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| COURSE CONNECTOR |
| ARTICLE SUMMARIES AND QUESTIONS |
"America's Most Admired Companies: America's Best Car Company," pp. 98-104: Toyota didn't have the most auspicious start in the U.S. 50 years ago, when its first import, the Toyopet Crown, which vibrated at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour and was prone to overheating, was pulled from the market in just three years' time. A less determined company might never have returned after such a humiliation. Instead, Toyota not only came back with a better car then, but also has produced one successful model after another in the decades since. Now ranked No. 3 on FORTUNE's annual listing of America’s Most Admired Companies — the only foreign enterprise to crack the top 20 — Toyota has become as much a fixture on the American landscape as baseball and apple pie. How did the company do it? Certainly, it has helped that Toyota hasn't had to deal with retiree obligations and union contracts to the same extent as the "Big Three" American automakers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The company has also benefited from timing, in that it had small cars ready to move when the oil shocks of the 1970s hit. But what's really put Toyota on top is its ability to read what the American people want — a modest, affordable, trouble-free product. So while Toyota has never been a style leader or created a truly iconic American car, it has invested its efforts wisely in predicting consumer trends and engineering reliable vehicles to capitalize on them. That's why more Americans today are driving Camrys than Ford Mustangs or Chevy Corvettes, and the Big Three aren't so big anymore. In this article, students read about Toyota's history in the U.S., and how it has become the world's top automaker. Discussion Questions:
"America's Most Admired Companies: Simply Irresistible," pp. 107-112: Plenty of the most informed minds in business and retail thought Apple's 2001 decision to open stores was, at best, an act of desperation, and at worst, a prescription for failure of the painful, expensive kind. They couldn't have been more wrong. Apple, ranked No. 7 on the 2007 listing of America's Most Admired Companies — its first time among the top ten — has come a long way since the dawn of the 21st century, when the company was still dependent on mega-retailers that didn't have the incentive or the training to position Apple's products as anything unique. It was then that CEO Steve Jobs announced his intent to make the leap into retail. To defy those early naysayers, he went on a hunt for some of the best retail executives he could find. He convinced Mickey Drexler of the Gap to join Apple's board, and hired Ron Johnson, then a merchandising chief at Target, to run Apple retail. The team has turned Apple Stores into nothing less than a phenomenon. Their 174 minimalist, customer-centered shops generate annual sales of $4,032 per square foot, and that’s before the release of the iPhone, the product for which Jobs declares the stores were conceived and built. If sales of the iPhone are anywhere near expectations — Apple hopes to move ten million units in 2008 — the typical Apple Store could be selling, in absolute terms, as much as a Best Buy, with just a fraction of the selling space. Who knew a high-tech wundercompany would become America's best shopkeeper! Students take a closer look at what makes Apple's retail shops so outrageously successful. Discussion Questions:
"The End of Garbage,"pp. 158-166: Can you imagine a world without garbage, where everything that is thrown away gets turned into something else? This seemingly improbable concept, known as zero waste — producing, consuming, and recycling products without throwing anything away — has surprisingly been adopted as a goal by a number of cities and towns in the U.S. and abroad and companies ranging from sole proprietorships to FORTUNE 500 corporations. Naturally, getting to a wasteless world will require extraordinary efforts by pretty much everyone on the planet, which is why thinkers such as entrepreneur Paul Hawken, consultant Amory Lovins, and architect William McDonough have called the movement the Next Industrial Revolution. But while it remains a long way off, it's probably not as long as you might think. The changing economics of waste disposal, technical advances, and grass-roots activism have combined to push the movement into the earliest phases of operation. San Francisco has a recycling rate of 68%, the best of any American city, and it intends to do better. Toyota has eliminated all the waste from its 5,000-employee U.S. headquarters near Los Angeles. Hewlett-Packard provides some customers with free recycling of discarded products; Dell offers it to all. And Wal-Mart is working to reduce packaging by 5%; producing compost from collected food waste; and recycling plastics, paper, and cans with a curious innovation called a super sandwich bale. The desire of big companies to gain good PR by appearing environmentally friendly certainly has a hand in making the zero-waste dream come true, but as with anything else, market incentives are the prime mover. As Wal-Mart's David Redfield says, "Trash is cash." Students examine how businesses, municipal governments, and garbage disposal companies are working together to create a waste-free world. Discussion Questions:
"The Richest City in the World," pp. 168-176: What city can boast that it sits on one-tenth of the planet's oil, it has almost $1 trillion invested abroad, and its average citizen is worth $17 million? If you said Dubai, you're off by about 90 miles. The answer is Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s up-and-coming neighbor to the south. The capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi is the world's richest city, yet most people wouldn't be able to find it on a map. Part of the reason for that is that Dubai eclipsed the quiet city as a glitzy tourist destination. But all that is about to change. Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, and the government-owned investment company Mubadala Development, run by the brash, American-educated Khaldoon Khalifa al Mubarak, are busy spending $200 billion on residential and commercial skyscrapers, posh hotels, upscale museums, first-class hospitals, and more in an ambitious 10-year effort to gain the international recognition Dubai currently enjoys. Moreover, they want to enjoy all the splendor but none of the crassness that has afflicted Dubai. In short, they want to get the Dubai experiment right. Will it work? Experts suggest it might. Unlike Dubai, which was quickly running out of oil and had to turn to tourism to survive, Abu Dhabi has the oil reserves and financial cushioning to sit back and do nothing. Dubai's dependence on tourism would spell doom for the city in a case of war, terrorism, or other instability, while Abu Dhabi would be able to bounce back on the strength of its other resources. This article reveals how Abu Dhabi, the world's richest city, plans to become a high-end, international tourist destination. Discussion Questions:
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