its early days, this concept says a lot about what the future holds. Some of me believes that the university system may be dying. We are in an age where most (most not all) of the information we learn in classrooms we can easily access through Google. Furthermore, with tuition rates raising and financial aids falling, higher education will be limited to a small percentage of rich kids. So, why limit high education? The internet has changed basically every aspect of our lives over the last decade or so, why not our traditional classrooms either?

Should smaller, less prestigious universities and colleges adopt MOOC? I think it be a smart business move to definitely keep an eye on the program. Although, it doesn’t necessarily bring in the money (it’s free) it will definitely showcases the schools values. Let’s take into consideration a scenario:

Let’s say, University of Tomorrowland accepts Jimmy into their Sparkles and Magic program. Jimmy barely got past Algebra 2 in high school and his SAT scores weren’t so hot either. Jimmy is taking College Math and Chemistry during his first semester in the fall. What are Jimmy’s chances of passing these courses? I don’t know the exact percentages or statistics, but if this school happened to have MOOC classes offered that prepared Jimmy with adequate knowledge to help him succeed in he would have a higher chance of passing. And, graduating. And, becoming successful within his career(s).

With this access to extra knowledge, students (and just people in general) will become more hirable and more innovative. In the United States, many companies are looking outside of the U.S. for new hires every day. Why? Obviously, because some of our education systems are a little off. Let’s give our students a better chance to succeed and give people of the United States to get back on top.

I think an advertising campaign should really be put into place concerning MOOCs. Make MOOCs a fun new trend. It can be America’s new past time: learning. Commercials with friends at Starbucks taking a philosophy course together.

The internet is changing the education game. I think if universities don’t hop on this bandwagon, they will be left in the dust.

UPS catching up to USPS in the mailing games

I am sure you have heard of UPS and USPS. They essentially do the same thing, they deliver mail. However, they do things completely and entirely different. And, these differences have determined their fate within the last  years.I recently read an article on how UPS's modern decision making is helping the company with its on going success. 

                UPS has made decisions within the last couple of years that has positively affected their business and success.  First of all, the company surrounds itself around making things as easy as possible for the customer. They make it a goal to continually integrate technology within their products and to increase the efficiency within their deliveries. There is technology support individuals involved with every aspect of the firm, which allows for ultimate success within the company as a whole.

                Some of the technology involved with shipping with UPS includes one of largest DB2 databases in the world. DB2 is a product that helps track all packages from different customer contact points. The company is consistently adding online tracking and other services. To make it as convenience for the customer as possible, there are UPS apps available and automatic email alerts that notify the customer when their package has been shipped and when it was received.

Obviously, USPS has different goals in mind. They are associated with the government and focus more on day to day mail. Also, It also extremely difficult to contact customer within this company. They also do not have many customer friendly options when it comes to delivering and shipping. And, the way the economy is going; it costs nearly fifty cents to mail a letter. Rumor has it, that Saturday mail in United States will come to hault soon because USPS’s competitors are catching up to them.

                So what does this mean exactly? As a reader, it tells me technology and innovation is a key factor in being successful in the modern day business world. I think it is necessary to consider both technology and innovation within your goals if you want to come out on top. Customer are not as patient as they use to be, they wants things fast, efficient and they want it now. Incorporating technology is not only beneficial to the company and its revenues but it also makes the customer more happy and more in control. As good as UPS seems to be, I do have some personal ideas that I think would be effective within the company.

                One idea pertains to their online tracking system. As customers, we want to know where our package is and we want to know now. I think being able to see images of our package would be an awesome asset to their tracking system. I think customers would also pay more to see this kind of tracking. This is something UPS could add to their app; the ability to see images of delivered packages. Another, alternative for this is giving coordinates of the location of the package.

                Furthermore, I think implementing a strategic plan will really get the attentions of customers everywhere. The strategic plan would be based off “shipping anywhere “or “get it shipped, guaranteed”. It would be a plan that ensures the customers to ship with them because nowhere else gives these guarantees and not every place ships anywhere. The strategic plan should still incorporate new forms of technology and be highly marketed. It would fun and modern to create a brand image with UPS. 

 As UPS continues to use technology within its planning, it will continue to prosper. USPS's prices on average are cheaper, if they start to incorporate more innovative ideas and technology they could reinstate their title in the mailing games.