Virtuoso Teams Essay Example for Free

Virtuoso Teams Essay Bill Fischer is Professor of Innovation Management. He began his work-life as an apprentice electrician in the New York City building trades and his professional life as a development engineer in the steel industry. He served for two years as a lieutenant in the US Army Corps of Engineers; and has also worked with the World Health Organization for more than fifteen years on strengthening research and development institutes in developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Bill also was the Executive President and Dean of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), in Shanghai. Bill writes a blog entitled The Ideas Business for Forbes.com and has recently author two books relating to innovation: Virtuoso Teams in 2005, and The Idea Hunter, in 2011 [both co-authored by Andy Boynton]. Andy Boynton is Dean of Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, one of the world’s leading business schools, the author of several books and co-creator of DeepDiveâ„ ¢, the world’s leading methodology for helping executives harness the power of teams to significantly improve problem-solving speed, innovation and results. Boynton was a professor of strategy at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland for 10 years. Boynton has recently launched new research projects to explore how distinguished experts from a variety of knowledge-domains work with ideas to achieve professional success and improve their effectiveness in social networks. His latest book, The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make them Happen (Jossey-Bass), is based on this research and is co-authored with Bill Fischer and William Bole. A virtuoso (from Italian virtuoso, Latin virtus meaning: skill, manliness, excellence) is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The term evolved with time, simultaneously broadening and narrowing in scope as interpretations went in and out of fashion and debates unravel. What words characterizes them best? This article is about these kind of teams which are so different from the ordinary, average teams. The Idea in Brief Imagine these high-stakes scenarios: Your company must enter an untested new market. Or reorganize to take advantage of a new IT platform. Or avert a public relations crisis brought on by product tampering. To manage such feats, you need virtuoso teamsgroups of top experts in their fields. But superstars are notorious for being temperamental and egocentric. You worry that forcing a group of them to work together will create a fatal explosion. So youre tempted to settle for an ordinary project team instead. Dont do it. Ordinary teams may play nice, but they produce results as unremarkable as themselves. Assemble your virtuoso teamand manage it with counterintuitive strategies, advise Fischer and Boynton. For example, instead of emphasizing the collective, celebrate individual egos by creating opportunities for solo performances. Then build group ego by encouraging a single-minded focus on the goal, your teams members will forge their most brilliant ideas. The Idea in Practice Fischer and Boynton suggest these principles for leading a virtuoso team: Assemble the stars. Hire only members with the best skills, even if they have little experience with the problem at hand. After investing heavily in a site promising a big oil find, Norsk Hydro discovered the site was dry. Team leader Kjell Sunde assembled a virtuoso team to avert an investor-relations crisis. The team included the best technical people from across the company. Its goal: Analyze reams of data, pinpoint what went wrong, and convince stakeholders such an outcome wouldnt occur again. Build the group ego. As your teams project progresses, help stars break through their egocentrism and morph into a powerful, unified team with a shared identity. Sunde initially broke with Norsk Hydros consensus-driven culture by publicly celebrating his team members and putting them squarely in the spotlight. He established a star mentality by nicknaming them the A-team. Then he built the teams group ego by protecting members from intrusive scrutiny from above, giving them unlimited access to resources, and treating their  conclusions as definitive. Make work a contact sport. Use face-to-face conversations in designated spaces to foster impassioned dialogue. Sunde established a dedicated team room and filled it with computer workstations and other scientific and communications equipment. The space functioned as a workroom and meeting place for candid, intense discussions that let members bounce ideas off each other. Respect the customers intelligence. Foster the belief that your teams customers want more, not less. Youll encourage them to deliver solutions consistent with this higher perception. For Norsk Hydros A-team, customers were equity market analysts. The teams job was to manage the markets reaction to news of the dry site. If its explanation was slapdash or incomplete, the companys market value would nosedive. The team provided thoughtful explanations that left market analysts impressed with the firms ability to respond convincingly and quickly to market concerns. The company received kudos in the press and was spared serious financial erosion. Herd the cats. Use time management strategies to balance team members needs for individual attention and intellectual freedom with the uncompromising demands and time lines of your high-stakes project. Sunde forced A-team members to keep presentations to 15 minutes. That encouraged members to use this allotment to maximum effect and discouraged aggressive members from imposing their viewpoints on others. The strong adherence to time made everyone aware they had to dance to the same rhythm.

Schindlers List :: essays research papers

Schindler’s List   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"I knew the people who worked for me. When you know people, you have to behave towards them like human beings.† This was a quote from Oskar Schindler. However, throughout the movie, it didn’t quite seem like he felt that way the entire time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The movie began in 1939, and Schindler was very into alcohol, womanizing, and making money. He bought a Jewish factory in Krakow called Deutsche Email Fabrik. In order get the resources necessary; he talked to his key contact throughout the entire movie, a Jewish accountant by the name of Itzhak Stern. Stern informed him that Jewish labor was cheaper than Polish Labor. Schindler, of course being interested in having a higher profit, went and hired the Jews, thus beginning his relationship with them. The produced pots, pans, basins, and other items as such, and then later on, munitions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   At certain points in the movie, it was hard to tell that he was changing. At certain moments, it seemed like he was, but then the next second, he would turn around and act the same as he always did. Such as when Stern brought in the one-armed Jew to thank him for giving him a job, and while he was there, he seemed happy to be able to be helping this man, but as soon as the man left, he turned around to Stern and said, â€Å"Don’t ever do that to me again. That man has one arm, he is of no use.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There were many other moments in the movie though when you could tell that he was changing, such as when he was convincing that Nazi soldier friend of his’ slave/mistress that he actually does care about her and then kisses her on the forehead and tells her that everything will be okay. He eventually then buys her from him to save her. Another scene was the girl in the red coat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Once the â€Å"liquidation† of the ghetto occurred in 1941, and they took all of his workers, I think that was when you could see him change the most, because he then spent millions of dollars of his own money to get them back, in order to save them from being killed at Auschwitz. And then when they couldn’t produce the munitions correctly, he bought them himself to be sent to the German army so they couldn’t shut down the factory.

Compare Wal-Mart Essay

1.Compare Wal-Mart. com with Amazon.com. What features do the sites have in common? Which are unique to Wal-Mart? To Amazon.com? Walmart.com and amazon.com have a lot of similarities. Some of the common features between the two include setting up a user account, they both have the shopping cart feature, both these websites have the search bar at the top of the page, they both allow you to sort through products based on price, popularity, relevance, customer review, they both show you a list of items viewed that matched what you searched for, they both have a gift registry, purchases made on the Wal-Mart can either be shipped to your home or to a nearest store either by Wal-mart or by a third party vendor from the marketplace. Amazon too has tie ups with a number of vendors all over the world that you can buy from. Both websites graphically display user reviews for each item. Both websites allow you to track your order. Both sites have the deals of the day. Amazon’s is called today’s deal and Wal-Mart’s is called value of the day. The only thing I found unique about Wal-Mart’s website is that it has a button on the top of the page called ‘weekly ad’ that displays little coupons that users can redeem. Amazon does not have this feature. Another difference between the two websites is their return policy. Wal-Mart has a 90 day return policy whereas Amazon has a 30 day return policy. 2.Will Wal-Mart become the dominant e-tailer in the world, replacing Amazon.com, or will Amazon.com dominate Wal-Mart online? What factors would con- tribute to Wal-Mart’s success in the online market place? What factors would detract from its ability to dominate online sales the way it has been able to dominate physical retail sales in many markets? Currently, Amazon.com offers a much larger and more varied inventory as well as a variety of features and benefits that Walmart.com is unable to match. While Walmart’s retail stores have a huge customer base, many of whom will turn to Walmart.com for convenience, Walmart.com’s inventory is mostly composed only of products that are available in Walmart stores. Meanwhile, Amazon has a vast array of products in virtually every category imaginable, from all over the world. In addition, Amazon has many used items that are available for lower prices, as well as rare, vintage, and antique items that are not part of Walmart’s stock. Amazon also offers an online â€Å"marketplace,† where shoppers can connect with sellers anywhere in the world, compare products  and prices, and sometimes even negotiate with sellers. Much of Walmart’s dominance in the physical retail market is due to its business model of buying in such large bulk quantities that it can offer lower prices to customers, as well as being a one-stop shopping destination; however, because Amazon customers have the ability to comparison shop between Amazon sellers, and because Amazon is able to offer a much larger variety of products, both of Walmart’s advantages are negated. Therefore, it is very unlikely that Walmart.com will ever be able to replace Amazon. 3.Check the shopping aids offered at Wal-Mart. com. compare them with those at Amazon. com. Walmart.com has a searchable database as well as categories that allow customers to browse through their available products. Search results can be sorted by relevance, price, customer rating, best-selling, etc. Customers can create profiles that store their shipping and billing info for convenience, as well as previous order information. Orders can be tracked online. Customers who search for items at Walmart.com are also offered recommendations for other products that might also interest them. Gift cards can be purchase online, and gift card balances can be checked. Walmart.com also offers wedding and baby registry services, as well as a â€Å"Wish List† that can be viewed by others. A â€Å"Value of the Day† is offered to showcase items that are on sale for even lower prices. Free shipping is often available on select purchases. All of these shopping aids are comparable to those on Amazon.com. Walmart.com does offer one shopping aid that Amazon does not have; many items can be shipped to the customer’s nearest Walmart store for free, which can lead to significant savings. 4.What online services can be purchased on Walmart.com? Walmart.com offers the following services online: †¢Ã¢â‚¬ Straight Talk No-Contract Phones,† where customers can purchase a pre-paid phone, have it delivered to their address, and activated online or over the phone; †¢Same-Day Photo Pickup,† which allows customers to upload digital photos to Walmart.com, which can then be transferred onto photo prints, mugs, cards, calendars, etc., or even onto posters or faux canvases. Most of these products can then be picked up at the customer’s local store that same day; †¢Ã¢â‚¬ Contact Lenses at Walmart,† which allows customers to enter  their prescription contact lens information and order a variety of brand-name contact lenses at bargain prices; †¢Ã¢â‚¬ Enroll in a Medicare Part D Plan,† a service which helps eligible applicants apply for Medicare, as well as receive discounts at Walmart’s pharmacy; †¢Ã¢â‚¬ Walmart MoneyCenter,† which provides a variety of financial services online, including credit cards, pre-paid deb it cards, money transfers, tax preparation services, and Bluebird, a â€Å"debit and checking alternative† sponsored by American Express that offers many of the same services as traditional banks. In addition, the Walmart Pharmacy offers many services online, including prescription refills and delivery. Walmart also has a Wellness Center that offers health tips and tools online.

Determining the Costs of College

How much does college cost? This question is tricky because it depends on the college you will be attending, as well as when you will be attending. Here are some important factors to consider. Private vs. Public The tuition at private colleges is more than double the tuition of a public college. According to the College Board, the cost of a years tuition in 2018-2019, plus room and board, averaged $36,890 for private colleges and $26,290 for public colleges. Inflation It doesnt matter is you will be attending a private or public university, the cost of tuition goes up every year. Many financial experts estimate that the cost of college will increase at approximately 6% each year over the next 10 years. Financial Aid Just thinking about the rising costs of college tuition is enough to make your head spin. Before worrying that you will never be able to afford a years worth of college tuition, let alone four years, consider these two words: financial aid. Financial aid is available to those who need it. And, the good news is that there is a lot of it. Grants, scholarships, student loans, and work-study programs, will help to cover the cost of college. All you have to do is educate yourself in regards to how aid works and how you can get it.