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Learning about our history of globalization and outsourcing in our economy was something I found to be particularly interesting. While I do believe some outsourcing to be necessary, the scale has now been tipped so far to one side that we are exporting more than we are importing. This also shrinks our talent pool in the U.S. since many students don’t feel the need to attend college due to the lack of employment opportunities surrounding, computer science jobs, and other high-tech fields. Due to so much outsourcing, there is also a decline in customer satisfaction, since it is hard to even reach a live person at times, and most of the time end up speaking to a robot. Between the hidden costs that the companies end up facing in the long term, job eliminations, and intellectual property being stolen overseas, outsourcing in our economy has rapidly proven to do more harm than good over the past few decades.

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The initial cost-saving benefits of outsourcing can be misleading, as it often takes some time for the negative impacts to make themselves known. By the time management realizes that outsourcing isn't always the ideal situation they thought it was, the company's reputation may take a hit. While outsourcing to overseas providers has its own unique set of challenges, even domestic outsourcing companies can negatively impact your business.

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Negative Effects Outsourcing Has on Organizations

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The initial cost-saving benefits of outsourcing can be misleading, as it often takes some time for the negative impacts to make themselves known. By the time management realizes that outsourcing isn't always the ideal situation they thought it was, the company's reputation may take a hit. While outsourcing to ...

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Managing Human Resources and Labor Relations 

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Managing Human Resources and Labor Relations 

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Cross-training employees is something that I have seen and experienced firsthand. I believe that cross-training is a good thing for both parties.  For employees, cross-training gives new skill sets that can open up to a promotion, increase their salary, raise moral and motivation, and gives employees opportunity to collaborate with one another.  Altogether this lowers the potential for employee burnout which can lead to workers leaving the company.
In turn, the company becomes more agile by being able to move any worker to fill in areas that need help. Promotions can happen within the company allowing vacancies to be filled immediately. The company achieves a higher return on investment by not having to hire new employees as often.  Overall,  this gives the company improved efficiency and performance in their workforce and the firm as a whole.

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Updated On Jul 24, 2021 at 07:37 AM IST

Read by: 100 Industry Professionals

Read by 100 Industry Professionals

Cross training, as the name suggests, is all about training employees in a work that is beyond their currently assigned job profile. Meaning, if A is assigned to learn B's work, then B would be assigned to learn A's work. This kind of training is good for managers as it enhances their flexibility in managing a larger workforce. Also, it suits employees as it makes them learn new skills to enhance their value within the organization. Cross training can be employed in any industry.

Let's examine the pros and cons associated with cross training.
Pros of Cross Training
Substitutes Temporary Vacant Positions: In situations where an employee is on leave, cross training can help fill temporarily vacant position. It can be particularly crucial when the current employee is unavailable due to a personal emergency. At such times, cross trained employees can substitute those positions and prevent interruption of services or production. While there is scope of hiring temporary staff, such actions take time to get implemented, and cross training can be most effective at those moments.

Enhances Employee Skill Sets: Cross training is particularly helpful in equipping the current set of employees with an enhanced set of skills. This allows them to grow professionally by expanding their current set of skills by allowing them to inculcate diversified work experience. Organizational studies have reported that a well-performing employee likes to be challenged, and cross training presents the perfect opportunity to fulfil such aspirations. Overall, when the employee feels satisfied, it directly translates to better morale and higher engagement in their current work roles.

Encourages Teamwork: Cross training allows employees to learn by being a part of different teams. Such engagement fosters and produces more accomplished employees for working in team-centric environments, where employees are expected to help each other. This can promote an increased sense of belonging towards a company, where an employee sincerely roots for the progress of the company. Such employees are not only an asset but also can be vital factors for increasing productivity and collaboration.

Creates Empowered Future Leaders: A company that fosters the entrepreneurial spirit within the enterprise is more likely to be innovative and inventive among the rest. Such a spirit is fostered within companies when employees are given the opportunity to cross train to feel independent and empowered within the organization. These employees are likely to be the future leaders who are more likely to determine the strategic direction a company is likely to adopt in the long-term. Hence cross training must not be looked upon as just another HR practice but must be seen as a motivational tool with long-lasting implications.
Cons of Cross Training
Raises Questions on Job Security: There is always a human tendency to question any change's premise. Whenever employees are asked to cross-train, the immediate question in their mind is about their current job performance. They often start thinking in terms of a permanent switch-over from their current role to a less important role. Such apprehensions can only be mitigated by the HR department, who must be open and transparent about such an approach's objectives. In reality, HR must keep their doors open to remedy all such questions which employees come up with.

Takes Time for Implementation: Getting cross training established across the organization takes time depending on the size of the organization. There may be different business areas in larger organizations that need coverage, and it would take dedicated time, effort, and resources in getting cross training accomplished. To put it in perspective, cross training is not a one-off affair and would require several training sessions and effective training material for learners to make it an effective HR practice.

Initial Costs: Cross training involves high costs as it involves bringing-in an instructor (from within) and putting learners in front of them. Both these events involve taking out employees from their regular schedule and asking them to undergo training, which directly impacts productivity. That being said, a company must look at how the benefits outweigh the costs as cross training tends to be a practice that sees pay-off in the long term.
Conclusion
On the face of it, cross training may look more than enticing, but getting it rolling within an organization takes commitment and assured leadership. There may be roadblocks coming from the employees who may pose difficult questions to the management when they are asked to incur additional responsibilities with the same pay. But if the management can deal with the initial hiccups and remain steadfast in getting cross training implemented, it would benefit both the employee and the employer. Above all, an effective cross training roll-out can be an ideal feather-in-the cap for the HR department.

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Pros & Cons of Cross Training Employees - ETHRWorld

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Cross Training Of Employees: In situations where an employee is on leave, cross training can help fill temporarily vacant position. It can be particularly crucial when the current employee is unavailable due to a personal emergency. At such times, cross trained employees can substitute those positions and prevent interruption of services or production.

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Entrepreneurship: Starting and Managing Your Own Business 

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Entrepreneurship: Starting and Managing Your Own Business 

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I was intrigued after reading about the statistics on the economic impact of small  businesses in the beginning of section 5.1 of module five. Comprised with 500 or fewer employees to be classified as a small business, they are the very heart of the U.S. economy. Keeping the American dream alive,  remarkably, 44 percent of the country's payroll  comes from small businesses. So it's no surprise that they make up 62% of the workforce and the nation's largest employer, keeping 85 million people employed with more than 28 million small businesses in the United States. These myriad of different types of businesses keep the economy running.
Small businesses are able to focus on the customers needs, which gives them more repeat business. They also bolster the local economy by spending their money locally and through employment.  Small businesses are more adaptable to change during times of economic crisis.  Where large corporations would have to lay off workers, this becomes an opportunity to the small business.

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Martin Rowinski is the CEO of , a corporate board recruitment company, and an investor and author.
Just as enough tiny droplets of water slowly fill a bucket, the growth of small businesses fills the U.S. economy. Big corporations might get a lot of attention when it comes to creating jobs, but small businesses employ more people and are more resilient when times get tough. Before coming up with something innovative that propelled them into growth, all big businesses once started out small. Not only are small businesses driving the U.S. economy, but they also keep the American dream alive.

According to the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA), small businesses of 500 employees or fewer make up 99.9% of all U.S. businesses and 99.7% of firms with paid employees. Of the new jobs created between 1995 and 2020, small businesses accounted for 62%-12.7 million compared to 7.9 million by large enterprises. A 2019 SBA report found that small businesses accounted for 44% of U.S. economic activity. Without small businesses, the American economy and workforce would be a pretty wild landscape to imagine.

Not only do small businesses provide more jobs, they also bring careers and opportunities. Successful small businesses put money back into their local community through paychecks and taxes, which can support the creation of new small businesses and improve local public services. No matter how small it starts-one, two, five, 10 employees-within that town, the city or the county, your small business creates new economies where once there was nothing.
Small Businesses Help All Businesses
Small businesses are also better able to focus more energy on their customers and their needs, which can make them more adaptable to change in times of economic uncertainty. A global health crisis may have rocked the economy, but the formation of new U.S. businesses intending to hire employees rose to historic peaks in 2021, with nearly 1.4 million applications by September and over 400,000 more than at the same point in 2019. When tough times for big businesses lead to layoffs, small businesses become an opportunity.

To become big, all businesses once started out small. In 1978, when the track-and-field coach and his former student who founded Blue Ribbon Sports by making running shoes with a waffle iron changed their company name to Nike, they never imagined it would become the massive multinational corporation that it is today. The two high school friends and devoted computer tinkerers who ended up founding their own software company in 1975 under the name Microsoft could never have expected how large their once small business venture would soon become.

Small businesses grow because they draw innovation, attracting talent that brings inventions or new solutions to old ways of doing business that larger corporations have less flexibility to incorporate. This is why big companies today want to acquire small businesses, for their innovators. Apple and Google may be known for their innovation, but they also buy up small startups with innovative new technology to boost this development.
Small Businesses: The American Dream
Big businesses and even big government projects depend on small businesses as subcontractors, vendors and customers. Federal bills focusing on new jobs to come out of a recession talk a lot about building bridges and freeways, but less about the small businesses across the country that bid for these contracts and carry them out. No matter where you find significant economic development, small businesses are behind it.

The opportunity for people to found, run or work for small businesses is the pathway to achieving the American dream. It creates an environment of mythical energy where desires are fulfilled and innovation is at its peak. Creating small businesses, becoming profitable and hiring people to share in those economic gains is what makes this country free. Foreigners who lack those same opportunities in their own country come to America seeking their own dream-and I should know: I'm one of them.

Because of their importance, big business campaigns should consider their ability to support small businesses, therefore encouraging thriving economies. A strong economy supports both big and small businesses, but no society can thrive without the presence of small businesses. Corporations are reliant on small businesses to allow them to continue to succeed. By helping your neighbor, you ultimately are helping yourself (and your business). Businesses, in particular, should consider supporting small businesses by, for example:

* Sourcing ingredients for your restaurant from local farmers.

* Selling small businesses' products in your storefront.

* Sharing social media posts from small businesses.

Small businesses are everywhere, but everyone in the U.S. has the right to create their own from the ground up, as well as the necessary access to the technology, investors, loans and government support to help out. This well-developed support system attracts a huge pool of dreamers: immigrants with the hopes of achieving their lifelong goals, creating something new and finding success. For them, arriving here is like diving into a crystal-clear pool of opportunity-they can see it and go after it. Small businesses make this possible.

While government aid is necessary to continue supporting small business growth, so is consumer support. Inexpensive products delivered to your home from Amazon are nice, but also consider supporting small businesses. Don't be so quick to judge and leave negative reviews because of one bad day. Instead, make an effort to put money back into the main drivers of our economy and look to them for employment opportunities to help them keep their doors open. The more we encourage small businesses, the longer we keep the American dream alive.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

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Council Post: How Small Businesses Drive The American Economy

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Martin Rowinski is the CEO of , a corporate board recruitment company, and an investor and author. Just as enough tiny droplets of water slowly fill a bucket, the growth of small businesses fills the U.S. economy.

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Management and Leadership in Today’s Organization 

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Management and Leadership in Today’s Organization 

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Section 6.2 discusses the four types of planning. This is the section of the module that captured my attention the most. With the four types of planning; Strategic, Tactical, Operational, and Contingency, each type of planning has a projected time frame within it.  Strategic is one to five years, Tactical is a year or less,  Operational runs on current time, and Contingency is only when an emergency event or situation occurs. In business, the different levels of management are involved in one or more of these four types of planning. 111-CTop management like CEO's, Vice Presidents, Directors, and Division heads deal with Strategic and Contingency planning.  Supervisors run operational planning. Middle management run tactical and help with contingency.  The way planning works is that the short-term plans support the long-term plans. So Operational planning supports Tactical planning, then Tactical planning supports Strategic planning. Although Contingency planning isn't part of the regular operations, during times of crisis a company's Contingency plan can be what saves the company or ruins it.
After reading this section I found it fascinating how much planning goes into planning and the responsibility of the management to make sure that plans stay on track, because regardless of what plan you are working with everyone has the same goal.

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Effective planning is the foundation of any successful business. Planning revolves around organizing priorities and resources and it relates to productivity. Since productivity levels directly affect the success of any organization it's vital that businesses are creating plans that work. When there are issues with leadership there are often flaws in the company's plan. When a company improves how they plan they can expect all other aspects of the business to improve as well.

The first step to improvin a business plan is to make sure that specific issues are being dealt with directly within the plan. This means that there is a clear vision of what a successful execution will look like. Set goals and establish markers so that progress can be measured and necessary changes can be made accordingly to stay on track. Everyone involved should have a clear understanding of what the goals are before the plan is ever put in motion.

There are four types of planning. Each type of plan commits employees within different departments and their resources to specific actions. While there are many different types, the four major types of plans include strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency.

Here is a break down of what each type of planning entails.
Operational Plans
Operational planning can be ongoing or single-use. The latter is usually created for a specific event that will only occur once, such as a unique marketing campaign. Ongoing plans can include rules and regulations, procedures, and the day to day running of the company.

Strategic Plans
Strategic planning is the foundation of an organization. Essentially, strategic plans dictate the important decisions made within a business. Strategic plans can have scopes that range from three years to ten years. These plans include the organization's mission, values, and vision. A good strategic plan always considers things in the long-term and remembers the big picture.
Tactical Plans
Tactical planning is supportive of the strategic plan. It involves the tactics that will be used to execute the strategic plan. Within a tactical plan, there are specific questions that need to be answered about what it will take to accomplish the goals set in the strategic plan; the most important question being how the company will accomplish the mission. This type of planning is very focused and short-term. Tactical plans are sometimes flexible and often break the strategy down into several parts and assign actionable tasks to each part.

Contingency Plans
Contingency planning is important for any business because there is always the possibility of unforeseen changes. A contingency plan is created for when the unexpected occurs or a major change needs to be made in order to continue towards the goal. Not every change can be anticipated which is why it's imperative to have a contingency plan in place. Every business leader should understand the importance of having a contingency plan.

A company whose leaders have a clear understanding of the different types of planning can expect to create a successful business that is sustainable.

This blog was originally published on Manoj Basnyat's website.

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Effective planning is the foundation of any successful business. Planning revolves around organizing priorities and resources and it relates to productivity. Since productivity levels directly affect the success of any organization it's vital that businesses are creating plans that work. When there are issues with leadership there are often flaws in the company's plan.

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Learning about business operations in this class was truly rewarding for me. Starting with the global market place and their trading strategies in other countries, to learning about how to start and manage a business. The most interesting thing I learned was the statistics on small businesses and how incredibly important they are to this country's economy. Reading about managing human resources and labor relations when it comes to motivating employees, I realized the the amazing amount of variables that ended up being factored in. Operations managers in particular with the amount of responsibility placed on them is truly daunting. Dealing with up to three-fourths of the firm's assets, including employees. Lastly, understanding financial management business planning and how crucial they are to the future of the company. This class has definitely shown me the incredible opportunity of what being an entrepreneur can be, and the dedication it takes to be successful. Which also gives me hope in taking the next steps of opening my own small business.

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Have you ever heard the phrase, "you can buy almost anything online!"? It stands as a simple reminder that everything, in some capacity, will be owned. An economic system is the way society determines who will own things and how that ownership will be decided.

All societies must answer three questions. The answers they select determine what type of economy, or economic system, the society primarily has a command or market economy. The three questions are:

1. What should we produce?

2. How should we produce?

3. For whom should we produce?

A free market system answers the questions in the following way:

1. BUYERS decide what will be produced.

2. SELLERS decide how to produce.

3. MONEY determines who gets the goods and services.

As buyers purchase goods and services, they signal to the producers what ought to be made. If people want to wear pants with farm animal designs, they buy them. Producers have to be observant to anticipate demand. As they see that the stock of cow pants is flying off the shelves, they will create many more of them. Buyers and sellers are able to communicate effectively using just money. No one has to send emails to the company to ask for more pants with sheep designs; the fact that the pants sell quickly sends the message quickly. Likewise, when people move away from barnyard fashions and don't buy them anymore, producers know to slow or stop production based merely on sales. Again, no one calls the company to request fewer pairs of chicken pants. Money talks, as they say, so buyers decide what will be produced. The producer of the good or service selects the best, most profitable way to produce. They use the factors of production-land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship-to maximize goals of the company. Finally, to establish distribution of the good or service, price is used. In market economies, when consumers want anything from food to dental services to a new hat, they need only go to the correct place and give enough money to fulfill the price requirement.

A purely free market economy has several important characteristics. The first requirement is great freedom to buy and sell goods and services to satisfy one's own desires. Individuals are responsible for making their own decisions regarding if, where, and how hard to work.

The father of economics, Adam Smith, wrote in The Wealth of Nations, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest" (Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776).

By producing items of value to others, people will in turn help themselves.

A purely free market is not devoid of government. Rather, the government has a limited, small, and important role to play in the economy: protection of private property might require a lot from government in certain conditions. The ownership of factors of production as well as finished goods and services relies on clearly-defined and well-enforced property rights. We have paperwork like receipts, ownership titles, and deeds to prove that we own things. We are able to enjoy all the privileges that go along with ownership, including the right to sell the objects.

If property rights are threatened, the police and court system get involved to solve problems.

That role for government, while critical, is small. There are no public goods such as roads, streetlights, or public parks provided under a purely free market. There also exists no governmental safety net. People who are permanently or temporarily unemployed or disabled receive no government assistance. In this scenario, private individuals, civil organizations, or businesses must provide these goods and services.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is a command, or socialist, economy (Cuba, India, and North Korea). In these countries, central planners make decisions about what, how, and for whom to produce. Using complex computer models, government workers make output and supply decisions and businesses fulfill orders.

In a command economy, the government owns the factors of production; all decisions about land, labor, and capital are made by the state. Bureaucrats analyze enormous sets of data about current stock levels, predicted demand, and availability of resources. They determine output plans which are checked and sometimes adjusted at lower levels by regional directors and company managers. Orders are set, supplies ordered, and then the workers need only fulfill the job. Since the government planners also get to determine what individuals' occupations are, they can effectively command the entire economy. Once the good or service is created, the price is also set by the government planners. The overall goal is equity. By having fair prices and wages that are set by the government, all of society will have needs met, and there will not be a division between rich and poor people.

The logic of a command system has been described in this way: "experts would plan, zealots would compete in zeal, technology would tame nature, labor would make free, the benefits would accrue to all. From each according to his ability; to each according to his deserts; and eventually, to each according to his needs" (David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some Are So Poor, 1998).

There are many problems with a command system. Perhaps the most stifling problem is the lack of freedom resulting from the coercion needed to make a command economy function. In a command economy, the state is the coercive force that determines many facets of individuals' lives, including what job to work, where to live, and what and how many goods and services are available. The command system is also encumbered by the vast amount of information needed to properly make production decisions for an entire country. It is invariably beyond the scope of planners to comprehend. In terms of the nation's productivity, the incentives to work hard or invent new products do not exist. This coercive system results in major inefficiencies. Without rewards for hard work, people naturally complete just the bare minimum required. For example, China transitioned its agricultural sector from pure command to more of a market-based system between 1978 and 1984. Over that time, total agricultural production increased by 42 percent as farmers were able to keep, use, and sell any crops above the government's quota (Justin Yifu Lin, "Rural Reforms and Agricultural Growth in China," American Economic Review, 1992). The market-based transition gave famers incentives to work hard and improve what they do to utilize fertilizers and other machinery helpful in producing crops. The reality of a command system is that production decreases and with it, overall happiness decreases.

This loss of freedom and happiness is the opportunity cost of coercion.

In reality, there is no such thing as an economy that is only market or only command. Rather, all systems are mixed models and fit along a spectrum. The United States is primarily market-based, but the government plays a role, too. The government provides a social safety net. In 2011, the United States spent over $2 trillion (13.5 percent of the overall GDP) on Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and other social services like unemployment compensation. There is also the extensive regulation of the economy with policies about the environment, working conditions, taxes, and subsidies.

Likewise, there is no economy that is purely command. Features of a market system exist, sometimes legally and sometimes illegally. In North Korea, one of the most centrally-planned economies in the world, the government allowed for some market reforms in agriculture, creating the possibility of farmers' markets to emerge. In Cuba, the underground economy is said to be so vast that 95 percent of the population buys and sells goods illegally (Paul Haven Paul, "Cuba's Shadow Economy Sees Some Daylight", The Washington Times, 2011).

Examining the type of economic system gives great insight to how governments of countries function. Market-based systems allow for more individual freedom and thus, less government control. Governments in command-based systems must be more heavy-handed, affecting the day-to-day lives of citizens in a much greater capacity.

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How Economic Systems Work - Bill of Rights Institute

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Have you ever heard the phrase, "you can buy almost anything online!"? It stands as a simple reminder that everything, in some capacity, will be owned. An economic system is the way society determines who will own things and how that ownership will be decided. All societies must answer three questions.

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Creating Products and Pricing Strategies to Meet Customers’ Needs

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Creating Products and Pricing Strategies to Meet Customers’ Needs

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The interesting thing about relationship marketing is that it works.  I've worked in the service industry for years and seen this first hand.  Sales representatives from various companies would come in and try to persuade the manager to make orders with them and it never worked.  The manager had a good, long relationship with the company and their sales person they have been been using for years.  That trust and friendship that they have took years to build and is clearly stronger than any deals or promotions that is offer.  Customer satisfaction brings the friendship and it's the friendship that creates loyalty. Loyalty is earned and customers will pay a little extra because of it.

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Life is all about relationships-and so is business-which is why relationship marketing is so important. But what is relationship marketing and how does it work? Here's everything you need to know to start using it in your business:

What Is Relationship Marketing?

Relationship marketing focuses on monetizing customer relationships. It is a component of customer relationship management or CRM wherein businesses try to achieve customer loyalty by building long-term relationships with customers. Not only does this increase your customer lifetime value, but it can be transformative for your referrals and word-of-mouth promotion.

This is in contrast to traditional marketing methods that only focus on gaining business from customers in the short term. Instead, relationship marketing realizes how valuable loyal customers can be to a business and works to not only win customers over initially but to keep them coming back again and again.

How Does Relationship Marketing Work?

Relationships are all about mutual understanding and compromising to meet the other's needs-and this is essentially how relationship marketing works. Companies work to understand the needs of their customers before coming up with strategies to meet those needs with the goal of building positive, loyal, and long-term relationships with them.

Strategies vary depending on the needs and wants of the customer, but most relationship marketing strategies involve some combination of customer service initiatives, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, customer education, and word-of-mouth.

What Are the Benefits of Relationship Marketing?

While the long-term payoff of relationship marketing might be harder to grasp than that of traditional marketing, it's actually quite useful thanks to these benefits:

Higher customer retention rates: The goal of every company should be to retain their customers since it's often more cost-effective to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one. Relationship marketing can help to boost your customer retention rates-saving you money in the process.

More sustainable business strategy: It's hard to experience true success as a business when you're always scrambling to obtain new customers. However, with relationship marketing, you can continuously build a strong base of loyal customers whom you can depend on.

Obtain valuable feedback: The feedback that you gain from relationship marketing can benefit your business in more ways than one. Of course, you can better satisfy your customers, but odds are that you can also use this feedback to innovate your products, cater to your employees, and build a better overall business.

Increase sales volume: Now that you've improved your business and are meeting customers' needs, you can increase your sales volume through tactics like cross-selling and up-selling that work best with informed, satisfied, and loyal customers.

Better compete with other players: It can be difficult for smaller and newer businesses to compete with larger and more established ones without relationship marketing. This strategy is designed to help you take advantage of your existing customer base and make sure that customers are loyal to you-not your competitor.

What Are the Different Types of Relationship Marketing?

There are five different types of relationship marketing, including basic marketing, reactive marketing, accountable marketing, proactive marketing, and partnership marketing. Here's what you need to know about each type so that you can incorporate the best ones into your relationship marketing strategy:

Basic marketing: Basic marketing is, unsurprisingly, the most basic type of relationship marketing and should be the foundation of your strategy. Within this type, you focus on acquiring clients and guiding them through the sales journey.

Reactive marketing: Reactive marketing involves receiving feedback from a customer after a sale is made so that you can continue to build a relationship and improve your business based on the feedback gathered.

Accountable marketing: Accountable marketing takes reactive marketing to the next level, wherein businesses reach out to customers for suggestions on how they can improve their customer experience.

Proactive marketing: Proactive marketing involves taking these suggestions into account and taking action to improve the quality of the business' products and services so that customers can enjoy the best possible experience.

Partnership marketing: Partnership marketing involves collaborating with other businesses with the intent of improving everyone's products and services based on gathered customer information.

Basic Components of Relationship Marketing

Every relationship marketing needs to include these three basic components: customer service, customer feedback, and customer loyalty programs.

Component 1: Customer Service

If you want to bond with customers, you need to support them every step of the way. Before you officially gain a customer, you should make it easy to contact you so that any questions can be quickly answered. One of the best ways to do this is to incorporate a chat feature onto your website-whether live or automated-so that customers can obtain the information they need to feel confident about making a purchase.

You need to continue supporting customers after they make a purchase with easily accessible communication channels. Embrace a wide variety of different channels, including social media, email, phone, and even SMS.

Component 2: Customer Feedback

Another great way to build relationships with your customers is to collect customer feedback on a regular basis. Send out customer feedback surveys after every purchase to learn more about their overall experience with your business. Incentivize these feedback surveys with coupons, giveaways, or freebies.

But the work isn't over after you've gathered the feedback-you actually need to use it. If there's a common theme that many customers are mentioning in their feedback, this is a great place to begin with an improvement plan.

Component 3: Customer Loyalty Programs

Finally, you may want to consider implementing a customer loyalty program as a part of your relationship marketing strategy. Some of the largest and most successful companies have customer loyalty programs, and you can too! There are several different types to choose from.

However, most customer loyalty programs consist of a points system wherein customers can earn points based on how much they spend at the business. They can then spend these points on products, events, contests, etc.

How To Launch a Relationship Marketing Initiative

While relationship marketing seems like a no-brainer, it can also be challenging to actually launch a successful long-term strategy for relationship marketing. However, with the right approach, you can make it happen.

Step 1: Know Your Customers

It's hard to build long-term customer relationships without first getting to know them. You need to learn who they are and what they want so that you can then meet these needs. The best way to do this is through market research.

First, figure out who your customers are. If you already have an established customer base, then it should be easy to make this determination since you can just look at your current customers. If you don't, you can consider the customer base of your competitors. Alternatively, you can think about who your products or services are designed for, who they help, and who needs them.

From there, you need to figure out what your customers care about and what they want in a product and a business. Using tools like focus groups and surveys, you can obtain the answers to these questions and build strong relationships.

Step 2: Train Your Employees

Contrary to popular belief, engaging customers isn't the only part of the relationship marketing equation-employees are equally as important. So in order to launch a successful relationship marketing initiative, your employees need to be included in your efforts.

The best way to include your employees in your relationship marketing strategy is to properly train them in the different components of your strategy. For instance, if you're launching a customer loyalty program, your employees need to know the ins and outs of this program so that customers can properly obtain their points and rewards.

Step 3: Empower Your Employees

It's not enough to just train your employees, you also need to empower them. Sometimes, it can be difficult for employees to properly address customer complaints because they aren't authorized to do so. We've all been given the "let me talk to my manager" line that only delays problem resolution.

So instead of only causing more delays and confusion, give your employees both the knowledge and the ability to solve problems. When employees can address issues immediately, customers will feel heard and will want to continue their relationship with the company.

The Best Relationship Marketing Techniques To Follow

Here are some of the best relationship marketing efforts to help you develop and maintain a successful brand loyalty strategy.

1. Prioritize Customer Service

Unsurprisingly, you really need to prioritize customer service when trying to build relationships with customers. Customers could totally love your product but if they experience horrible customer service, they're unlikely to buy that product again. On the other hand, a great customer experience can turn a one-time-purchaser into a lifetime customer. Make sure that you're responsive and reachable on multiple different platforms including Facebook, Instagram, your company website, and more.

2. Make It Personal

One way to create deeper relationships with your customers is to get personal in your customer interactions. Buyers don't want to feel like they're just another buck to you. Instead, they want to feel like you know and care about them. Use their names when communicating with them. Provide them personalized product recommendations and discounts based on previous purchases. Include hand-written thank you notes with orders.

3. Go Above and Beyond

The last way that you can truly take advantage of everything customer relationship marketing has to offer is to go above and beyond with your customers every time. After all, you're not the only company out there using relationship marketing-your competitors are likely using it as well. This means that a basic customer satisfaction strategy won't cut it. Instead, you need to go that extra mile by offering each customer the very best in each interaction.

Wrap Up on Relationship Marketing

A lot of time and effort goes into developing a successful relationship marketing strategy by combining components like content marketing, data insights, social media marketing, email marketing, and more.

Understandably, relationship marketing campaigns can be difficult for small or new businesses to handle on their own-which is why MuteSix is here to help with performance marketing tactics and strategies that cover all of these different aspects and more. So, reach out today for a complimentary marketing consultation to see how we can help you develop and maintain a successful relationship marketing strategy for your brand.

Sources:
How to Increase Client Retention: 10 Effective Strategies | Forbes 7 Innovative Customer Loyalty Programs (+ How to Start) (2021) | Shopify 9 Tips for Providing Excellent Customer Service | The Balance Small Business

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What Is Relationship Marketing? - Mutesix

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Life is all about relationships-and so is business-which is why relationship marketing is so important. But what is relationship marketing and how does it work? Here's everything you need to know to start using it in your business: Relationship marketing focuses on monetizing customer relationships.

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Distributing and Promoting Products and Services 

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Distributing and Promoting Products and Services 

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Brick and mortar shops are disappearing and online stores are more common than ever. Learning about how a business owner can accomplish personal selling without a physical store was interesting. This involves the various ways of finding customers by using local resources, such as directories from the Chamber of Commerce, local memberships, and newspapers to name a few.  After finding where they are business owners need to reach out to them through emails, social media and even attending conventions and trade shows.  From there they would be able to talk about and demonstrate their products and begin personal selling.
For a business owner, personal selling is an important part of customer satisfaction and retention. Being able to show and demonstrate the quality of their products or services helps in starting a business relationship with the customer as well as retaining them.

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All marketing needs some sort of selling to get products in customer hands. Whether it's direct selling, in retail stores, through the web or personal selling, marketing and selling are interlinked.

Our focus in this article is personal selling - but what is personal selling? Personal selling is what happens when a sales representative meets a potential buyer to make a sale. Personal selling requires building a relationship with the customers and is generally done face to face.

In personal selling, you create a relationship with the customer to walk them through the product and the value the product provides. Personal selling creates a selling point, conversions and encourages customer loyalty.

Personal selling has two main ways to engage with the customers: direct (via outbound sales and calls), or digital (via email and other digital means).

The direct method is highly effective, a sales force goes to the clients to meet face to face and build a relationship.
This relationship can help get the sale, but is expensive because of costs tied to employment and overhead.

The digital method is more common because it carries a lower expense, but is generally less effective. The goal in the digital method is still to develop a relationship with your customer, but because you're doing it digitally, it can take longer with less impact.

There are tips in the personal selling process to keep in mind.

Define your objectives; set your goals and keep your eyes on them.

Lots of research; the more you research the market, the better. Who is your target? What makes your product different from the competition?

Make your outreach personalized; segment your customers and make sure what they get is relevant.

Select the right outlets for your campaigns based on your customer segments

Implementing Personal Selling

There are four elements that need to consider in personal selling:

Customer needs: what are the customer's needs to be addressed

Customer confidence: the customer's ability to take an action.

Human element: physical presence of both the salesperson and the customer

Customer response: is the customer impression positive or negative.

The beauty of personal selling is that it's not static, it can change as quickly as you notice your customers changing. Personal selling can also help you keep close tabs on customers and inform product decisions. By talking to your customers regularly, you're able to provide feedback to the product teams for new features or adjustments.

Digital Methods of Personal Selling
Live Chat
Live chat can increase conversion. Live chat educates customers, gets them over objections and allows for a personal touch to a conversation.

Live chat is useful for both lead generation and customer support. When you are using live chat for lead generation, collect the information you need to qualify the lead to see if selling makes sense. This will classify and organize your leads so you know where to spend your time and energy.

When you are using live chat for customer support ensure you understand the issue the customer has. Address issues and resolving problems as quick as possible, or let the customer know if it can't be resolved.

As you talk to more customers, build a database of common issues and questions. You can use this database to create an FAQ and lower the amount of work you have to do. The beginning is going to be hard, but as you see common questions and issues, you'll be able to effectively handle most customer issues.
Social Proof
Psychology shows us that people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior in a given situation. Social influence is seen in the tendency of large groups to conform to group choices, wether they are correct or incorrect . This is social proof or informational social influence. In ecommerce, social proof is used to improve a business's effectiveness in marketing by focusing on social media.

Types of social proof:

Expert: Arguments, statements or recommendations given on a product by a perceived expert on a particular matter. When experts recommend you, customers are more willing to trust it because someone with greater knowledge supports it. Think of the toothpaste commercials "9 out of 10 dentists recommend this toothpaste."

Celebrity: Focused on popularity and influence. Celebrity social proof occurs when a celebrity, influencer or any form of popular persona, endorses a product or brand. For example: when Kim Kardashian tweets out her recommendation for make-up. She's getting paid for it but her followers are more likely to buy the product.

User: Users advocating you, generally as testimonials of their purchase. The shared experiences of the users will help new customers to feel the confidence they need to make the buy themselves. This can be done via reviews (like Yelp) or more direct testimonials on your site.

Wisdom of the crowd: The crowd can't be wrong... right? When we see a large number of people doing something, we tend to think there's a good reason for it. This happens at popular restaurants all the time - the ones with lines out the door must be the best!

Using social proof to increase conversion:

Interact with experts so that they are aware of your product. Ask them for quotes or their thoughts on the product and use those quotes in your marketing.

Don't be shy about your success. Show appreciate whenever your products are mentioned by an influencer, institution or press. If you are nominated or win any award saying thanks publicly is a nice way to make people aware of your success. This public validation builds social proof.

Feature testimonials and your best customer reviews; few things are more persuasive than customer reviews. People like to read comments before making a purchase, so give them something good to read

If you reach an important social milestone, let's say, ten thousand followers; show your gratitude. Let your fanbase know you appreciate them and these achievements mean a lot for you.

Encourage the exposure of your brand by users on social media. If someone tweets about how much they love your product you should retweet them or even reply how much you appreciate their kind words - engaging with your customers can go a long way to build advocacy.

Get verified by your social platforms - having that blue checkmark gives you validation.

If you have good numbers, show them to the public. When you see a post with lots of likes or accounts with lots of followers you take into consideration that they have good or interesting content.

There are many tools and strategies to increase conversion. Tactics like personal selling, live chats and social proof are important; but knowing when to use each is even more important. Think through each type and what would work for your user base. Then start testing for results!

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Increase Conversion with Personal Selling - How to do it online

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All marketing needs some sort of selling to get products in customer hands. Whether it's direct selling, in retail stores, through the web or personal selling, marketing and selling are interlinked. Our focus in this article is personal selling - but what is personal selling? Personal selling is what

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Using Financial Information and Accounting 

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Using Financial Information and Accounting 

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Learning about the difference between managerial accounting and financial accounting is what I found to be intriguing.  I learned how a firm uses these reports, who these reports are for, and if these are regulated or not.  While both are important and useful, the managerial accounting report is highly detailed, technical, and specific. This makes it possible to create a forecast of what may come up in the future. It's also not regulated like the financial accounting statement, which is made for investors, lenders, and the general public. This report only shows a company's historical performance. Therefore a forecast isn't possible.

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Financial accounting and managerial accounting (sometimes called management accounting) are quite different. While both these types of accounting deal with numbers, managerial accounting is strictly for internal use. Financial accounting, on the other hand, focuses primarily on the collection of accounting information to create financial statements.

A financial accounting system is aimed at external decision-makers such as investors, regulators, and creditors, while a managerial accounting system is aimed at internal decision-makers such as managers.

What's the Difference Between Financial and Managerial Accounting?

Financial Accounting

Managerial Accounting

Reporting Focus
Creating financial statements to be shared with both external and internal stakeholders

Operational reporting to be shared within the company

Frequency
Due at the end of an accounting period

Issued more frequently and as needed by management

Standards
Need to follow various accounting standards

No set of standards

Period
Looks at the past by examining financial information

Looks to the future using forecasting

Reporting and Frequency

Financial accounting focuses on statements based on financial information, to be shared with both internal and external shareholders. These financial statements are due at the end of an accounting period, typically once a year, although they may be compiled more frequently.

Managerial accounting focuses on operational reporting and looks to the future by using forecasting. These reports are shared internally within the company, typically with managers and senior employees. Managerial accounting reports are issued more frequently and follow no specific period.

Note

Statements created with financial accounting are completely historical and based on a defined time period. Managerial accounting creates business forecasts and is used to make business decisions.

Accounting Standards

One of the biggest differences between financial and managerial accounting is their legal status. As the reports created with managerial consulting are purely for internal use, there is no specific set of accounting standards they need to adhere to. Each company is free to use its own system and rules when creating managerial reports.

On the other hand, financial accounting reports are tightly regulated, especially when it comes to a company's balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. The information contained in these statements is available for public review and used by investors, which is why companies need to be very careful about how they report figures and make calculations for these.

In the U.S., the financial accounting reports of a company are governed by the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) as adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Conforming to these rules allows lenders and investors to directly compare companies based on their financial statements.

Note

Managerial accounting statements can be drawn up by Certified Management Accountants (CMAs), while financial accounts are drawn up by Certified Public Accountants (CPAs).

Which Is Right for You?

Choosing between financial accounting and managerial accounting should not be difficult, and the choice mainly depends on your company's specific needs and business model.

When Financial Accounting Works Best

Financial accounting reports are typically generalized and concise, and information is less revealing because they are available to outside parties. Most companies will require financial statements regularly.

Choose financial accounting if you:

Want to make reports available externally

Want to look at the company's historical performance

Want to only look at financial data

Want to provide information accepted by outside regulators

When Managerial Accounting Works Best

Managerial accounting reports tend to be more detailed and technical in nature. Companies are often looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage, so they examine a lot of information that might be hard to understand for outside parties.

An example would be an internet company that uses cloud computing services for its employees. The monthly rates for renting out cloud space have increased, so a managerial accounting report can detail the company's budget for cloud services against its actual expenses to see if the increases in cloud services are costing the company too much.

Choose managerial accounting if you:

Want to make reports available internally

Want to do forecasting

Want to look at financial and operational data

Want to focus on specific management needs

Note

Managerial accounting is used by managers to better understand and run the company, while financial accounting is used by third parties to evaluate a company's compliance standards as set out by regulators such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

Although it's entirely possible for a company to only use financial accounting, employing it along with managerial accounting can offer a best-of-both-worlds option: accurate financial information and a clear path to planning for a better future.

The Bottom Line

The key difference between financial accounting and managerial accounting lies in the intended users of information for each. Financial accounting provides financial data to third parties outside of the company, while managerial accounting provides important information that allows managers within the organization to make informed business decisions.

Financial accounting must follow certain standards in accordance with GAAP, which is a requirement for businesses based in the U.S. to maintain their publicly traded statuses. Managerial accounting is not intended for external users and can be modified according to the company's processes.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which should be taken first, financial accounting or managerial accounting?

To pursue a career in business leadership, it is recommended to take managerial accounting after financial accounting. Financial accountants have a solid knowledge base and skill set in accounting with a good understanding of debit, credit, and financial reporting, which is helpful when preparing managerial financial reports.

Which is harder, financial accounting or managerial accounting?

Managerial or management accounting is considered to be easier, as it requires fewer journal entries and mostly involves budgeting and forecasting. It is used for internal purposes only and doesn't require financial statements that conform to specific accounting standards.

Are personal finances considered financial accounting or managerial accounting?

Personal finances are closer to financial accounting rather than managerial accounting. This is because your personal finances often involve the preparation of financial statements to show income and expenses, and tracking your net worth. You may also need to monitor bank statements, investments, and more, requiring similar steps to preparing financial statements for a business.

Why is accounting important?

Accounting plays a very important role in running a business, as it ensures statutory compliance, helps you keep track of income and expenses, and provides managers and investors with financial data that can be used to make important business decisions.

The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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Financial Accounting vs. Managerial Accounting: What's the Difference?

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Financial accounting and managerial accounting (sometimes called management accounting) are quite different. While both these types of accounting deal with numbers, managerial accounting is strictly for internal use. Financial accounting, on the other hand, focuses primarily on the collection of accounting information to create financial statements.

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Conflicts are bound to arise in any partnership when taking one on. Preemptively taking measures to avoid any conflicts with a business partner has garnered my attention, as this can be applied to all partnerships/relationships in future business endeavors. Rushing to judgement and wanting your agenda to be heard are common mistakes in a partnership.  Both partners need to be active listeners and have a daily communication session to air out any issues that arise. They should know each others expectations and have a clear end goal to meet. I believe using “Active Listening” and having a professional moderator present to draw up end goals in a contract, could avoid any future discrepancies when moving forward with the business plan. When pursuing my small business ventures, being able to have these tenets in place will help protect me and keep things moving forward in the long run.

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Article Summary: Working with a business partner has its rewards as well as its challenges. Like any relationship, it might be unreasonable to assume that you will always get along. With that in mind, here are 4 rules for handling conflicts with your business partner:

1. Plan ahead, when possible, and stop fights before they happen

2. Don't rush to judgement

3. Have an "Active Listening" session

4. Don't be afraid to ask for outside help

Working with a business partner can be very rewarding if you know how to deal with the natural disagreements and conflicts that crop up. Keep reading to learn more.

The one certainty with a business partnership, as with any close relationship, is that conflicts will arise. But when you're working very closely with another person or group, it can be easy to get emotional and lose sight of the larger picture, particularly when the stakes are high and money is on the line. Which is why learning how to handle conflicts with your business partner is so important.

A conflict with your partner doesn't have to throw your business into a tailspin. There are steps you can take to contain disagreements, manage them so each party feels heard, and find a resolution that leaves your partnership, and your business, safely intact.

Here are four tactics that will help you handle conflicts with your business partner:
1. Plan Ahead When Possible, and Stop Fights Before They Start
If there are topics you know will likely prompt a disagreement down the road, see if you can cut them off before they start. For example, one of the most common fights among partners is that one partner feels she's doing an unfair amount of the work. If you're heading into a new expansion phase, or holiday season, or any other unusually busy time, lay out specific responsibilities in advance, so there can be no questions about the division of labor.
2. Don't Rush to Judgment
For the owners and operators of a small business, every decision can seem large, and often deeply personal. When your partner disagrees with you on an issue that's important to you, it can be very easy to shut down and shift into battle mode. But finding the patience to stop, take a breath, and consider your partner's position will be a huge determinant in whether the argument gets resolved quickly and painlessly, or not. Remember the bigger picture: you entered into this partnership because you both shared a vision for the business, and you each brought strengths to the table. If you value your partner as a whole, you must value her viewpoint on this issue, even if you don't agree with it.
3. Have an "Active Listening" Session
This is a common dispute-resolution tactic in which each person agrees to sit and listen to the other's position and opinion, without speaking or reacting, for a set period of time - usually around 3 to 5 minutes. It's a remarkably useful tool for cooling tempers and giving each side new insight into the other's position. In a business partnership, it matters less who wins than how each partner feels once the conflict is resolved - if one side feels marginalized and resentful, that result can poison the partnership, and the business, over time. Practicing active listening and other exercises like it can ease any ongoing tensions and make each side feel heard.
4. Don't be afraid to ask for outside help.
Sometimes, a neutral third party is what's needed in order to resolve a dispute. The entire field of mediation exists for this reason. Mediators are trained to handle disputes of all kinds, and using one could lead to a cleaner dispute, a faster resolution, and an outcome that is more favorable to both parties. If the outcome is a compromise, a mediator can ensure that each side is giving up a fair amount, and that no one leaves the negotiating table feeling ripped off.

If a professional mediator doesn't sound appealing, you could consider using a friend or colleague, though the person you choose should be fully neutral, and trained in handling disputes. Otherwise you could wind up with a mediator who does more harm than good.

Conflicts are a given, but you can't lose sight of the larger goal: to resolve the disagreement as effectively and amicably as possible, so that you and your partner can continue running a healthy and growing business. These for tips for dealing with conflicts with your business partner will help you work together and find success while doing it.

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Handling Conflicts With Your Business Partner | OnDeck

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Article Summary: Working with a business partner has its rewards as well as its challenges. Like any relationship, it might be unreasonable to assume that you will always get along.

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What I found to be the most interesting part of this module is how involved the production managers roles are in every aspect of firm's growth. Whether it's physically growing the firm or it's financial growth,  the production managers are needed every step of the way. It starts from choosing a location of the facility for production to the delivery of the final product.  They are responsible for the costs of labor,  supplies, and manufacturing.  Operation managers are responsible for finding the best logistical site for building the firm's facilities to which employee is best suited for the job. Three-fourths of the firms assets are their responsibility. After realizing this, I found that they are one of the most important positions in the production industry.

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What Is Operations Management (OM)?

Operations management (OM) is the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization. It is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization.

Operations management teams attempt to balance costs with revenue to achieve the highest net operating profit possible.

Key Takeaways

Understanding Operations Management (OM)

Operations management involves utilizing resources from staff, materials, equipment, and technology. Operations managers acquire, develop, and deliver goods to clients based on client needs and the abilities of the company.

Operations management handles various strategic issues, including determining the size of manufacturing plants and project management methods and implementing the structure of information technology networks. Other operational issues include the management of inventory levels, including work-in-process levels and raw materials acquisition, quality control, materials handling, and maintenance policies.

Operations management entails studying the use of raw materials and ensuring that minimal waste occurs. Operations managers use numerous formulas, such as the economic order quantity formula, to determine when and how large an inventory order to process and how much inventory to hold on hand.

Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM)

A critical function of operations management relates to the management of inventory through the supply chain. This process is known as operations and supply chain management (OSCM). To be an effective operations management professional, one must be able to understand the processes that are essential to what a company does and get them to flow and work together seamlessly. The coordination involved in setting up business processes in an efficient way requires a solid understanding of logistics.

An operations management professional understands local and global trends, customer demand, and available resources for production. Operations management approaches the acquisition of materials and the use of labor in a timely, cost-effective manner to deliver customer expectations. Inventory levels are monitored to ensure that excessive quantities are on hand. Operations management is responsible for finding vendors that supply the appropriate goods at reasonable prices and have the ability to deliver the product when needed.

Another large facet of operations management involves the delivery of goods to customers. This includes ensuring that products are delivered within the agreed time commitment. Operations management also typically follows up with customers to ensure that the products meet quality and functionality needs. Finally, operations management takes the feedback received and distributes the relevant information to each department to use in process improvement.

What Operations Managers Do

Operations managers are involved in coordinating and developing new processes while reevaluating current structures. Organization and productivity are two key drivers of being an operations manager, and the work often requires versatility and innovation. As part of their daily responsibilities, operations managers must possess a variety of skill sets, including:

Technical expertise in areas such as production automation, data entry, budget tracking, and design.

Organizational ability and attention to detail to include keeping track of project files, employee reports, budgets, schedules, and other details related to company processes.

Motivational prowess in the form of strong leadership skills that provide the expertise to motivate others, inspire ideas, and foster a supportive and diverse team.

Analytical aptitude, including skill in risk analysis and mitigation when initiating new projects. Operations managers also must analyze processes to identify challenges and offer solutions in the event that negative situations develop.

Decision-making proficiency, especially under stress when there is very little time to assess all factors.

Ability to maintain quality standards, including as they relate to raw materials, machinery, manufacturing procedures, packaging, delivery processes, and the finished product.

A master of business administration (MBA) degree in operations management can provide global perspective on industry trends and an awareness of financial regulations and political uncertainties that can affect an organization. It also provides a solid grasp of the inherent complexities and the tools needed to respond well to change.

What is the purpose of operations management (OM)?

Operations management (OM) is concerned with controlling the production process and business operations in the most efficient manner possible. OM professionals attempt to balance operating costs with revenue to maximize net operating profit.

What are some systems of operations management?

Modern operations management revolves around four theories:

Business process redesign (BPR), which is focused on analyzing and designing workflow and business processes within a company. The goal of BPR is to help companies dramatically restructure the organization by designing the business process from the ground up.

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems, designed to incorporate accelerated change in structure, hardware, and software components. This allows systems to adjust rapidly to the capacity to which they can continue production and how efficiently they function in response to market or intrinsic system changes.

Six Sigma, an approach that focuses on quality. The word "six" references the control limits, which are placed at six standard deviations from the normal distribution mean. Tools used within the Six Sigma process include trending charts, potential defect calculations, and other ratios.

Lean manufacturing, which is the systematic elimination of waste within the manufacturing process. This theory sees resource use for any reason other than value creation for customers as wasteful and seeks to eliminate wasteful resource expenditures as much as possible.

What is an example of operations management?

Operations management is prevalent in the healthcare sector. The current healthcare system overuses expensive, technological, and emergency-based treatment. High costs from care often remain uncompensated due to uninsured patients. A prevalence of services in expensive settings creates a burden on taxpayers, health insurance holders, and healthcare institutions.

The Bottom Line

In simple terms, operations management (OM) is the process of employing business practices designed to achieve maximum efficiency as a means to achieve maximum profitability. Within the process, operations managers utilize organization and productivity to achieve their primary goals.

Balancing the efficient use of resources, including staff, materials, equipment, and technology, is key to a successful OM process and, by extension, to the success of the company.

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Operations Management: Understanding and Using It

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Operations management (OM) is the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization. It is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization.

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Making Ethical Decisions and Managing a Socially Responsible Business 

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Making Ethical Decisions and Managing a Socially Responsible Business 

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Large companies create such a huge social impact, and these companies should be held “socially responsible”. Diving into this chapter, I definitely learned how important it is for a company to make sure they are replenishing their resources just as quickly as they are using them. They are held to high Ethical and Economic Responsibilities, without which many companies would be faced with fines for an Illegal and Irresponsible behavior. The companies that focus on doing social good help create social change, thus local and global communities end up thriving. Patagonia for instance makes all their products from recycled materials or sustainable ones, unlike many “fast fashion” companies. They also donate 1% of their sales to many environmental organizations across the world . These small steps can help reduce our carbon footprint and create real social change.

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Frankly, our understanding of business's "social responsibility" is wrong.

We need to set our standards higher.

Should companies consider their social impacts alongside profits or above profits? The nuance between one or the other seems marginal, but the effect is tremendous.

After four years of research and over 200 interviews with business leaders on the edges of both social and environmental sustainability, I've come to believe that defining these terms (like what is a socially responsible business) is critically important.

In this post, I hope to offer a more inspired definition of what social responsibility in business can and should look like.

I'll outline briefly why social responsibility is important for companies and what a truly socially responsible company looks like. I'll share several examples of companies committed to the practices and values I'll soon share below.

Let's start with the why.

Why is Social Responsibility Important for Companies?

I won't go on a diatribe here as to why companies that adopt socially responsible practices are winning the hearts (and most importantly, the wallets) of younger workers, consumers, etc. - I won't labor on the point that companies perceived as ethical or responsible increase their brand's market value.

If you're looking for a business case for social responsibility, look elsewhere. Because here, as members of the "business community" ourselves, we believe it's critical to change our standards for what's good and socially responsible business.
Social responsibility is essential for companies because it's what's right.
That must be the standard-doing the right things in business and pursuing the most ethical and high-integrity business practices are important not because it's good business but because it's good.

We shouldn't hold the business community to a different standard than everyone else.

The jobs a company creates, and the service a company provides, don't justify any level of exploitation or degradation, no matter where in the world it's occurring.

And, to make the "business case" for a company to pursue social responsibility perpetuates a business culture of profits above all else.

We make significant change when we change what we value.

If positive social impact is pursued only to the extent that it positively affects our business interests, then that will always be our upper limit. The extent to which a business will "positively impact" the world around it is saddled to how those impacts affect the bottom line.

That sounds more like marketing than any change in mission.

We have to wonder why Walmart is more interested in charity, or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), than increasing employee wages?

In early 2023, Walmart announced it was increasing its minimum wage for workers to $14 per hour (previously $12 per hour). The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently published its findings on what a "Living Wage" should be in the United States.

Their findings report a "living wage in the United States is $25.02 per hour, or $104,077.70 per year in 2022, before taxes for a family of four (two working adults, two children)."

What would be the impact if Walmart increased its minimum wage to meet MIT's recommended living wage? In the U.S., Walmart employs roughly 1.6 million. For reference, high employment levels through 2021 and 2022 allowed many low-wage workers to confidently quit their jobs and find better, higher-paying ones. This trend produced the most significant decrease in the income gap between high-wage and low-wage earners in 40 years.

So why doesn't Walmart increase wages? The social implications of such a decision would be monumental. Can they not afford it? Walmart's most recently reported annual profit was $147.568 billion. Why does Walmart invest so much in CSR but not employee wages? I imagine one costs Walmart less and allows them to publicize their "good image" more than the other.

Giving back to the community offers much greater raw material for marketing and branding than just paying people appropriately.

The more we justify a company's unethical actions (or inaction) based on their economic impact, the more we license companies to be unethical. If we say that Amazon's jobs are a "life saver" for some people, does that shield Amazon from criticism? Does that justify their brutal, low-pay working conditions?

To believe that, in any regard, is beyond uninspiring. Do we not believe that we, and all members of the global workforce, deserve a better alternative? Should you be grateful if you were starving on the corner and someone rolled down their window to hand you a crap sandwich?

I highly recommend Jessica Bruder's excellent and jarring book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. Bruder immersed herself in a subculture in America of mostly retirement-age people who, for one reason or another, can't afford retirement and are forced to supplement with seasonal jobs, very often, jobs in an Amazon warehouse. The Amazon seasonal employees report punishing working conditions and sustain acute injuries, all for meager pay and little or no benefits.

So, social responsibility is essential for business because we need a new and evolved narrative around what makes a good business a good business.

Let's talk more about that point here-to evolve our understanding of what makes for a socially responsible company in the first place before sharing examples that animate all we've covered.

📼 WATCH: Check out our multi-part series: Sustainable Business 101

What is a Socially Responsible Company?

A proper understanding of what is a socially responsible company will shed important light on the examples I'll share below.

But, to get that to that understanding, there are critical nuances to answering this question that we should cover first:

1. A "Socially Responsible Company" should just be what we call a "Good" company.

I've discussed this at length elsewhere, but the biggest businesses in the world aren't the businesses that are always best for the world.

With the world's challenges today (climate change, inequality, social division, etc.) we must set higher standards for what makes any business good.

And so it follows that profitability, market share, and notoriety of a visionary CEO can no longer alone be the metrics by which we make that assessment.

When we say a business is a good business, we must now think about the impact of that business-are all stakeholders affected by the company (planet and people included!) better off?

The various terms we're using, sustainable businesses, purpose-driven businesses, or even in some circles, regenerative businesses, really don't matter. The goal here of pointing out which companies are taking their impact on the environment and roles in their respective communities seriously is really for changing what we see as a "Good" business, period.
2. Social responsibility and environmental responsibility of business are the same.
Another subject I've touched on elsewhere, we cannot separate the social responsibility of business and the environmental responsibility of business. These are inextricably linked.

It doesn't make sense to look at and assess these responsibilities in isolation.

Pollution, for example, might seem strictly environmental. However, the effects of pollution are significant and tragic even for those who have to live around it.

Plastics are made of 1,000s of different chemicals. The omnipresence of plastic means these chemicals have entered our food chain, water, soils, and damn near everything in between. Recent research from Swiss university ETH Zurich found plastics are even more toxic than previously thought!

Researchers discovered chemicals within various plastic products known to cause asthma, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, and many more ailments.

And so, this is why I can't help but strongly disagree with mentions of Coca-Cola as a "socially responsible company" on other publications' lists. Aside from the health effects of the core products their business is built upon, Coca-Cola generates nearly 3 million tons of plastic packaging each year, and reporting has found that while they've claimed to set targets to reduce this number and the subsequent waste flow, they've made no notable progress towards those reduction targets.

Their total plastic packaging output has increased in recent years, up nearly 9% in a single year alone!

That plastic and plastic pollution to follow affects the quality of lives of people in the communities that have to live around it.

So to me, Coca-Cola is not a "socially responsible company." And whatever internal initiatives they boast to boost gender diversity at the leadership level of their company that doesn't offset their business' life-altering effects on external stakeholders, which brings us to a final point.
3. Charity does not equal social responsibility.
Social responsibility in business is about the DNA of a company, not some charitable arm of the business. This is where we are mixing the term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with a non-defined but vastly more important social responsibility.

Let's take Starbucks, for example. Another company that I cannot agree with other publications designating as "socially responsible."

You'll see Starbucks' social impact programs (Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives) touted on various lists. They give millions away every year through their Starbucks Foundation.

However, Starbucks has also been the subject of egregious labor conditions. A few years ago, reporting from The Guardianshared that Starbucks' supplying coffee farms employed children as young as eight to pick coffee beans.

Let's not forget that oppressive child labor has been outlawed in the U.S. for 80 years, thanks to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Starbucks has also made the most recent news as a Federal Labor Judge ruled the company violated workers' rights "hundreds of times" as store employees attempted a unionization campaign in Buffalo, NY.

Again, a worker's right to organize is protected by law thanks to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Breaking nearly 100-year-old labor laws isn't "socially responsible."

More nuanced, I don't believe that any of the "good" that Starbucks does offset their "egregious and widespread misconduct," as Federal Labor Judge Michael Rosas described it.

Starbucks engages in much charity, sure. But that's irrelevant. Consciousness around their "social impact" is not ingrained into the company's DNA. As demonstrated, they are comfortable breaking the law to protect their business interests.

Companies are increasingly integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs into their business and aligning themselves with pressing social movements. CSR initiatives look different for different companies, but it typically includes programs around charitable fundraising, workplace conditions, social benefits like health care, volunteerism, and environmentalism.

But, for our purposes here, we are looking at companies that go further than any program, campaign, or short-term initiative-businesses and business people with social responsibility baked into their DNA.

These businesses determine to do the basic things of running a business the right way. They treat employees respectfully and equitably. They ensure that their supply chain is transparent and fair. They take complete responsibility for what impacts their business decisions make on all stakeholders.

So, concisely what is a socially responsible company? Here at Grow Ensemble at least, we define that as the following:
A "socially responsible company" is a company that continuously strives to leave people and the planet better off.
Yes-it took us a lot to get to that definition, but that's because this definition appears clear and perhaps simple on its face, but in practice becomes highly complex.

For more on this definition, I suggest reading the following: What is Sustainability in Business?

Let's move on to discussing our examples of socially responsible companies, so that we can add color to everything explained up until this point.

Examples of Socially Responsible Companies

Here is my list of companies explicitly displaying their commitment to social responsibility. I've had the pleasure of speaking with many of the business people behind these businesses personally, thanks to our podcast.

1. Dean's Beans

Dean's Beans produces & sells " specialty coffee as a vehicle for positive change."

Founder, Dean Cycon, started in coffee through the nonprofit sector, but in 1993, he set out to forge his own direct relationship with coffee growers around the world.

A "standard-bearing" social entrepreneur, Dean sought out to show that the business model in coffee could be profitable while, most importantly, being ethical. Today, Dean's Beans is a USDA Organic, Fair Trade, Bird-Friendly, Certified B Corporation coffee company.

As Dean so impactfully shared with me during our interview, " I believe that if your business is based on the suffering of others, you have no right to be in business."

Of course, I couldn't agree more-and Dean's business is clearly on the opposite end of that spectrum.

They maintain long-standing relationships with their growers, pay a fair price for coffee beans, and redistribute profits back to the growers themselves. Dean's also attempts to affect sustainable change in coffee-growing regions through their People-Centered Development Programs.

These are a variety of economic, environmental, and social projects they only take on at the behest of the local coffee-growing communities. If invited, they listen to and talk to local groups to learn what might be holding them back from their self-identified development goals.

I recommend Dean's book, JavaTrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee for a more in-depth understanding of the complicated globalized coffee industry.

Dean's Beans designs the project at the direction of the local stakeholders, avoiding bringing in outside organizations/help at all costs if the local community can manage it themselves. They fund the projects with the sales from Dean's Beans or as Dean states himself, sometimes his home equity loan.

Dean's Beans sees the greatest chance of making a sustained, positive impact by putting the coffee-growing community members in charge of any development projects and opting to be a resource provider (little else).

Dean's Beans just celebrated their 30th anniversary-and with that, Dean is retiring, selling the company to his employees as Dean's Beans becomes a worker-owned co-op.

2. Dojo4

Dojo4 is a member-owned software development agency that is committed to creating positive change through technology and design. What's unique about the company's commitment to ethical business practices is their willingness to be radically transparent and open to help others in the tech or business world to do the same.

I found this quote from Dojo4 Co-Founder and CEO, Corey Kohn, to illustrate what I mean here perfectly, she explained to me, "For me and my colleagues, kindness is the foundation of how we do business. We absolutely must feel like we're in genuinely respectful, kind relationships with our clients, with our coworkers, even with our competition, in order to feel like we're doing our best work."

As a small business, Dojo4 invested time, energy, and resources into "open-sourcing" what they call the Dojo4 playbook-everything they've learned to be as ethical and responsible a business as possible.

Anyone can view and use their open-sourced policy documents that have helped them to earn and retain B Corporation Certification since 2015. Likewise, they open source their bylaws, membership agreements, and term sheets in the hopes of helping other small businesses along the way to become worker-owned cooperatives.

3. Patagonia

Patagonia has long been a pioneer in socially and environmentally responsible business. For decades, wherever the boundary was for business to be done in a different way, Patagonia has found a way to push that boundary.

The company was the first Benefit Corporation in California when legislation passed to allow such a corporate designation.

Patagonia's Founder, Yvon Chouinard, was the Co-Founder of the 1% for the Planet business network. As part of the network, all member companies commit themselves to donate 1% of top-line revenue to environmental grassroots nonprofit organizations.

Patagonia was also one of the first of it's kind to offer paid leave and child care for staff onsite, offer freedom and flexibility in their work schedule, and the company is responsible for co-founding the Regenerative Organic Alliance, which is accountable for certifying farms for their implementation of regenerative organic agriculture practices.

There are complications with a company of the size of Patagonia, however.

While exemplary on many accounts of "corporate citizenship," like far too many businesses, Patagonia has difficulty keeping track of their incredibly complex globalized supply chain. Patagonia has made news for it's supply chain's connection to Uyghur forced labor in the Chinese province of Xinjiang as recently as 2022. The company exited the province but I can't help but wonder if they should've been there at all (given they've had supply chain issues in the past).

A symbolic leader of the better business movement for sure (which I think is why they are still worth mentioning and learning from), but in practice, has much, much work to do and in my opinion, we must aspire to mimic other business models.

➤ Learn more about Patagonia with my book review of Let My People Go Surfing.

4. TS Designs

TS Designs is a large-volume business-to-business screen printing company. President of TS Designs, Eric Henry, if asked about Patagonia's above supply chain issues, I imagine he'd say something like the following:

Make the supply chain shorter.

TS Designs, based in Burlington, North Carolina, has built a completely domestic supply chain, which Eric Henry proudly calls a "dirt to shirt" supply chain because, from dirt to shirt, the supply chain is 100% transparent.

When you purchase a TS Designs made t-shirt or buy a shirt from their consumer-facing clothing company, Solid State Clothing, you can scan a QR code on the shirt's tag and see exactly where your clothing was grown and made.

Eric believes the more transparent any business can be, not just those in fashion, the better outcomes we'll see. Too often, large companies with vast globalized supply chains excuse environmental and labor abuses because of how difficult it is to keep track of all the activity.

Eric, rightfully so, thinks abuse and exploitation are inexcusable. Likewise, a supply chain's complexity is inexcusable as the business decides how and where to build it. Eric is a fierce advocate for transparency and sustainability in fashion-and he attributes his connection and proximity to his supply chain to his business' long-sustained success and exceptional standard-bearing in those categories. From the cotton field to the finishing cut and sew, Eric can tell you precisely who touched your t-shirt.

And so for TS Designs, nothing or, more importantly, no one is hidden along their supply chain.

5. Navajo Power

Navajo Power was founded to ensure that the clean energy economy was equitable. The company exists to create economic opportunities for tribal communities through the advancement of clean, renewable energy projects.

The Founder, Brett Isaac, a member of the Navajo Nation, saw his community devastated by the closure and departure of a coal company. Even when coal plants were operational on tribal territories, community members weren't benefiting because, as Brett shared with me, there wasn't any representation:

"I'm a Navajo kid watching these companies being led by white guys from outside of our communities, making big decisions on behalf of Navajo employees and Navajo livelihoods.

I always felt disconnected in terms of why isn't someone I know in those positions? Why haven't Navajo ascended to the C suites of these different companies?"

Hoping to secure a different fate and different levels of representation for tribal communities as our country transitions to a zero-carbon economy, Brett committed himself to action. As stated by Navajo Power, they have "the necessary combination of technical expertise, cultural and linguistic aptitude, and access to capital" to deploy successful clean energy projects throughout Indian country that benefit the various tribal communities.

6. Adre

Adre is an equity-centered real estate development firm. The company seeks to "create social and economic benefits for Black, Indigenous, and people of color through the creation of affordable homes, mixed-use developments, and facilities for mission-driven organizations."

Founder, Anyeley Hallová, sees this firm Adre as an opportunity to showcase how development can be done differently.

As Anyely explained, the real estate development industry is uniquely positioned to address both the climate change crisis and historical discrimination. The construction industry is responsible for 40% of global emissions, and at least in the United States, home ownership (or land ownership) has historically been the road to creating generational wealth for American families (of which BIPOC communities have largely been excluded from).

And so, Anyeley and her team at Adre have committed to being on the leading edge of sustainable development with their involvement in various Mass Timber projects and as well, the edge of inclusive and equitable development as they explicitly target creating economic opportunity for those historically excluded from home and land ownership.

7. Dr. Bronner's

I'm sure you're familiar, but Dr. Bronner's is a family-owned and operated soapmaking company that was founded in 1948 by a third-generation German soapmaker, Emanuel Bronner.

The 60s and 70s brought Dr. Bronner's to somewhat prominence as the "We are All-One or None!" peace proclamation printed on the bottle labels resonated with the cultural movement of the time.

Today, after passing a few hands, Dr. Bronner's is led by David and Michael Bronner, brothers, and grandsons of Emanuel.

Dr. Bronner's and Patagonia worked to establish the above-mentioned Regenerative Organic Alliance, and the soapmakers have been on the edge of the organic and fair trade personal care product movement since its inception.

I advise reading Dr. Bronner's annual " All-One! Report " to understand further the many initiatives they are involved in regarding sustainable and ethical production.

As well, consider picking up Honor Thy Label: Dr. Bronner's Unconventional Journey to a Clean, Green, and Ethical Supply Chainby Gero Leson who has been in charge of Dr. Bronner's sourcing for nearly 20 years.

Dr. Bronner's also places caps on executive pay to ensure the difference is only five times greater than the lowest-paid employee and offers profit sharing, childcare benefits, and much more to its staff.

8. Tony's Chocolonely

In my interview with the then Chief Evangelist of Tony's Chocoloney, Ynzo van Zanten, Ynzo shared that Tony's was founded by a Dutch Journalist named Teun van de Keuken after he was shockedto learn the extent of how much illegal child labor exists on cocoa farms.

In 2003, Teun attempted to "turn himself in" for consuming chocolate he knew was produced using illegal child labor. The public prosecutor refused to prosecute Teun.

While he had yet to achieve the legal recourse he was hoping for, Teun decided to lead by example. And in 2005, he produced Tony's 100% Fair Trade, 100% exploitation-free chocolate bars.

Tony's was a smashing success; they quickly sold out on their first 5,000 bars.

I think what most stands out about Tony's is their willingness to tackle the problems of their industry head-on and to "learn in public" as they do so.

It turned out 100% Fair Trade didn'tmean 100% exploitation free. Tony's launched a research project in Africa to study the cocoa supply chain deeply and determine how to improve Fair Trade Certification.

In 2010, Tony's was called out for the child laborthat happens in hazelnut production in Turkey-Tony's switched producers.

In 2014, Tony's discovered that Fair Trade prices aren't enough for cocoa farmers-they introduced a premium that pays farmers 25% more than Fairtrade to ensure they make a living income.

I know all this because Tony's documents these short-term failures and their responses, and the evolution of their operation very publicly on their website for anyone to see.

They are seriousabout their mission to make the entirety of the chocolate industry 100% exploitation free. That's perhaps the reason for their tagline, crazy about chocolate, serious about people.

➤ Learn more about Tony's with my interview here.

9. Greyston Bakery

The Greyston Bakery slogan is straightforward: "Eat Brownies, Change Lives."

The Yonkers, New York-based bakery and social enterprise have gained some notoriety for their "Open Hiring" policy.

This means no background checks, no resumes, and no interviews.

Greyston claims their goal is to "unlock the power of human potential through inclusive employment."

And this has been a policy in place with Greyston since their founding in 1982.

Best of all, they've since created The Greyston Center for Open Hiring, which offers training, implementation support, research, and more to ensure other interested businesses have all they need to implement this more inclusive hiring practice.

This is just the beginning, as Greyston also offers workforce development programs and transitional employment programs, too.

As they say at Greyston, "We don't hire people to bake brownies. We bake brownies to hire people."

10. Good Good Good

Good Good Good is an independent media organization practicing a form of journalism now called Solutions Journalism. Solutions Journalism is an approach to reporting that, as the Solutions Journalism Network explains, focuses on "how people are trying to solve problems and what we can learn from their successes or failures."

Solutions Journalism advocates for telling the whole story-yes, acknowledging the genuine challenges we face in the world, but without leaving readers in despair. Solutions Journalism, while still objective and committed to reporting on what's happening, is committed to sharing what's happening but not often reported-progress.

This is why Good Good Good says they are providing their readers with "Real good news, not just 'feel good' news."

The goal of Good Good Good and other fledgling media organizations like them is to help their readership find progress, feel more hopeful (vs. hopeless), and as a product of all that, be more inspired and energized to take action when the opportunity presents itself.

Conclusion

By browsing through our set of examples here, you can begin to understand what a better definition might be for what truly socially responsible businesses can and do look like.

Social responsibility efforts are simply about doing the boring things in business right. It's about being equitable and fair to local and global communities in how supply chains are built and operated.

It's about company leadership treating their staff like human beings, not as an employee engagement scheme, but because people (labor) cannot be reduced to a line item on a P&L statement.

It's about heightened consciousness around your environmental impact, pursuing zero waste production, using recycled materials, measuring, and taking drastic action to lessen your carbon footprint.

Corporate responsibility must be social responsibility. It's not right or sensible to hold companies to a different standard than we would our neighbors.

It's worth reflecting on whether we believe that we, people, exist to serve businesses or that businesses exist to help us, our communities, and future generations.

It's not enough for a company to create jobs because we know not all jobs are created equal.

Cory Ames

Co-Founder & CEO, Grow Ensemble

Our Latest Articles & Interviews:

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The 10 Most Socially Responsible Companies (2023)

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Wondering what are the most socially responsible companies? See our list of socially conscious brands using business as a force for good.

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Understanding Economic Systems & Business

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Understanding Economic Systems & Business

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When it comes to understanding economic systems and business, my biggest takeaway from this chapter was learning about the economic systems of the world. My knowledge on the subject prior was limited, and only had a general understanding of the economic breakdowns; Capitalism, Communism Socialism and Mixed Economy. We really have come very far in our American Capitalistic System of doing business. Dating back to April 10, 1947 when the first mission statement was written that would later form and mold us into the world  we live in today. Comparatively this is the only system that truly makes us free as a country.

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The Throughline team has been thinking about capitalism a lot these days. It's hard not to when so many people are struggling just to get by.

Capitalism is an economic system, but it's also so much more than that. It's become a sort of ideology, this all-encompassing force that rules over our lives and our minds. It might seem like it's an inevitable force, but really, it's a construction project that took hundreds of years and no part of it is natural or just left to chance.

So here's what we did. First, we wanted to look at what makes American capitalism distinct, if it is even distinct? Is it uniquely individual, uniquely efficient, uniquely cutthroat? Like, these are all the things that we've been thinking about a lot.

And so we brought together three REALLY DIFFERENT experts who come at these questions from REALLY DIFFERENT points of view.

Bryan Caplan's an economist and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, Vivek Chibber studies Marxist theory and historical sociology, and Kristen Ghodsee is an expert in what happened after the fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe.

And we had a conversational round of analysis that led us from colonial times, through waves of innovation and American development to the American Dream Mall in New Jersey.

We compared the happiness index in countries to see crazy things like how much happier people in Denmark report that they are, compared to Americans.

But that's not all. We wanted to dive deeper into the dominance of Capitalism in the 20th century American mindset.

What's the role of government in society? What do we mean when we talk about individual responsibility? What makes us free? 'Neoliberalism' might feel like a term that's hard to define and understand. But it's the dominant socio-economic ideology of both major American political parties - Republican and Democrats - no matter how much partisan rhetoric might be geared towards absolute division.

And this ideology, this belief in free markets, deregulation, and privatization can be traced back - pretty directly - to a group of men meeting in the Swiss Alps.

On April 10, 1947, a group of 39 economists, historians and sociologists gathered in a conference room of a posh ski resort at Mont Pelerin, Switzerland. Glasses clinked. Cigars burned. A mission statement was written.

And from that meeting, they would start an organization called The Mont Pelerin Society, MPS. The ideas discussed in that room more than 70 years ago would evolve and warp and, this is no exaggeration, come to shape the world we live in. Those ideas have dominated our economic system for decades. In the name of free market fundamentals, the forces behind neoliberalism act like an invisible hand, shaping almost every aspect of our lives.

From the TV advertisements we all grew up watching to the way the internet is understood today.

That's not all. We're also dropping a third episode on Capitalism this coming Thursday, July 8. For that episode, we explore how religion and capitalism joined forces to change the way we think about our work, our society, and ourselves - the Prosperity Gospel.

To receive it when it drops subscribe here in Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your pods.

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Capitalism Has Become An Ideology In Today's America. Here's How It Happened

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The Throughline team has been thinking about capitalism a lot these days. It's hard not to when so many people are struggling just to get by. Capitalism is an economic system, but it's also so much more than that. It's become a sort of ideology, this all-encompassing force that rules over our lives and our minds.