Reciprocity

Reciprocity can be manipulated in the modern business market. The idea of kickback money and gifts without strings attached is used to pressure people into making purchases that they do not necessarily want to make. When a sales person takes you out to dinner and pays, there is pretty much the expectation that the costumer will there by purchase a product or service from the sales person. Although it is not a direct trade of services or goods, the typical American was raised with the idea that noting comes free and sales people often exploit this concept.
In my line of work, my boss purchases from many sales people and these sales people often bring in doughnuts and pretzels before they come in to pitch a sale. After consuming their "free" gift, my boss will then feel more pressured to buy from the sales person even if their product or service is not as superior as another. Around the holidays there is also a lot of card receiving in our company from all the sales people. The vending machine guy in particular bought my boss a forty dollar gift card to the Texas Road House just as a friendly gesture, but was that all the gift card really meant. Although this is a common practice among smaller corporations, some larger corporations like P&G have taken any of these practices away in order to be as professional as possible.

Women Leaders

Sandberg talks about women in the workplace in the video and the issue of equality in the workplace. The strangest thing that Sandberg says in her speech is that it was the women's fault more than the man's fault that women are not equally represented in the corporation. Women are always underestimating themselves and cutting themselves short and this type of behavior is what leads to a lack of self esteem. This lack of self confidence makes it so woman are not pursuing raises and promotions as much as men are. The issue of why woman are not equally represented in the upper management levels of the workforce in my opinion is not a current prejudice, but rather because we are recovering from a former prejudice. Back in the 60's and 70's, it was unheard of for a woman to be a CEO of any firm and today it really is not a big deal. I would say that the average man or woman would not care what sex there boss is and currently the only reason there is an inequality is because woman are still comfortable with the power yet and the people electing individuals to run many companies are the same people they were around in the 60's and 70's and might be stuck in there old ways. The biggest thing that will push women to that next step will be an increase in confidence and just basically the passing of time. In time things will balance a little better when it comes to equal representation of men and women in the higher levels of the workforce.

Management vrs. Leadership

There is a big difference between an leader and a manager. You can teach someone to be a manager but a leader is made through experience and must have a certain set of personality traits. The problem with many companies is the lack of leaders and innovators. Too many companies are run by managers that have a short term mind set when it comes to running an organization. Managers are trained to run things efficiently, which is not always in the best interest of the company. Efficiency always looks the best on paper because it minimizes costs and increases profit in the short term but in the long term it causes companies to lose innovation and miss out on future sales. General Motors creates a good case to look at when companies get rid of leaders and innovators. 50 years ago if you told someone that general motors would go bankrupt they would look at you like you were on crack. The problem with general motors was that they kept trying to cut costs and by doing this they fired people that were considered overpaid but many of these employees were leaders and had a lot knowledge through experience that could have helped the company make not make as many stupid mistakes. Once General motors turned to efficiency over innovation, that was the beginning of the end. This decision gave opportunities other companies, like Japanese companies, the opportunity to come into the U.S. market with new cars that made GM's cars look dated and crappy. This lead to a market share war and eventually caused GM to go bankrupt. Nothing against managers but leaders and innovators are more important in long term orientation.