Search results

After it introduced the extremely successful Droid smartphone into the market in 2009, Motorola quickly moved to develop the next-generation Droid 2 before the next wave of smartphones (including the rumored iPhone 4) flooded the market. The development process was moving smoothly for the company when Verizon, its biggest partner, dropped a bombshell. It wasn't happy with the mechanical camera button on the Droid 2 (citing customer feedback) and wanted it to be changed to a software button like the iPhone's. This request immediately placed Motorola in the proverbial horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, it couldn't brush away the request of its biggest and most important partner. On the other hand, changing the camera button now would mean delaying the Droid 2's entry into the market. Should the Droid 2 team remove the camera's hardware button in favor of a software button per Verizon's request, or not?

John Smith, the product manager, leads the cross-functional Droid 2 team. The case setting is an emergency “war room” meeting to address this critical issue, just weeks prior to launch. John's objective is to obtain the salient facts and opinions of team members quickly so he can make an informed recommendation to his boss by the end of the day. He is concerned that this last-minute request for a design change will not only threaten to delay the launch, which would have significant financial implications, but could potentially create deep fissures in a hitherto effective team that had been running like a well-oiled machine.

The case puts students in a situation that simulates a real-world discussion and allows them to experience what it is like, as a product manager, to orchestrate a meeting with cross-functional teams that have conflicting priorities and agendas. It illustrates the challenges a product manager faces while striving to make important decisions with little or no direct authority over the various teams.

After reading and analyzing this case, students will be able to:

• Experience the dynamics of cross-functional teams in product management

• Practice running effective and productive meetings

• Practice bringing together various personalities and points of view

• Understand the importance of setting goals and clear expectations

• Internalize the importance of building relationships and influencing teams, even when you do not have direct authority

Experience the dynamics of cross-functional teams in product management

Practice running effective and productive meetings

Practice bringing together various personalities and points of view

Understand the importance of setting goals and clear expectations

Internalize the importance of building relationships and influencing teams, even when you do not have direct authority

Many organizations now utilize action learning, and it is applied increasingly throughout the world. Action learning appears in numerous variants, but generically it is a form of learning through experience, “by doing”, where the task environment is the classroom, and the task the vehicle. Two previous reviews of the action learning literature by Alan Mumford respectively covered the field prior to 1985 and the period 1985‐1994. Both reviews included books as well as journal articles. This current review covers the period 1994‐2000 and is limited to publicly available journal articles. Part 1 of the Review was published in an earlier issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning (Vol. 15 No. 2) and included a bibliography and comments. Part 2 extends that introduction with a schema for categorizing action learning articles and with comments on representative articles from the bibliography.

Political dissent threads through the history of the Olympic Games. Although the International Olympic Committee (IOC) openly prohibits athletes from injecting politics into the Games, Olympians have nevertheless staged protests, using the Olympics to challenge the predominant power structures and institutions. This chapter analyzes outbursts of athlete activism in the context of wider social movements that make these political paroxysms more viable. Social movements scythe political space for athletes, spark athletes' political imaginary, and provide support and cover. From the early days of the Games, Olympic athletes have expressed dissent, as when Irish track-and-field athlete Peter O'Connor rebelled against British colonialism at the 1906 Olympics in Athens. At the Mexico City 1968 Games, Czech gymnast Vera Čáslavská carried out a politically symbolic acts as did US sprinters John Carlos, Tommie Smith, and Wyomia Tyus. At the 1972 Munich Games, US track medalists Vincent Matthews and Wayne Collett protested in nonchalant fashion on the medal stand. At the 1980 Olympics, Polish Olympian Władysław Kozakiewicz issued politically provocative symbology on the pole vault mat that challenged Soviet hegemony. In the twenty-first century, numerous Olympians have made political statements, despite a rule in the Olympic Charter that forbids such activity. In each case, athlete activists were bolstered by vibrant political movements in their home country. In this chapter, I trace the relationship between political Olympians and social movements as well as the wider dialectic of resistance and restriction that encompasses the interplay between dissident Olympians and the IOC.

The Milk (Special Designations) Order, 1936, which with its associated circular letter No. 1533, both dated April of this year, are the two latest issues by the Ministry of Health in relation to the purity of the milk supplies of this country. The whole tendency of modern legislation, so far as it relates to the production and the sale of milk, is to bring the trade in milk in all its branches within the compass of legislation based on scientific principles; and these principles in their turn have been derived from extensive experiment and observation in the regions of chemistry, physics, bacteriology, veterinary practice, and medicine, all of which have vastly extended their scope during the present century. The Ministry of Health, as the central authority, acting through the county councils and sanitary authorities in England and Wales, seeks to control in the interest of consumers and producer alike every detail of the production of milk from cow byre to shop counter. The bovines themselves, premises, plant, vessels, methods of transport, nothing is foreign to its purpose. These and similar regulations point to a general tightening up of the conditions under which milk may be sold. The control of a trade that is in some respects the most important in the country. The Ministries of Health and of Agriculture have tried to do not only much but many things, and the measure of control that they exercise at present has only been obtained by overcoming the inertia of ignorance and prejudice, and in many cases the active opposition of vested interests.

The Web is a communication and information technology that is often used for the distribution and retrieval of personal information. Many people and organizations mount Web sites containing large amounts of information on individuals, particularly about celebrities. However, limited studies have examined how people search for information on other people, using personal names, via Web search engines. Explores the nature of personal name searching on Web search engines. The specific research questions addressed in the study are: “Do personal names form a major part of queries to Web search engines?”; “What are the characteristics of personal name Web searching?”; and “How effective is personal name Web searching?”. Random samples of queries from two Web search engines were analyzed. The findings show that: personal name searching is a common but not a major part of Web searching with few people seeking information on celebrities via Web search engines; few personal name queries include double quotations or additional identifying terms; and name searches on Alta Vista included more advanced search features relative to those on AlltheWeb.com. Discusses the implications of the findings for Web searching and search engines, and further research.

A conference can range from good to bad. It can be well or poorly organized, comfortably or indifferently housed, a profitable or wasted use of time. If conferences were rated like hotels and stars indicated their merit, the one held in Munich at the end of October should be awarded the maximum number.

More than half a century ago, glucose was “making the headlines” in connection with its use in brewing; it was conferring on beers derived from it properties not anticipated by the brewers and certainly not appreciated by the unfortunate consumers. Arsenic present in the sulphuric acid used in the hydrolysis of starch being converted into glucose passed through into the final product and there was a very unpleasant epidemic of arsenical poisoning, particularly in the Manchester area. There were many repercussions, lasting right up to the present time. One of our early recollections was of long rows of Gutzeit bottles emitting the rather unpleasant odour produced by the action of hydrochloric acid and granulated zinc on beers and ales, although, if memory can be relied upon, we were never successful in finding any significant amounts of arsenic.

As the field of history expands with each passing decade, so does the number of reference works on historical events. Many fine reference works have been released in recent years, and the following is an annotated list of some of those that librarians ought to consider purchasing. The materials included were published in the decade beginning with the American Bicentennial. The scope of the bibliography is also limited to certain subjects deemed appropriate by the author, and excludes a number of excellent works that were considered too limited (bibliographies of individuals, for example), even though they might well be proper purchases for a library's reference collection. Also excluded, generally, are those works that are revisions of earlier works. The range of subjects included within the larger context of “American history” is somewhat dependent on the materials actually published, and the author has attempted to select only those materials that have received favorable reviews.