McDonald's takes aim at "McJob" with U.S. hiring spree

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110404/bs_nm/us_mcdonalds;_ylt=AnUw3LAGHRVD6B3ebD0L2_uyBhIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJkdTVpczhuBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTEwNDA0L3VzX21jZG9uYWxkcwRjcG9zAzMEcG9zAzgEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDbWNkb25hbGQzOXN0 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Fast-food chain McDonald's Corp announced a one-day spring hiring spree aimed at fighting the use of the term "McJob" as shorthand for describing low-wage, dead-end work. The global restaurant chain said it plans to hire as many as 50,000 new U.S. employees -- ranging from restaurant crew to managers -- on April 19. The move would increase the hamburger company's U.S. workforce by 7.7 percent to 700,000, but such hiring is typical in the lead up to the busy summer months. "Our total hires are similar to past years, but the goal of hiring 50,000 people in one day across the U.S. is unique," McDonald's spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling told Reuters. The April hiring event is preparation for the busy summer months. "But these are not just seasonal jobs. It's a mix of permanent and temporary jobs," Yingling said. I thought this was an interesting way to hire can you imagine the HR nightmare this is going to be. But the fact that they are hiring is good; they had a 2.7% increase of sales in Feb. I'm not sure why they think this is going to dispell the myth of it being a dead end job but good for them.

China dairy producers

China halts nearly half dairy producers in quality crackdown

I found this article interesting; not sure I agree with the China government's answer to tighten up on regulations and quality by having fewer but larger players in the dairy industry. The government feels they can control and watch over a smaller amount of producers.

With having producers adding melamine and illegal leather protein powder to gain protein readings - is inhumane. I would fear the larger producers would find a way to cheat readings of protein if they wanted to take the risk. An extreme penalty should be enforced if producers are found guilty of lacing food consumption products that causes harm.

More Customers Exposed as Big Data Breach Grows

This is an article about a breach in security with online marketer Epsilon that occurred last week. The fear is that this could be the most extensive breach in Internet security in U.S. history, and although it did not expose personal financial information or social security card numbers, it did include names and e-mail addresses of information from many well know credit card companies. I am currently taking a criminal justice class and this is a topic that we have discussed in that class as well, so that is probably why it caught my attention. Although Law enforcement agencies are investigating the breach, it is not clear at this time how many customers have been exposed.

"Shut Your Cyber Mouth"

I found this article very interesting, because it's a topic very relevant in my life and work. What can you say on social networks? It's becoming more difficult to maintain a balance between Employer's rules and Employee's Freedom of Speech. Everyone has to be careful of what they say even when outside of work. Is this right? I understand both sides of the issue. A company wants to protect it's image and reputation and therefore does not want employees to say hurtful things about the company or other employees. Also, a company may not want an employee that makes hostile  or derogatory comments, either at or away from work. On the other side, an employee wants the freedom to go home and rant about work and decompress. I'm not sure which side I take more than the other, however I do know that it is a fine line to walk and when looking for a new job, you have to take into account what you look like on the internet. Can people find what you've said? Questionable pictures? A frustrated but misconstrued "tweet"? It's becoming more and more difficult to navigate the waters of work and social media.

Thoughts?

Deere Enhances Focus on Russia

Deere & Company recently announced that the company would double its sales by 2018. Last year, the company’s sales and revenue totaled $26 billion with earnings of $1.87 billion. To reach the 2018 goal, Deere plans include global expansion, especially in Russia, China, and India.
Deere’s Russian expansion will focus on agricultural products. Russia has 9% of the world’s arable land and plans to double their wheat production to react to worldwide demand. It can be a struggle for foreign companies to operate in Russia, due to the volatile political climate. In the past, the Russian government has enforced policies that have stopped foreign equipment manufacturers from distributing their products. Current Russian policies are favorable for Deere’s expansion, but there is a considerable risk of a flip-flop of these policies. Deere has mitigated this risk by opening a manufacturing plant in Russia and high-level government negotiations.
Deere’s expansion into China and India is focused on construction products. The rapid expansion of infrastructure and urbanization in China and India has fueled the demand for excavators and bulldozers.
As domestic demand for Deere’s products is flat, the company has moved their focus to the global market. This is an excellent example of the global nature of business today. I applaud Deere’s approach to the changing global environment, which shows great promise for its stockholders, employees and vendors. As an employee of one of Deere’s vendors, I am happy to hear of Deere’s planned expansion. I have witnessed firsthand the growth in our Deere business. Deere’s growth provides me with the peace of mind that my employer’s business will be stable for the near future.

The Ford Family

I found this article really interesting because it is talking a lot about the slow restructuring of the Ford family at the highest levels. Many of the senior members are slowly but surely passing their vast amount of shares in the Ford Company to more junior members of the family like Bill Ford, Jr.

William Ford, Sr (Henry Ford's last surviving grandchild) owner 13.3% of the Class B shares last year and is now down to 9.5%. On the other hand, Bill Ford, Jr increased his stock from 5.8% last year to 6.9%.

Ford stock has recently been trending up so it will be interesting to see if this affects it in a positive or negative way. Since the family itself isn't actually selling off any of their stock overall I don't think it would be seen negatively necessarily. It seems to me that the older generation is just getting ready to pass the torch in the next few years. The only reason I could see this going negatively is if the younger generation is not seen as the best thing for the company. Since I don't follow the Ford Company I can't really weigh in on that argument.

Supply woes, high prices changing chocolate treats

The symptoms are high prices and supply woes but the cause are organizational management challenges. The short term tactics used by the producers to compensate for the high cost of cocoa are meant to buffer the consumer from the volatility and high cost of the commodity. The solution however lies in addressing the global challenges and pressures such as political unrest, futures contract pricing, increasing global demand, stagnant yields, land cost, shortage of future farmers, government policies or lack thereof and even international infrastructure to name a few. Opportunity is also affected by the global nature of this industry, for example: the frustration of coordinating multi-national organization and cooperation to increase yield is a challenge with tremendous potential for profit. Even chocolate can benefit from international organizational attention.