The Dickensian Christmas
Thanks to his seminal 1843 novel A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens is often credited with inventing winter festivities as we know them. His book of literary favourites including Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim and the host of Christmas ghosts are thought to define the Dickensian Christmas but is Dickens’ pioneering reputation really deserved?
Charles Dickens’ association with Christmas is infamous. A Christmas Carol was an immediate smash with the public, and quickly spawned a range of ‘pirated’ copies forcing Dickens into a number of legal actions to protect his creation.
“Dickens, it may truly be said, is Christmas,” said the literature scholar, VH Allemandy, in 1921. However, important though he undoubtedly was, Dickens did not create Christmas. Rather, he reflected a general early 19th‑century interest in the season and was part of a widespread, particularly middle-class, desire to reinvigorate its ancient customs.
At the time Dickens was writing his now world famous story he could have consulted an ever-burgeoning number of popular histories of Christmas such as TK Hervey’s Book of Christmas (1836), and his A History of the Christmas Festival, the New Year and their Peculiar Customs (1843) and Thomas Wright’s Specimens of Old Carols (1841). Dickens, being perfectly in-tune with Britain, therefore published his story at precisely the right moment. He was a massive player in a revival that was already under way, but he was not the sole instigator of it.
Mark Connelly is professor of modern British history at the University of Kent, His books include 'Steady the buffs! A regiment, a region and the Great War'.
http://www.bbchistorymagazine.com/feature/dickensian-christmas
Venha aprender inglês com a gente! Aqui no NACC tudo é mais gostoso! RECOMENDE UM ALUNO E VOCÊ GANHA DESCONTO NO SEU CURSO! QUANTO MAIS ALUNOS FECHAREM CONOSCO, MAIS DESCONTOS PROGRESSIVOS VOCÊ GANHA!!! LIGUE JÁ: 11 3865-0754 OU MANDE-NOS UM E-MAIL: nacc@nacc.com.br
14/12/2010
Ouch! Hugh Jackman Injures Eye During Oprah Stunt
Ouch! Hugh Jackman Injures Eye During Oprah Stunt
Tuesday – December 14, 2010 – 8:30am
The daring Australian actor, 42, was injured while rappelling from the top of the Sydney Opera House onto the makeshift stage. Jackman hit the brakes on his ziplining contraption too late, and smacked his face on a lighting rig.
According to the AP, the show's taping was briefly halted while paramedics examined Jackman -- who was given a glass of red wine to calm down.
Medics quickly gave him the all clear to continue taping. What went wrong?
"I came down waving to everyone, looking over Sydney Harbour, saw my dad, the kids and you (Winfrey), went to pull the brake and then boing," Jackman explained to Oprah Winfrey, according to Reuters.
http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/ouch-hugh-jackman-whacked-in-face-during-oprah-stunt-20101412
Costar: Brad Pitt's Kids Took Over Moneyball Set!
Costar: Brad Pitt's Kids Took Over Moneyball Set!
According to the actor, Pitt, 46, often brought his six children (including Maddox, 9, Pax, 7, Zahara, 5, Shiloh, 4, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 2) to visit him on the film's L.A. and Boston sets.
"There were toys and there were kids everywhere!" Middlebrook told UsMagazine.com at the TRON: Legacy premiere in Hollywood Saturday. "He is a great father. That is probably his top priority right now."
Indeed. Middlebrook told Us that Angelina Jolie's partner of five years is such a hands-on dad that they rarely got a chance to bond once cameras stopped rolling.
"We didn't really hang out because he had the kids," he explained. "He does his scenes, then he hangs out with the kids and leaves."
http://www.usmagazine.com/momsbabies/news/costar-brad-pitts-kids-took-over-moneyball-set-20101312
23/11/2010
No terceiro dia de pânico no Rio, operação policial mata um e prende 11
No terceiro dia de pânico no Rio, operação policial mata um e prende 11
Por Redação Yahoo! Brasil*De acordo com a Polícia Militar, um homem morreu em confronto com a polícia e 11 suspeitos foram detidos nas operações policiais que já atingem 18 favelas no Rio e da Baixada Fluminense nesta terça-feira, 23. O suposto traficante foi morto na Favela da Mandela, na zona norte do Rio. Com ele, os agentes apreenderam uma pistola 45.
Foram apreendidas em várias incursões duas granadas e munições para diversos calibres. A polícia também anunciou a apreensão de 50 quilos de maconha e dois mil papelotes de cocaína até o início da tarde desta terça.
O tiroteio entre policiais e traficantes das favelas Merendiba e Vila Cruzeiro durou meia hora e assustou os moradores da Penha, na zona norte. Dois homens foram presos, entre eles um apontado como gerente do tráfico na Merendiba. Um fuzil 762 e drogas também foram apreendidos. Ninguém ficou ferido.
As operações ocorrem nas comunidades Mandela 1, 2 e 3, Varginha, Nova Holanda, Arará, Parque União, Jacarezinho, Cutia, Fallet e Fogueteiro, Encontro, Tuiuti, Barreira do Vasco, Vila Joaniza, Barbante e Vila Cruzeiro.
Na operação desta terça, o Comandante Geral, Coronel Mario Sérgio de Brito Duarte, ainda determinou a Operação Fecha Quartel. Ela conta com cerca de 1.200 policiais militares deslocados do serviço burocrático para o policiamento ostensivo, a fim de aumentar a presença policial nas ruas.
Outra medida adotada foi a criação do Centro de Inteligência montado no 22ºBPM (Maré) para monitoramento de todas as ações, sob a Coordenação da Secretaria de Segurança. E a partir de hoje, mais de 300 novas motos reforçam o patrulhamento da região metropolitana.
CHECK THE VIDEO: http://br.noticias.yahoo.com/s/23112010/48/manchetes-no-terceiro-dia-panico-no.html
Ajuda federal
O ministro da Justiça, Luiz Paulo Barreto, ofereceu ao governo do Rio de Janeiro o envio de efetivos da Polícia Federal (PF), da Força Nacional de Segurança Pública e da Polícia Rodoviária Federal (PRF) para ajudar o Estado a controlar a onda de assaltos e ataques incendiários a veículos promovida pelo crime organizado. "Somos parceiros do governo do Rio no projeto de pacificação das favelas pela via da segurança preventiva e, num momento como este, temos que estar ainda mais unidos", afirmou.
Policiais rodoviários federais já foram acionados para intensificar o patrulhamento nas rodovias, após um pedido feito pelo governador Sérgio Cabral ao Ministério da Justiça. De acordo com o governo do Rio, Cabral também conversou com o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sobre o pedido de reforço.
Em Copacabana, onde acontece a convenção esportiva internacional Soccerex com empresários e dirigentes esportivos do mundo todo, a polícia prendeu durante a madrugada de segunda para terça-feira quatro homens acusados de tentar incendiar veículos em ruas do bairro.
O grupo, que contava com dois menores de idade, foi detido com artefatos incendiários caseiros que seriam colocadas sob veículos estacionados, de acordo com a polícia.
Quatro veículos foram incendiados desde a noite de segunda-feira na zona norte da capital, onde os ataques começaram na tarde de domingo também com carros queimados nas ruas.
"Esses ataques incendiários estão sendo orquestrados por uma facção criminosa", informou a Polícia Civil em nota nesta terça. Segundo a polícia, não houve vítimas ou feridos nos ataques contra veículos.
Represálias a UPPs
Uma cabine da Polícia Militar em Del Castilho, na zona norte da cidade, foi alvejada com cerca de 50 tiros, mas ninguém se feriu.
As autoridades de segurança do Estado consideram os ataques uma represália pela implantação das UPPs, as Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora, em favelas da capital fluminense que antes eram controladas pelo crime organizado.
Segundo fontes da Secretaria de Segurança, os suspeitos querem apavorar a população e causar uma sensação de insegurança na cidade, que será o palco principal da Copa do Mundo de 2014 e a sede dos Jogos Olímpicos de 2016.
Para o sociólogo Ignacio Cano, coordenador de diversos estudos sobre a violência no Rio de Janeiro, os ataques podem ter o objetivo de desestabilizar a segurança, mas não tem o mesmo impacto de ações criminosas do passado.
"Na queima de carros parece que realmente há uma intenção de criar um certo pânico, impactar a população, e pode haver uma intenção dos grupos de desestabilizar a situaçãoo da segurança pública", disse à Reuters o professor da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.
"Mas, apesar disso, nós já tivemos episódios muito mais graves, como ataques a ônibus, ataques a delegacias, e ordem para fechar o comércio, no final de 2006", afirmou, acrescentnado que dessa vez um grupo menor pode ser o autor dos ataques.
A implantação das UPPs em 15 das centenas de favelas espalhadas pela cidade é considerado o maior avanço na área de segurança pública do Rio de Janeiro nos últimos anos, e a medida foi inclusive citada pelo Comitê Olímpico Internacional como um exemplo de que a cidade será segura para a Olimpíada de 2016.
A Polícia informou que duas pessoas que estavam em um carro na Baixada Fluminense foram mortas a tiros, mas ainda não se sabe quais foram as causas do crime e se ele está relacionado à onda de ataques.
O mais grave dos ataques foi registrado no domingo, quando seis criminosos bloquearam um trecho da Linha Vermelha, onde assaltaram vários motoristas, queimaram dois veículos, roubaram um terceiro e, na fuga, atacaram a tiros uma caminhonete da Força Aérea que passava pelo local.
Ancient Roman bath found in Jerusalem
Ancient Roman bath found in Jerusalem
2010-11-22 18:09
 |
| Israeli archaeologists preparing the ground for a new Jewish ritual bath in Jerusalem's Old City say they have made a coincidental discovery: an 1 800 year-old-swimming pool built by the same Roman legion that destroyed the ancient city's hallowed |
Jerusalem - Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a 1 800-year-old bathing pool which proves that Aelia Capitolina, the Roman city built after the destruction of Jerusalem, was larger than thought, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Monday.
The bathing pool, used by the Roman Tenth Legion and dating from the second and third centuries AD, was found by workers during excavations carried out in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the IAA said.
The excavations revealed several plastered bathtubs in the side of the pool, a pipe used to fill it with water, and a white industrial mosaic on the floor of the pool.
The bathhouse tiles, stamped with the symbols "LEG X FR" - Tenth Legion Fretensis - were found in place and the paw print of a dog which probably belonged to one of the soldiers was impressed on the symbol of the legion on one of the roof tiles.
"The mark of the soldiers of the Tenth Legion, in the form of the stamped impressions on the roof tiles and the in situ mud bricks, bears witness to the fact that they were the builders of the structure," said IAA Excavatiosn Director Ofer Sion.
"It seems that the bathhouse was used by these soldiers who were garrisoned there after suppressing the Bar Kokhba uprising in 135 AD, when the pagan city Aelia Capitolina was established," he said.
Considerably large city
"We know that the Tenth Legion's camp was situated within the limits of what is today the Old City, probably in the region of the Armenian Quarter.
"This assumption is reinforced by the discovery of the bathhouse in the nearby Jewish Quarter which shows that the multitude of soldiers was spread out and that they were also active outside the camp, in other parts of the Old City," he went on.
IAA Jerusalem District Archaeologist Yuval Baruch noted that the until the pool was found, excavations in the Jewish Quarter had uncovered nothing from the Tenth Legion, leading archaeologists to believe that Aelia Capitolina was small and limited in size.
"The new find, together with other discoveries of recent years, shows that the city was considerably larger than what we previously estimated," he said.
"Information about Aelia Capitolina is extremely valuable and can contribute greatly to research on Jerusalem because it was that city that determined the character and general appearance of ancient Jerusalem and as we know it today," he added.
The bathing pool, used by the Roman Tenth Legion and dating from the second and third centuries AD, was found by workers during excavations carried out in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the IAA said.
The excavations revealed several plastered bathtubs in the side of the pool, a pipe used to fill it with water, and a white industrial mosaic on the floor of the pool.
The bathhouse tiles, stamped with the symbols "LEG X FR" - Tenth Legion Fretensis - were found in place and the paw print of a dog which probably belonged to one of the soldiers was impressed on the symbol of the legion on one of the roof tiles.
"The mark of the soldiers of the Tenth Legion, in the form of the stamped impressions on the roof tiles and the in situ mud bricks, bears witness to the fact that they were the builders of the structure," said IAA Excavatiosn Director Ofer Sion.
"It seems that the bathhouse was used by these soldiers who were garrisoned there after suppressing the Bar Kokhba uprising in 135 AD, when the pagan city Aelia Capitolina was established," he said.
Considerably large city
"We know that the Tenth Legion's camp was situated within the limits of what is today the Old City, probably in the region of the Armenian Quarter.
"This assumption is reinforced by the discovery of the bathhouse in the nearby Jewish Quarter which shows that the multitude of soldiers was spread out and that they were also active outside the camp, in other parts of the Old City," he went on.
IAA Jerusalem District Archaeologist Yuval Baruch noted that the until the pool was found, excavations in the Jewish Quarter had uncovered nothing from the Tenth Legion, leading archaeologists to believe that Aelia Capitolina was small and limited in size.
"The new find, together with other discoveries of recent years, shows that the city was considerably larger than what we previously estimated," he said.
"Information about Aelia Capitolina is extremely valuable and can contribute greatly to research on Jerusalem because it was that city that determined the character and general appearance of ancient Jerusalem and as we know it today," he added.
- SAPA
Vatican: Pope Seeks Debate on Condoms, AIDS
Vatican: Pope Seeks Debate on Condoms, AIDS
Bendict's Remark That Condoms Justifiable in Limited Cases to Reduce HIV Infection Opens a Doctrinal Pandora's Box
Benedict said in an interview that for some people, such as male prostitutes, using condoms could be assuming moral responsibility because the intent was to reduce infection. The pope did not suggest using condoms as birth control, which is banned by the church, or mention the use of condoms by female prostitutes.
Theologians have long been studying the possibility of condoning such limited condom use as a lesser evil. There were reports years ago that the Vatican was considering a document on the subject, but opposition to any change has apparently blocked publication.
One Vatican official said Monday he believes the pope just "decided to do it" and get a debate going.
For the deeply conservative Benedict, it seemed like a bold leap into modernity - and the worst nightmare of many at the Vatican. The pope's comments set off a firestorm among Catholics, politicians and health workers that is certain to reverberate for a long time despite frantic damage control at the Vatican.
In a sign of the tensions within the Vatican, the Holy See's chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, rushed out a statement to counter any impression that the church might lift its ban on artificial birth control. Lombardi stressed that the pope's comment neither "reforms or changes" church teaching.
"The reasoning of the pope cannot certainly be defined as a revolutionary turn," he said.
While much of the world hailed Benedict's statement, seeing it as a major step toward lifting the church ban, conservatives were mortified and insist the pontiff was not "justifying" condom use from a theological point of view.
True, Benedict made only a tiny opening, but he stepped where no pope has gone since Pope John Paul II's 1968 encyclical "Humane Vitae" that was supposed to have closed debate on church policy barring Catholics from using condoms and other artificial means of contraception.
The pope chose to make his statement not in an official document but in an interview with a German journalist, Peter Seewald, for the book "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times." L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, first published excerpts of Benedict's comments on Saturday.
Luigi Accattoli, a veteran Vatican journalist who will be on the Vatican's panel when the book is presented Tuesday, said Benedict had taken a "long awaited" step that only the highest authority of the church could do.
In March 2009 Pope Benedict was criticized for a statement he made while traveling to Cameroon, where UNAIDS states 540,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2007, 39,000 had died, and 300,000 children were orphaned by the disease.
In discussing with reporters the AIDS crisis, Benedict said, "You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem."
Since the pontiff's latest remarks were disseminated, health officials have expressed optimism.
This weekend UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe said, "This is a significant and positive step forward taken by the Vatican today.
"This move recognizes that responsible sexual behavior and the use of condoms have important roles in HIV prevention."
Speaking in Berlin on Monday, the director-general of the World Health organization, Margaret Chan, welcomed the pope's position. "For the first time the use of condoms in special circumstances was endorsed by the Vatican, and this is good news and good beginning for us."
Jon O’Brien, president of the Washington-based Catholics for Choice, called the pope's comments "a marvelous victory for common sense and reason and a major step forward towards recognizing that condom use can play a vital role in reducing the future impact of the HIV pandemic."
Some Catholic believers expressed praise and wariness for the pope's comments, and greeted them as a sign that the church was stepping into the modern debate in the fight against AIDS.
Others cautioned it could open a doctrinal Pandora's box.
Ellen Reik, a 79-year-old retired housewife who attended Mass at Saint Michael Catholic Church in Worthington, Ohio, said if taken out of context, the pope's remarks could renew the debate over the morality of birth control - both as a contraceptive and a means to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
As she left Mass at St. Kieran Church in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Lois Breaux rolled her eyes when asked about the Pope's statements.
"About time - and it wasn't enough," she said. "As a Catholic, they need to recognize this is an epidemic. The church needs to stand up and say what he did, but he should have gone further."
Jean Jasman, an 81-year-old state worker from Montpelier, Vt., called the stance a departure from church doctrine on condom use, "but it's to the betterment of humanity, if we can help prevent the spread of this horrendous disease."
Speaking shortly before Mass began at St. Mary of the Lake Roman Catholic Church in Lakewood, N.J., 42-year-old Jason Randall said he strongly supports the church's position that forbids the use of condoms and other contraceptives.
But he felt the pope's comments show that sometimes exceptions are needed for almost every rule.
"I know it's a cliche to put it this way, but if it helps prevent even one death or one person getting sick, it's worth it," Randall said. "I believe in a loving God, one who does not want people to suffer, whether they be saints or sinners."
"I think that the church needs to realize that sometimes you have to make adjustments with the times, and that saving people's lives and protecting life is ultimately the most important thing," said Josephine Zohny of Brooklyn, N.Y., after leaving Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.
WATCH THE VIDEO: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/22/world/main7079115.shtml
Pope: In Some Cases, Condoms Can Be Morally Justified
In a new book, Pope Benedict said in some limited cases using condoms might be morally justified to prevent spreading diseases like HIV or AIDS. Elaine Quijano reports.
11/11/2010
What managers can learn from Somali pirates
Pirate copy
What managers can learn from Somali pirates
PURVEYORS of management-speak are fond of quoting cod insights from military strategists. According to David James, a professor at Henley Business School, they would do better studying the management styles of some of those the armed forces are fighting, such as Somali pirates. Alongside Paul Kearney, a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Marines, Professor James has been studying the operations of the pirates, as well as insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, to see if they have anything to teach legitimate firms.
The threat to life and liberty aside, Somali pirates’ business model is impressive. According to the professor, each raid costs the pirates around $30,000. On average one raid in three is successful. The reward for a triumphant venture, however, can be in the millions.
The organisation behind the pirates would be familiar to many ordinary businesses. For a start, they have a similar backend—including the kind of streamlined logistics and operations controls that would be the envy of most companies. Their success has even prompted one village to open a pirate “stock exchange”, where locals can buy shares in up to 70 maritime companies planning raids.
But Professor James believes that the most important lesson firms can learn is one of strategy. He teaches his MBA class that one reason for the pirates' success is that they avoid “symmetrical” conflict—challenging their targets head on by, for example, lining up against the Western navies patrolling the waters—battles they would surely lose. Instead, they use stealth and surprise, attacking targets at their weakest point. In this way, with only a dozen-or-so sailors, they wrest control of huge assets, in the form of oil tankers.
This is a lesson that serves smaller companies well as they look to take bites out of larger rivals. It might be foolish, for example, for a start-up to take on one of the traditional banks head-to-head—only another large bank could afford the pyrrhic battle that would ensue from it protecting its market. But by picking a small, localised fight a start-up can make an impression before a bank has had time to react. An example, says Professor James, is wonga.com. It has taken market share by attacking banks' inflexible lending policies by offering loans for the exact amount and length of time the customer wants. It processes the loans extremely quickly and customers can even get immediate approval using an iPhone app.
Sometimes such an asymmetrical strike can shift the centre of gravity in an industry. Nintendo, a computer-games firm, was competing, and failing, against two much better-resourced rivals—Sony and Microsoft—in a sector where it seemed the only way to be successful was to win an arms race of processing power and ever more sophisticated technology. Nintendo opened a new avenue of attack based on the idea that consumers would enjoy getting physically involved in video games, using a motion-sensitive controller to control the on-screen action. So, using relatively cheap technology, it invented the Wii, in the process opening up a whole new market for previous non-gamers.
That smaller, nimble competitors make stealth attacks on larger rivals is a well-known phenomenon. Nonetheless, the way that larger companies can defend themselves against attack is a matter of much debate. Professor James says that the key is to quicken decision making. In his analogy, by the time the captain of an oil tanker has spotted the pirates’ inflatables it is too late; big ships take a long time to turn around. Similarly, once a large business has gone through the traditional process of observing an attack, orientating itself, deciding what to do about it and then acting (what Colonel John Boyd, an American military strategist, called an OODA loop) it is too late, the competition is upon it.
To help companies understand the best way to speed up their reaction times, the professor turned to another unpalatable source: insurgents in Afghanistan. Despite stressing that he believes the outcomes of their strategies to be repugnant, he nonetheless says that he admires the management structures that makes them successful.
One of the main lessons he learned, and which he teaches companies on his executive-education programme, Corporate Insurgency, is that insurgent leaders don’t micro-manage. Leaders of such movements are, in Professor James’s words, "brand agnostic"—they allow their brand to be adopted by autonomous local cells with little central control. The mistake big business makes is to try to protect the brand by making decisions from its headquarters; better, he says, to allow local managers to respond quickly to local events.
He even goes as far as to suggest that companies set up “commando” forces; small units which work outside the traditional command structure of the company and which have a level of autonomy—“not holding the long committee meetings, not having the extended approval and budgeting process”. If a big business as a whole cannot act as a small, nimble player, these business units can.
PURVEYORS of management-speak are fond of quoting cod insights from military strategists. According to David James, a professor at Henley Business School, they would do better studying the management styles of some of those the armed forces are fighting, such as Somali pirates. Alongside Paul Kearney, a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Marines, Professor James has been studying the operations of the pirates, as well as insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, to see if they have anything to teach legitimate firms.
The threat to life and liberty aside, Somali pirates’ business model is impressive. According to the professor, each raid costs the pirates around $30,000. On average one raid in three is successful. The reward for a triumphant venture, however, can be in the millions.
The organisation behind the pirates would be familiar to many ordinary businesses. For a start, they have a similar backend—including the kind of streamlined logistics and operations controls that would be the envy of most companies. Their success has even prompted one village to open a pirate “stock exchange”, where locals can buy shares in up to 70 maritime companies planning raids.
But Professor James believes that the most important lesson firms can learn is one of strategy. He teaches his MBA class that one reason for the pirates' success is that they avoid “symmetrical” conflict—challenging their targets head on by, for example, lining up against the Western navies patrolling the waters—battles they would surely lose. Instead, they use stealth and surprise, attacking targets at their weakest point. In this way, with only a dozen-or-so sailors, they wrest control of huge assets, in the form of oil tankers.
This is a lesson that serves smaller companies well as they look to take bites out of larger rivals. It might be foolish, for example, for a start-up to take on one of the traditional banks head-to-head—only another large bank could afford the pyrrhic battle that would ensue from it protecting its market. But by picking a small, localised fight a start-up can make an impression before a bank has had time to react. An example, says Professor James, is wonga.com. It has taken market share by attacking banks' inflexible lending policies by offering loans for the exact amount and length of time the customer wants. It processes the loans extremely quickly and customers can even get immediate approval using an iPhone app.
Sometimes such an asymmetrical strike can shift the centre of gravity in an industry. Nintendo, a computer-games firm, was competing, and failing, against two much better-resourced rivals—Sony and Microsoft—in a sector where it seemed the only way to be successful was to win an arms race of processing power and ever more sophisticated technology. Nintendo opened a new avenue of attack based on the idea that consumers would enjoy getting physically involved in video games, using a motion-sensitive controller to control the on-screen action. So, using relatively cheap technology, it invented the Wii, in the process opening up a whole new market for previous non-gamers.
That smaller, nimble competitors make stealth attacks on larger rivals is a well-known phenomenon. Nonetheless, the way that larger companies can defend themselves against attack is a matter of much debate. Professor James says that the key is to quicken decision making. In his analogy, by the time the captain of an oil tanker has spotted the pirates’ inflatables it is too late; big ships take a long time to turn around. Similarly, once a large business has gone through the traditional process of observing an attack, orientating itself, deciding what to do about it and then acting (what Colonel John Boyd, an American military strategist, called an OODA loop) it is too late, the competition is upon it.
To help companies understand the best way to speed up their reaction times, the professor turned to another unpalatable source: insurgents in Afghanistan. Despite stressing that he believes the outcomes of their strategies to be repugnant, he nonetheless says that he admires the management structures that makes them successful.
One of the main lessons he learned, and which he teaches companies on his executive-education programme, Corporate Insurgency, is that insurgent leaders don’t micro-manage. Leaders of such movements are, in Professor James’s words, "brand agnostic"—they allow their brand to be adopted by autonomous local cells with little central control. The mistake big business makes is to try to protect the brand by making decisions from its headquarters; better, he says, to allow local managers to respond quickly to local events.
He even goes as far as to suggest that companies set up “commando” forces; small units which work outside the traditional command structure of the company and which have a level of autonomy—“not holding the long committee meetings, not having the extended approval and budgeting process”. If a big business as a whole cannot act as a small, nimble player, these business units can.
Assinar:
Postagens (Atom)