EOTO: Vertical Integration

Vertical Integration is a strategy whereby a company owns or controls its suppliers, distributors, or retail locations to control its value or supply chain. 
There are four phases of this supply chain: commodities, manufacturing, distribution and retail.  When a company is vertically integrating when it is controlling two or more of these phases.

I knew what the concept of Vertical Integration was prior to doing this assignment but I did not know its official name.  What I learned in completing my research is that essentially, vertical integration is cutting out the middleman, and making business quicker, and more efficient and direct.

There's two different types of vertical integration: forward integration and backward integration.  Forward integration is when a company at the beginning of the supply chain controls stages farther along.  An example of forward integration is when a manufacturer of electronic devices buys a chain of electronic retail stores.  This may occur because a business realizes it can make more money by selling directly to the consumers.

Backward Integration is when a business at the end of the supply chain takes on activities "upstream."  An example of backward integration is when a business, like a Burger King owns a potato company to make sure that it is has a consistent supply of French fries.  Making a business move like this cuts out the middleman and make business quicker and more efficient.

Everything has its positives and negatives, its pros and cons.  In my opinion the most significant benefit of vertical integration is the ability to avoid supply distribution.  With this a vertically integrated business can control its own supply and not have to worry strikes and labor disputes.  To me, this epitomizes the phrase, "if you want something done the right way do it yourself," and that's something I can respect.  In my opinion, the most significant disadvantage of vertical integration is the inability for vertically integrated businesses to quickly respond to market trends.  Trends fluctuate frequently so they inability to quickly respond to "what the people want" can hurt business.

The two websites I linked in the bottom of my post taught me so much about vertical integration and its importance.  Many different businesses utilize vertical integration as it has many benefits.  If anyone that comes across this post is interested in business or just enjoys learning new things, I recommend they educate themselves by visiting those two websites.

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Diffusion of Innovations

College athletes have been controlled for many years.  Divison 1 college athletes have been exploited by the NCAA for a very long time.  Recently, the NCAA has decided to allow college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness.  This move is long overdo, but it's better late than never.  The recent move was made because pressure the NCAA was receiving from various parties.  Lakers forward LeBron James and Governor Gavin Newsome have been in support of college athletes receiving pay.  James has not been shy about his opinion.  James tweeted, "Everyone is California- call your politicians and tell them to support SB 206!  This law is a GAME CHANGER.  College athletes can responsibly get paid for what they do and the billions they create."

The Pay to Play Act allows college athletes in the state of California to hire agents and be paid for endorsements.  They will also be allowed to promote products and companies and financially benefit from their college sports activities.  This new law goes into effect in 2023.

The NCAA makes millions, if not millions, then billions of dollars a year on college athletes and the college athletes can nothing.  This is unfair because the student athletes are doing all of the work but the NCAA is the only one benefitting financially.  As an athlete, injury is a very real possibility.  Because of this I feel that athletes should be making money as soon as possible.

I look at a situation like Zion Williamson.  A person of his size and athleticism is unprecedented.  Zion is 6'6'' and to be that heavy and jump as high as he can and move as he can is unnatural and defies physics.  Zion Williamson played basketball at Duke University.  While Williamson is most known for his thunderous dunks, he also is pretty well known for a game in which Duke played UNC Chapel Hill and Williamson busted a hole through his shoe.  He now plays forward for the New Orleans Pelicans but has not played a game yet because of a knee injury caused by the combination of his size, weight and freakish athleticism.  When Williamson made it to the NBA he luckily signed a shoe deal worth about $75 million over 7 years.  However, if Williamson is unable to play in the NBA, he will have missed out a lot of money because of the NCAA's ridiculously controlling rules.

In terms of the Roger's Diffusion of Innovations I'm sure not many people questioned the NCAA, at least at first.  Then, I feel a few people we were refer to as innovators stepped away from the norm and tried to make a change and difference.  This group probably grew into early adopters.  Pushing the narrative, trying to make a difference the early adopters kept growing.  While they may not have been the overwhelming majority, they will be eventually in the diffusion process.  The early majority is slow to adopt.  They tend to be followers seeing the "changing tide" and not wanting to be left out.  The late majority is skeptical and are "late to the party."  The late majority is primarily responding to social pressure they may feel from society.  The fear of missing out or being left out.  The pressure they experience heavily persuades and convinces this group to adopt.  Lastly, there is the laggards.  Laggards ae traditionalists, purists stuck in the past and afraid of change.  And this would be the NCAA, members on the board, etc.  Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations is not specifically about the NCAA and college pay.  It is applicable to many different people in many different situations.

NCAA Rules

Diffusion of Innovations

LeBron Joins the Fight

Digital Footprint

Fourteen year old eight grader Sonia Bokhari made a bold decision and "unplugged" from social media.  While I admire Bokhari's decision to take a break from social media, the reasoning for why she arrived at the decision is unfortunate.  Growing up in her family, no one could have or use social media until they were 13 years of age or older.  So when she turned 13 she got some social media accounts and immediately perused her family member's social media pages.  To her surprise and bewilderment, she realized her family members had been posting about her for her entire life.  She confronted them and expressed her disappointment in her family members because of their disregard for her privacy.  This and the countless presentations at Bokhari's school about digital footprints and online safety caused her to take precautions with her online safety.  That ultimately translated into "unplugging" from social media.

My digital footprint is pretty small I think.  I've googled my name and I haven't found anything about me online.  However, I've googled friends of mine and they've come up.  When I was young and growing up, and teachers and adults always nagged me and my peers about social media and how permanent it is, I took them seriously, and thankfully so.  It is truly scary how permanent things online and on social media are.  

I don't  know how many times celebrities have had to apologize for tweets and posts they made years and sometimes even decades ago.  When I think about apologies for past athletes and celebrities, many different celebrities come to mind, but one that comes to mind quickly is Kevin Hart.  Kevin Hart was set to host the 2019 Oscars when old tweets and jokes he made came out.  When they came out, the Academy demanded Hart apologize or they would remove him as the host but Hart refused to apologize because he had apologized years prior.  Hart eventually stepped down.  He had made jokes and tweets almost a decade ago that were considered to be homophobic.  Hart refused to apologize because he had apologized years prior and didn't see the need to do it again because it seemed redundant.

Although I don't necessarily defend Hart I think it's interesting that when people, particularly celebrities, are doing well and are at their best, it seems that people, primarily internet trolls, try to take them down.  Digging up tweets from almost a decade ago seems pretty targeted especially when someone is doing very well in life financially.  However, that's just the reality of the digital footprint.  It's a dangerous thing and that's why I'm careful and why everyone should be careful with what they tweet, post, etc.


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