Weekly Task - Topic 6

                                         Figure 1 Components of Culture (Moyer, 2021).

Why is culture important?

Sze Jay - According to Cambridge Dictionary, the word 'culture' means the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time. Culture play a big part in our daily life so it is very important. 

        Culture is a reflection of a community or nation. This makes culture a vital and important determining factor of how the community reacts, responds, and grows (Painter, 2020). Other than that, culture also provide stability. By stability of culture it means that it gives the feeling of security and safety. For most of the time, culture will provide people with same emotional response as they have for their family. Strangers that are part of the same culture will normally have instant connection when they meet. It also provides continuity between cities, states, and even regions.

        Other than that, people will feel nurtured when meeting people with the same culture (Painter, 2020). Not only they have no language barrier, they also have the same history and ideology among their community and it will unite all of them with the same culture. According to Painter, culture will ties them to their ancestry and provides a sensation of longevity which gives them a feeling of truth and living and authentic life. {210 words}

Chong - As was already said, culture may be used in a wide range of contexts and be a reflection of a community or a nation. However, I will be talking about the importance of culture in the business industry, called company culture.

             Company culture plays a huge role in an organization's success. The right organizational culture can help a company attract and retain top talent. It can also improve employee engagement and help the company gain a competitive edge in the market. However, you may ask why it is important and what it actually is. A good company culture goes beyond a vibrant office and fun team-building events; it requires deliberate nurturing to create a positive and productive environment (Shmidt, 2024).

             In addition, one may wonder why corporate culture matters. This is due to the fact that a strong corporate culture is your best tool for problem-solving. The culture of your business has the ability to revitalize your employees and spur greater levels of engagement, productivity, and creativity. The ripple effect may save recruitment costs, increase staff retention, and above all, build a reputation that sets you apart from your rivals (Wong, 2023).

            Company culture is the creation of a work environment that reflects an organization's values and empowers its team, whether it's developing an existing culture or building it from scratch. {219 words}

Do you think Facebook overpaid for WhatsApp? Why?

Nareen - Mark Zuckerburg established Facebook in 2004, and as technology advanced and smartphones became more widely used, the social media platform grew in popularity. But when smartphone apps were widely available in 2009, Acton and Koum made the decision to create a free messaging app service that would eventually be known as WhatsApp, a messaging platform that is free of cost and has no advertisements (Masigan, 2023).

              Since its 2010 introduction, WhatsApp has grown significantly in user base, with over 450 million users by 2014. Facebook was concerned about this because of its quick growth in popularity; at the time, it had 1.2 billion users, a number that is not far off from WhatsApp. Following the failure of Messenger beating WhatsApp, an app that tried to imitate WhatsApp, Facebook made the decision to purchase WhatsApp for a sum of 19 billion dollars (Edwards, 2014).

               In my opinion, 19 billion USD is a huge amount during that time and Facebook might have overpaid for it. However, due to the success of WhatsApp currently, I think otherwise. Mark Zuckerburg saw the potential in the messaging app from the user growth. “If we can do a pretty good job of helping WhatsApp to grow, it’s going to be a huge business” Mark Zuckerburg quoted (Cook, 2014). Furthermore, had Mark Zuckerburg not made that purchase, Google would have, and Facebook would have faced difficulties with messaging apps (Constine, 2015).

                 Last but not least, Mark Zuckerburg was right about the quote before, in 2014 WhatsApp had 450 million users but currently in 2024, the unique users of WhatsApp reached nearly 3 billion (Ceci, 2024). This amount will increase further in the future with more features like cross-platform messaging. In conclusion, Facebook did not overpay for WhatsApp in my opinion. {300 words}

What are some of the problems bringing in new investors?

                                   
                                 Figure 2 Barriers to bringing investors (Latham, 2020).

Luven - Many challenges entrepreneurs would have to face when needing new investors who are willing to commit to the business venture, due to various factors as shown in Figure 2, which respresent the results of a survey conducted by The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (Latham, 2020).

            One of the main problems from the survey is poor returns, which 59% of respondents agree on as that would seem unappealing to investors, which is due to entrepreneurs under-evaluating their ambitious business plan, penny-pinching every dime they could obtain. The lack of certainty is also accounted within the 59%, as some businesses tend to hide certain regulations that would appear unfavorable to the investor. However, the investors being unaware of the hidden risks would shatter any trust that has been established later on when it is uncovered, which would tarnish the reputation of the entrepreneur (Rassolli, 2021).

          Another notable problem with 47% of them agreeing is the high cost of investing, as many investors start small and have limited capital available to invest. Therefore, entrepreneurs should break full shares into fractional ones, which are still considered partial shares of the company and the investors would enjoy the same amount of privileges and risk on their shoulders (Rassolli, 2021). {208 words}

Naviin - Moving on, attracting investors might be tough for new startups and businesses because they don't offer appealing returns on investments (Eisenmann, 2021). As mentioned above, this leads to problems for entrepreneurs, as investors become too afraid of the unknown risks they face when investing in their business (Rassolli, 2021). 

           This typically occurs when entrepreneurs invest less effort in crafting detailed long-term business plans. This poses a big problem because it appears as a less professional business ethic and may look less attractive to investors to invest in. The attitude in managing the business and developing a good business model also plays a big role in attracting investors into the business (Ter, 2021). Long term and ambitious business plans are important to let investors know the business position and stance in the current economy with multiple competitors. This can alleviate investors' concerns about investing in the business.

              According to Latham (2020), majority of the participants of the survey stated that they lack education in investments, with 61% agreeing. This can be considered as the largest issues as they aren't much investors with proper education to invest in business. The lack of education can hinder their investments as they are unsure of how, what, or who to invest in. {205 words}

References

Eisenmann, T. (2021, September 17). Why start-ups fail. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/05/why-start-ups-fail

Moyer, K. (2021). How Patients' Culture Influences Health Care. Rendia. https://rendia.com/resources/insights/culture

Latham, M. (2020, March 23). Challenges in attracting new investors. Funds Europe. https://www.funds-europe.com/challenges-in-attracting-new-investors

Rassolli, M. (2021, September 6). 6 Common Challenges Faced By New Investors And How to Face Them. TrendScout UK. https://www.trendscoutuk.com/6-common-challenges-faced-by-new-investors-and-how-to-face-them

Ter, M. (2021, July 11). 5 reasons why investors aren’t funding your business. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-reasons-why-investors-arent-funding-your-business-marene-ter

Shmidt, I. (2024, February 20). How to build a strong corporate culture in five steps. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/12/22/how-to-build-a-strong-corporate-culture-in-five-steps/?sh=7c948fed5799

Wong, B. (2023, August 15). What is company culture? Definition & Development Strategies. Forbes Advisor. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/company-culture/ 

Masigan, A. J. (2023, April 4). The real reason why Facebook bought WhatsApp. Philstar.com. https://www.philstar.com/2023/04/05/2256935/real-reason-why-facebook-bought-whatsapp 

Edwards, J. (2014, February 19). Why Facebook had no choice but to pay $19 billion for WhatsApp. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-facebook-paid-19-billion-for-whatsapp-2014-2 

Cook, J. (2014, September 6). These charts show why Facebook may not have overpaid for WhatsApp. GeekWire. https://www.geekwire.com/2014/charts-shows-facebook-may-overpaid-whatsapp/ 

Constine, J. (2015, February 19). A Year Later, $19 Billion for WhatsApp Doesn't Sound So Crazy. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/19/crazy-like-a-facebook-fox/ 

Ceci, L. (2024, April 4). Monthly global unique WhatsApp users 2020-2024. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1306022/whatsapp-global-unique-users/