What effect would it have on the environment and long-term sustainable development if businesses were to provide services, such as illumination, instead of selling products, such as light bulbs? This concept, referred to as the economy of service and flow, constitutes one of the basic principles of natural capitalism as expressed by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins in their book "Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution". The idea is to take advantage of cost efficiencies, align the interests of businesses and their customers, and remove waste from the system. Service and flow The concept of an economy of service and flow is closely tied to the idea of closed-loop, cradle to grave product management. Producers …show more content…
That creates an incentive to manufacture products with built-in obsolescence. As C.W. Nevius points out in an article for SFGate, fix-it guys are rapidly disappearing. Why pay to have an appliance repaired when it wouldn't cost much more to buy a new one? Many small appliances like toasters and microwaves have become throw-away …show more content…
They have an incentive to make durable and efficient units instead of air conditioners that wear out quickly so they can sell new ones. Carrier is also coordinating with other businesses that provide building solutions to make air conditioning more efficient. As expressed by the president of Carrier Asia, "Carrier is dedicated to providing energy efficient and sustainable building solutions globally". Interface provides a modular floor covering service instead of selling carpeting. The customer pays for an operating lease and Interface comes in when necessary to replace only the parts of the floor covering that are worn. Interface has a stated mission of "eliminating any negative impact our companies may have on the environment by the year 2020". And the company has a life cycle assessment process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with its products and services, from the initial raw materials through the final recycling or disposal of
Throughout the 19th century, capitalism seemed like an economic utopia for some, but on the other hand some saw it as a troublesome whirlpool that would lead to bigger problems. The development of capitalism in popular countries such as in England brought the idea that the supply and demand exchange systems could work in most trade based countries. Other countries such as Russia thought that the proletariats and bourgeoisie could not co-exist with demand for power and land, and eventually resorted to communism in the early 20th century. Although many different systems were available to the countries in need of economic change, a majority of them found the right system for their needs. And when capitalist societies began to take full swing, some classes did not benefit as well as others and this resulted in a vast amount of proletariats looking for work. Capitalists societies are for certain a win-loss system, and many people did not like the change from having there society changed to a government controlled money hungry system. On the other hand, the demand for labor brought the bourgeoisie large profits because they could pay out as much as they wanted for labor.
•Compare the backgrounds of Jefferson and Paine; did Paine have an advantage or disadvantage by not being born in the colonies? Explain.
Every business has an evolutionary clock speed measuring the rate of change in products, processes and capability. At the core of everything is the organizations ability to design a sustainable supply chain. When this becomes an organizations core competency, they are then positioned to continually win the temporary advantage. By simultaneously working to improve products, process design/creation and supply chains (three dimensional concurrent engineering), a company can drive the “turn of the helix” thus changing the clock speed for the industry.
Boeing took a big step forward with the announcement relating to the joining of the World Environment Center (WEC), “a global non-profit organization that helps companies around the world implement environmentally sustainable business strategies and operations” (WEC, 2005,CRS wire, ¶ 1). With Boeing recognizing the major challenges facing the eco-system of the planet, aggressive but realistic targets for reducing the impact of Boeings operations and lifecycle of their products on the environment. By implementing the aggressive tactics, Boeing improved by 25 percent with solid waste recycling rate and by 2012 the company will increase energy efficiency by cutting greenhouse gas emissions along with comparable goals for hazardous waste reduction.
For instance, Primark 's products offer customers clothing as a base product, of witch actual benefits are being to be cheap and trendy, and they may have some return policy as augmented benefit in case of defects. Each product may be realised following a new product development process to improve its success rate (Harris and Schaefer, 2015, p.43-47).
...one wants to be outdone by another thus the reason to have the latest and greatest in everything including cell phones, tablets, houses, cars, and clothing. People will even get competitive about whose kitchen appliances are newer and more state of the art. It all comes down to the fact that people are too materialistic for their own good.
...direct more attention to the services side of an industry. The growth rates for product services increases more rapidly than that of product productions, so there is great incentive to direct your primary resources to provide service after the sale.
Due to the rapid process of globalization, the issue of whether socio-economic institutions and policies are converging or diverging across different nations has become controversial. Various literatures on comparative institutional studies has been developed, in which the Varieties of Capitalism approach by Hall and Soskice (2001) is one of the most significant concepts that is being widely discussed. According to Hall and Thelen (2005), the ‘varieties of capitalism’ is a firm-centered approach where firm is placed as a key actor and is being considered relational. It emphasizes the concept of institutional complementarities, which ‘…one set of institutions is complementary to another when its presence raises the returns available from the other’ (Hall and Gingerich, 2004, p.6). Also, the development of relationships between firms and other five domains – industrial relations, vocational training and education, corporate governance, inter-firm relations as well as employees, is essential to ensure coordination to maintain competencies (Hall and Soskice, 2001). According to Knell and Srholec (2005), the varieties of capitalism literature has mainly distinguished and identified two types of coordination - Liberal Market Economies (LMEs) and Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs), in which competitive markets are dominant in LMES while CMEs are mainly based on strategic interaction.
Along with the advance and development of the society, capitalism is acquired by lots of countries among the world. But in the meantime, an increasing number of problems are brought to our attention, one of which is the pros and cons of capitalism. As to whether it is a blessing or a curse, people take different attitudes. Capitalism can be traced back to the Middle Ages in Europe, and this economic system has been contributing to the whole human race for centuries. However, people are attaching more importance to what capitalism is really doing to us, and they start wondering if another world is possible. My paper will focus on the question “Is capitalism good or evil”, and discuss different views about it.
In a marketplace there are more types of planned obsolescence that are used in order to devalue the old product. All types of obsolescence have major task of enhancing sales and increase the company’s profit. The main idea of all obsolescence is the same, to make the old product ineffectual, unfashionable or useless. Technical or functional obsolescence is a common method when a producer on purpose uses low-class materials that are prone to become damaged. The cost of repair work is usually comparable to the replacement cost and that force consumers to buy a new product or spare part. An applicable example is LCD screen where are heat-sensitive components...
Ownership and control of production ; vertically integrated manufacturing operation to enable its constant introducing of new items and also ensure short lead time
For this extra credit assignment, we were assigned an article by Bill Gates about “creative” capitalism. Bill Gates is one of the most well-known and wealthy men on Earth, earning his fortune from software like Microsoft Office and Windows. At the time this article was written, neither was sold at prices below $100. But this article is not about the capitalism that Bill Gates’ company has used and which he gained his fortune from. No, today Bill Gates is telling us about his idea of creative capitalism.
The electronic junkyard as yahoo news quite nicely framed it, has an exotic display of millions and millions of electronics and electronic parts (dubbed “e-waste”), some recyclable others junk. The recent surge of electronics has people bewildered on the newest craze or the newest design of the iPhone. Even though technologically, we, the small number of people who have some experience and comprehension of electronics understand that these new “craze” products have nearly similar technical hardware then their predecessor versions. Hence it is irrational (even as the name suggests, “craze”) to purchase the newer models. This so-called eradication (so the consumers think) of these old electronics and purchase of newer models are all due to human vanity or in many cases greed. It is almost impossible for these masses to subdue their greed and vanity and instead, rely on almost perfectly functioning “older” electronics.
All companies have a set of strategies to play by when it comes to the way they produce their products and services, and in this fast moving economy, the link between product and service have become ever more important. However, in order to produce the product and services that a firm is to offer to their customers, the must first look at their production process.
Jeff Butcher and Rachel Hill pointed out the impacts of businesses on environments, by stating “The more of a product that is consumed or produced, the more of an externality that results” (Butcher, Jeff, & Hill, Rachel, 2006). Obviously, we can see that one product produced will bring benefit to consumer, sellers, and manufacturers. Meanwhile, one produced and consumed will cause negative externalities for environment. There is one fact we cannot deny that the more social life develops, the more externalities will be produced to the society. Daily living garbage, industrial wastes, carbon dioxide from factories are most outstanding examples to describe negative externalities to environment (Butcher, Jeff, & Hill, Rachel, 2006). In “The tragedy of the Commons”, Hardin showed us causes of negative externalities. He proved that people assume a...