4. Are strength focused I was intrigued by a comment he made stating that if you were asked before you went to bed at night to name 5 things that you were grateful for; then you have a better chance at a healthy immune system, your more appreciative, and have more compassion.<br />010731500<br />Howard Schultz<br />CEO Starbucks <br />Mission vision and culture<br />Howard was a very inspirational speaker. When he was finished his speech I felt like I wanted to work for Starbucks. I agreed with a lot of what he had to say. He noted the only way to exceed the expectations of your customers is to exceed the expectations of your people/employees first. Which is highly pertinent to my values and what I have learned.<br />He mentioned a huge change in consumer behavior. There is a lack of trust, people are holding an extremely low confidence level right now, and they are not spending.<br />Technology is a key tool in today’s business world – traditional marketing is subordinate, today’s companies must be highly in tune with social media.<br />“The companies that do not see social responsibility as a core motive for the commencement of doing business – will not be successful”<br />Howard has a very caring and ethical persona. Currently, the profits from his Harlem and South Central locations are being provided back to the community.<br />The banks are holding more money than ever right now and still will not condone micro-loans so Howard is raising money to provide micro-loans to small businesses within the United States.<br />08001000<br />Jez Frampton <br />Jez introduced Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry. He proposed that brands are a deep indicator of a company’s success, and spoke about some of the most valuable brands. <br />Today, Burberry is the 4th fastest growing company/brand globally.<br />Angela Ahrendts<br />CEO Burberry<br />To be honest, I had never heard of the Burberry brand before attending the forum, but I guess that’s ok because I am not in their target market. Angela stated that her work was like a chest game - she’s in the people business and if she places the right people in the right place at the right time - than she wins. <br />The company has a great focus on their digital presents. The connectivity with their clients is fantastic. They have really built up a great brand image and really made it appeal to consumers. <br />09144000<br />Bill Clinton<br />Growing up in United States and being a resident during the time Bill Clinton was in office – I was very excited to see him speak. <br />He began discussing how everyone needs their own framework for how they view the world. No one can change the increase of interdependence – no one can reverse its growth. There are positives and there are negatives.<br />Negatives <br />- Instability<br />- Starvation<br />- Diseases<br />- The way that we produce and consume energy<br />- Weather <br />Bill speaks about when he was the governor of Arkansas and it used to be a prime area for hurricanes - now there have been two in Queens, NY recently.<br />There are pine battles as far north as they have ever been in history.<br />Positives<br />In Haiti there are 7000 more kids in school than ever. Bill explains that there has to be systems built and implemented allowing future planning and structural growth. Systems such as:<br />- Financial systems for companies and banks<br />- School systems <br />- Agriculture systems<br />- Government systems <br />In Brazil sugar cane is largely substituted for gas, and the past four years in a row they have burned more sugar cane than gas. 90% of brazils electricity comes from hydropower, and about 20% of the world’s oxygen comes from the Amazon.<br />Bill touches on how many of us take things for granted like lights, air conditioning, water, etc. <br />With the recessions everything is freezing up and it takes a lot longer to overcome the down turn. There are approximately over 20 million individuals without work in the United States right now and the hold the largest economy.<br />Immigrants are leaving because they are scared that they cannot hold their jobs. I know personally, I saw this happening during my recent time in the United States. There were many workers that would leave their families to go back to their countries to work and send the money to their families in the United States.<br />Bill pushes the need to get money flowing in the United States again.<br />40% of small businesses said that they would consider hiring more people if they were able to get funding for expansion. They need to get back into the future business.<br />“Not by conflict (politics), by cooperation (real world)”<br />Most jobs do not require people to have a four-year degree, but people that have them will occupy most jobs. The United States is 1st in the ranking of people that enter into to college, but rank 12th or 14th with the amount of people that graduate. People are going to college, but are dropping out largely due to cost and unmanageable expenses. Bill suggests implementing a system that will allow them to payback a percentage of their school cost out of their income in the future – this will help mitigate students dropping out due to the cost.<br />010287000<br />Overall, The experience was great and a valuable use of my time. I was exposed to a lot of great information form a lot of admired business professionals. <br />From a public relations standpoint it was noted that they were aware of all the students streaming the forum, and I think that a lot of the content that was touched on was relative to that. <br />Angela Ahrendts seemed a little nervous like it was her first time speaking in front of that many people - she had great content and I got the overall picture of everything she was saying, but it was hard to focus on what she was saying because I was too focused on her nervousness. <br />Malcolm Gladwell on the other hand was extremely compelling and it was easy focused on his story and visualizing it. He was great at engaging people with his tone of voice and confidence.<br />From a marketing perspective everything really tied in well. No matter what someone was speaking about I was able to relating back to marketing and how it would aid me in the field. I am the type of person that likes to see the big picture of any situation and I enjoyed listening to many different peoples perspective and opinion.<br />
![013716000<br />Bill George<br />Harvard Professor and Author<br />I perceived Bill as a very well grounded individual. He really pushed the importance of being an authentic person and staying true to your core values. When I thought about it, my first conclusion was, what a simple task. Then it occurred to me what his intentions were behind the comment. Sometimes people simply get off track and they rarely realize it before it is too late. I am sure there are many people that can relate – they have got so caught up in something like making more profit, trying to please their boss, or overworking themselves to get to their next promotion - that they loose track of how and why they were qualified for their job in the first place.<br />Bill suggested people think about their own leadership and always consider how to improve their development as a leader. Leadership is interminable; no one will wake up one day and realize there is nothing left that requires leadership skills. Whether someone is managing a corporation or is solely responsible for their own decisions - leadership is an imperative skill. And that will never seize to be true.<br />It was mentioned that Dave Packard was a great role model for Bill and he spoke highly of his modesty. Bill divulged that even a great leader like Dave Packard had gotten off track at some point in his career. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard lost their roots and Hewlett Packard suffered because of it. IBM followed with a down turn as well. Personally, I feel in some cases it is not always that or how you fall, but how you manipulate your recovery. For example, Bill noted that Sam Palmisano, CEO of IBM, made his recovery by successfully running a globally integrated enterprise. (A term/system coined by IBM) The Company lost their way and had to re-build, but did so by staying true to them selves and holding on to their core roots and values. Bill noted the previous as staying proper to your “True North”. It was made eminent that when people overcome difficult barriers in life it is important to uncover the distinction as to how it has made a difference and how it has affected them in their life.<br />Transition leaders such as Sam Palmisano are in it for the long hall, they work for established companies that have full intentions on making large impressions. <br />Leadership is widely about service - aligning people empowering them, and being well grounded.<br />015303500<br />Malcolm Gladwell<br />Malcolm was the speaker that I had anticipated hearing the most. I have heard every one of my professors make reference to his work. He is a very strong speaker and he really knows how to make an impression. Malcolm delivered two main stories expressing short, strong, messages that were rather thought provoking relative to risk taking and how it is the core of effective leadership.<br />Within one of his stories he spoke of a man in the 1950s that took the risk of combining individual drugs that were separately used to treat childhood Leukemia. The drugs each attacked a different element so within combination the Leukemia was being treated at all means. The risk was they had no way to test the idea or dosage other than with an actual child. Luckily, he was successful and many of us are here today because of him. It was also proposed that the real risk takers would be the people that sat there and did nothing. I agree with this, it really brought perspective to risk and leadership.<br />015240000<br />Tal Ben-Shahar<br />Tal Ben-Shahar made strong reference to focusing on what works and learning from what works. He spoke of resilience and how it should go hand-in-hand with leadership. Being strong and overcoming barriers quickly and efficiently was a key point Tal exploited. <br />He talked about successful children with regular characteristics and how they can lead to extraordinary results by:<br />,[object Object]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/brycewbf2011-1318705330-phpapp02-111015140325-phpapp02/85/Bryce-Wbf2011-1-320.jpg)
