According to the Washington Post, Purdue has acquired the for-profit Kaplan University to extend its reach into online and adult education, which some see as an unusual move for a public institution. Questions: 1. What were the benefits to Purdue of acquiring Kaplan? 2. What are the potential downsides of this acquisition for Purdue? 3…. Read more »
Posts Tagged: cost and benefits
Salary and Class Inequality at the World Bank?
As outsourcing has become more common, even the World Bank is seeing its share of employee discontent about contract employees. Roughly half of those that work for the World Bank are consultants, brought on for fixed contracts that often end up being renewed over and over again. Across the bank’s offices worldwide, there are currently… Read more »
A Model of Innovation or Intimidation?
According to the New York Times, white-collar workers at Amazon are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are “unreasonably high.” The internal phone directory instructs colleagues… Read more »
A Good Thing or A Bad Thing? WOW!
Three months ago, Dan Price announced he was setting a new minimum salary of $70,000 at his Seattle credit card processing firm, Gravity Payments, and slashing his own million-dollar pay package to do it. The result has been turmoil, both internally and externally. Questions: 1. What new costs has Mr. Price faced since his announcement… Read more »
Team Disney – Its a Small World After All
Nothing could be worse than losing your job, except maybe being required to train your replacement. That is what happened in the Magical Kingdom when cheaper H-1B workers from an India outsourcing firm replaced about 250 U.S. employees at the end of January this year. Questions: 1. What explanation did Disney executives give for this… Read more »
The World of Drones
At a farm in Dublin, Ireland, Paul Brennan took a video that has gone viral for its creativity in using drones – rounding up sheep. Questions: 1. Put on your thinking cap. Is there any task that a drone could do in the future to assist the accountant or auditor? 2. Besides Amazon, what other… Read more »
How many 112 year olds are taking new jobs?
A recent audit of the Social Security Administration revealed that thousands of workers over the age of 100 applied through the U.S. government to verify their employment eligibility in recent years. Questions: 1. About how many active Social Security numbers in the Administration’s master file belong to people who are at least 112 years old?… Read more »
Credit Unions for Pot?
Since medical marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2001 and recreational marijuana was legalized a year ago, sellers have had limited, if any, access to banking services. As a result, a group of other entrepreneurs in Colorado want to start the first-ever financial institution established specifically to serve the pot industry. Questions: 1. What are… Read more »
That’s the Walmart Way!
An Oklahoma City Walmart is asking employees to donate food to help their coworkers make ends meet during the holiday season. The company drew criticism for similar employee food drives a year ago. Besides incurring a total public assistance cost of $6.2 billion per year, Walmart has been criticized for running a corporate charity called… Read more »
Separation of Power
Netflix shareholders will vote on at the company’s annual meeting on Monday is a proposal by two public pension funds to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive. Both are held by Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder. Questions: 1. Who are the backers of this corporate governance issue and why do you think they are… Read more »