QUESTION #4: MARCH 25, 2020
Seeing how Omidyar’s own libertarian philosophy impacted his company policy,
what role do you feel personal beliefs play in an expansive business?
what role do you feel personal beliefs play in an expansive business?
Here's a link to his wikipedia page if you'd like more info about the man.
I think personal beliefs play a big role in expansive business. If a customer or seller does not believe in giving a share of their profit, they will not buy from that certain business, and hurting the company. A company can make or lose money on certain personal beliefs, along with how they chose to run their company.
ReplyDeleteI agree that personal beliefs definitely can cause a company to make or lose money. Many companies have to choose how to incorporate their beliefs into company policies, and which it may have to sacrifice to make money.
DeleteI agree that the customer's beliefs also play a role in the success of a business. I think that some people will avoid shopping from a particular business if they're beliefs don't correlate.
DeleteI think his non-governing beliefs was a big part of why there weren't checks on making sure sellers paid a percentage to him. Maybe he could have expanded eBay more quickly with more rules and regulations, but his libertarian beliefs created a trusting community around the site and that led to its success.
ReplyDelete^personal beliefs are an important part of expanding a business, but staying true to them like Omidyar is what leads to success.
DeleteI didn't think about the way that governing the website and the honor system would be affected by his beliefs. Do you think it lead to him losing money at all?
DeleteIt might lead to failure but remaining true to oneself is always a "success"
DeleteIn regard to Omidyar his whole company was created because of his philosophy and that's what made it work but in terms of most big businesses I think that the people put their beliefs on the back burner and just try to make money.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Omidyar's libertarian philosophy played out in his use of the honor code and building a community through this. I think that personal beliefs play a large part in how a founder chooses to build their business, as seen with how Omidyar handled disputes and payments with users. eBay functioned mainly around Omidyar's own beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI agree, and did not really think about his reasoning for handling disputes could relate to his libertarian philosophy. His beliefs definitely played a part in how he ran his business. Similar to some business, they are not open on some days or holidays.
DeleteI think that, for his business model, it worked really well. I feel like personal beliefs in business can't play the biggest role though because, when your business gets bigger than your echo chamber, you are going to have people that don't agree with you. That could be very detrimental to the business if you let it become too big of a deal in trying to run a business.
ReplyDeleteI believe as long as you are not pushing your beliefs onto the company or arguing with people over how a business should be run, it can be beneficial to change one's views of business.
Deletei think that thats definitely true in some cases, but Omidyar did stick to his morals and it proved to be really successful even as a big business
DeleteI feel like as a company gets bigger, it is a question of whether to continue in a business mindset or to stick to what you believe in. Omidyar chose his morals, which proved to be successful, but it comes at the price of some unhappy customers.
DeleteI think that his method worked because he used his beliefs to change his way of thinking, not to try to influence or argue with anybody. As long as you stay like this, using the ideas behind the politics as a tool to change your thoughts, beliefs can be extremely helpful in figuring out the best way to run a business in a way that you as a consumer would understand and appreciate.
ReplyDeletei think he was really strong in his beliefs and that definitely played a roll in his business. you need strong morals and will to go out and start up a business thats never been done before and i think his views on community revolutionized the internet.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely need strong morals to start a business that is unprecedented because your beliefs then lay the groundwork for future companies in the same field and without these morals, the company would be lost.
DeleteDo you think if he had made ebay less honor code and more regulations that it wouldn't have become as popular?
Deletedefinitely not, i think the people really thrived on the freedom
Deleteto Hannah- I don't know about the popularity, but I think people would have felt less comfortable at the start, which very likely could have led to less business
DeleteI think that his libertarian philosophy was one of the key reasons he even started eBay in the first place. He wanted a place were people could buy and sell freely which lines up directly with his philosophies. I do believe that his philosophies led the company to grow slower than it could have because he didn't set it up as a business right away and the fee collection system was kind of put together haphazardly.
ReplyDeleteI'm just going to throw this out there (it's what I immediately thought of when I read this question): if you know anything about Hobby Lobby, personal beliefs definitely play in to how many companies run their business. To this day, I'm very conflicted about shopping at Hobby Lobby.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of people who feel the same way about places like Chic-fil-A
DeleteI was thinking the same thing in reference to Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A. It's hard to decide what to do in reference to a company's beliefs and whether or not to shop there. I was also thinking of stores that use fast fashion and I always feel a little guilty buying.
DeleteHobby Lobby makes me very uncomfortable. I had to go inside to get ribbon one day and thought that I'd look for a planner while I was in there. Every planner I saw had a bible quote or some reference to Christianity. It's not an issue to me, but it definitely influences my hesitancy to go in there for items.
DeleteYea, I shop there once in awhile but when I'm there, I questions my choices.
DeleteI think they play a large role in business. Omidyar was libertarian so he had trust in people to sort out issues themselves and trust in how the business would work. I think that if a company has strong beliefs, this will impact the customer's view too. People don't buy from certain restaurants or stores because of their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI think personal beliefs are everything. When starting a company, you have to make a lot of decisions, most of which will be impacted by your personal beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI think that the personal beliefs of the business owner plays an important role in expansive business. I think that Omidyar's company was based off of his philosophies and he stuck to them which is what made it work for him. I think that it's important for business owners to incorporate their morals and ideals into the products they create to make it authentic and practical which lead to credibility and community, rather than going off of a monetary drive which won't result in a sense of community.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the owners beliefs to play a big part in the company and is very important in the development of a business.
DeleteIt was mostly a community run platform, providing insight into the extreme sense of the Laissez-faire ideology which libertarianism favored significantly. I feel personal beliefs play a large role in policing, particularly what is policed, deleted, handled, reported, etc. It's hard to police things you agree with rather than what you don't agree with.
ReplyDeleteI think it plays a large role because personal beliefs can be what intrigues a customer. Expansive businesses are trying to "get big fast" but I think the personal belief factor brings businesses back into a personal connection with customers. I think that personal beliefs can be a deciding factor as to whether someone buys from there. You can have a good product, but if someone has for example, religious obligation or sweatshops are involved, it can change a user's view on the company.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about the user view on companies. Personal beliefs involved in businesses can make shopping hard, but it also may give the user a connection to the company.
DeleteThat's what I was getting at with Hobby Lobby. Make your core beliefs well known can be helpful to the business but also hurtful (although Hobby Lobby doesn't seem to be hurt by my conflict).
DeleteHow much do we have to read for the quiz tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteLOL You guys are so well trained. Guess what? I'm not publishing a quiz tomorrow since you've been doing so well reading the book. Instead, I'm going to publish the reading schedule and assignment for the rest of the book tomorrow. You need to sign up for your part of the assignment... then go read your book!
DeleteThank you!!
DeleteAs we get to the end of our "class", if you are in any way of the entrepreneurial mind, think about what beliefs you hold that might influence how you run your business. It's entirely possible that starting a business in the future after coronavirus will be much different than it was before, and what you believe on a lot of subjects will lead to success or failure.
ReplyDeletewoahh thats deep
DeleteI try.
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