The Book Creativity By Ed Catmull - 1472 Words

The book Creativity. Inc. , by Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace, is the chronological journey of Ed Catmul and Pixar from the early days until today. The best part of reading Creativity, Inc is that you know that Ed Catmull isn’t just talking the talk, he’s walking the walk. This book is separated into 4 categories: Getting Started, Protecting The New, Building and Sustaining and Testing What We Know. When Ed Catmul was younger he had two unconventional heroes for a young boy; Walt Disney and Albert Einstein. Ed felt they represented the two poles of creativity, Disney was about inventing the new and Einstein was a master of explaining (pg 7). Ed always wanted to be animator, but he really didn’t know how to go about becoming an animator,†¦show more content†¦Ed also talks about the Suitcase vs the handle – ideas are just handles – suitcase is where the real depth and gravity of the meaning of the sentence. Great people or great ideas? Ed feels great people with good ideas is much more powerful than mediocre team with the great ideas because great ideas will come from great people. When faced with a challenge you need to get smarter, the way to get smart is to hire/get or around smarter people. Always take a chance on the better even it seems threating, even if chances of failure might be high. He’s made a policy to of trying to hire people who are smarter than he is. The obvious payoffs of exceptional people are that they innovate, excel and generally make your company and you look good. P23. In the section Protecting The New, Ed discusses honesty and candor, fear and failure, his version of the hungry beast and ugly baby, change and randomness and the hidden. One of the key exercises Ed implements is the Braintrust, which are regular meetings where there is no authority in the room and they are all there to solve problems. He emphasizes on being candid and honest with each other, candid feedback. It works on the idea that any person who takes a complicated project would inevitably get lost because of narrow focus. He feels candid builds trust and empathy. One of my favorite parts of this book is Fear and Failure – there is No success without failure. He states anyone who feels that any creative endeavor is great

Scholarly Article Search Free Essays

This is an article that is concerned with intervention approaches for the younger population that have problems with alcohol abuse. It describes the gravity of the situation by reporting the huge number of adolescents who have a problem with alcohol and substance abuse. Thus, it reports that â€Å"[i]n 2002, an estimated 10. We will write a custom essay sample on Scholarly Article Search or any similar topic only for you Order Now 7 million American youths, 28. 8% of total youths 12–20 years old, were current drinkers. † The article determined current drinkers by using the criterion that the person â€Å"consumed at least one drink in the past 30 days† (Society for the Study of Addiction, 2004). The gravity of the problem is underscored by the huge part of the statistics to belong to binge and heavy drinkers. The â€Å"US National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2002† estimated that 7. 2 million adolescents are binge drinkers, while 2. 3 million adolescents are heavy drinkers. Heavy drinkers are those who consumed more than four drinks in five different days in the past 30 days. The staggering figures lead to the conclusion that there is serious public health problem among the youth with respect to their alcohol consumption. This problem extends to serious behavioral disorders resulting from alcohol consumption, such as alcoholism. The problem is even more serious because disorders that are related to alcohol abuse are likely to become â€Å"chronic and to persist into adulthood† (Society for the Study of Addiction, 2004). The problem with adolescent alcohol abuse has led to the development of various treatments, both in the private and public healthcare systems. These treatments often range from adolescent to adult care. However, treatment cares often result in relapse in 50-70 percent of affected adolescents. Therefore, there is a need for systematic approaches that are tailored to meet the specific needs and limitations of the target population, which is the youth (Society for the Study of Addiction, 2004). Treatments require appropriate diagnostic criteria in assessing alcohol use patterns of adolescents. Moreover, there is a need to develop a framework within which â€Å"alcohol-related pathology† could be accounted for in the adolescent stage of a person’s life (Society for the Study of Addiction, 2004). The article likewise cites Liddle (2004), who reviewed therapies involving the family of the adolescent who has problems in alcohol and drug abuse. There are suggestions to develop â€Å"adolescent focused, family-based therapies for substance abuse† (Society for the Study of Addiction, 2004). Family-based therapies are believed to be effective for the helpful recovery of alcohol-dependent adolescent. Family-based therapies often analyze â€Å"videotaped in-therapy sessions. Such records help in the identification of problems and issues, and serve as bases for change and treatment (Society for the Study of Addiction, 2004). This article is useful because it points out how important it is to first determine the extent of the problem before attempting to solve it. In the case of alcoholic adolescents, there is a need to first know the needs and limitations of each person and proceed from there. Intervention strategies, such as family-based therapies, should factor in such details in order to be effective. Videotaped therapy sessions are also helpful because they allow all stakeholders, such as the alcohol-dependent person, his family, and the therapist, to have a clear perspective of the situation, through observation from a different angle. Finally, family members could be effective in helping adolescent alcohol dependents by providing moral support. How to cite Scholarly Article Search, Papers

Aa meeting free essay sample

At the Delta club, otherwise known as Alcoholics Anonymous, the first thing the people there offered me a book to read and study. I held the book open at the first page while we waited for a girl named Amy; I guess she’s the one who starts the meeting all the time. A tall white man in his fifties walked to me and asked me â€Å"first time here? †; â€Å"yes† I said. â€Å"don’t worry; this meeting helped me a lot. I am father of 16-years-old son, I hide and drink and I am mean to my wife,† the man said.â€Å"wow, hope you get better, I said with a surprised voice. I sat in the back on a creamy plastic chair looking around at what kind of posters they had in the room, an interesting poster said â€Å"IAM RESPONSIBLE†, and another big long post was titled THE TWELVE CONCEPTS FOR WORLD SERVICE. We will write a custom essay sample on Aa meeting or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page At 6:30 pm Amy walked into the room everyone said â€Å"HI AMY†, â€Å"how’s everyone, glad yall made it† Amy said. Here I notice the meeting started everyone sat down and read IAM RESPONSIBLE all together in one voice. Wow! It looks like these people come here a lot they know what to do. â€Å"Iam responsible† post was about words put together to cheer everyone in room to feel that they can be responsible to change for better life. Next they read THE TWELVE CONCEPETS post, they twelve rules are about how to work on changing inside them and working on their problems. â€Å"hmm, very interesting† I said, people keep coming in to join the group there were around 30 persons, age between 25-60, all kind of people male and female, Black, white, Asian, Latin all kind of people. Around 6:50pm group of bikers entered the room all sat next to each other wearing-same jackets, around five guys in their fifties. A white girl in her twenties entered after them with a child and joined the meeting, too. Amy said; â€Å"who’s here for the first time†, everyone turned and looked at me and I thought, â€Å"no way to hide. † I raised my hand kind of shyly. â€Å"Welcome, introduce yourself please† Amy said. â€Å"hi, I am Angelica, and I am here to help my husband stop drinking† I said. Yes I lied about my name and-reason I am there, but that’s what came in my mind when she asked me.â€Å"do you think he’s an alcoholic† Amy asked. â€Å"Hmm, I am not sure but he seems to be drinking a lot these days which is not usual† I said. â€Å"Well, welcome, I hope you find your answers† Amy said. â€Å"Welcome Angelica† everyone said. I sat in back and I listened to everyone talking about their days and lives, families, and people they care about. To start talking in meeting they raised their hand and said their name and â€Å"I am alcoholic,† just like â€Å"hello all I am Angelica and I am an alcoholic.† They start talking about what they want to share with-others. I saw the hope in everyone’s eyes in that room and excitement, talking about pass? And how they had changed. I sat listening to their stories and watching people talking I was all quiet and didn’t say a word. Some of them were calm talking about their family and how happy they were able to take care of them and how this meeting helping them to realize how bad they? Once felt how much their family’s needs them a- father or mother, wife and husband. Some other people were telling their stories with anger and tension about how bad they were, and what they would do to have alcohol. Meeting was one hour. After I sat there and listened to all these stories I felt very sad, and wondered how someone could get to this point, just like drugs. After hour meeting over, everyone returned the book they had and organized the room, and stand together talking about how good it was to see each other, they were all friends, family, not just a group that had come over here to do what they had to do. This was awesome I walked out and said â€Å"thank you, I enjoyed the meeting was good to meet yall. † They answered â€Å"thank you for coming hopefully we helped you a little; enjoy the rest of your day. † That was nice and sweet from them they were very friendly. When I got in-car I knew I will never go back again but it was a different experience. I learned from it: no matter what, people can change if they decide to.

Evaluate the need for superpowers to play a key role in trade and international decision making free essay sample

Evaluate the need for superpowers to play a key role in trade and international decision making to maintain their status. A Superpower is a nation with the means to project its power and influence anywhere in the world and be a dominant global force International decision making enables superpowers to make key decisions about the world economy, conflicts or environmental issues. This power is mainly held in the hands of inter-governmental organisations (IGO’s) some IGOs involve all nations, such as the U. N. , whereas others are more exclusive such as the G8, or regional such as NATO. These IGO’s are important for superpowers to maintain their status as it allows them to focus global policy and decision making in their own interest. For example most IGO’s operate a veto voting system, where if a certain country with veto does not agree to the policy then the vote is not carried out. We will write a custom essay sample on Evaluate the need for superpowers to play a key role in trade and international decision making or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Many superpowers use this to their advantage, for example the EU and the USA tend to vote with each other, giving them the opportunity to block policies they do not agree with, therefore allowing them to force their own policies. This makes it difficult for smaller nations with less power to have a role in international decision making. Trade can be defined as ‘the exchange of goods and services’. Goods and services are traded everyday throughout the world and in some cases trade occurs in between certain areas, for example the EU. An example of a superpower would be the U. S. A. This superpower plays a major role in the day to day trade of goods and services. The US imports and exports a majority of items which increase the wealth of the country as well as strengthening relationships with other traders. This is important for all superpowers to maintain their status as it enables them to continue their further growth as a superpower. Trade is often ‘bias’ towards superpowers as cheaper resources are exploited by MDC’s, which are then manufactured into goods, adding value, and then sold back to poorer nations, as reflected in the dependency theory. An estimated 75% of world exports originate from LDC’S whereas 63% of all manufactured exports originate from MDC’s. This aids superpowers in keeping their status as it gives them an economic advantage; this allows them to control prices of trade. Similarly, trade blocks play an important role in superpowers maintaining their status. This is because it encourages free trade between them. For example NAFTA (North American free trade agreement) removes import taxes on certain goods making trade easier and cheaper. Arguably, the most important factor which enables superpowers to maintain their status is their ability to export their culture. The USA is seen as the most powerful force in exporting their culture; this process is often referred to as ‘Americanisation’. For example 31,000 McDonald’s restaurants serve 50 million people every day worldwide.

Operations Strategies adopted by Schultz as CEO of Starbucks

Operations Strategies adopted by Schultz as CEO of Starbucks Executive Summary Quality management in terms of services, products and operations management is a critical aspect in business sustainability and development. This paper analyzes the experience of Starbucks in order to emphasize the notions of control and management as well as competent operations.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Operations Strategies adopted by Schultz as CEO of Starbucks specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The most eminent practice of Howard Schultz was his consideration of all needs and desires of customers by introducing additional quality products and coffee varieties into the menu. Besides, Schultz concentrated on employee training. Further, Schultz reviewed the supply chain of the Company in order to cut costs and enhance efficiency. The paper concludes that the operations strategies adopted by Schultz brought numerous changes to the Company. Before the crises between the years 2006 and 2008 Star bucks offered its customers coffee with the grand experience (Burks 2009). The Company had knowledgeable, sociable baristas that provided coffee in a trendy environment where people could socialize, unwind, operate their laptops, etc (Michelli 2007). Nevertheless, the situation changed when the USA experienced a financial crisis, thus, forcing citizens to reduce the amount of money that they usually spent on luxuries. Consequently, Starbucks experienced a lessened demand for its costly coffee drinks as well as a striking decline in the value of its stock. Howard Schultz reappeared as the CEO of Starbucks in 2008 at the time when both the corporation and the nation were experiencing a crisis. The annual sales of the Company experienced a percentage decline of 467% between 2006 and 2008 (Burks 2009). Schultz attributed this fall to rapid expansion, which compromised the quality of its products and services. The quest for growth had obstructed the Company’s core business of offe ring comfortable places for people to relax while taking sumptuous cups of coffee. Hence, Schultz realized that quality management was essential in restoring Starbucks to its initial upward course. After Schultz took his position as the Company’s CEO, the first thing that he accomplished was to shut down 600 coffee shops that performed poorly at that time. Besides, he visited many Starbucks outlets in order to establish the needs and desires of customers. Schultz solicited for customers’ views through direct contact.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Schultz then used customers requirements to design quality and reliable drinks as requested by customers. Schultz considered all needs and desires of customers by introducing additional quality products and coffee varieties into the menu. In addition, Schultz focused on meeting customers’ needs for q uality and value through aligning the prices of its commodities to its Company strategy. Since its foundation, Starbucks maintained high price on its products because of supposed premium image that became associated with its brand. However, after Schultz reoccupied his seat as the Company’s CEO, Starbucks began offering a bottomless 8 oz cup of coffee at $1 with infinite top ups which cost about 50 cents less than all other products of the Company. Moreover, Starbucks has adopted value strategies that stress more on economical and cheaper coffee products, though initially they are supposed to be high-priced. Another perspective that Schultz concentrated on was employee training so as to meet the needs of customers. For instance, Schultz closed all Starbucks’ outlets in America for three hours in order to train employees on how to make the ideal espresso drink. Schultz recognized the value of equipping employees with competent skills that would enable them to make produ cts that meet customers standards. Thus, Schultz spent more time on training employees and less time on advertising, which was every beneficial. He recognized that Starbucks‘s employees were the most appropriate people to convey the passion and knowledge to customers. Further, Schultz focused on intensifying profits in existing stores through enhancing technology investments and operational efficiencies. By doing so, Schultz recognized that the improvements of the quality of customer service in terms of factors such as time and resources are due to use of technology. For instance, the Company proclaimed its focus for entertainment business on digital strategy in 2008 (Paryani 2011). Since 2008, when Schultz returned as the Companys CEO, Starbucks services extended from coffee and pastries to smoothies and wraps, which enabled the Company to maintain competition and meet all consumer needs. In addition, Schultz launched new products, for instance Starbucks VIAâ„ ¢ Ready Brew Coffee, food offerings with no artificial flavors, corn syrup or dyes.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Operations Strategies adopted by Schultz as CEO of Starbucks specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More By doing so, the Company was able to grow its consumer products, and thus, exploiting their brand responsiveness and setting up themselves as the most acknowledged and appreciated brand in the world to their intended market. Schultz, also, made strategic investments in chief strategies through concentrating on controlled, global store extension in main markets. He identified some key zones that could be fit for expansion, while closing outlets that did not seem necessary. In 2008, Schultz took time to review the supply chain of the Company, in order to establish irregularities that cost the Company too much. The assessment revealed that the supply chain had expanded rapidly through outsourcing. However, outsourcing had as well caused cost inflation (Jacobs Chase 2011). Reacting to those results, Schultz structured a supply transformation plan with three phases. The organization of Starbucks supply chain, which was the first step in the plan, began towards the end of 2008. This entailed taking a compound arrangement and splitting it so that each work became grouped under the four central functions of supply chain including sourcing, planning, manufacturing and distribution (Boyer Verma 2010; Stevenson, 2009). For example, all persons who participated in planning and introduction of new products became categorized in planning. Similarly, all workers involved in customer service and delivery became consigned to the delivery category. The second part of the plan was to cut down costs and enhance efficiency (Pearce Robinson 2009). To complete this step, the sourcing group set up strategies that would establish the cost drivers that were making prices go up (Russell Taylor 2011). In addition, the manu facturing group came up with a competent model for supplying coffee beans to its manufacturing plants as part of the plan with the objective of making productions in areas where the commodity got sold. The merits of this strategy were seen immediately, since regionalizing its coffee manufacture made Starbucks lessen its costs for transportation. In conclusion, the operations strategies adopted by Schultz have brought numerous changes to the Company in the last few years. Schultz concentrated on providing quality services to its customers, which enabled the Company to maintain its position as the most acknowledged and appreciated brand in the world. Further, the supply transformation plan introduced by Schultz enabled the Company to cut down costs while at th same time enhancing productivity and efficiency.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More References Boyer, K Verma, R 2010, Operations and supply chain management for the 21st century, Cengage Learning, London. Burks, M 2009, Starbucks, Santa Barbara, Greenwood Press. Jacobs, F R Chase, R B 2011, Operations and supply chain management, 13th edn, McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York. Michelli, J A 2007, The Starbucks experience: 5 principles for turning ordinary into extraordinary, McGraw Hill, New York. Paryani, K 2011, ‘Product quality, service reliability and management of operations at Starbucks’, International Journal of Engineering, Science and Technology, vol. 3 no.7, pp.1-14. Pearce, J P Robinson, R 2009, Strategic management: formulation, implementation and control, McGraw-Hill, New York. Russell, R S Taylor B W 2011, Operations management: creating value along the supply chain, 7th edn, John Wiley Sons, New Jersey. Stevenson, W J 2009, Operations management, 10th edn, McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York.

Compare and contrast the glass-steagall act with the Essay

Compare and contrast the glass-steagall act with the gramm-leach-bliley act, also known as the citigroup relief act - Essay Example It removed barriers and obstacles that securities companies, banking companies, and insurance companies had to endure. In this paper, I will seek to compare and contrast the Glass-Steagall Act with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Citigroup Relief Act (White 3). To begin with, the Glass-Steagall Act prohibited all commercial banks from taking part in the issuance and flotation of securities. It remained unclear as to why the Congress decided to mandate this divorce but one thing is clear, it made the involvement of commercial banks in securitizing insurmountable burden. This came due to the dichotomy between and among the actual motivation behind Congress’ decision and the ostensible legislative intent. On the other part, enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act revolutionized the circumstances since it repealed a section of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 whereby it did away with obstacles or barriers present in the market among insurance, securities, and banking companies. In other words, it relived these companies of any barrier that deterred any single firm from acting as a combination of a commercial bank, investment bank, and an insurance company (White 12). Secondly, a study conducted within almost three thousand banks in years between 1856 and 1936 proved that securities were not to blame for most of banks failure or collapse however; they were a particular hazard to banks. More intense studies revealed that the underwritten securities of commercial banks were actually of higher quality as opposed to the prior claim that the affiliate underwritings were of poor quality. The history of Glass-Steagall Act reflects the common notion that the possible underlying cause of the 1929 market crash came about because of using bank credit in excess to speculate stock market. Quiet a number o econometrics assert that what prompted the

EBays Globalization Strategy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

EBays Globalization Strategy - Case Study Example The researcher states that the current economic downfall and the uncooperative financial trends of the dollar are other major factors that have worsened the existing scenario. eBay has now decided to revamp the entire website and measures to provide buyers more protections, sellers with loyalty programs are on the anvil. The core competency of eBay is its online auctions. The online auction marketplace model was the main factor that spelled success for eBay over the years. As the company does not think and act like a retailer, their initial strategy of not dealing in any way with the fixed-price market suited their core competency to a very great extent. Now, with its foray into this unvisited and untapped segment of the market, eBay is facing the dire consequences of not sticking to its original plan. This year eBay reported a revenue decline of around 16%, which it’s the first of its kind for this e-commerce company. An analyst at New York-based Sanford C. Bernstein, Lindsay says â€Å"Its a sign that eBay hasn't been able to buck the trend of poor consumer turnout during the holiday season. Unless they can get the core marketplaces business to turn around, and a fair bit of that will depend on the economy, then they're going to have to look at some more strategic measures.† The business model of eBay initially was to mainly help people trade practically anything on earth and conduct commerce through the Internet on a global basis. â€Å"A weakness in consumer spending and strength in the U. S dollar has reduced the value of overseas sales.† EBay’s main aim earlier was to make the process of online buying and selling fun using the system of the auction. Their main focus was using umpteen entrepreneurial strategies and business skills to create smart and efficient tools for the website and use a winning strategy to become the most popular and well-known e-commerce company and the best Internet retailer of all time.