$100 Laptop-Response-Americas Profound Impact on The Rest of The World

As an assignment for entrepreneurship class our class was told to read the Harvard Business article Marketing the “$100 Laptop” (A) for a class discussion. The article explains how Nicholas Negroponte,  the founder and Chairman of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, came up with an idea in 2002 to supply children in developing countries with a laptop (1). The idea soon became a nonprofit organization called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) (1). He planned to sell the laptops to developing countries at only $100 each, thus the of the article Marketing the “$100 Laptop”

Education is The Key to Success 

After reading the article I was able to make connections to the information I was learning in entrepreneurship and also the information I was learning in economics and world economy. The article made me think about globalization and Americas impact on the rest of the world. One thing I recently learned in economics is the convergence hypothesis theory. The  “$100 Laptop” article is a perfect example of the convergence hypothesis theory. The theory explains that poorer economies per capita incomes will tend to grow at faster rates than richer economies and that there GDP will tend to get closer over time rather than separate. In other words America’s GDP and third world countries GDP will always be close to each other. Simply because countries trade and communicate. New technology in America will eventually get to developing countries, like the “$100 Laptop”, America has had the advantage of the internet for decades now but in 2002 Nicholas Negroponte, came up with an idea to introduce it to developing countries. The “$100 Laptop” is also an example of globalization, which is to bring world economies closer to one another. This also made me think of Americas influence on the rest of the world. Some say that America is helping the rest of the world by innovating and providing countries with needed living necessities and technology. On the other hand other some people believe that America’s innovations and strong economy come at the expenses of developing countries. In other words America is stepping on other countries and is the superpower of the world, and the distribution of power should be more spread out. With new discoveries in technology improving communication like the internet, the distribution of power and quality of living should be more spread out. Phones and the internet have been in America for decades now, but just in this last decade they are starting to make there way to developing countries. American private companies donate a lot of money to third world countries, but they need be innovative and create innovations in education to help these developing countries in the long run.



Above is a picture of the $100 Laptop 

Is America Afraid of Globalization?

Americans standard of living are dramatically higher than almost every other country. Even the poorest people in America are still wealthy compared to the rest of the world. Despite this America donates and provides new medicines to developing countries all the time, but that is not going to help these countries in the long run. Nicholas Negroponte’s “ $100 Laptop” idea will help developing countries in the long run. These laptops provide internet, and the internet has all the information anyone could possibly need. With these laptops citizens in developing countries will be able to educate themselves, and create innovative ideas for their own country. And as a result produce a higher standard of living for themselves. Rich Americans are always donating large amounts of money to causes like clean water, aids, and other needs. But I think these other countries problems will be solved quicker, if America made an effort to help developing countries educate themselves, and I think this is possible now with the internet. In turn this will create a better standard of living for everyone, not just Americans. Instead of America providing third world countries with new technology and consuming the third world country's resources, these less fortunate countries will be able to provide the U.S. with new innovations in technology. The poorest Americans make around $6700 a year while a quarter of the population in India lives on $1.00 a day (2). Americans are extremely fortunate, and in turn donate to other countries but they need to donate to the right cause. Education is the obvious solution to these developing countries problems yet America feels they help them enough by providing medicine and basic necessities. Maybe America is spoiled and wants all the power to themselves, and is afraid that a higher standard in living in other countries will lower theirs. But in reality this is not true globalization is a positive thing for the world, and benefits the whole world. Technology is improving innovations in communication, with this in mind there should be more exchanging of technology through different countries, but instead there remains a huge gap between the standard of living and quality of life between the United States and most other countries.

Works Cited
1. Quelch, John A. "Marketing the “$100 Laptop” (A)." Harvard Business. N.p., 28 Sept. 2008. Web.2."The Haves and the Have-Nots." Economix The Haves and the HaveNots Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/the-haves-and-the-have-nots/>.

Presenting Oneself a Certain Way

Presenting Your Business in an Appropriate Manner Online

For entrepreneurship class Professor Worthington asked the students to pick either an innovation or an innovator, and write a ten page report on the innovator or innovation. My original choice was Steve Jobs, but professor Worthington persuade me into picking my Grandfather’s business,I  was glad she did  At first I was afraid I would not be able to get enough information on my Grandfather’s small self run business. I soon found out that there was so much to write about. My Grandfather has taught me a abundance of life lessons. But talking to him for hours about his personal life and business made me really appreciate his hard work.  I learned a lot about my Grandfather and how he was able to become successful threw his experiences in the construction business. I learned that experience and knowing the market and industry inside and out is very important when trying to sell a product. Additionally I learned that at some point you have to take risks, and regardless of the outcome you must learn and move on from those experiences. In my Grandfather’s case he had to spend money to make money.


Subtle Things My Grandfather does to Portray Himself and His Business in a Professional Manner

While gaining information on my Grandfather’s business I soon noticed he is always very professional, and he has always stressed to me the importance of neatness and presenting oneself in an appropriate manner. Not only in a business scenario, but also wherever you are you should present yourself in a respectful and professional way. My Grandfather does subtle things to in order to create a professional image for himself and his business. First his name of his company is very DP Engineering, Inc. He was able to call it this because of his engineering degree. The Engineering part makes it seem like he knows what he is doing, and has experience in engineering. Additionally when he takes a business call he will always say DP Engineering. Acting professional and portraying a positive image of yourself to others is paramount both in real life and especially in the business world.

After reading Creating a Positive Professional Image by Mallory Stark it got me thinking how I can change my own image. In the article Mallory interviews   Laura Morgan Roberts, a Harvard business professor, Laura stresses the importance of presenting yourself, she claims”  you must realize that if you aren't managing your own professional image, someone else is.” She stresses the importance of how others perceive you. She asks the reader how do you want others to perceive you as. She mentions you must monitor others perception of you. I agree with her that people must manage their image. But I think she stresses that people should worry about other perception of them too much. I agree people should act professional, but they should also try to be as authentic as possible. People should not make other people think differently about them if thats not how they truly act. There needs to be a mixture of acting professional and authenticity.

Small Things I can Do That Will Help my Image
After reading Creating a Positive Professional Image, doing research on Dale Carnegie and his book How to win friends and influence people, and finally doing research on my Grandfathers business all within a month. I discovered I can do a lot more to both act more professional and mature, and clean up my appearance. The first thing that came mind is my physical appearance. I can present myself better by dressing nicer in school, ex. jeans instead of sweatpants. It does not have to be physical altercation to give off a professional vibe to someone. It can be subtle. I noticed in my papers recently that I have not been putting the correct format, and sometimes forgot to staple the paper. This can give off a a vibe to a teacher, showing that you are lazy. I thought to myself there should be no reason I should present my self as lazy. Because I put in a lot of hard work in my papers, so I want to show that by completing the task, in handing in the paper with the proper formating. Overall I know now that I need to work on both presenting my self physically in a appropriate manner, and also presenting my school work in an appropriate manner.

Creating a Positive Professional Image by Mallory Stark

Link: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4860.html