12:00 pm Late Fall Management

In group number three, we decided to pick a women by the name of Yawavi Ameko.  Yawavi is from western Africa in a small country called Togo.  She is a widow and has four children to take care for.  Her small business consumes her braiding hair for a living and also has a salon named “La Glorie De Dieu”.  Yawavi’s company has been around since 1988 and it is located in the Adawlato district.  She also commerce in her hair extensions, weaves the hair then buys wholesale and resells the retail.  Yawavi Ameko is asking for a 500,000 dollar loan to purchase two boxes of hair extensions and two boxes of of weaves.  This profit will help her expand her commerce and will help her make sure all of her children’s expenses are covered.  

In the country of Togo, their symbolism is the word Ablode, which means freedom and independence.  Their culture is influenced by thirty-seven tribal ethnic groups, and is mostly inspired by Ewe, Mina, and Kabre French.  All of which are the official language that is spoken in Togo but however, many african languages are spoken there as well.  The country makes these colored fabrics with bright colors for ceremonies, and to represent the colored scenes of ancient everyday life.  Doing business in Togo is different in some ways then in the United States.  They are different such as being more relaxed, and having smaller business than larger ones.  Most of their businesses consume farm work, rather in the United States there are multiple businesses besides just farm work.  They are both the same because they have the same concept of trading goods to other countries to strengthen their economy.  

In chapter three of our ninth edition textbook for the class of management deals with the most important concept of business, and that would be organizational culture and the environment.  In this chapter there are four main points my recipient needs to consider in her business.  The first thing Yawavi Ameko needs to figure out whether she is more on the side of omnipotent view, or looks things on the symbolic view.  In an omnipotent view means that the managers are directly responsible for an organization’s success or failure.  In an symbolic view says that much of an organization’s success or failure is due to external forces outside the managers’ control.  In my opinion she needs to look at both sides of the point of view.  The reason is because, Yawavi is in charge of her small business, and it will depend on her whether the business becomes more successful or becomes a failure.  Showing a side of the symbolic view is important for her too because if for some reason she is commercing goods back and forth to get her braids, and in the mean time something goes wrong then, her business might fall because of an external force that wasn’t in her control.  The next major point in the chapter is how an organization’s culture keeps on continue.  If Yawavi wanted to spread her business across the country, she would need to higher employees and they would have to be trained in a process called socialization.  This is important because they need to be able to adapt themselves in organization’s culture since it still continues.  The culture plays a major affect on Yawavi and needs to beware how this can hurt her.  The culture affects her by the way she plans, organize, lead, and control her business.  This is important because without these four components her business wouldn’t grow, and become less successful.  The third key point for Yawavi and her business is she needs to look at how the external environment comes into affect.  External environment is the forces and factors outside the organization can have an affect on the organization’s performance.  Within the external environment there are two components, and those would be specific and general.  How the specific would come into play for her business is it deals with the suppliers, costumers, and the competitors.  Since Yawavi commerce her goods, its important to know that managers seek the needs in lowest price available as possible.  She also needs to be well aware of any competitors.  Managers can never ignore competitors and it is important to do the job well so the customers will continue to be happy and come back to purchase your products.  Customers are always the most important when it comes to a business.  Yawavi needs to make sure her products are not overly priced, and making sure the product is not going to fall apart on costumers.  Building good customer service is one way to keep business coming in.  For the general environment it includes political/ legal, sociocultural, demographic, technological, and global conditions that affect the organization. Out of all of these she needs to consider the political/ legal conditions the most.  I would say that because she needs to know her government regulations, and the laws.  This will make sure she will keep her business legal, and safe for her and the customers.   One last point in chapter three is the different ways to create a culture.  One way to create a culture is by ethical and by doing so it will have a very powerful and positive influence on the employee behavior.  Another way is innovative culture, and how you would do this is by involvement, communication, creativity, and diversity.  The last way in creating a culture would be a customer responsive and the characteristics would be the type of employees you have, being a good listener, and having a wide spread in empowerment.  I believe the culture Yawavi needs to create is one that has all three of these characteristics into one.  She can have a business where it can be powerful, having the creativity, and being a good listener.  Having some of these different ways of creating a culture would show her customers her own unique way in running her small business.

Our group chose to loan money to the Nget Soun Group.  This group of twenty two resides in Roka village in the southerly located Kandal Province of Cambodia.  This group is headed by Nget Soun, the village bank president, a Khmer noodle seller.  In hopes of opening a rice soup business, the group has asked for financing to buy tables, chairs, and plates to help get them started. 

            Organizational culture is the shared values and principles that influence the way members of an organization act.  Cambodian’s values and traditions are deeply rooted in their religion and culture.  More than 90% of Cambodians, or Khmers as they are often called, are Buddhist.  Buddhism reinforces a strict sense of hierarchy within society which is mimicked in their business’ strong organizational culture.  Some of the Buddhist beliefs are centered around the idea of saving face.  If a person disagrees with someone or an idea, they will remain silent to save face.  An individual always takes second place to the group.  Khmers have extremely tight bonds with their family and people in their village.  These bonds insure they will be taken care of in times of financial distress, so it is no wonder this is a group effort to start a business. 

            When starting their business, the Nget Soun Group needs to keep their environment in mind.  In terms of their specific environment, they should be aware of their customers, suppliers, and competition.  This group has chosen to start a rice soup business which is smart considering Khmers eat rice with almost every meal.  In 2000, Cambodia had once again become self-sufficient in rice, so there should be no issue of shortages of their main ingredient, rice.  To beat out competition, the group should build their reputation on a commitment to fresh, quality soup.  The general environment, including economic and political conditions, will also affect how they do business.  According to the Transparency International’s recent rating report, Cambodia is the third most corrupt nation in Southeast Asia.  Countries such as the US have been hesitant to offer aid because in the past it has been illegally transferred into private accounts.  Although corruption is rampant within the government, the economy is slowly and steadily growing.

            The stakeholders of the group, in this case its twenty two members, must identify and manage all of these distinctive factors.  By assessing environmental uncertainty, such as rice crop failure, and being aware of their specific and general environments, the Nget Soun Group should be able to have a thriving business.

Amanda Cross

     My Kiva recipient is Yawavi Ameko.  She is a widow and mother of four from Agou, Toga in Africa.  The town where she resides is small with only a population of 1,000.  Most of the countries natives deal in agriculture and mining.  Yawavi has her own salon  ”LA GLOIRE DE DIEU”.    She does most of the hair in her village and with the holidays approaching she needs a loan for 500,000 francs ( 975.oo us currency) to meet the demand of her clients and take care of her kids.

     In chapter three we talked about creating an innovative culture and Yawavi has done just that.  She has chosen to be an entrepreneur and for a woman in a militant country, that is tough.  She is being a role model not only for her kids but other women.  She also is a strong and innovative manager using the Kiva project to get a loan for her shop.

          The group that we chose to lend our money to was a group by the name of Nget Soun in Roka Village, Cambodia. The village bank consists of twenty-two members and is located in Roka village in the Kandal Province. The group plans to use the loan earnings for different purposes. Mrs. Nget Soun is the village bank president, whom was selected by the members of her team and the bank. She is a 42-year-old widow with four children who are all attending the local school. She has been earning gradually less income to support her family, and now lives in poor conditions. The act of giving her family a better life is what fueled her interest to start a new business. Consequently, she decided to ask for a loan to buy tables, chairs, plates to start a rice soup business. This is a group loan consisting mainly of monthly loans. One member has an end-of-term loan and the rest have monthly payment loans. These members are not required to pay any principal on the loan until the very end of the term. End-of-term loans are the main focus because it is the most beneficial to the poor Cambodian culture. It allows them to repay portions of the principal whenever they are financially able to.

The country of Cambodia is mostly flat and forested land and has a geographic location in Southeast Asia on the Gulf of Thailand.  Cambodians are made up of a variety of citizens that are commonly called Khmer. The Khmer constitute almost ninety percent of the total population. Also included in the population is an assorted variety of ethnic backgrounds such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Chams, and hill tribes, also known as Khmer Roeu. The official language used in the Cambodian culture is called Khmer. The language itself is part of the Mon-Khmer family and is influenced by the Indian Pali and Sanskrit languages that were in turn influenced by Thai and French languages. The language is also related to those spoken by hill tribe citizens in Laos, Vietnam and also Malaysia. It has no pitch and the script is taken from the South-Indian alphabet, which is written from left to right and leaves no space between words. French and English are also spoken. The younger generation however is being geared more towards the English language for their own benefit.

            Since the country has a hierarchical culture, the business world follows strict behaviors. Respect and admiration is always to be shown to senior advisors and when there is a group meeting, the most senior of the group should greet guests of high ranking positions. You should introduce your members according to their rank to help associates distinguish and understand the dynamics of the group. Handshakes are considered to be normal but one should be advised not to engage in one that is too firm as this may be perceived as aggressive. Cambodians greet their business colleagues with the honorific title “Lok” for a man and “Lok Srey” for a woman with their first name alone or combined with the first and surname.

            With management being such a necessity in the business world, small business owners must understand all of the ideas and conceptualizations that go along with creating their own business and eventually growing it into something much more stable. The ideas that are brought forward in Chapter five of the ninth edition of our management textbook deal primarily with social responsibility and managerial ethics. The Nget Scoun Group could most definitely implement these concepts into their small business. Social Responsibility is something that they will most likely not be able to partake in immediately, however I would recommend that once the business is stable enough, actions should be taken towards this topic. Management’s only social responsibility in the classical view is to maximize the profits by operating the business in the best interest of the stockholders or shareholders. In the socioeconomic view, the social responsibility goes beyond just maximizing profits for the organization. This view includes protecting and improving the welfare of the society. Basically, firms have a moral responsibility to the community to become involved in social, legal, and political issues. If the Nget Seoun group can eventually recognize their social responsibility in Cambodia, they will gain a great competitive advantage. Since the country is very poor, I would imagine that the citizens are much like us in the fact that activeness by a company in the community is very positive in terms of public relations. It makes the company seem caring and less greedy in the eyes of the people.

            Ethics are defined as principles, values, and beliefs that define what is right and wrong behavior. Ethical standards are not universal. Social and cultural differences ultimately determine the acceptable behaviors. This is another issue that the employees of this company must keep in mind. Managers can provide as a good role model by being ethical and honest at all times and admitting failure and not trying to cover it up. Ethics training can also be of value to the company as well. It can make a difference in ethical behaviors, increase employee awareness of ethical issues in business decisions and make employees more confident that they will have the organizations support when taking unpopular but ethically correct issues. As long as they do the right things, over time they will gain the acceptance of the community as an ethical entity to embark business with.

Teofila my kiva recipient is now requesting a loan to buy more sheep and cheese. Her dreams are to improve her business and to open a store in her home, where she will  run a butcher shop. The first thing she needs to do which is explained in chapter 1, is plan on how she is going to run this business out of her house. Then she needs to organize on how her business will run out of her home. She also may need some employees that need to be motivated and are trained. The next step she needs to do is to make sure doing this out of her house will be efficient and at the same time effective.

She needs to make sure that she and her employees have the technical skills to do the job. The next thing she may want to do is make sure her human skills are working correctly if she is going to be communicating with groups of people. Teofila needs to be able to conceptualize for situations that are going to happen that she is not ready for or aware of. She might also need to figure a way to compensate her employees for the work they are going to be doing for her. Another thing she can do is  put the word out that this business will be located at her home, because now she will be at a set location instead of going door to door.

She must also decide if the business in her house is going to be a traditional organization or a contemporary organization. Most importantly she needs to know about any competitors doing the same business as her and how hers will be superior.  Since she will be doing a butcher shop she may have an excess amount of food, so she must find a way to keep her cheeses and meats preserved. These are just some of the things Teofila must do for her butcher shop to be successful that are covered in chapter 1.

In class today, we made decisions about the recipients for each group. Each group lent $25 to one developing world entrepreneur or group of entrepreneurs.

Group One chose Nget Soun Group.

Group Two chose Esteban.

Group Three chose Yawavi Ameko.

Group Four chose Yawa Irène Akpayi.

Group Five chose Teofila.

Group Six chose Meta Shir Ahammd.