Kids Style
Key Social Variables
Ambits like social dimension, cultural, demographic or environmental are constantly changing, and usually the opportunities or threats a company receives come from this changes. The following analysis exposes every key variable of these dimensions and how this may or may not affect our industry.
Energy conservation
For energy conservation Colombia has a ministry of mines and energy sources which aims to encourage the rational use of these resources and comply with all the demands that consumers have also manage natural resources.
On the other hand, the ministry also has the purpose to protect the environment through programs and regulations established.
Social programs
During during the last years the government has invested in social programs with the aim of improving social infrastructure and create jobs in the country thus human poverty rate will be reduced and the population will look favored with this investment.
For example in 2012 President Juan Manuel Santos invested US$200 Million in social programs with the aim of improve the living conditions of the population.
In 2014 the president affirm that had reduced inequality in the country and more income compared with previous years were generated.
Number of churches
According to figures from the magazine "Dinero" Colombia has many churches from different cultures and 3600 churches were found, there are obviously many churches, another factor to determine is that there are more churches in the country that colleges and education is very important for the development of Colombia, therefore, the goverment should invest in this aspect.
Number of church members
According to the figures shown in a survey by "univesia" where around 1200 people of the country participated, the 65% of people surveyed answered yes in the sense that they practiced a religión and that the most of these people had no problems to practice their religion in their Jobs. Religious freedom is a fundamental right and it is important in the country for its development and construction.
It is found that lots of the Colombian population has beliefs in any religión and are diverse.
Social responsibility
Social responsibility in Colombia is reflected in the policies that have big companies of the country. The companies want to help the country socially and also have benefits in doing this because the goverment gives them benefits in the payment of taxes and many Colombian companies are committed to social responsibility and thats a good thing for Colombia in the sense of the development of the country.
A clear example of this social responsability in Colombia is the company “Bogota Humana” this organization help the society because gives the society several opportunities to improve their lives helping them to find a job and aim to improve the quality of life of people so there are a lot of organizations like this that help people in the country.
Population changes
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Population changes by sex in the las year are the followings:
(s.f.). Recuperado el 13 de 02 de 2015, de Datosmacro.com: http://www.datosmacro.com/demografia/poblacion/colombia
(s.f.). Recuperado el 13 de 02 de 2015, de Datosmacro.com: http://www.datosmacro.com/demografia/poblacion/colombia
Cia.gov. (14 de 02 de 2015). Obtenido de Central Intelligence Agency: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2010.html
As we can see in the graphics there is greater density of female population in Colombia in the last years.
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Population changes by age in Colombia is the following:
It can be said that most of the Colombian population is between the age of 25 to 54 years, this percentage of age should be lower to have a younger population in the country, however, the age range is not critical.
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In the following table are the different economic strata in Bogota and we can analyze that most of the population is in the top three economic stratum which indicates a population that has a lot of poverty in the country.
Bogota.com.co. (s.f.). Recuperado el 14 de 02 de 2014, de Bogota Humana: http://www.sdp.gov.co/PortalSDP/InformacionTomaDecisiones/Estadisticas/ProyeccionPoblacion
Attitude toward authority
Justice and authory is to give everyone what he deserves according to his acts and ensure order in society, in Colombia do not meet with som of these objectives.
There is a very big problem regarding this issue and there is no respect for authority in many cases in Colombia because in this society there is a high degree of corruption and citizens dont trust in those who manage the country.
There is a lot of crime and authority does not respond to the demands of the country. A few months ago the judiciary of the country in strike because there were differences between the unions and the government so citizens could not make claims and no justice was done in the different cases.
In Colombia a process is very time consuming and can last more than 10 years and according to figures of “El Espectador” the 31% of the country's municipalities dont have judges, therefore, the justice system isnt efficient.
Value placed on leisure time
This affect the service industry because most of this is based in the leisure time of Colombian people. According to “The Hofstede Centre” some Colombians prefer to work that to have a leisure time, because this give better rewards that a “free time” “People seek membership in groups which give them status and rewards linked to performance, but they often sacrifice leisure against work, as long as this is supported by group membership and by power holders.” ( (THE HOFSTEDE CENTRE, s.f.)), but in the other hand Colombia has showed that it is an indulgent country “People in societies classified by a high score in indulgence generally exhibit a willingness to realize their impulses and desires with regard to enjoying life and having fun. They possess a positive attitude and have a tendency towards optimism. In addition, they place a higher degree of importance on leisure time, act as they please and spend money as they wish.”(HE HOFSTEDE CENTRE, s.f.).
Regional changes in tastes and preferences
This aspect affect the service industry, because this have to be in a constant change being flexible and adapting to changes of the taste and preferences of the customers, Colombia have showed that have big changes in taste and preferences in terms of food and tasting new places, which affect the demand of the services and products.
Number of women and minority workers
According to Caracol Radio women in Colombia are more unemployed than man (13% vs. 8.3%) and are more underestimate to do some jobs than man, and are more use to work in the service industry, hotels, beauty salons, etc. so this affect in a big way the service industry.
Number of high school and college graduates by geographic area
This affect the service industry because more knowledge and more graduates impulse to grow the service industry, this affect the demand of services and the quality of this. According to “Observatorio Laboral para la educacion” the number of graduates in professional programs have increase, and the more demanded programs are related to administration, economy and politics.
Recycling
Recycling is an aspect that is taking a big importance in Colombian community, this affect the industry because now a days all business and homes have to accomplish a recycling policy, separate organic and recycling products, so this will help the environment and reduce and re use resources.
Waste management
Waste management is a very important aspect to take care in the service industry because it help to implement new technics of reuse resources and take care of them, as “El Portafolio” says the waste that is garbage can re-use and help the planet and economy too. (http://www.portafolio.co/economia/manejo-los-residuos-solidos-colombia)
Air pollution
Air pollutions is an important aspect but this not affect to the service industry, even though it take a lot of importance in life styles of the costumers, don’t effect of the function of the industry.
Water pollution
Water pollution can affect the service industry because industries will have to take new precautions to provide a good service with good water.
Ozone depletion
This does not affect directly the service industry, this does not give a big impact to the service industry, they have to take precautions not to keep affecting the ozone depletion but don’t affect directly.
Endangerment species
The endangerment species does not affect the industry because don’t have to take any precaution to it, and the species don’t affect the industry.
Sex roles
In the sex roles in Colombia they have no equality in terms of jobs, for example the male have more jobs as particular employees and females have more jobs as domestic employees. For every organization it is important to have employees of both genders so they can have a good work environment.
Attitudes toward investing
Right now Colombia is one of the most attractive places in terms of investment, many international organizations have there eyes in Colombia. Many factors had make that this event happened, for example the improvement of the security, the infrastructure, good labor and capital, are this factors the ones that made the direct foreign investment increase.
Racial equality
In Colombia there is a huge racial inequality in different aspects. For the native and the afrocolombian it is very difficult for them to get into a good education system, or into getting any work, also for this racial and ethnic group there isn't special policies for they benefits.
Use of birth control
In Colombia the use of the birth control is very common and very used, is one of the countries with the most rate of use in al Latin america, it uses different kinds of birth control, making Colombia a country that controls the amount of reproduction that they have.
Average level of education
Colombia is a country that doesn't have very good educational system, but is has improved in the last years. A problem that Colombia has is that the education is very different by the sectors of the country and in some regions the level of education is extremely low.
Government regulation
In Colombia there are many government regulation for any type of business, but also there are some specific for different business. Some of the common government regulations in Colombia are the: taxes, commercial licenses, Name of the business, trade marks and others. The importance of the government regulations is that this regulations are going to be the rules that our business has to follow to be a legal business in Colombia.
Attitudes towards retirement
In Colombia the retirement age increased in the last year, for the men it is up to 62 years and for the women is up to 57 years. The retirement police of Colombia says that for the year 2015, the number of weeks that a employee needs to get retired is 1300. This affects in a big way any industrie because they might have employees that are in the last ages of work capacity and they might not be as productive as someone that might be younger.
Attitudes towards leisure time
The leisure time in Colombia is a very important social factor that can affect in many ways the aspects of the society. For example the people that have more leisure time with the works and jobs, are more happier and productive that the ones that don't receive a good leisure time in the work place. It can also affects aspects like the education and the learning process.
Attitude towards product quality
There are many companies that give a certificate standard of product quality, when the product has a better quality it is better than the others. The companies that make this product quality analysis in Colombia are: ICONTEC, SGS, Hecho a mano, and more. Once with a certificate of quality the will keep making quality tests to have always the product with the estándar quality.
Attitudes towards customer service
Now a days in Colombia the customer service has improved very fast because of all the technologic advances, this affects our industry because we need to offer a very good customer service so that we are able to be one of the best in this area against the competition.
pollution control
The production control factor is very importan in every industry, it is fundamental to have and to deliver a product or a service that is friendly with the environment and that it contributes to the solution control, so this factor affects our industry.
Attitudes toward business
Actitudes toward businesses and entrepreneurship percieved in general by the public affect and industry or a bussiness. People may have a possitive image for a company wheter they evidenece: “creation of Jobs, creation of wealth and benefits for all” according to data bases.
The perception towards and innovative bussines affects the “propensity of an individual to become entrepreneur and establish businesses”
Its important to recall that actitudes toward businesses comes in great deal from personal experience, people tend to favorate small businesses, judjun by their performance on aspects like :” executive compensation, paying employees fairly, protecting the environment, creating jobs and supporting local communities.”
Lifestyle
The lifestyle of consumers and their families is defined as the core for several business in the services sector. The way a consumer manifest his/her needs and wants represents opportunities for entreprenurs to supply these needs. The lifestyle of every person is differend but the lifestyle of a society or a región is manifested by trends. The way consumerism affects a person’s habits to buy and their perception, a bussiness needs to lead an strategy for survival. A person lifestyle changes constantly by diverse factors such as interaction with others, perceptions, cultural, economical, regional factors, etc
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is very nocive for the economy dinamics in large cities for all industries. Bogota Goverment states that huge traffic jams cause people to arrive late to Jobs, schools and to developh comfortably daily task, this causes people to become improductive in their Jobs and affects their salaries, for example, in the city of Bogota, traffic congestions cause a 6.3% loss in per capita income and 13.7% loss in médium and high income homes. Traffic also affects the consumer desire for products and services due to the time consumed for thisi activities.
Inner city environments
CIties are becoming larger over time, but the large number of people movin to cities are going directly to suburbs. Families prefer inner city regions tan central city areas because of the benefits that this represents such as trafic, cost of life ans transport, and environment, but families have the need to live with some of the commodities that exist in central areas, and they want them near them, therefore this represents and advantage for the services industry. There is also a trend toward the development of tasks and work in homes, to reduce trasnport cost and most importantly time, families are counting with more time nowdays.
Disposable income
Despite a large group of colombians depend on minimun wage, colombians often seek credit for their spending habits. Most of salaries cover home, food, transportation and education, and little income is directed to other expenses. This explains the large growth in the banking industy. Companies need to become more competitive in quality and price in order to satisface colombian markets.
Trust in goverment
It is clear that a lot of colombians dont trust in the coutry they live in, and in fact they want to live in another country. As president Alvaro Uribe one asked in a cople of high schools. The trust colombians need to live in Colombia, work in Colombia and invest in Colombia is in big deal a goverment task, but it’s also an entrepreneurs task. It’s important for businesses to take the risk of developing businesses in Colombia in order to provide jobs to peple, give financial security and promote the overall consumption of product and services
Attitudes toward goverment
The attitude toward goverment shapes the environment in which businesses are created and run in the long term either by nationals and by foreign people. The acttitude toward goverment comes from different kinds of media such as the internet and tv. Colombia has been long stigmatized for problems such as corruption, drug trafficking, violence and displacement, but the performance of colombian economy in recent years has been giving trust of the boost in diverse economic sectors. This is determinant for the performance of businesses in rural and city areas.
Attitudes toward work
As an study of Gyan Vihar University in india, an employees motivation is the most important factor in the performance and the efficiency of the worker. “High productivity is a long-term benefits of employee motivation. Motivated employee is a valuable asset which delivers huge value to the Organization” The way a worker perciebes his job has an effect to the performance of this, indeed the perception of a costumer is affected by the way the motivation of an employee talks about the inside of an organization. The attitudes towards a job is based on the perception and the experience, coworkers, the employers, groups of interest involved, and the goverment.
Buying habits
It is important for entrepreneurs to periodically track changes in trends of buying habits of consumers. Buyer habits are a direct reflection of the economic situation of a society, a reflection of their needs, a reflection of innovation and a reflection of the cultural environment itself
Consumer trends have changed in Colombia in recent years, as El Espectador states: ‘Large stores noticed, pharmacies felt it, restaurants celebrated it and Banks identified it”. Most of changes in buying trends in Colombia are in technology and internet. Due to the expansión of cities: “the fight for the colombian stomach has shifted from supermarkets to takeout foods” A great deal of the change in buying habits has a lot to do with the large availability of credit. All kinds of products and services are required by all segments of population more than ever before.
Ethical concerns
“Study and management of ethics is considered as a plus for schools, religious places, businesses, and politic and cultural terms for modern times” says Uriel Ortiz to El Espectador. : “The human part that ennobles, dignifies and enriches any institution, profession or activity, doesnt matter how humble, it will be excecuted with honesty looking for good service and social wellfare.” It is important for an organization to be ethical responsive not because of the image, but for the porpuse of making things right where everyone will be beneficiary.
Actitudes toward saving
According to the theory of marginal propensity to save, the savings increases with the increase in the income. Hence, following this theory it can be easily understood that with an economic growth, the amount of savings also increases.
Disposable income of a society is vital for de consumtion and the increase of diverse services, as the incomes increaste, the consumtion habits change as well.
Number of marriages
“Until May of this year, 23,645 couples got the 'yes', 337 less than in the same period of 2013.” (Portafolio, 2014) According to statistics the number of marriages had decrease, not in a significant way but the number of people that say yes! Is every time lower. As an industry that offers services for kids this decline in number of marriages may affect us, because if people don’t get marry less families are formed and less couples have kids, making the industry slows down and making every time the possibility of expand harder.
Number of divorces
“In Colombia the divorce rate is lower than that of civil marriages. The number of divorces in 2014 exceeded 16,200 cases with increased o.50% compared to 2013.” (Redacción Avance Financiero , 2015) This variable does not affect us as a industry, parents may get divorce but kids will be with them no matter what, so the number of divorces is something we don’t have to worry about.
Number of births
Although This variable had decreased in comparison with 2008 and the last year recorded, birth rates affects us in a positive way, our industry is point to service kids and their parents and if middle classes are having the average kids numbers our customers will increase every time more and more.
Taken from: (Index Mundi, 2013)
Number of deaths
This variable does not affect the industry, the life expectancy rate in Colombia had increase so the death rate is not so important in the service and leisure industry.
TAKEN FROM: (Index Mundi, 2013)
Immigration and Emigration rates
Emigration and immigration rates show the amount of people that enter into the country and the amount of people that goes to other countries. This variable does not affect the industry because in the GDP only counts what Colombians do in the country.
TAKEN FROM: (Index Mundi, 2013)
Social Security programs:
“The main objective of the Social Policy Colombia is getting all Colombians have access to quality education, to just and supportive social security, labor market -promoting formalization or supporting entrepreneurship, leading and effective mechanisms of social promotion.” (Departamento Nacional de Planeación , 2014) This variable affect every industry because the social security programs improve people life quality and as established before, this programs encourage them to work every day for a better life and in this way every industry is improved by the amount of people who will want to work.
Life expectancy rates:
“Life expectancy continues to rise in Colombia and has reached 76 years for men and 83 for women, which means that Colombians have gained an average of 8.5 years of life since 1990, according to new global health statistics presented yesterday in Geneva.” (El Heraldo , 2014) This variable doesn’t have a influence in the industry because although it is important how longer people live in Colombia, they usually get retired before the stimulated age for the “life expectancy”.
Per capita income
Per capita income is an important variable due to the fact that according to these statistic we will know how many money people is receiving and apart from this and looking at other variables such as inflation rates or GDP we will know how many of these income people will invest on the industry.
Attitudetoeard carreers
As we can see in the table, the carrees more demanded in Colombia are de followings:
The firms “Trabajando.com” and “El Espectador” did a study from 2010 to 2014 which were the most sought after careers in Colombia and came to the conclusion that the carrees the most demanded were:
-Business administration.
-Marketing.
- Computer engineering
Moreover according to the table the business career with more demand are business administration with a percentage of 17.6% and the following is marketing with a percentage of 4,6%.
Attitude toeard foreing people
Colombians are characterized by being friendly, collaborative and flexible attitude so Toward foreing people is very positive. According to “El Tiempo” in 2014 more than 4 million foreigners visited Colombia, between 2013 and 2014, the visit of foreigners to the country increased at a rate of 12% and more were exactly 4',192.742 foreigners visitors.