Illume, Archipelego
Autism/Down Syndrome
July 27, 2007I had a chance a few years back to help a family who had a son living with autism. It touched my heart and wanted to share a clipping while on you tube that was a similar experience. It is a highly stressful situation and something I have high respect for with these children and adults as well who need special needs. A child needs care all the time.
“It took me two weeks of research to learn that Hunter will be autistic. Best friends, adolescence, sports, a girlfriend, falling in love, education, job, getting married, first job and paycheck. All the things I look back the things I had in my life, Hunter will not have. My job as a father is to provide him things that I can, things like human contact.”
Down Syndrome
All about Kathy: a little girl with Down Syndrome
Generation X/Y
July 27, 2007Light Brights
Mellow Yellow
The Doors
Trolly Cars
80’s 90’s
Pop Life
Michael Jackson
Freedom
Bull Markets
Wall Street
Highs and Lows
Retro
Somewhere In Time
Cassette Tapes
Threes Company
Old and New
CEO World
July 26, 2007| Dealing with Crisis: Five Leaders Speak Out
For one CEO, the challenge was to use the company’s near bankruptcy as a catalyst to emphasize customer service, set up new partnerships and recommit to R&D. For another CEO, the first test of leadership was firing the top management team and whole board of directors. For another, it was initiating a strategy that flew in the face of traditional industry practices. A fourth CEO talked about missing the critical feedback he got from colleagues early in his career, while a fifth said she makes a point of identifying 25 junior people in the company who will be the next generation of leaders. The five leaders mentioned above — Anne Mulcahy, chairman and CEO of Xerox, Edward Breen, CEO of Tyco, Aditya Mittal, president and CFO of Mittal Steel, Arthur Weinbach, CEO of Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Michelle Peluso, CEO of Travelocity — spoke to Wharton students and/or to Knowledge@Wharton during recent visits to campus. Their thoughts on management clearly reflect their own personal journeys up the leadership ladder, but, as is often the case, they agreed on some of the skills necessary to run a company in 2005: a constant focus on the customer, a commitment to globalization, the importance of finding and motivating the right mix of employees, and a willingness for both corporations and individuals to take on risk. |
| The Cow in the Ditch: How Anne Mulcahy Rescued Xerox |
| Anne Mulcahy, chairman and chief executive of Xerox, calls pressure from Wall Street for short-term performance “one of the most dysfunctional things going on in the marketplace today,” and said she “applauds companies that have pulled back from setting earnings expectations and are trying to reshape the rules of the road. If I could take Xerox private, I’d do it yesterday.” Speaking last week as part of the Wharton Leadership Lecture series, Mulcahy talked about the challenges she faced trying to bring Xerox back from the brink of disaster. In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton after the presentation, she stressed key components of the turnaround, including a constant focus on the customer, new partnerships and an unwillingness to cut back on R&D. |
| Tyco’s Edward Breen: When Leadership Means Firing Top Management and the Entire Board |
| Edward D. Breen understood that he was taking on one of the toughest jobs in corporate America when he agreed to become chairman and chief executive officer of Tyco International in July 2002. After all, the former CEO had resigned and was under investigation for stealing hundreds of millions from the company. Then, hours before Breen was to announce his new position, CNBC reported that Tyco might file for bankruptcy. The company’s stock fell 18% that day. “I knew I was going to be in the fire,” Breen recalled during a recent talk on campus as part of the Wharton Leadership Lecture Series. “But you never know the intensity until you are really there.” |
| How Mittal Steel Proved Its Mettle in a Tough Marketplace |
| Five years ago, Aditya Mittal, then head of mergers and acquisitions for his family’s company, Rotterdam-based Mittal Steel, wanted to acquire a steel mill owned by the Romanian government, even though the plant was losing $1 million a day. After long and arduous negotiations, both sides eventually agreed to the deal. That transaction, one of many over the years, illustrates what has made the company the world’s largest steel maker — a commitment to consolidation, globalization and risk-taking. Aditya Mittal, now president and CFO, talked with Knowledge@Wharton about the company’s strategy and future plans for expansion. |
| Career Advice from ADP’s Arthur Weinbach |
| Arthur Weinbach’s goal in every job he ever held was “to have nothing to do.” One of the most satisfying periods of his career came when people were free to ignore his suggestions. And if one measure of a great CEO is his or her ability to hire and fire people, he has excelled only in the first. Yet Weinbach somehow managed to become CEO of $8 billion Automatic Data Processing, based in Roseland, N.J. During a recent presentation as part of the Wharton Leadership Lecture Series, he talked about taking risks, hiring the right people and the importance of delegating authority. |
| Travelocity’s Michelle Peluso Changed the Business Model and the Company Took Off |
| Top managers should recognize their own weak spots and make up for them by hiring strong, capable people who are encouraged to take risks, Michelle Peluso — CEO of the online travel booking service, Travelocity — said during a recent Musser-Schoemaker Leadership lecture at Wharton. Peluso, who ranked 4th in the Wall Street Journal’s list of 50 Women to Watch in November 2004, focused much of her talk on the importance of finding and motivating the right combination of employees. |
Fitness Life
July 26, 2007Bikram Yoga 
Cardiovascular conditioning 
This week, increase either the frequency or duration of your cardio training. If you were training three times a week, increase to four times, or if you were training for a total of 100 minutes, increase by 10 percent to 110 minutes.
Muscle conditioning
Perform one set of each of today’s exercises, and the last four weeks’ exercises, two to three times this week. Focus on “putting your mind into your muscles” –concentrate on where you should be feeling each exercise, and really squeeze those muscles. In each of the exercises, maintain proper posture and keep your abdominals pulled inward.
Yvette Sidaros/Flaire Photography
Outer thigh lifts
Beginner: Hold the handles of your exercise tube in each hand, and step on the middle of the tube. Keeping your abdominals contracted and maintaining proper posture, slowly lift one leg out to the side. Try not to lean into the supporting leg, and lift the leg only about 30 degrees off the floor. Alternate legs, performing eight to 15 reps on each side.
Intermediate: Perform the same exercise as above, but do eight to 15 reps consecutively on one leg before switching to the other leg.
Advanced: Perform the same exercise as above, but use two tubes or a heavier resistance tube.
Yvette Sidaros/Flaire Photography
Lateral shoulder raise
Beginner: Stand upright with perfect posture and hold a pair free weights (1 to 3 pounds). Stand on one leg, but keep the other leg lightly in contact with the floor to help you maintain your balance. Slowly lift the weights to the side to shoulder level, keeping your elbows slightly bent. Perform five to eight reps on each leg.
Intermediate: Perform the same exercise as above, but stand completely on one leg.
Advanced: Perform the same exercise as above, but increase the weight.
Yvette Sidaros/Flaire Photography
Leg lowers
Beginner: Lie on your back with your legs suspended at a 90-degree angle at your hips and knees. Keep your abdominals contracted and pulled inward and your back in its neutral position. Hold for 30 seconds, then release. Do this five times.
Intermediate: Perform the same exercise as above, but slowly lower one leg halfway toward the floor while the other leg remains stationary. Keep the abdominals pulled inward throughout the exercise. Perform 10-15 reps each leg.
Advanced: Perform the same exercise as above, but lower one leg all the way to the floor.
Yvette Sidaros/Flaire Photography
Hip flexor stretch
Put yourself in a lunge position, with your front knee positioned over the front ankle and your back knee positioned comfortably on a mat or towel. Straighten your spine so your posture is fully erect. Lightly press your hips forward. Feel the stretch in the front of the thigh.
America Life
July 26, 2007Why we are fortunate, freedom and land of opportunity.
“I Love America”
This publication in the literary magazine of Saint Ignatius College Preparatory was inspired by conversations with my mother regarding her immigrant experience. My mother did not have the opportunity to attend college in China because college was a privilege controlled by a corrupt Communist government. I am fortunate to live in an America where my freedoms to learn, study, and grow are not as constrained as they were for my mother back in China.
I love my mother and father.
Most people cherish their intimate relationships with their parents because they perceive their parents as protectors and caretakers who provide them with unconditional love and support. Others respect them for the sacrifices that they endure in order to supply the fundamental, physical necessities of a family: a warm home, ample clothing, and sufficient food on the dinner table. Some simply respect their parents because they are, by definition, the people who delivered them into the world and bestowed life upon them. I love and respect my parents for all of these reasons and because, without them, I could not even begin to imagine the true meaning of America…
One morning, as my mother was driving me to school in her black Volvo, a conversation that originally dealt with my future evolved into an explanation of her past.
“Do you ever think about which career you want to pursue when you grow up?” my mother asked me curiously with her Chinese dialect.
“Just a little. I’m still not sure,” I replied in a quiet voice. In my mind, I hoped that she would change the subject because she had inquired about my future a few times before during my other trips to school, and each time I had responded with the exact same answer.
My mother rotated the steering wheel counterclockwise as she made a left turn from Pine Street onto Masonic. She tossed a glance at me and remarked, “You know, regardless of whom you eventually choose to become, you ought to value the fact that you have a choice in the first place.” She paused, and I furtively found myself wondering what she meant. Now, I actually hoped that she would continue and satiate my curiosity. Surely enough, a few seconds later, she continued. “When I was young and living in China, you had to become whatever the Communist government ordered you to become. If the Communists said that they needed another garbage collector for their economy, then you were a prospective garbage collector. If they said you had to become a farmer, then you were a prospective farmer.”
My mother let her words sink into my head as she turned onto Stanyan Street. “Back then, the government controlled all the power. Even though it was theoretically created for the people’s interests; in reality, it wasn’t. Government officials routinely came and claimed our family possessions in the name of communism, in order to give to those people who were deemed ‘less fortunate’ than us. They stole our furniture, our beds, our clothing, and anything valuable that they found. In truth, they were usually corrupt and kept the valuables for themselves. That’s why Grandmother tried to hide any extra savings and the one or two pieces of jewelry that we owned.”
As the words flowed out of her mouth, I mentally conjured up images of tall, staunch government officials dressed in army green uniforms with three red stripes and a bright yellow star on their shoulder pads to signify that they were Chinese communists. With rifles supported by their left hands and shoulder, they barged into my mother’s small home. I discerned the short, yet robust figure of my grandfather, impeding the movement of the officials, challenging the injustices being committed, but at the same time not daring to insult the officials for fear that he would be beaten by the butts of their rifles. The officials, without hesitation, merely jostled my grandfather aside with their strong arms and proceeded to plunder the place. They overturned furniture and ripped the drawers out of the desks in search of what they wanted. They even stole the necklace that my grandmother had carefully hidden between the mattresses of a bed. My mother and her two brothers, afraid, huddled into a corner of the room while my grandmother endeavored desperately to pacify them.
I felt fortunate to be American. I would not have to face the same unwarranted searches and seizures by the Chinese government that my mother had experienced. Then, a cog in the back of my head began to turn, and curiosity once again overtook me. Looking over at my mother, I asked, “Mother, what did the Chinese government order you to become?”
“It said that I had to become a farmer,” she replied. She sighed and then continued, “but farming in China was tedious labor. Being a farmer meant working from dawn until dusk. And it wasn’t like in America, where almost all the work was mechanized; instead, most farmers were poor and had to use their hands to perform the field work. Do you remember last summer when we vacationed to China?” My mind escaped the body in my seat and entered into the reminiscences of that summer…
My family and I journeyed aboard a train that would transport us from Guangzhou to the city of Guilin, where we would be able to see the spectacular rock formations for which the city was famous. During the fourteen-hour ride, I bore witness to the poor quality of life in China, especially along the countryside. Farmers–men and women, young and old–toiled monotonously in the vast fields that poured next to the train tracks. From a distance, I discerned their dirty faces, covered with patent traces of weariness and tire. Under the scorching heat of the blazing, summer sun, most of the men chose not to wear shirts. Few of them even wore shoes or sandals, probably to avoid damaging the footwear with the dark soil beneath their feet. These dusty fields were necessary for the survival of China’s population; ironically, they also simultaneously engendered tremendous suffering and labor in return. The lack of machinery, such as tractors, surprised me. I wondered at the time where all the machines were…
I felt fortunate to be American. I would not have to perform the same tiresome labor that my mother was forced to perform. I would be able to choose what I wanted to do and whom I wanted to become. I did not–
“–But I refused to become a farmer.” My mother’s voice interrupted my chain of thought. “In return, the government did not let me go to college. I believed that its action was unfair so I immigrated to America. I immigrated to America so that you could have a better life, receive a solid education, and so that you could follow your dreams and become whomever you want to become without some unjust and corrupt government watching you over your shoulder to tell you otherwise.” She looked at me, her eyes full of hope. In the corner of her eye, I saw the watery roots of a tear. “Edmond, you must remember never to succumb to the will of an unjust authority. You are your own person.”
Just as the last word flowed out of her mouth, my mother stopped the car. I realized that we had already arrived at school. Opening the door, I planted my feet onto American ground with a newfound sense of its meaning. Whether my mother had purposely intended this conversation or whether it just turned out that way, a sense of pride converged with my previous feeling of fortune of being American. I looked at the immense, majestic school standing before me. I noticed the bright, green leaves of the tall trees that grew near the place where I stood. Teenagers of various cultures flocked out of their cars toward the school. I felt honored to have this place to call my home.
I loved America, the mother of freedom and the father of opportunity. Unfettered from the shackles of communism, I was free.
