4. Company culture

We can divide culture in the company on 4 main groups:

• The family culture (highly personal with close face-to-face relationships, but also hierarchical. The leader is the caring father)

• The Eiffel Tower culture (has a steep hierarchy, broad at the base and narrow at the top. Impersonal. Authority comes from a person’s role and position in the hierarchy)

• The guided missile culture (egalitarian and oriented to tasks typically undertaken by teams or project groups. Impersonal)

• The incubator culture( the organization serves as an incubator for self-expression and self-fulfilment. Personal and egalitarian with almost no structure at all. Often a strong emotional commitment to the work)

Organizations should strive for what is considered a "healthy" organizational culture in order to increase productivity, growth, efficiency and reduce counterproductive behavior and turnover of employees. A variety of characteristics describe a healthy culture, including: Acceptance and appreciation for diversity; Regard for and fair treatment of each employee as well as respect for each employee’s contribution to the company; Employee pride and enthusiasm for the organization and the work performed; Equal opportunity for each employee to realize their full potential within the company; Strong communication with all employees regarding policies and company issues; Strong company leaders with a strong sense of direction and purpose

Organizational culture is the collective behaviour of people that are part of an organization, it is also formed by the organization values, visions, norms, working language, systems, and symbols, it includes beliefs and habits. It is also the pattern of such collective behaviours and assumptions that are taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving, and even thinking and feeling. Organizational culture affect the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders. 

5. Free trade, import, and export.

Nowadays we take bananas for granted, but a hundred years ago few Europeans had seen a banana, let alone tasted one. They are a favorite in packed lunches and a healthy snack, which contains just 90 calories. Yet how many of us are aware of what's involved in producing and transporting this delicate fruit? Bananas originated in south-east Asia; later on, roots were transported to Africa by Arab traders. (Banana comes from tin- Arabic word for finger.) In the sixteenth century missionaries introduced it to the Caribbean. Bananas can only grow in tropical climates fifteen degrees north and south of the Equator, giving countries in this belt an ideal comparative advantage. It took big companies, like Chiquita, to bring bananas to a wider public. A plant weighing forty-five kilograms produces around 120 pieces of fruit. Freshly cut bunches of green bananas travel to the packing station by overhead cable, where they arc washed in cold water and packed in cartons. They are loaded on pallets and the cargo is placed in the holds of refrigerated ships at 13.6 "C which puts them 'to bleep'. It can take several days to reach this ideal temperature. At their destination they arc transported to ripening rooms where a little ethylene gas brings them to market condition; customers prefer bananas with green tips and necks. Container trucks take them to retail outlets.

How could a simple box become the eights wonder of the world? The answer is before oue eyes every day - the container. Container shipping has shrunk the planet and brought about a revolution because the cost of shipping boxes is so cheap. People talkabout the contribution of Microsoft, but container shipping has got to be among the ten most influential industries over tfte past thirty years

The simple standardized box that transformed seaborn freight in the sixties has taken on vibrant 21st century life and the Internet may add a knot or two to the speed.

With the Internet, operators have been allowed to cut paperwork and reduce reliance on middlemen. It also lets customers track their consignments more easily.

The shipping industry is booming, underpinned by solid economic growth. In the thirty years the boxes have been around, the amount of goods shipped in them has expanded a lot, and the industry is now worth $100bn. Ahe expansion of container shipping far outsiders growth in the world economy, historically about 3 per cent a year, and even growth in world trade, whicffruns up by 5 per cent a year.

Before container shipping seaborne trade was slow and unreliable.

Seaborne transport is so cheap it makes sense for Nike to have its trailers made in South East Asia. And companies in remote parts of the world can snatch business from under the nose of a local producer. In fact, if movin a goods by container were not so inexpensive, trading many of the products shipped around the world today would not be worthwhile. Second-hand motorcycles are shipped from America to be sold in Europe where they fetch twice the price.