Corporate Universities (CUs) are a growing trend in companies. Corporate Universities are anything from a pumped up training department to a degree granting branch of major companies. Denise Hearn in her article [http://www.newfoundations.com/OrgTheory/Hearn721.html "Education in the Workplace: An Examination of Corporate University Models"] cites these statistics: In 1993, corporate universities existed in only 400 companies. In 2001, this number jumped to 2,000. This number is only expected to grow in the future. Although changes in the economy may alter that growth to some extent, this trend is still receiving attention from such companies as Walt Disney, Boeing, and Motorola.
Goals of a CU
Corporate Universities are set up for a variety of reasons, but most organizations have the same basic needs. According to Hearn, these are to:
-
- Organize training
- Start and support change in the organization
- Get the most out of the investment in education
- Bring a common culture, loyalty, and belonging to a company
- Remain competitive in today's economy
- Retain employees
CUs offer valuable training and education to employees, but they also help organizations retain and promote key employees. Although a CU may sound attractive, there is a lot of work that goes into the planning and implementation of such a project.
Planning for a CU
Before you jump into planning a CU, Hearn suggest that you conduct "a full learning audit and assessment, a series of design workshops, the creation of a business case and recommendations to senior management, implementation, and finally, further recommendations and review." These steps can help you to analyze what work needs to be done. One of your most important goals is to ensure that this project has support from the CEO down. Without funding and support, this project will go nowhere.
According to Jeanne Meister, the president of the consulting firm Corporate University Xchange(CUX), there are ten primary steps to implementing and sustaining a successful corporate university. These steps, provided by Hearn, are reproduced below:
#
#First, the executives or top management of an organization must form a governing body for the corporate university, much like that of a traditional university, which will establish and profess the organization's commitment to the program.
#Secondly, the vision or strategic plan of the corporate university must be crafted; thereby,determining the organization's goals for the program.
#The organization must then recommend a funding strategy. Most commonly, corporate universities are either funded through corporate allocations or through charges placed on individual business unit budgets.
#Next the organization must determine its audience or stakeholders who will use the corporate university service.
#In addition to determining the audience, the organization must also determine how the needs of the audience will be met while continually pursuing the strategic goal of the corporate university.
#Following the completion of the above tasks, corporate university organizers must develop a template for how products and services will be designed to achieve university goals.
#The organization must also select suppliers, consultants, traditional universities and for-profit firms who will act as learning partners, if appropriate.
#The use of technology and resources to be used by the corporate university must then be determined.
#Additionally, a measurement system should be developed that will allow the organization to continually monitor its progress against the university's strategic goals.
#Lastly, the governing body must communicate the vision of the corporate university constantly and consistently. All stakeholders should be made aware of the mission, products and programs that make up their organization's corporate university.
Of course, these steps may need to be tweaked depending on the size or goals of your organization. CUs can be outsourced to a consulting firm or planned and implemented inhouse. It is a growing trend for organizations to partner with traditional universities. A traditional university brings organization, structure, and faculty. Universities are often interested in CU opportunities because of the economic gain. There are a number of consulting firms that will help you to set up you Corporate University, but that can become very expensive. This process can also take a long time, sometimes up to a two years.
Hearn also provides overviews of the CUs at Walt Disney, Boeing, and some other large corporations to give you ideas of what other organizations have done.
Curriculum
Lisa Tanner of the Dallas Business Journal cites J.P. Morgan and Co. as an example of a company with an organized curriculum. They have three different types of courses: Business specific courses, organizational learning and communication classes, and management and executive training. What your company decides to offer will depend on your needs (such as sales training, marketing, or soft skills) and your company's business (like manufacturing, consulting, or technology).
Most CUs offer a blended curriculum of online and in person classes. Some organizations offer courses during the workday while other offer them at varying times. Courses can be short workshops or longer, more traditional courses.
Sharon Shinn of BizEd reminds readers that, unlike traditional universities, CUs demand a return on their investment. There must be concrete evidence that the classroom is delivering results. Many CUs provide hands-on and team learning as a more effective alternative to lecture-based courses, but all CUs agree that what is learned in the classroom should be directly applicable to the work environment.
References
-
- "Corporate University Approach Taking Hold: Umbrella Approach to Company-Wide Training is Becoming Popular" by Lisa Tanner in the Dallas Business Journal. http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2003/07/28/focus2.html?page=1 Retrieved September 1, 2004.
- "Education in the Workplace: An Examination of Corporate University Models" by Denise R. Hearn http://www.newfoundations.com/OrgTheory/Hearn721.html Retrieved September 1, 2004.
- "Handbook of Corporate University Development: Managing Strategic Learning Initiatives in Public and Private Domains" Rob Paton, Geoff Peters, John Storey and Scott Taylor (Eds) Gower.ISBN: 0 566 08583 6
External links
[http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2003/07/28/focus2.html?page=1 "Corporate University Approach Taking Hold: Umbrella Approach to Company-Wide Training is Becoming Popular" by Lisa Tanner in the Dallas Business Journal]
[http://www.newfoundations.com/OrgTheory/Hearn721.html "Education in the Workplace: An Examination of Corporate University Models" by Denise R. Hearn]
[http://www.gowerpub.com/TitleDetails.asp?sQueryISBN=0566085836&sPassString=Y&sKeyword "Handbook of Corporate University Development Managing Strategic Learning Initiatives in Public and Private Domains" Edited by Rob Paton, Geoff Peters, John Storey and Scott Taylor]
Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois to Elias Disney and the former Flora Call. He was of English and Irish Heritige. Walt was named after his father and after his father's close friend Walter Parr, the minister at St. Paul Congregational Church. In 1906, his family moved to a farm near Marceline, Missouri. The family sold the farm in 1909 and lived in a rented house until 1910, when they moved to Kansas City. Disney was nine years old at the time.
According to the Kansas City Public School District records, Disney began attending the Benton Grammar School in 1910, and graduated on June 8, 1911. During this time, Disney also enrolled in classes at the Chicago Art Institute. He left school at the age of sixteen and became a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I, after he changed his birth certificate to show his year of birth as 1900 instead of 1901, in order to be able to enlist in the service. He served as a member of the American Red Cross Ambulance Force in France until 1919.
1920-1936: Early years in animation
Kansas City animation studios
Disney returned to the USA, moved to Kansas City and, with Ub Iwerks, formed a company called "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists" in January1920. The company faltered and Disney and Iwerks soon gained employment at the Kansas City Film Ad Corporation, working on primitive animated advertisements for local movie houses.
In 1922, Disney started Laugh-O-Grams, Inc., which produced short cartoons based on popular fairy tales and children's stories. (See Laugh-O-Gram Studios) Among his employees were Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolph Ising, Carmen Maxwell, and Friz Freleng. The shorts were popular in the local Kansas City area, but their costs exceeded their returns. After creating one last short, the live-action/animation Alice's Wonderland, the studio declared bankruptcy in July1923. Disney's brother Roy invited him to move to Hollywood, California, and Disney earned enough money for a one-way train ticket to California, leaving his staff behind, but taking the finished reel of Alice's Wonderland with him.
Alice Comedies: Contract and new California studio
Disney set up shop with his brother Roy, started the Disney Brothers Studio in their Uncle Robert's garage, and got a distribution deal for the Alice Comedies with New York City states-rights distributors Margaret Winkler and her fiancéeCharles Mintz. Virginia Davis, the live-action star of Alice's Wonderland, was sequestered from Kansas, as was Ub Iwerks. By 1926, the Disney Brothers Studio had been renamed as the Walt Disney Studio; the name Walt Disney Productions would be adopted in 1928. One of the studio's employees, Lillian Bounds, became Walt Disney's wife; they were married on July 131925.
The Alice Comedies were reasonably successful, and featured both Dawn O'Day and Margie Gay as Alice after Virginia Davis' parents pulled her out of the series because of a pay cut. Lois Hardwick also briefly assumed the role. By the time the series ended in 1927, the focus was more on the animated characters, in particular a cat named Julius who recalled Felix the Cat, rather than the live-action Alice.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
By 1927, Charles Mintz had married Margaret Winkler and assumed control of her business, and ordered a new all-animated series to be put into production for distribution through Universal Pictures. The new series, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was an almost instant success, and the Oswald character, first drawn and created by Ub Iwerks, became a popular property. The Disney studio expanded, and Walt hired Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng from Kansas City.
In February1928, Disney went to New York to negotiate a higher fee per short from Mintz, but was shocked when Mintz announced that not only did he want to reduce the fee he paid Disney per short, but that he had most of his main animators, including Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng, but notably excepting Ub Iwerks, under contract and would start his own studio if Disney did not accept the reduced production budgets. Universal, not Disney, owned the Oswald trademark, and could make the films without Disney. Disney declined, lost most of his animation staff, and he, Iwerks, and the few non-defecting animators secretly began work on a new mouse character to take Oswald's place. The defectors became the nucleus of the Winkler Studio, run by Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler. When that studio went under after Universal assigned production of the Oswald shorts to an in-house division run by Walter Lantz, Mintz focused his attentions on the studio making the Krazy Kat shorts, which later became Screen Gems, and Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng marketed an Oswald-like character named Bosko to Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros., and began work on the first entries in the Looney Tunes series.
The creation of Mickey Mouse
Looney Tunes Mickey Mouse was first drawn and created by Ub Iwerks. Christened by Lillian Disney, Mickey Mouse made his film debut in a short called Plane Crazy, which was, like all of Disney's previous works, a silent film. After failing to find distributor interest in Plane Crazy or its follow-up, The Gallopin' Gaucho, Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie. A businessman named Pat Powers provided Disney with both distribution and the Cinephone, a sound-synchronization process. Steamboat Willie became a success, and Plane Crazy, The Galloping Gaucho, and all future Mickey cartoons were released with soundtracks. Disney himself provided the vocal effects for the earliest cartoons and performed as the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1947.
Joining the Mickey Mouse series in 1929 were a series of musical shorts called Silly Symphonies. The first of these was entitled The Skeleton Dance and was entirely drawn and animated by Ub Iwerks. As a matter of fact, Ub Iwerks was responsible for drawing the majority of cartoons released by Disney in the years 1928 and 1929. Although both series were successful, the Disney studio was not seeing its rightful share of profits from Pat Powers, and in 1930, Disney signed a new distribution deal with Columbia Pictures. Ub Iwerks, who was growing tired of the temperamental Disney, especially as he was doing the majority of the work, was lured by Powers into opening his own studio with an exclusive contract. Needless to say, Disney was devastated and despertately searched for someone who could replace Iwerks as he was not able to draw as well, or especially as quickly, himself - Iwerks was reported to have drawn up to 700 drawings a day for the first Mickey shorts.
Meanwhile, Ub Iwerks lauched his successful Flip the Frog series with the first sound cartoon in color, which was entitled "Fiddlesticks." Ub Iwerks also created two other series of cartoons, namely, the Willie Whopper and the Comicolor cartoon series. Ub Iwerks closed his studio in 1936, the Ub Iwerks Studio, to work on various projects dealing with animation technology. Iwerks would return to Disney in 1940 and, in the studio's research and development department, he pioneered a number of film processes and specialized animation technologies.
Disney was able to eventually find a number of people to replace the work that had previously been done solely by Iwerks. By 1932, Mickey Mouse had become quite a popular cartoon character. The Van Beuren cartoon studio attempted to cash in on this success by creating a character that was very similar to Mickey Mouse. A law suit by Disney quickly put an end to that. After moving from Columbia to United Artists in 1932, Walt began producing the Silly Symphonies in the new three strip Technicolor process, making them the first commercial films presented in this new process. Ub Iwerks had previously released the first color sound cartoon in 1930, which was a Flip the Frog cartoon entitled "Fiddlesticks" and which had been filmed in two strip Techincolor. The first color Symphony was Flowers and Trees, which won the first Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1932. The same year, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse, whose series was moved into color in 1935 and soon launched spin-off series for supporting characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.
Disney's daughters
As Mickey's co-creator and producer, Disney was almost as famous as his mouse cartoon character, but remained a largely private individual. His greatest hope was to give birth to a child—preferably a son—but he and Lillian tried with no luck. Lillian finally gave birth to a daughter, Diane Marie Disney, on December 18, 1933; and the couple would adopt a second, Sharon Mae Disney, who was born December 21, 1936.
1937-1954: Animated feature films
"Disney's Folly":
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Although his studio produced the two most successful cartoon series in the industry, the returns were still dissatisfying to Disney, and he began plans for a full-length feature in 1934. When the rest of the film industry learned of Disney's plans to produce an animated feature-length version of Snow White, they dubbed the project "Disney's Folly" and were certain that the project would destroy the Disney studio. Both Lillian and Roy tried to talk Disney out of the project, but he continued plans for the feature. He employed Chouinard Art InstituteprofessorDon Graham to start a training operation for the studio staff, and used the Silly Symphonies as a platform for experiments in realistic human animation, distinctive character animation, special effects, and the use of specialized processes and apparatus such as the multiplane camera.
All of this development and training was used to elevate the quality of the studio so that it would be able to give the feature the quality Disney desired. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as the feature was named, was in full production from 1935 until mid-1937, when the studio ran out of money. To acquire the funding to complete Snow White, Disney had to show a rough cut of the motion picture to loan officers at the Bank of America, who gave the studio the money to finish the picture. The finished film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937; at the conclusion of the film the audience gave Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a standing ovation. The first animated feature in English and Technicolor, Snow White was released in February1938 under a new distribution deal with RKO Radio Pictures. The film became the most successful motion picture of 1938 and earned over US$8 million (today US$98 million) in its original theatrical release, all the more amazing because children were only charged a dime to watch it. The success of Snow White allowed Disney to build a new campus for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which opened for business on December 241939. The feature animation staff, having just completed Pinocchio, continued work on Fantasia and Bambi, while the shorts staff continued work on the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto cartoon series, ending the Silly Symphonies at this time.
Wartime troubles
Pinocchio and Fantasia followed Snow White into movie theatres in 1940, but both were financial disappointments. The inexpensive Dumbo was planned as an income generator, but during production of the new film, most of the animation staff went on strike, permanently straining the relationship between Disney and his artists.
Shortly after Dumbo was released in October1941 and became a successful moneymaker, the United States entered World War II. The U.S. Army contracted for most of the Disney studio's facilities and had the staff create training and instructional films for the military, as well as home-front morale such as Der Fuehrer's Face and the feature film Victory Through Air Power in 1943. The military films did not generate income, however, and Bambi underperformed when it was released in April1942. Disney successfully re-issued Snow White in 1944, establishing the seven-year re-release tradition for Disney features.
Inexpensive package films, containing collections of cartoon shorts, were created and issued to theaters during this period as well. The most notable and successful of these were Saludos Amigos (1942), its sequel The Three Caballeros (1945), Song of the South (the first Disney feature to feature dramatic actors), (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). The later had only two sections: the first based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving and the second based on The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
By the late 1940s, the studio had recovered enough to continue production on the full-length features Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, which had been shelved during the war years and began work on Cinderella. The studio also began a series of live-action nature films, entitled True-Life Adventures, in 1948 with On Seal Island.
Testimony Before Congress
In 1947, during the early years of the Cold War, Walt Disney [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/06/documents/huac/disney.html testified] before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and he named one of his employees as a communist. Some historians believe that the animosity from the 1941 strike of Disney Studio employees caused him to bear a grudge. His dislike and distrust of labor unions may have also led to his testimony.
In 1949, when Disney and his family moved to a new home on large piece of property in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles, California, with the help of his friends Ward and Betty Kimball, owners of their own backyard railroad, Disney developed the blueprints and immediately set to work creating his own miniature Live steam railroad in his backyard. The name of the railroad, Carolwood Pacific Railroad, originated from the address of his home that was located on Carolwood Drive. The railroad's half-mile long layout included a 46-foot-long trestle, loops, overpasses, gradients, an elevated dirt berm, and a 90-foot tunnel underneath Mrs. Disney's flowerbed. He named the miniature working steam locomotive built by Roger E. Broggie of the Disney StudiosLilly Belle in his wife's honor. He had his attorney draw up right-of-way papers giving the railroad a permanent, legal easement through the garden areas, which his wife dutifully signed; however, there is no evidence the documents were ever recorded as a restriction on the property's title.
Planning Disneyland
On a business trip to Chicago in the late 1940s, Disney drew sketches of his ideas for an amusement park where he envisioned his employees spending time with their children. This plan was originally for a lot south of the Studio, just across the street. However, the city of Burbank declined building permission. The ideas developed into a concept for a larger enterprise that was to become Disneyland. Disney spent five years of his life developing Disneyland and created a new subsidiary of his company, called WED Enterprises to carry out the planning and production of the park. A small group of Disney studio employees joined the Disneyland development project as engineers and planners, and were dubbed Imagineers.
When presenting his plan to the Imagineers, Disney said, "I want Disneyland to be the most amazing place on Earth, and I want a train circling it." Entertaining his daughters and their friends in his backyard and taking them for rides on his Carolwood Pacific Railroad had inspired Disney to include a railroad in the plans for Disneyland.
Expanding into new areas
As Walt Disney Productions began work on Disneyland, it also began expanding its other entertainment operations. 1950's Treasure Island became the studio's first all-live-action feature, and was soon followed by such successes as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (in CinemaScope, 1954), The Shaggy Dog (1959), and The Parent Trap (1960). The Walt Disney Studio was one of the first to take full advantage of the then-new medium of television, producing its first TV special, One Hour in Wonderland, in 1950. Walt Disney began hosting a weekly anthology series on ABC named Disneyland after the park, where he showed clips of past Disney productions, gave tours of his studio, and familiarized the public with Disneyland as it was being constructed in Anaheim, California. In 1955, he debuted the studio's first daily television show, the popular Mickey Mouse Club, which would continue in many various incarnations into the 1990s.
As the studio expanded and diversified into other media, Disney devoted less of his attention to the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, whom he dubbed the Nine Old Men. During Disney's life time, the animation department created the successful Lady and the Tramp (in CinemaScope, 1955) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and the financially disappointing Sleeping Beauty (in Super Technirama70mm, 1959) and The Sword in the Stone (1963).
Production on the short cartoons had kept pace until 1956, when Disney shut down the shorts division. Special shorts projects would continue to be made for the rest of the studio's duration on an irregular basis.
These productions were all distributed by Disney's new subsidiary Buena Vista Distribution, which had assumed all distribution duties for Disney films from RKO by 1955. Disneyland, one of the world's first theme parks, finally opened on July 17, 1955, and was immediately successful. Visitors from around the world came to visit Disneyland, which contained attractions based upon a number of successful Disney properties and films. After 1955, the Disneyland TV show became known as Walt Disney Presents, went from black-and-white to color in 1961--changing its name to Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color--and eventually evolved into what is today known as The Wonderful World of Disney, which continues to air on ABC as of 2005.
as of 2005
During the mid-1950s, Disney produced a number of educational films on the space program in collaboration with NASA rocket designer Wernher von Braun: Man in Space and Man and the Moon in 1955, and Mars and Beyond in 1957. The films attracted the attention of not only the general public, but also the Soviet space program.
The TV series and book Our Friend the Atom (1956, together with Heinz Haber) were produced in an effort of the Eisenhower administration to enhance the image of nuclear energy.
Early 1960s successes
By the early 1960s, the Disney empire was a major success, and Walt Disney Productions had established itself as the world's leading producer of family entertainment. After decades of trying, Disney finally procured the rights to P.L. Travers' books about a magical nanny. Mary Poppins, released in 1964, was the most successful Disney film of the 1960s, and many hailed the live-action/animation combination feature as his greatest achievement. The same year, Disney debuted a number of exhibits at the 1964 New York World's Fair, including Audio-Animatronic figures, all of which later were integrated into attractions at Disneyland and a new theme park project, to be established on the east coast, which Disney had been planning since Disneyland opened.
Ski Resorts
Walt Disney first showed interest in ski resorts with his investment in Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in the 1930s. However, his interest was brought to a new level in the 1960s when he commissioned plans for Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort. Official plans for the resort were announced just months before Walt's death. The project was eventually canceled due to heavy protest from many environmental organizations, most notably the Sierra Club. The 1970s saw yet another set of Disney plans for a ski resort, in Independence Lake near San Francisco. Like the Mineral King plans, the Independence Lake project was scrapped for many of the same reasons.
"The Florida Project"
In 1964, Walt Disney Productions began quietly purchasing land in central Florida west of Orlando in a largely rural area of marginal orange groves for Disney's "Florida Project." The company acquired over 27,000 acres (109 km²) of land, and arranged favorable state legislation which would provide unprecedented quasi-governmental control over the area to be developed in 1966, founding the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Disney and his brother Roy then announced plans for what they called "Disney World."
Plans for Disney World and EPCOT
Disney World was to include a larger, more elaborate version of Disneyland to be called the Magic Kingdom, and would also feature a number of golf courses and resort hotels. The heart of Disney World, however, was to be the Experimental Prototype City (or Community) of Tomorrow, or EPCOT for short. EPCOT was designed to be an operational city where residents would live, work, and interact using advanced and experimental technology, while scientists would develop and test new technologies to improve human life and health.
Death of Walt Disney
However, Disney's involvement in Disney World ended in late 1966, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer in his left lung, after a life-long habit of chain smoking. He was checked into the St. Joseph's Hospital across the street from the Disney Studio lot and his health eventually deteriorated. He was pronounced dead at 3 AM PST on December 15, 1966, having just celebrated his 65th birthday ten days earlier. He was cremated on December 17, 1966 at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. Roy Disney carried out the Florida project, insisting that the name become Walt Disney World in honor of his brother. Roy O. Disney died three months after the Magic Kingdom opened for business in 1971.
1967 to present: Legacy
The Epcot theme park
When the second phase of the Walt Disney World theme park was built, EPCOT was translated by Walt Disney's successors into EPCOT Center (now simply called Epcot), which opened in 1982. As it currently exists, Epcot is essentially a living world's fair, a far cry from the actual functional city that Disney had envisioned. In [http://disney.danix.info 1992] Walt Disney Imagineering took the step closer to Walt's vision and dedicated Celebration, Florida, a town built by the Walt Disney Company adjacent to Walt Disney World, harkens back to the spirit of EPCOT.
Today, what was known as the Florida Project is now the largest and most popular private-run tourist destination on the planet, but the Walt Disney shine is still there. From the 'Partners' statue at the Magic Kingdom to the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney is still remembered and his vision is still continued. His fascination with mass transportation lives in the Walt Disney World Monorail which runs through two theme parks and four hotels, and his dreams of the future live on at Epcot in ahead-of-their-time attractions and technological breakthroughs.
Disneyland has developed from a cramped theme park to an open resort of two theme parks, three hotels and a large shopping complex. Walt Disney World is a popular destination for vacations by tourists worldwide, and Tokyo Disneyland is the most visited theme park in the world (its sister park Tokyo DisneySea is the second). In September2005, The Walt Disney Company opened Hong Kong Disneyland Resort in China.
On May 5, 2005, The Walt Disney Company opened the Happiest Homecoming on Earth celebration in front of Walt's Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, celebrating fifty years of the world's most famous theme park. Part of the celebration involved new rides opening across the parks, like Soarin' in Epcot, Cinderrellabration in the magic kingdom, and Expedition: Everest, which will soon open in the animal kingdom. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are renowned over the world for their attentions to detail, hygiene and standards, all set by Walt Disney at Disneyland.
Disney Animation today
Traditional hand-drawn animation, with which Walt Disney built the success of his company, no longer continues at the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio. After a stream of financially unsuccessful traditionally-animated features in the late-1990s and early 2000s, the two satellite studios in Paris and Orlando were closed, and the main studio in Burbank was converted to a computer animation production facility. In 2004, Disney released their final traditionally animated feature film for the foreseeable future, Home on the Range. The DisneyToons studio in Australia, which produced lower-budget traditionally animated films, at first appeared to survive the purge, but its closing was announced in July 2005.
CalArts
Disney devoted substantial time in his later years funding The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), which was formed in 1961 through a merger of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute, which had helped in the training of the animation staff during the 1930s. When he died, one fourth of his estate went towards CalArts, which greatly helped the building of its campus. Walt also donated 38 acres (154,000 m²) of the Golden Oaks ranch in Valencia for the school to be built on. CalArts moved onto the Valencia campus in 1971.
Lillian Disney devoted a lot of her time after Walt died to pursuing CalArts and organized hundreds of fund raising events for the university in her late husband's honor (as well as funding the Walt Disney Symphony Hall). After Lillian's passing, the legacy continued with daughter Diane and husband Ron continuing the tradition. CalArts is one of the largest independent universities in California today, mostly because of the contributions of the Disneys.
Trivia
- In the fifth grade, Walt memorized the Gettysburg Address (for fun) and surprised everyone by arriving at school dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. His costume consisted of his father's old coat and a homemade beard. He even pasted a putty wart to his cheek. His teacher was delighted. Little wonder that years later, when his studio created the first fully functioning audio-animatronic human figure for the 1964 New York World's Fair, the figure looked like Abraham Lincoln.
- Disney had very simple tastes in food. According to his daughter Diane, "He liked fried potatoes, hamburgers, western omelets, hotcakes, canned peas, hash, stew, roast beefsandwiches. He doesn't go for vegetables, but loves chickenlivers or macaroni and cheese." Lillian Disney would complain, "Why should I plan a meal when all Disney really wants is a can of chili or a can of spaghetti?" [http://www.jimhillmedia.com/articles/guest/korkis.05272003.1.htm]
- In an essay called "Deeds Rather than Words"[http://www.startedbyamouse.com/archives/WaltPrayer.shtml] Disney talked about prayer in his life saying "I am personally thankful that my parents taught me at a very early age to have a strong personal belief and reliance in the power of prayer for Divine inspiration. My people were members of the Congregational Church in our home town of Marceline, Missouri." However, Walt Disney was not a frequent visitor to churches. Religious people would occasionally ask him to make religious films, but Walt declined. But in the same essay he explained, "Deeds rather than words express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life. I have watched constantly that in our movie work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether it deals with fable or with stories of living action."
- In 1940, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation recruited Disney as an Official Informant. He was later designated as a Special Agent in Charge contact.
- Walt had several hobbies over the years, among them model railroads, polo playing, and a backyard railroad.
- Walt spent countless afternoons, after his typical early morning inspection of the park, in the Main Street Station breakroom or on the line of the Disneyland Railroad (previously known as the Atcheson, Topeka, Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad). Disney's movement west from his birthplace in Chicago, on to Marceline and Kansas City and then on to Los Angeles was paralleled itself by the Atcheson, Topeka, Santa Fe Railroad. Among his closest friends in his last decade of life were Bob Hannah, the trainmaster, and Lorne Cline, lead brakeman, who later regaled park guests with stories about Walt into the late 1970s. Walt did not ever want to lose control of the railroad to the financial backers of Disneyland and so placed the steam train and monorail attractions into a free-standing company called "RETLAW" (which is "Walter" spelled backwards), of which he and his wife were sole owners. Prior to its dissolution into the Disney Corp in the 1980s, he (and heirs) would receive $0.60 for each person through the turnstile at the train stations, and supervisors could be seen currying favor with the owner by spinning the turnstiles to increase the count (and revenues) before park opening and after closing.
- 'Uncle Walt' could be seen around 1950sDisneyland doing menial chores, like getting strollers for people, tinkering under the hood of a car on Main Street U.S.A., fishing in Rivers of America, or piloting the Mark Twain Riverboat.
- In the fall of 1963, while seeking the site for Disney's new "Florida Project", Walt and Roy Disney first flew over a coastal area of Florida, and then the forest and swamps near Orlando which were selected as the site to become Walt Disney World. Shortly later, their plane landed in New Orleans on the way back to California where the Disney brothers learned of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. He had been assassinated earlier that same afternoon in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
- One of the audio animatronic pirates on The Pirates of the Caribbean ride introduced in 1967 has Walt Disney's face. It was taken from the same life cast mold that was used to make the statue of Disney that adorns the central square.
- A number of [http://www.snopes.com/disney/waltdisn/walt.asp rumors] have been attributed to Walt Disney:
: "Walt Disney was an illegitimate child."
: "Walt Disney received a dishonorable discharge from the military during World War I."
: "Disney had his body frozen after his death and remains in cryonic storage." (He was cremated.[http://www.snopes.com/disney/info/wd-ice.htm])
:These are all untrue. Widely spread and retold, like many other rumors, they have become urban legends.
Quotes
- "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."
- "I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained."
- "You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."
- "I've never believed in doing sequels. I didn't want to waste the time I have doing a sequel; I'd rather be using that time doing something new and different."
- "Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world."
- "We believed in our idea - a family park where parents and children could have fun- together."
- "I take great pride in the artistic development of cartoons. Our characters are made to go through emotions which a few short years ago would have seemed impossible to secure with a cartoon character. Some of the action produced in the finished cartoon of today is more graceful than anything possible for a human to do."
- Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019-516729-5.
- Mosley, Leonard. Disney's World: A Biography (1985, 2002). Chelsea, MI: Scarborough House. ISBN 081-288514-7.
- Schickel, Richard and Dee, Ivan R (1967, 1985, 1997). The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher. ISBN 156-663158-0.
- Thomas, Bob (1991). Disney's Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 156-282899-1
- Thomas, Bob (1976,1994). Walt Disney: An American Original ISBN 0-7868-6027-8
- Mobile Devices (MD) - Networks - Connected Home Solutions (CHS)
- Government & Enterprise Mobility Solutions (GEMS)
- Corporate (CORP)
History
The company started as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928. The name Motorola was adopted in 1947, but the word had been used as a trademark since the 1930s. Founder Paul Galvin came up with the name Motorola when his company started manufacturing car radios. A number of early companies making phonographs, radios, and other audio equipment in the early 20th century used the suffix "-ola", the most famous being Victrola; there was also a film editing device called a Moviola.
Many of Motorola's products have been radio-related, starting with a battery eliminator for radios, through the first walkie-talkie in the world, defense electronics, cellular infrastructure equipment, and mobile phone manufacturing. The company was also strong in semiconductor technology, including integrated circuits used in computers. Motorola has been the main supplier for the microprocessors used in Commodore Amiga, AppleMacintosh and Power Macintoshpersonal computers. The chip used in the latter computers, the PowerPC family, was developed with IBM, and in a partnership with Apple (known as the AIM alliance). Motorola also has a diverse line of communication products, including satellite systems, digital cable boxes and modems.
On October 6, 2003, Motorola announced that it would spin off its semiconductor product sector into a separate company called Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.. The new company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on July 16th of the following year.
See also: List of Motorola products (including Freescale's semiconductors)
The Six Sigmaquality system was developed at Motorola even though it became most well known because of its use by General Electric. It was created under the direction of Bob Galvin, the son of founder Paul Gavin, when he was running the company, by engineer Bill Smith. Motorola University is one of many places that provides Six Sigma training.
Recently, a massive turnaround plan has been executed successfully by CEO Edward Zander, although many credit former CEO Chris Galvin with taking the first comprehensive steps. Due to recent layoffs and the spinoff of Freescale Semiconductor, the number of employees working for Motorola has gone from just over 150,000 to approximately 66,000. Motorola has recently been regaining market share in the cellular-phone business from Nokia, Samsung and others due to stylish new cellular phone designs like the Motorola RAZR V3. In addition, the company unveiled the first ever iTunes phone, the Motorola ROKR E1, in September 2005.
Outsourcing (or contracting out) is often defined as the delegation of non-core operations or jobs from internal production within a business to an external entity (such as a subcontractor) that specializes in that operation. Outsourcing is a business decision that is often made to focus on core competences. A subset of the term (offshoring) also implies transferring jobs to another country, either by hiring local subcontractors or building a facility in an area where labor is cheap. It became a popular buzzword in business and management in the 1990s. EDS was the first company to establish the outsourcing business.
Overview
Outsourcing is defined as the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function by a third party service provider.
Outsourcing and/or out-tasking involve transferring a significant amount of management control to the supplier. Buying products from another entity is not outsourcing or out-tasking, but merely a vendor relationship. Likewise, buying services from a provider is not necessarily outsourcing or out-tasking. Outsourcing always involves a considerable degree of two-way information exchange, co-ordination, and trust.
Organizations that deliver such services feel that outsourcing requires the turning over of management responsibility for running a segment of business. In theory, this business segment should not be mission-critical, but practice often dictates otherwise. Many companies look to employ expert organizations in the areas targeted for outsourcing. Business segments typically outsourced include Information Technology, Human Resources, Facilities and Real Estate Management and Accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions, manufacturing and engineering. Outsourcing business is characterized by expertise not inherent to the core of the client organization.
The overhead costs of customer service are typically less where outsourcing has been used, leading to many companies, from utilities to manufacturers, closing their in-house customer relations departments and outsourcing their customer service to third party call centers. The logical extension of these decisions was of outsourcing labor overseas to countries with lower labor costs, this trend is often referred to as offshoring of customer service.
Due to this demand call centers have sprung up in India, Philippines, Canada and even the Caribbean. Many companies, most notably Dell and AT&T Wireless, have gained significant negative publicity for their decisions to use Indian labor for customer service and technical support; one of the most prominent complaints being the expectation that the replacement staff will have more trouble communicating with customers.
A related term is out-tasking: turning over a narrowly-defined segment of business to another business, typically on an annual contract, or sometimes a shorter one. This usually involves continued direct or indirect management and decision-making by the client of the out-tasking business.
The term "outsourcing" became more well known largely because of a growth in the number of high-tech companies in the early 1990s that were often not large enough to be able to easily maintain large customer service departments of their own. In some cases these companies hired technical writers to simplify the usage instructions of their products, index the key points of information and contracted with temporary employment agencies to find, train and hire generally low-skilled workers to answer their telephone technical support and customer service calls. These agents generally worked in call centers where the information needed to assist the calling customer was indexed in a computer system. The agents were often not able to tell the customer they did not actually directly work for the original manufacturer. In some cases, the agents are not allowed to even give out their real name.
Criticisms of Outsourcing
Because "outsourced" workers are not actually paid agents of the company, it has been argued that there is less incentive for the agent to show loyalty or work ethic in its representation of said company. It has been therefore argued that quality levels of customer service and technical support of outsourced tasks are lower than where they have remained 'in-house'.
The 2004 US presidential election race focused on outsourcing to some degree. This debate did not center on problems of declining quality of customer services but on the threat to US jobs and work. Criticism of outsourcing, from the perspective of US citizens, by-and-large, revolves around the costs associated with transferring control of the labor process to an external entity in another country. A Zogby International poll reports that 71% of American voters believe that “outsourcing jobs overseas” hurts the economy and another 62% believe that the US government should impose some legislative action against companies that transfer domestic jobs overseas, possibly in the form of increased taxes on companies that outsource. The poll of over 1,000 Americans was conducted in August 2004 (See Zogby International survey results online at [http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=870 zogby.com]).
Outsourcing appears to threaten the livelihood of domestic workers and the American Dream. This is especially true for high-tech workers who were promised the “jobs of tomorrow”- a phrase Bill Clinton iterated in 1994 to justify his conservative position on NAFTA. Outsourcing appears to work contrary to the claim that “free trade” will create the “jobs of tomorrow” in America when high-tech or high paying white collar jobs are transferred to or created in foreign countries. Thus, outsourcing is criticized as it represents a new threat to labor, contributing to rampant worker insecurity, and reflective of the general process of globalization where the United States government fails to mediate business-labor relations in a way conducive to prevailing values that places the American middle class worker as a central priority.
Criticism of outsourcing from the public and media sometimes tend to concentrate on lackluster customer service and technical support being provided by either local workers who are not actually employees of the company, or by overseas workers attempting to communicate with Americans in broken or incomprehensible English. Defenders of outsourcing say if this were true, then companies would experience market forces compelling them to return service and support handling back from the outsourced company. However, service and support are often not considered by customers as part of their original purchases. Customers only experience outsourced service and support after they have spent their money since sales is generally done in-house by the original company. Dealing with lackluster outsourced service is a negative surprise after the money is already spent.
Policy solutions to outsourcing are also criticized. One solution often offered is retraining of domestic workers to new jobs. However, some of these workers are already highly educated and already possess a bachelor's and master's degree. Retraining to their current level in another field may not be an option due to years of study and cost of education involved. There is also little incentive given that the jobs in their new field could also be outsourced as well.
There are also security issues concerning companies giving outside access to sensitive customer information. In April of 2005, a high-profile case involving the theft of $350,000 from four Citibank customers occurred when Indian call center workers in Pune, India, acquired the passwords to customer accounts and transferred the money to their own accounts opened under fictitious names. Citibank did not find out about the problem until the American customers noticed discrepancies with their accounts and notified the bank.
Outright fraud is also a concern. In 2005, Intel discovered and fired 250 Indian employees after they faked their expense reports. The firings followed an internal audit of expenses claims. The report implied that bad employee practices such as "faking bills to claim your allowances like conveyance [and] drivers’ salaries" were endemic not only with Intel's employees, but with Indian business overall.
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry blasted firms that outsource jobs abroad or that incorporate overseas in tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of US taxes during his unsuccessful 2004 campaign, calling such firms "Benedict Arnold corporations," in reference to the infamous traitorBenedict Arnold.
It is argued a malicious implementation of the Higher Education Role Analysis (HERA) in the UK may force Higher Education administrative and support staff to prematurely retire or seek for new employment in other organisations, thus freeing of staff many departments which could then be effectively outsourced. Outsourcing departments like Accounts, Payroll and Procurement is now common practice, as seen in August 2005 at the University of Portsmouth.
Arguments for Outsourcing
A recent poll of economists by the Wall Street Journal found that only 16 percent of them saw outsourcing as having a significant impact on the overall job picture.
One criticism of outsourcing is that product quality suffers. But the outsourcing firm has freedom to move a firm department or division back home if its profits are suffering as a result of poor quality. In fact, many American companies like Dell have moved customer service divisions back to America as a result of poor quality . The decision to outsource is like any other business investment decision in that there is risk. Critics of outsourcing often talk about outsourcing failures without mentioning instances of outsourcing success. The decision to outsource is like the decision to expand a business overseas, to incorporate computer technology, or to hire new workers. If the company does it correctly, it benefits from higher profits. Proponents of outsourcing believe that arguing that outsourcing leads to lower product quality is pointless because if it were true, consumer demand will force firms to shift back to producing the good or service in-firm rather than out-firm. That many large businesses outsource and continue to outsource suggests that in many cases outsourcing is successful in that it increases product quality, lowers costs substantially, or both.
Some economists have argued that outsourcing is a form of technological innovation analogous to machines on a car assembly line. American Motor Company Ford relied heavily on workers in the past to assemble car parts. Today these workers are replaced by machines because they are cheaper in the long run, produce better quality products, or a combination of both (the firm is trying to increase its quality to cost ratio, quality being defined by the consumer and inferred from revenue). Economists argue that machines on the car assembly line must have a higher quality to cost ratio than workers because, if they didn’t, there would be no incentive for the firm to replace workers with machines. Although workers’ jobs were lost from this replacement of workers with machines, the Ford Motor Company made more money by lowering costs (or increasing quality, thereby increasing revenue). Some argue that greater profits to the labor owners lead to higher consumption, which leads to further job creation, allowing those who lost jobs to gain jobs in other sectors of the economy. However, economists do concede that labor is not always perfectly mobile and that some workers may have difficulty getting new jobs. Some economists suggest that government training programs be provided.
A firm's motivation for replacing workers with machines is identical to the motivation for outsourcing, i.e. the firm is trying to maximize the quality of its product given cost (its productivity). Because outsourcing allows for lower costs, even if quality reduces slightly or not at all, productivity increases, which benefits the economy on aggregate.
Economist Thomas Sowell from the University of Chicago said “anything that increases economic efficiency--whether by outsourcing or a hundred other things--is likely to cost somebody's job. The automobile cost the jobs of people who took care of horses or made saddles, carriages, and horseshoes.” Walter Williams, another economist, said “we could probably think of hundreds of jobs that either don't exist or exist in far fewer numbers than in the past--jobs such as elevator operator, TV repairman and coal deliveryman. ‘Creative destruction’ is a discovery process where we find ways to produce goods and services more cheaply. That in turn makes us all richer.”
Professor Drezner reports that for every dollar spent on outsourcing to India, the United States reaps between $1.12 and $1.14 in benefits. Drezner also points out that large software companies such as Microsoft and Oracle have increased outsourcing and used the savings for investment and larger domestic payrolls. Nationally, 70,000 computer programmers lost their jobs between 1999 and 2003, but more than 115,000 computer software engineers found higher-paying jobs during that same period.
Notes
# This view is born out by a recent study by Richard Freeman at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Washington. He found that in the year 2000, 17 percent of university bachelor degrees in the U.S. were in science and engineering compared with a world average of 27 percent and 52 percent in China. Universities in the European Union granted 40 percent more science and engineering doctorates than the United States, with that figure expected to reach nearly 100 percent by about 2010 according to Freeman's paper.
# [http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3565 “Outsourcing” and “Saving Jobs”] by Thomas Sowell
# [http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4113 Should we “Save Jobs”?] by Walter Williams
# "The Outsourcing Bogeyman" (Foreign Affairs, May/June 2004)
- [http://www.techsunite.org/index.cfm TechsUnite] a website of organized IT workers concerned with US job security
- [http://www.citizen.org/trade/offshoring/views/index.cfm Politics of Offshoring] from Public Citizen
- [http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Apr2004/bryjak0404.html Outsourcing the American Dream] by George J. Bryjak.
- [http://www.netxs.com.pk/net-security/email-mgmt.html Email Outsourcing] Email Outsourcing Primer
- [http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/popups/exporting.america/content.html Lou Dobbs site on companies that offshore outsource]
- [http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/issueguide_offshoring Economic Policy Institute's Offshoring Guide].
- [http://www.xitexsoftware.com/m1/en/outsourcing/outsourcing_articles/is_it_worth_outsource Tips to Wise Outsourcing] by Alex Polonski.
- [http://outsourcing.hut1.ru/index.php?page=Cheap_vs_Good_Outsourcing Outsourcing Quiz: Cheap vs. Good] An opinion explaining that the cheapest labour force is not always the best solution.
- [http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/outsourcing/story/0,10801,105828,00.html?SKC=management-105828 Myth: All Outsourcing Is Offshoring] Computerworld Magazine.
- [http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4113 Should we “Save Jobs”?] by Walter Williams from Capitalism Magazine.
- [http://www.legadoassociates.com/softwareoutsource.htm Software stays put] - by Wynn Quon, National Post. An opinion explaining software outsourcing is not a long-term threat to the North American software industry.
- [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india.html The New Face of the Silicon Age] - by Daniel H. Pink Wired Magazine - [http://www.theage.com.au/news/Soapbox/Indian-outsourcing-an-alternative-view/2004/12/21/1103391741596.html Indian outsourcing: an alternative view] by Sam Varghese. A skeptical opinion of the importance of outsourcing.
- [http://www.cad-drafting-services.com/12MagicalSteps.pdf Guide to Outsourcing] (Advertisement. Written by an outsourcing company in India)
- [http://www.offshoringmanagement.com Book on Outsourcing] Book on Outsourcing and managing offshored IT Services
- Martin Bailey and Diana Farrell, Milken Institute Review, December 2004, [http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/review/2004_12/33_41mr24.pdf "Is your job headed for Bangalore? The myths and realities of Outsourcing"]
- [http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3812 To Outsource or Stagnate?] by Onkar Ghate
- [http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?id=576 Buy American is Un-American] by Harry Binswanger
- [http://www.cato.org/events/031017pf.html Are We Exporting Our Jobs to India and China?] An online video from The Cato Institute
- [http://www.cato.org/research/articles/reynolds-040606.html Offshoring Which Jobs?] by Alan Reynolds
- [http://www.cato.org/research/articles/reynolds-040314.html Trivial Outsourcing Pursuits] by Alan Reynolds
- [http://www.cato.org/dailys/02-25-04-2.html The States and Outsourcing] by Radly Balko
- [http://www.express-computer.com/20050919/technologylife02.shtml Offshoring Management Experts] Article on Managing Outsourcing by Mohan Babu
- [http://www.forbes.com/2004/05/11/0511autofacescan01.html GE Ex-CEO Blasts Outsourcing Opponents]
- [http://www.informedchoices.co.uk Informed Choices] - Website devoted to detailing and commenting on offshoring and outsourcing, particularly from the UK.
- [http://www.surviveoutsourcing.com SurviveOutsourcing.com] Blog written by an American IT professional. The blog deals with news in the offshore outsourcing world, and gives perspective on how to adapt your career to a changing economy.
Category:International tradeCategory:Supply chain managementCategory:Production and manufacturingja:アウトソーシング
From 1857 to 1861 Morgan worked in the New York City banking house of Duncan, Sherman & Company. In 1861 he married Amelia Sturges (1835-1862). She was the daughter of Jonathan Sturges and Mary Pemberton Cady. After her death he married Frances Louise Tracy (1842-1924) on May 3, 1865 and they had the following children: Louisa Pierpont Morgan (1866-?) who married Herbert Livingston Satterlee (1863-1947); John Pierpont Morgan II (1867-1943); Juliet Morgan (1870-?); and Anne Morgan (1873-1952).
Business years
From 1860 to 1864, he was an agent and attorney in New York for George Peabody & Co. of London. Afterwards, for its successor, J. S. Morgan & Co. he became its head. From 1864 to 1871, the firm of Dabney, Morgan & Company accepted Morgan as a member. In 1871, he entered the firm of Drexel, Morgan & Company, in which he was associated with Anthony J. Drexel, of Philadelphia, upon whose death in 1893 he became senior partner.
In 1895 the firm became J. P. Morgan & Co. Closely associated with Drexel & Co. of Philadelphia, Morgan, Harjes & Co. (successors to Drexel, Harjes & Co.) of Paris, and, Morgan, Grenfell & Co. (before 1910J. S. Morgan & Co.) of London. J. P. Morgan & Co. became one of the most powerful banking houses in the world. Its accomplishments were numerous. J. P. Morgan & Co. financed the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, which took over the business of Andrew Carnegie and others and was the world's first billion-dollar corporation. In 1912, the Pujo Committee, a subcommittee of the House Banking and Currency committee, found that J.P. Morgan & Co. had aggregate resources of $22,245,000,000. Louis Brandeis, the former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, compared this sum to the value of all the property in the twenty-two states west of the Mississippi River (which excluded Alaska and Hawaii).
In 1891 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. In 1895, J. P. Morgan & Co. supplied the United States government with $62 million in gold to float a bond issue and restore the treasury surplus of $100 million. In 1902, J. P. Morgan & Co. purchased the Leyland line of Atlanticsteamships and other British lines, creating an Atlantic shipping combine, the International Mercantile Marine Company, which eventually became the owner of White Star Line, builder and operator of RMS Titanic. In addition, J P Morgan & Co (or the banking houses which it succeeded) reorganised a large number of railroads between 1869 and 1899.
Antitrust
As required by the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, the "House of Morgan" became three entities: 1) J.P. Morgan and Co. and its bank, Morgan Guaranty Trust; 2) Morgan Stanley, an investment house; and 3) Morgan Grenfell in London, England, an overseas securities house.
Legacy
In his satirical history of the United States, It All Started with Columbus, Richard Armour commented that "Morgan, who was a direct sort of person, made his money in money... He became immensely wealthy because of his financial interests, most of which were around eight or ten percent... This Morgan is usually spoken of as 'J.P.' to distinguish him from Henry Morgan, the pirate."
Notable patronage
Henry Morgan - In 1900, Morgan financed inventor and engineer, Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower facility (which was a wireless facility). Morgan invested over $75,000 into the project. However, in 1903, when the tower structure was near completion, it was still not yet functional due to a design error. When Morgan wanted to know "Where can I put the meter?", Tesla had no answer. Tesla's vision of free power did not agree with Morgan's worldview. Construction costs eventually exceeded the money provided by Morgan, and additional financiers were reluctant to come forth (since Tesla fell out of favor with Morgan).
- By July 1904, Morgan (and the other investors) finally decided they would not provide any additional financing. Morgan also encouraged other investors to avoid the project. The tower was finally dismantled for scrap during wartime. Newspapers of the time labeled Wardenclyffe "Tesla's million-dollar folly."
- Morgan was also a patron to photographer Edward S. Curtis offering Curtis $75,000, in 1906, for a series on the North American Indian.
- An enthusiastic yachtsman, Morgan's Columbia defeated the Shamrock in 1899 and 1901 for the America's Cup.
- A chronic skin disease, (Rosacea), plagued Morgan's nose, causing it to appear purple; a popular rhyme ran: "Johnny Morgan's nasal organ has a purple hue..."
References
- J.P. Morgan : The Financier as Collector Publisher: By Auchincloss, Louis Harry N Abrams (September 1, 1990) ISBN 0810936100
- Brandeis, Louis D. Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It. Ed. Melvin I. Urofsky. New York: Bedford Books, 1995. ISBN 031210314X
- J. P. Morgan: Banker to a Growing Nation (American Business Leaders) By Bryman Jeremy Publisher: Morgan Reynolds Publishing (June 1, 2001) ISBN 1883846609
- The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance, By Chernow, Ron Publisher: Publishers Group West 1st edition (October 15, 2001) ISBN 0802138292
- J.P. Morgan by Jackson, Stanley Publisher: Stein & Day Pub (November 1, 1983) ISBN 0812828240
- J. P. Morgan Saves the Nation (Sun and Moon Classics) By Jones M., Jeffrey Larson, Johnathan
Il Vittoriano è un monumento di Roma, e si trova in Piazza Venezia. Il monumento viene spesso erroneamente identificato con l'Altare della Patria, che in realtà ne è solo una parte; altrettanto erroneamente, per il suo nome si può essere portati a pensare che sia un tributo alla vittoria: in realtà il nome Vittoriano viene da Vittorio Emanuele II di Savoia, primo re d'Italia, cui è dedicato. L'edificio è chiamato scherzosamente dai romani la Macchina da scrivere per la sua forma.
Il progetto di questa imponente opera è di Giuseppe Sacconi, che ha scelto il marmo botticino assai diverso dal tipico travertino romano. Ciò diventa un'ulteriore simbolo del fatto che il Vittoriano vuole essere il segno importante che il governo dell'Italia unita lascia sulla Roma che è stata degli Imperatori e poi dei Papi. Per lasciare questo segno si distrugge una zona antica della città ed il chiostro di Santa Maria in Ara Coeli.
Altare della Patria
Santa Maria in Ara Coeli
Sulla scalinata si trova l'Altare della Patria che, contrariamente a quanto si crede, è solamente una parte del complesso, quella per così dire in mezzo alla scalinata e dove stanno il picchetto d'onore e la grande statua della deaRoma con sfondo dorato. L'Altare della Patria venne disegnato da Angelo Zanelli.
Nell'Altare della Patria è tumulato il Milite Ignoto. Si tratta di una salma sconosciuta selezionata tra le tantissime dei caduti della Prima guerra mondiale scelta proprio in rappresentanza di tutti i soldati che non hanno potuto avere una tomba con il loro nome.
Scalinata
La scalinata è stata riaperta nel 2000 dopo circa 40 anni di restauri dell'intero complesso. All'interno si trovano degli spazi espositivi dedicati alla storia del Vittoriano stesso e la sede del Museo del Risorgimento, che da alcuni anni ospita anche mostre di pittura.
Sacrario delle bandiere
Il Sacrario delle Bandiere al Vittoriano è il luogo in cui sono raccolte e custodite le Bandiere di guerra di reparti militari disciolti e delle unità navali radiate dal naviglio dello Stato, nonché le bandiere degli istituti militari e delle unità appartenenti ai corpi armati dello stato (Polizia di Stato, Polizia Penitenziaria, Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Guardia di Finanza) disciolte.
Presso il sacrario sono custoditi anche dei cimeli, relativi alle guerre a cui hanno preso parte le Forze armate italiane.
Al piano superiore, nelle due ampie gallerie annesse alla Cripta del Milite Ignoto, sono raccolte e custodite, in grandi vetrine inserite nelle nicchie delle pareti, le bandiere di guerra dei reparti, di terra e di cielo, disciolti. Nel primo salone sono conservate 228 bandiere e 469 nel secondo. Al piano inferiore trovano posto le bandiere e gli stemmi di combattimento delle unità della Marina Militare Italiana.
Le sale al piano superiore sono state inaugurate nel 1968, in occasione del cinquantenario della vittoria nella Prima Guerra Mondiale. Le bandiere provengono dal Museo di Castel Sant'Angelo, dove erano state conservate sin dal 24 maggio1935. La sale al piano inferiore sono state invece inaugurate il 14 giugno1961, in occasione del centenario della Marina Militare.
Collegamenti esterni
- [http://www.ambienterm.arti.beniculturali.it/vittoriano/ sito ufficiale del Vittoriano]
- [http://www.amrcv.it/ sito ufficiale del Museo del Risorgimento]
- [http://www.quirinale.it/simboli/vittoriano/Vittoriano_IlNome.htm il Vittoriano sul sito del Quirinale]
- [http://www.italica.rai.it/principali/argomenti/arte/vittoriano.htm articolo sulla riapertura del Vittoriano sul sito Italica della RAI]
- [http://www.esercito.difesa.it/root/storia/milite_ignoto.asp storia del Milite Ignoto] nel sito dell'Esercito Italiano
categoria:Monumenti di Romacategoria:prima guerra mondiale
Artificial world
Writers in the fields of science speculation and fiction have created in their works several varieties of artificial worlds.
Such megastructures could have a variety of advantages over natural planets, such as efficient use of solar energy and immense living space, but their construction and/or maintenance would require technologies much in advance of that of 21st-century Earth.
It was often stated, that it is more possible to build a 2-gigaton
Malton, Ontario
Malton is one of the neighbourhoods within the city of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, located to the northwest of Toronto. The neighbourhood has a population of approximately 36,400 as of 2002. Roughly speaking, Malton is bounded by Highway 427 and Finch Avenue to the east, the Circumcision, when practiced as a rite, has its foundations in the Bible and is therefore practiced by Jews and Muslims and some Christians.
Introduction
Circumcision has a long history, and is mentioned frequently in the Bible. However, it should be no
Murrumbidgee River
The Murrumbidgee River is a major river in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The word Murrumbidgee means "big river" in the local
