Cirque Du Soleil Performer Sarah Guillot-Guyard, a 31-year-old mother of two children ages 8 and 5, Plunges To Her Death During Live Vegas Show

Cirque Du Soleil Performer Plunges To Her Death During Live Vegas Show

ALY WEISMAN JUL. 1, 2013, 10:15 AM 8,517 5

31-year-old Sarah Guillot-Guyard fell 50 feet to her death Saturday night in Las Vegas.

A female Cirque du Soleil performer died Saturday night after falling during a performance of the show “Ka” at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The incident marks the first death from an accident onstage in Cirque’s 30-year history. Sarah Guillot-Guyard, a 31-year-old mother of two children ages 8 and 5, fell nearly 50 feet in a fatal high-wire accident. Read more of this post

“Hire mediocre people and make yourself look good.” The manager’s fear of delegating; Some executives hold their businesses and their employees back by not letting go; “I never wanted to delegate for fear of losing my clients”

Last updated: July 1, 2013 7:57 pm

The manager’s fear of delegating

By Naomi Shragai

A young chief executive who founded a thriving company appears to be at the peak of his success. But instead of enjoying his achievement, he is stress­ed and overwhelmed with responsibility. His problem is a failure to delegate work. “The company is a triangle and I feel at the bottom of it, holding everything up,” is how he expresses his dilemma. Although he envies managers who are able to delegate, he feels unable to, believing that the company is an extension of himself and his personality. He adds: “I make these emotional connections and I believe that what I do is about the relationships I make with people. I never wanted to delegate for fear of losing my clients.” Although most executives would agree that delegating is crucial to a business’s success, many still micromanage in such a way that they continue to control most aspects of the work. For many, the skill of delegating can be learnt. But when an executive fails to do so even if it is essential to the growth and functioning of the business, the problem may be more deep-rooted. Beliefs that I have come across in my psychotherapy practice, such as “this business is all about me”; “no one can do it as well as me”; or “people are likely to let me down”, are all justifications that sabotage delegation. One consequence of these beliefs is that staff being managed can feel undermined or undervalued, and may soon lose interest in their jobs. The harm to the company can be twofold, according to Jeannie Hodder, a business coach who works at London Business School. First, micromanaged staff cease thinking for themselves, and without imaginative input the company is deprived of innovative ideas and can stagnate. Second, overly hands-on executives can be left feeling overburdened and stressed, and without time to devise strategy. Read more of this post

How LEGO Stopped Thinking Outside the Box and Innovated Inside the Brick

How LEGO Stopped Thinking Outside the Box and Innovated Inside the Brick

Published : July 01, 2013 in Knowledge@Wharton

Few toys have caught the imagination of children everywhere more than LEGOs — the multi-colored plastic blocks that can snap together to construct houses, castles, space ships or fantastical imaginary figures. The Danish company (whose name roughly translates to “play well”) traces its roots to a failed carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen, who in 1932 decided to put his skills to work creating toys made of wood. In the late 1940s, Christiansen invested in the then-risky injection molding technology needed to make the plastic blocks. In the late 1950s, Ole Kirk’s son, Godtfred, came up with the interlocking stud-and-tube design that made the company a household name. But there is a side to the company’s story that is rarely told, one that Wharton practice professor David Robertson says can serve as a guide to both the importance and the perils of innovation in today’s global marketplace. In his new book,Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry, Robertson, who wrote the book with journalist Bill Breen, recounts how a binge of innovation almost bankrupted LEGO — and how the company brought itself back from the brink by returning to its roots. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Knowledge@Wharton: We’re here today with Wharton practice professor David Robertson, author of the new book, Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry. David, thanks for being with us today. Read more of this post

If staff are jaded they can bring a business down. But if they’re engaged your enterprise will fly

Are your staff bored stiff?

June 27, 2013

Kate Jones

If staff are jaded they can bring a business down. But if they’re engaged your enterprise will fly. What’s the difference between a company staffed by a motivated team and a company staffed by an unmotivated team? Success and failure, according to the owner of one of Australia’s most iconic brands. Mr Whippy owner Stan Gordon, chief executive of Franchised Food Company, which also owns Cold Rock Ice Creamery, Pretzel World and Nutshack, says having an enthusiastic staff is crucial to the viability of every business. “Having a motivated team actually helps your business grow and if they’re driven, they’ll also grow and embrace the business’ vision,” he says. “The first thing I’d do if I had unmotivated staff is look at what I, as a team leader, am doing wrong. “Am I not creating enough challenges? Is the work too repetitive? Am I not recognising the work done? Maybe I’m not motivated?” Gordon says it should be obvious to any boss that their staff is lacking motivation. “You can see them skulking around the office, dragging their feet around, everything’s a hassle, they make mistakes but always have excuses,” he says. A high turnover of staff is the best indicator and the most costly result of a directionless team, Gordon says. “Like anyone, I would much rather hire people to grow the business than replace outgoing staff,” he says. Gordon oversees 22 staff at the company’s Melbourne head office, plus more than 3000 employees in franchises all over Australia. Drawing on his 20 years of experience in marketing, franchising and people-management, here and in his native South Africa, Gordon has listed the top 10 ways to keep employees motivated. Read more of this post

The Petty Source of Lincoln’s Greatness

This year’s celebration of the Fourth of July is amplified by the sesquicentennial of the Union victory at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. The holiday will no doubt serve up the requisite dose of patriotic feeling, sentimentality and togetherness to convince us that we have exercised some civic virtue. But the vacation time spent with family and friends will mostly serve to remind us that we are exhausted.

Exhaustion is the national refrain. When everyone from a basketball coach to a Cabinet member retires from view, we are told how exhausted each is and discover a public echo of our own private feeling. Read more of this post

Cindy Crawford’s ‘Sleep Quotient’ Guides Move to Stocks; Accounting-Trained Saxophonist Kenny G makes his own picks and checks them daily, while relying on an investment pro to stay out of trouble

Cindy Crawford’s ‘Sleep Quotient’ Guides Move to Stocks

Supermodel Cindy Crawford likes stocks, so long as she can sleep at night.

Saxophonist Kenny G makes his own picks and checks them daily, while relying on an investment pro to stay out of trouble.

Gossip columns play up stars’ foibles, but most celebrities take a conservative approach to investing, knowing their income is unpredictable, said Todd Morgan of Bel Air Investment Advisors, who oversees $6.5 billion. About a fifth of that comes from people in the entertainment industry. Read more of this post

Successful Change: The Challenge for Leaders

Successful Change: The Challenge for Leaders

Published : July 01, 2013 in Knowledge@Wharton

Studies put the failure rate of organizational change at 70% or higher. Yet, managers face increasing pressure to implement change to meet short- and long-term goals. Gregory P. Shea and Cassie A. Solomon share their approach to dealing with this challenge in Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work. Jeff Klein, director of the Wharton Graduate Leadership Program, recently spoke with the authors about why we are not as good at change as we need to be, and how we can get better at it. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Jeff Klein: We are here today with Greg Shea and Cassie Solomon to discuss their new book, Leading Successful Change. Greg and Cassie, thanks for being with us today. You start off with a paradox. You say, “We live in a world of permanent change. Our main jobs are change.” Yet, most organizational efforts to succeed with change fail. Can you talk about that? Read more of this post

‘Global Brand Power’: Barbara Kahn on How Branding Has Changed

‘Global Brand Power’: Barbara Kahn on How Branding Has Changed

Published : July 01, 2013 in Knowledge@Wharton

According to Barbara Kahn, director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at Wharton, the increasing popularity of social media has two implications for marketers: First, customers now control the message and second, companies must make sure that key elements of their brand can translate throughout the world. In a recent interview with Wharton MBA candidate Alexandra Idol, Kahn discusses her new book, Global Brand Power: Leveraging Branding for Long-Term Growth, the brand “as a mechanism for growth” and how companies can become more customer focused. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Alexandra Idol: I’m here today to speak with Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn, regarding her new book Global Brand Power. I’m curious as to what inspired you to write a book about global brand power?

Barbara Kahn: Although there are plenty of books on branding out there, I think that there are a few advantages this one [offers]. First of all, it’s short, which I think is a big advantage for busy business people. But second of all, things have changed, in that it is much more important to understand the global implications of your brand. Many people today started with a brand that was in their local market or for a particular product and didn’t consider the implications of the global marketplace. Also, in this world of social media and the Internet, what it means to be a brand is different because of those different mediums and types of communication. Read more of this post

How Emotions Make the Sale

How Emotions Make the Sale

Posted on June 21, 2013

How do you sell perfume without giving the customer a whiff?

How do you sell high-end athletic wear capable of withstanding the toughest outdoor conditions to people who are not likely to do anything more dangerous than hop a subway?

And what about the magic of dolls for little girls these days? Are sales dead in a world driven by digital gaming and other cyber adventures?

Four retailers who spoke at a conference in May at Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retailing Center came up with same answer: Connect with the consumer on an emotional level, and the sales will follow. Read more of this post

A Quantum of Solace: Timeless Questions About the Universe

July 1, 2013

A Quantum of Solace

By DENNIS OVERBYE

Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist and philosopher-king of quantum theory, once said that great truth is a statement whose opposite is also a great truth. This pretty much captured the spirit of those elusive rules that govern the subatomic world, where light can be a wave — no, a particle — well, actually, whatever you need it to be for your particular experiment.

It also seems to me to sum up much of the history of science and philosophy, in which the learned consensus keeps swinging between the yin-and-yang theories of existence: free will and fate, change and eternity, atomicity and continuity. Read more of this post

When Italians Chat, Hands and Fingers Do the Talking

June 30, 2013

When Italians Chat, Hands and Fingers Do the Talking

By RACHEL DONADIO

http://nyti.ms/159rRRb

ROME — In the great open-air theater that is Rome, the characters talk with their hands as much as their mouths. While talking animatedly on their cellphones or smoking cigarettes or even while downshifting their tiny cars through rush-hour traffic, they gesticulate with enviably elegant coordination.

From the classic fingers pinched against the thumb that can mean “Whaddya want from me?” or “I wasn’t born yesterday” to a hand circled slowly, indicating “Whatever” or “That’ll be the day,” there is an eloquence to the Italian hand gesture. In a culture that prizes oratory, nothing deflates airy rhetoric more swiftly. Read more of this post

Hitler’s food taster feared death with every morsel

Hitler’s food taster feared death with every morsel

Mon, Jul 1 2013

By Michelle Martin

BERLIN (Reuters) – Margot Woelk spent the last few years of World War Two eating lavish meals and fearing that every mouthful could mean death.

The former food taster for Adolf Hitler was served a plate of food and forced to eat it between 11 and 12 every morning for most of the last 2-1/2 years of the Nazi German leader’s life. Read more of this post