http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/24/technology/apple_store_sales/index.htm

The link above is an article about how the value of a single Apple store compars to the value of the White House. It says that the total value by each square foot is almost the same with a single Apple store. The Apple store is worth $4,709 per foot and the White House is $4,752.  This does not mean all the Apple stores that are all over the world, but just ONE single apple store compared to the White House.

In class we are learning about product quality. One of the nine dimensions of product quality is reputation. The article says that one of the main reasons that Apple is doing so well is not only because of their products, but because of their brand identity. Their brand identity goes along with their reputation for having trendy designs, reliable, and top quality products.

Other companies that did not create this brand identity for its reputation do not have the same kind of intangible qualities for its product. If you see a picture of a white apple you automatically know that its an Apple brand product. Even if you just see an apple, the fruit, you think of Apple and how you want their new iPad. The fact that I have to insert “the fruit” so you do not mistake it for the store is an example of their reputation. Whenever you hear the word apple you are probably thinking of the store and do not remember you actually eat them. When you even read the title of this post, you could probably picture an Apple store with its clear glass walls and huge Apple on the front and you can picture the White House just as clearly if not a little less.

This dimension of product quality is not seen in many other companies. If you think of Dell there is no such image that comes up to your mind except for just a regular laptop. Picture a Dell store. I can’t and I am not even sure if they have one other than selling them through retailers like Best Buy. That should be a problem. If you ask any random person what the logo for Dell is they probably won’t even know that inside the circle of their logo one of the letters of the word Dell is actually sideways.

My question is should reputation be one of the most important dimensions for product quality? Should other companies follow Apple’s example and try to create an identity for themselves that others can see as an icon?

Last class we learned about the roles that a project manager should be responsible with and the unethical issues we face. We learned this through discussion and the activity of making puppets. In the activity we saw many unethical things that the Professor Cook was doing.

Her acting is along the lines of how my manager treats us. I intern at an accounting firm and work with other interns to help partners assemble tax returns and other projects. The main problem she has is that she has a favorite intern just as Professor Cook did. This intern has caused many problems and has made so many mistakes, but our manager does not do anything but protect the intern. This hurts the rest of the interns because the Partners of the firm view us as a team and the one intern just keeps screwing everything up which gives us a less chance of getting offered a job when we graduate.

This intern was always allowed days off for no reason and it was to a point where she would miss almost one day every two weeks. Some of her mistakes cost the company of probably around $1000. But whenever the manager talks to the other interns, she yells at us and saying that we need to be retrained and need to work harder. The “special” intern however does not get any problems at all. My manager’s main excuse for this is not because she favors her, but she has said that the intern is “new” and that we should give her more time to learn. The only problem with this is that one of the interns was hired around five months after she was, but supposedly the “special” intern is new and the actual most recent hire is not.

My manager also fired one of the other interns because she was not a hard worker, when the fired intern was there for almost three years and worked hard. I do not get how the manager can fire one for not working hard, when there is obviously a worse worker. I believe that the manager is just trying to cover for herself since the “special” intern was the manager’s first hire into our intern team. The manager also does not want to fire her favorite because then the manager would have to admit to the Partners that she made a bad hire. My question is this not unethical? Clearly picking out favorites is not fair to other interns and I think that the Partners should try to fix the Manager’s skewed perspective.