Take-Home Quiz: The Go-Giver By John David Mann

Nickels, W., McHugh, J., & McHugh, S. (2013). Understanding Business. (10th ed.) New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.

Given such a turbulent business environment, building relationships with important stakeholders is crucial to a firm’s well-being. Both customers and employees are major concerns for firms that want to develop loyalty and competitive advantages. The challenge for long-run success in business is to continually increase the customer’s dependence on the company to provide products in an environment of mutual respect and perceived fairness. Creating mutually beneficial exchange relationship with customers mean that both parties work together to understand needs and develop trust.

Why is partnering described as the highest-quality selling relationship? Why has the building of partnerships become more important today?

In her 1994 Newberry Acceptance Speech, author Lois Lowry recalls a memory of a girl in her college dormitory. She describes the young woman saying “She’s a smart girl, a good student, a pleasant enough person, but she is different, somehow alien,” (Lowry, “Newbery Acceptance Speech”). One can see how Lowry had inspiration for the character Jonas in her novel, The Giver. When writing, The Giver Lowry creates a dystopian society where the government has taken away the population’s ability to remember the past, see color, or have feelings. In the novel, Lois Lowry presents the protagonist and hero, Jonas. Jonas gets chosen to be the Receiver of Memory and his whole life changes. The current Receiver, an old man Jonas calls The Giver shows Jonas memories from the past that contain aspects ranging from history to feelings. He becomes aware of the government’s actions in hiding all the qualities and rebels against them in the end, leaving the city behind. Jonas is a twelve-year-old hero who is different, yet intelligent, and more selfless than the majority of the population in the novel. Jonas’s heroic personality can be analyzed through his vision, his reactions when receiving memories, and when he risks his life.

In this paper, I will write my response to the assigned reading of chapter four from How to Run Your Business by The Book by Dave Anderson.

I agree with your post. I believe value is an essential element of determining if products are worthy of your purchase. Value entails, whether the product or service is useful and can contribute to saving you time and money. Furthermore, value can be equated to whether or not the product or service will be beneficial and advantageous to our efforts. Personally, I tie value into whether or not the product will necessitate quality, durability, and longevity. Another aspect of value ties into whether or not you are likely return to certain business avenues to obtain more of the products and services in the future. If a person knows that they are receiving quality services and items, then they are more likely to give off free advertising via word of mouth marketing and are likely to refer

Customer Value is ‘the performance characteristics, features and attributes, and any other aspects of goods and which customers are willing to give up resources’ (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter, 2012). This broad definition highlights the fact that there are multiple aspects that contribute to create a sense of value within the customer.

It is important that you develop an awareness of what you value, as these values will be important in informing your relationships with clients, co–workers and employers.

Another question was whether or not they thought that the Staples ' Soul program was a good idea or not. Again the customer and the employee had agreed that it was a good idea, but it was not important to them. In fact Ms. Lam had stated that "I don 't really mind. Although I think that they should work on their customer relations a little more." Mr. Esteves, the stockholder, found this program important due to the fact that since it was instituted the stocks of Staples Inc. have been going up. Although all three agree it is not a bad idea, Ms. Lam and Mr. Forgione do not find this type of program important to them at all. The fact that they do not find this program of no importance is because it has absolutely no affect on the customer or the employee stakeholders. The benefits of this program do not directly impact a majority of its employees or its customers. It appears that the relationship between Staples and its employee and customer stakeholders is a straight give take relationship, through the perspective of the stakeholders. Ms. Lam, in answering about what type of relationship she had with Staples said, "I need supplies, they need money. They take my money, I take their supplies." While Mr. Forgione stated, "The only thing Staples has done for me is provide me with a paycheck every week and some benefits."

In Eliyahu Goldratt’s novel “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement”, he tells a story about a man going through hard times, in both his work life and personal life. Alex works in a manufacturing plant that is barely staying afloat, and his boss has left it up to him to keep the business running with a three-month time span to do it in. Even though “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement” is just a story, it is still very relatable to businessmen, businesswomen, and students. The three categories of constraints that are shown in the story are knowledge, material, and supplier.

In The Giver movie and The Giver book, there were lots of differences. Just to name a few that stood out a lot was that in the movie they skipped the beginning, Asher didn’t try to stop Jonas when he tried to escape and there was also no map. Therefore these differences are a big part because since they are being left out we are seeing something new in the movie that we didn’t and did see in the movie. For example, since they skipped the beginning they didn’t talk about when Jonas had a dream about Fiona and the wanting to do something. Also, when Jonas tried to run away from the society Asher wasn’t even mentioned in the story. Lastly, like how Asher was not mentioned in the story neither was the map that The Giver gave to Jonas. These

Nickels, W. G., McHugh, J. M., & McHugh, S. M. (2010). Understanding Business (9th ed., pp. 456-471). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Quality begins with the person providing the service or who makes a quality product which enhances the “perceived value” for the consumer; who gains from the exchange. The employee makes the product, the consumer buys the product, ensuring a relationship with the company who provides the livelihood for the employee. It is a perfect circle.

With the sound of music flowing through Jonas’s ears, Jonas sped down the hill; anticipating the reaction of the people waiting for him below. Somehow, Jonas knew this would work out. He knew that Gabe would survive, that he would have family and friends to love and that they would love him back. Jonas could feel someone helping through this. Maybe it was the Giver. All Jonas knew was that he could feel love in the air.

“Our values are our commitment to the way we will treat each other. We aspire to be a company that everyone is proud to shop with, work for and do business with. Our values apply to all our stakeholders, including our customers, our people, our shareholders and our suppliers.” (Greggs, 2010, [Online])