Dow's New Direction: An Interview Between Geoff Colvin and CEO Andrew Liveris
03.28.2012
Geoff Colvin > View profileWhen Mr. McGuire told Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin in The Graduate that "I just want to say one word to you," and that word was "plastics," he could have been recommending a career at Dow Chemical. It was advice that Andrew Liveris, a new chemical-engineering graduate from Darwin, Australia, followed in 1976, when he joined Dow (DOW). The company produced mainly petrochemicals and the plastics created from them, and it was a good business. But by the time Liveris became Dow's CEO in 2004, that commodity chemical strategy no longer made sense. That's why Liveris, 57, has been turning Dow in a new direction, focusing on unique, innovative, high-margin products, such as recently introduced solar shingles. (Fortune) > View article
Barbara Corcoran Named Keynote Speaker at H.D. Opportunity
03.27.2012
Gotham ArtistsBarbara Corcoran, a real estate mogul and investor on the reality TV show 'Shark Tank,' will deliver the keynote speech at the 2012 High Desert Opportunity business conference, according to organizers. The annual event will be held Oct. 18 at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville, aiming to draw out-of-the-area business owners, commercial real estate brokers, developers and site locators to the High Desert. (High Desert Daily Press) > View article
5 Things Designers Need to Know From Mountain Climbers
03.20.2012
Gotham ArtistsIIDA Northern Pacific Chapter hosted a stellar Seattle Leaders Breakfast last week, featuring honoree Frank Ching and a keynote by Ed Viesturs. Not just a “climber,” Ed is regarded as the country’s foremost high-altitude mountaineer. (Design Matters) > View article
Positive Intelligence
03.14.2012
Shawn Achor > View profileIn July 2010 Burt’s Bees, a personal-care products company, was undergoing enormous change as it began a global expansion into 19 new countries. In this kind of high-pressure situation, many leaders pester their deputies with frequent meetings or flood their in-boxes with urgent demands. In doing so, managers jack up everyone’s anxiety level, which activates the portion of the brain that processes threats—the amygdala—and steals resources from the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for effective problem solving. (Harvard Business Review) > View article
Politics Today: Undercutting Our President
03.14.2012
Donna Brazile > View profile
“One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.” — George Orwell
But warmongering is good politics. It appeals to patriotism, fear, nativism, fear, wannabe warriorism, fear, panic and, yes, fear. War (whether threat or execution) elects presidents. Rattle the saber outside the polling booth, and the voters will tremble inside it. It’s a tried-and-true political strategy. Last time around it was Iraq; now it’s Iran. (Hanford Sentinel) > View article
Damon Lindelof Interviews Ray Kurzweil About What Hollywood Gets Wrong
03.08.2012
Gotham ArtistsAn MIT graduate and subject of the 2009 doc 'Transcendent Man,' Ray Kurzweil has developed groundbreaking speech-recognition programs, advanced music synthesizers and artificial-intelligence investment software through his Wellesley, Mass.-based Kurzweil Technologies. His fans range from Stevie Wonder, who challenged him to create Kurzweil Music Systems, to Roland Emmerich, who sought his advice on the sci-fi script 'Singularity' he is developing. 'Lost' writer-producer, Damon Lindelof, chats with the preeminent futurist on what Hollywood can learn from him about sci-fi and time travel. (The Hollywood Reporter) > View article
'With New Eyes' Speaker Leads Change
03.07.2012
Gotham ArtistsYou don’t have to leave your neighborhood to live in a better one. That was the message Tuesday night from Majora Carter, a MacArthur Genius Fellowship recipient who helped bring the first open-waterfront park to her native South Bronx in 60 years. Carter, who has brought an ecological and environmental approach to city planning and urban renewal, spoke to a crowd of residents and officials at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. (Danville River) > View article
A Food Conversation with Amanda Hesser
03.07.2012
Gotham ArtistsAmanda Hesser spent exhaustive years researching and testing recipes for the definitive New York Times cookbook. These days, the food writer and editor is sharing the work, the fun and the credit at Food52.com, the online cooking community she founded with business partner Merrill Stubbs. (The Seattle Times) > View article
Barbara Corcoran's Leadership Style: Rainbows and Steel-Toe Boots
02.28.2012
Gotham ArtistsIn more than two decades spent building the largest residential brokerage firm in New York, Barbara Corcoran all but commanded her more than 1,000 employees and salespeople to have fun on the job. The founder and former CEO of The Corcoran Group, Corcoran considers her ability to create an enjoyable workplace a keystone of her leadership style. "It's the most underutilized tool in the tool belt," she says. (Entrepreneur) > View article
See the Cover of Ned Vizzini's New Novel 'The Other Normals'
02.24.2012
Gotham ArtistsPopular young-adult author Ned Vizzini, who wrote It’s Kind of a Funny Story — adapted into a film starring Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, and Oscar nominee Viola Davis — has written another novel about an unusual, complicated teen. (Entertainment Weekly) > View article
Frank Luntz: 'US has never been more divided and bitter'
02.23.2012
Gotham ArtistsThe country has never been more divided and bitter, Republican message guru Frank Luntz said, in part because partisan class warfare that “is not just horrible, it’s anti-American.” Luntz, best known for his televised focus groups studying candidates, their speeches and advertising, told a packed house at the Kent GOP Lincoln Day Dinner, that the Obama administration has the country on the ropes. “This is a great country, but it is in trouble,” he said. “You are the solution.” (M Live) > View article
Geoff Colvin: A World in Chaos
02.10.2012
Geoff Colvin > View profileToo much is happening in the world. Politically, economically, and culturally momentous news is occurring on every continent seemingly every day, and it's overwhelming for the hapless citizen striving to stay on top of it all. If you want to impose order on the chaos, at least in your own mind, here's a suggestion: Just remember a, b, c, d. Four large, interrelated forces are driving the action globally, and they conveniently begin with those letters. (Fortune Magazine) > View article
Cashman and Epstein speak to sell-out crowd
02.01.2012
Gotham Artists
In his first year as the general manager of the Boston Red Sox, before he learned an unwritten rule of the job, Theo Epstein made a trade proposal to Brian Cashman, his counterpart with the Yankees.
“Shea Hillenbrand for Nick Johnson,” Epstein recalled Tuesday night on a stage with Cashman at Sacred Heart University. “You just laughed at me.”
(NY Times) > View article
A Conversation with Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein
01.30.2012
Gotham ArtistsIntroducing the 2011-2012 Student Affairs Lecture Series. Embrace learning for life. Challenge yourself. Find inspiration. A Conversation with Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein, January 31, 2012 at Scared Heart University. > View article
437 Minutes With Frank Luntz
01.26.2012
Frank Luntz > View profileThe Republican wordsmith kicks off the primaries on a grassroots high. > View article
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