CORPORATIONS

1.       Should corporations be entitled to the same legal rights as individuals? Where the line should be drawn?

The corporation should not be entitled to the same legal rights as individuals because they need a special treatment in order to grow and with the proper tools lead the world economy in the countries. Is important to understand that even so the corporations seek for their  own well being and their shareholders that is only the natural course of the events in the capitalism and is pointless to fight it, more intelligent than engaging a difficult conflict that can lead to no good outcomes is to realize that the growth of corporations can be used to benefit the people in general if the governments aims their political efforts to establish proper laws and taxing policies that can balance the private interest of a corporation with  the general interest. So in a developing country like Colombia high restrictions to foreign direct investment would devastate the aspirations to be competitive in the global scenario and would lead the country to increase poverty and inequality, for this reason is not the corporation’s the ones that should be analyzed, the governments are the ones that should be examined and ask for controls and policies that help the people because in a our system (capitalism) the ones that are designed to take care of the people in general are the governments and not the corporations, their private status and their profit spirit must be respected but controlled by each government. The line should be drown not in the way that corporations conceive their economic life (self profits) in the taxing and health policies that the governments design in order to control them.

2.       How can we ensure corporations are held accountable for their action?

We can ensure that by pressing the governments to establish a set of laws and rules that controls the corporations. Create rules regarding the environment, the use of harmful elements, the revenues and especially the labor conditions within the corporation. As I said before is the responsibility of the governments to ensure the well being of the population because the corporations owe loyalty only to its shareholders.

 3.     Should individuals bear any responsibility for the actions in a corporation? If so, to what degree?

The individuals that lead the corporations should share complete responsibility for their actions only if those actions affects the wellbeing of another human being, if the action affects other corporation or institution the way of treat the person should differ because that behavior would be covered by the “free market” philosophy that rules our system.

4.       What are the benefits of the corporate form? Could an alternative model offer these as well?

The benefit of the corporate form is the fact that a lot of corporations create a lot of competitiveness in the sector and that encourages development and investigation, in other words the corporate core value of financial surviving can lead to human development and improvement of the quality of the life. I think that the cluster model that is a group of small firms from similar industries that team up and act as one body. Creating a business cluster enables firms to enjoy economies of scale usually only available to bigger competitors. Marketing costs can be shared and goods can be bought more cheaply. There are also networking advantages, which small firms can share experiences and discuss business strategies.

http://www.bnet.com/topics/business+cluster

A little example of a government lack of control over corporations

 

MIGRATIONS IN AFRICAN WOMEN

Although African women and female migrants assume responsibility and leadership in various areas, they remain neglected in our knowledge about the African diaspora. Particularly, the absence of gender-specific data impairs the understanding and the appropriate assessment of women's unique role in development.

In an effort to identify and support African women who wish to engage in the development of their countries of origin, IOM is creating a Database for African Women in the diaspora, which will serve as a special component to the general database.

As a crucial part of IOM's Database initiative, the African Women Diaspora Database strives to promote the mainstreaming of the African women as leaders in the social and economic development of their country of origin.

“The leadership of African Women in the diaspora is a prerequisite in finding sustainable solutions to the development of their country of origin.”

- Ms. Ndioro Ndiaye,

Former Deputy Director General, IOM

How is the African Women Database different from the general database?

While the information from both databases will be consolidated as one, the African Women Database allows IOM to have a more accurate account of where African Women have come from, where they are now, in which field of profession they are found and how they would like to contribute to the development of their countries of origin.

Who should register?

You are a female member of the African diaspora, and you would like to contribute to the development of your country of origin in key sectors such as:

• Agriculture
• Arts and Humanities
  
• Business and Commerce
• Education
• Health
• Law
• Public Administration and Services
• Science and Technology

How can I register?

Complete and submit the registration form.

What benefits can the Database offer me?

When you register in the Database, your information will be facilitated by IOM and shared accordingly with potential stakeholders, such as governments, civil society and the private sector. Consequently, you may be contacted about various project assignments, job vacancies and entrepreneurial and investment opportunities available in the labor market of your country of origin. In the larger picture, the Database helps to connect diaspora members with their country of origin and with the network of colleagues in the diaspora.

Who are IOM's partner organizations for the Database?

To build and maintain this Database, IOM is collaborating with Femmes Africa Solidarité and AfricaRecruit. 

Will my privacy be protected?

Your registered profile and contact information will be stored and shared in a strictly confidential manner. Your name will not be shared with anyone, as your information will be filed under a coding number. If, at any time, you would like to be removed from the Database, please contact the database manager.



A succesful approach to control migrations and use them as a way to improve the life of a lot of people in developing countries.

 

UBUNTU A HUMANIST PHILOSOPHY

Ubuntu can be definded as humaneness (a pervasive spirit of caring and community, harmony and hospitality, respect and responsiveness) that individuals and groups display for one another. These basic values manifest the ways African people think and behave toward each other and everyone else they encounter, generally regarding a high degree of harmony and continuity throughout the system, therefore the importance of taking into account this humanist philosophy in nowadays multicultural companies.

Is very common for managers to be aware only for the workplace behavior, a fact that is important but that does not explain the whole majority of the things that happens in the workplace because this behavior is only the observable part of a lot of variables that influences an employee. The Ubuntu philosophy offers a wider view of these and can be very helpful to managers because it can help them to understand that the unobservable or latent variables (like the social attitudes that comes from the philosophical thought systems like Ubuntu) are the ones that influences the employee in a higher degree and therefore has to be taken into account if the company wants to optimize the productivity in no coercive or in non economic ways.

According to Mangaliso traditional management system are guided by misapplied economic assumptions about human nature, that self-interest is the ultimate determinant of behavior, and it is maximized when employees earn as much as possible from contributing as little as possible and that Ubuntu offers a managerial guide related to relationships with others, language, decision making, attitudes towards time, efficiency and leadership, giving no importance to economic issues. For an intelligent manager is important to set a middle ground between two theories because when a manager only thinks in economic variables miss regard the undeniable fact that their employees are humans and are affected for a lot of variables that are not only economical, but if the manager only thinks in the Ubuntu way would fall in a unrealistic perception of the forces that drive nowadays system; the economical and market forces, so in other words will be an utopian way to manage a company.

Finally is important for cross-cultural managers to take into account humanistic philosophies like Ubuntu but is more important to take into account that they have to collect from them only the proactive elements, the ones that helps the manager to build a great organizational culture that would boost the company in both economical and human variables.

PERSONALIZED STENCILS

Today i have to crate a metaphore and some strategies that may help to the internationalization process of the Personalized Stencils. The following information would be sent to my parterns abroad so I have to explain deeply how it works

The personalized stencils* that CarlosCreations are going to commercialize consist in an internet based business where the customer designs its own stencil to use it on the street or its own bedroom, after being design the customer pays through the web page and after 2 days the product arrived to be used. The personalized stencils will create among the customers a feeling of satisfaction that will encourage the development of their personal identity, the product will be directly involved with the satisfaction of the higher level needs like self actualization and self-esteem because the product will be dealing with personal growth and fullfilment and at the same time developing a stronger achievement feeling due to the creativity.

Taking in to account that this will create all the mentioned feelings in the customers; a good way to put this on a metaphor could be “you mind is a canvas that transport your essence to the reality”.
the comparison of the mind with a canvas is a good way to state that the mind as a canvas is the base of all the artistic creations (when you paint whit oil) and is the fundamental element to express what we think and feel to the environment that surround us.

All this can be strengthen whit a campaigns (E-marketing) that encourages and elevates the appreciation for the creativity, specially the one that comes from our own ideas, in other words from our mind.














Image References:
http://revistaojo.blogspot.com/2008/10/graffiti-con-acento-ingls-banksy.html

References:
www.banksy.co.uk

* A sheet, as of plastic or cardboard, in which a desired lettering or design has been cut so that ink or paint applied to the sheet will reproduce the pattern on the surface beneath. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stencil

COMMENTS ABOUT OTHER`S BLOGS

THIS WEEK I COMMENT IN 5 BLOGS:

1. ALVEAR ANGEL ANDREA STEFANY

2. ARRAZOLA CHADID NICOLAS JOSE

3. ESPINOSA LÓPEZ JULIANA

4. PACHON SANCHEZ ESTEBAN

5. SALDARRIAGA GOMEZ MANUELA

THE PYGMALION EFFECT IN THE COLOMBIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Traditionally the educational system in Colombia has been something that wasn’t accessible to all the population due economic, geographic or ethnic reasons; usually the education was headed to medium-high to high classes and was based in the Roman Catholic tradition; in addition the educational system didn’t offer any kind of motivation or support to its students on the contrary was a coercive system that instead of having high expectations on its students always prevent them to develop its abilities in order to make them fit in a system that was looking to create a big labor force. Also the corruption in the political class in the country hampered the development of the educational system for years.

All that creates among the common Colombian a feeling of inferiority and tendency to think that they aren’t good enough to compete with people who has had traditionally more access to luxuries and education; besides that the roman catholic tradition raise a lot of generations with perception of towards the poorness and to the conformism teaching to their followers that everyone has to continue through the path that God put on their lives and if they were supposed to be poor and ignorant that’s the way that they should live.

Now at days the things have changed a lot, the country is secular and step by step the corruption in the educational system had decreased; public and private entities are changing the traditional way of thinking of the students trying to help them to reach higher goals based on high expectations despite of their economic, geographic or ethnic conditions; finally the teachers and the society are accepting that a motivated person in which the people of its immediate environment believes in, can be better than everyone expected.

A great example of this is how SENA (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje) supports thousands of people that haven’t end high school to join the educational system by putting greater expectation upon them, increasing their productivity and their input to the society. All this not only by giving them a technical title but also making them feel useful and helpful.

On the private sector universities like EAFIT wants to take the traditional point of view of the educational system that was created to develop labor force, and transform it in to a developer of entrepreneurs that would help the country to progress and would generate jobs to the people that are qualifying themselves in the technical knowledge; all this through a group of professors that encourages the creation of ideas and the belief that high expectations on well educated people would lead to great progress.

We can see how the educational system and specially the expectations that a group of professors and directives have on a generation of students can shape the direction of the development of those human beings and with it the progress of a whole country.



The SENA HYMN ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW THIS PUBLIC ENTITY ENCOURAGES ITS STUDENTS

References:

www.sena.edu.co/

"Dealing with Cultural Differences" by Nick B. Meyer, Question Analisys

Individualism (IDV) on the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are inte-grated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. The word 'collectivism' in this sense has no political meaning: it refers to the group, not to the state. Again, the issue addressed by this dimension is an extremely fundamental one, regarding all societies in the world (http://www.geert-hofstede.com/).

Taking into account that the Americans are the ones with higher individualism and Guatemalans are the ones with less individualism a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from a United States` company in Guatemala can be very difficult if it’s not well managed.

If a company like Chiquita Brands wants to invest in Guatemala to cultivate their fruits, once they get there, they will need a big extension of land that would probably be full of families that have lived there for several generations as a prosper community. Thanks to their collectivism is highly probable that the Guatemalan families won`t accept a monetary deal whit Chiquita Brand thanks to the attachment that they have to each other. For this reason there`s a lot of chance that Chiquita Brands tries to get the land at any mean possible.

Due the American individualism the shareholders of the company would probably take care only of their profits instead of the wellbeing of an entire community (Check this article to know more about Chiquita Brands in Colombia http://www.pasc.ca/spip.php?article161) and try to use a lot of deceive tactics as corruption, violence or deals with irregular groups just to get what they want.

In conclusion a clash between this kind of societies if is not well managed could lead to a disaster because neither of the parts would be willing to accept the other proposal unless they try to set a common ground in which they can try to work and get a Win-Win Situation.

This Video Is a Short Reminder of what a Foreign Company can do if does not study and tries to understand another culture

Refence:

Nick B. Meyer Conference
http://www.geert-hofstede.com/