Catatan dan Goresan Masrizal

Catatan dan Goresan Masrizal

Minggu, 27 Februari 2011

Open for Questions: State of the Union 2011

Economy and the Federal Budget, Panel - Haas School

Dean Rich Lyons and Prof. Andrew Rose Debate - Haas School

Panel discussion of BEARS 2011 (Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium)

Coca-Cola Happiness Machine Indonesia

Coca-Cola Happiness Machine

Coca-Cola Live Positively Philippines Environment

Coca-Cola Happiness Truck

TVC / Advertising / Iklan FANTA - "Gerhana Matahari"

Davos Annual Meeting 2010 - Global Economic Outlook

Tianjin 2010 - (TV Debate CNBC) Multinationals in China

Animated Coca cola coke factory full version ad

Sarah Palin Keynote Speech at National Tea Party Convention

HD-Obama State Of The Union-Full Speech

In Full: State of the Union

Obama Faces GOP On Its Talking Points

Obama addresses school kids- Full Video

Watch President Obama Deliver Full 2011 State of the Union Address

Kamis, 24 Februari 2011

Lec 1 | MIT 6.046J / 18.410J Introduction to Algorithms (SMA 5503), Fall...

Ses 2-1 | MIT 16.660 Introduction to Lean Six Sigma Methods, January (IA...

Introduction to Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing Tour

Kaizen Overview (Lean Manufacturing)

Dealing with the 7 Deadly Wastes (Lean Manufacturing)

Problem Solving Using the Why Tree

FISHBONE DIAGRAM: How to Construct a Fishbone Diagram

7 Quality Control Tools Overview

Dealing with the 7 Deadly Wastes (Lean Manufacturing)

Introduction to Lean Manufacturing

Toyota Motor Manufacturing

Bill Sullivan, Agilent Technologies: "Innovation in a Downturn" - Haas S...

Stephen Pratt, Infosys Consulting - Leadership and Networking from the C...

8/27/2009: Innovating at Scale: Google

Craig Hall, "7 Keys to Entrepreneurial Success" - Haas School

David Aaker, Tracking Brands in Japan - Haas School

4/29/2010: 2010 UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition Finalist Presentat...

Rabu, 23 Februari 2011

IBM Centennial Film: 100 X 100 - A century of achievements that have cha...

Blue Ocean Strategy: Making the Competition Irrelevant

Philip Kotler on marketing in times of economic uncertainty

SWA: Transformasi Bisnis Si Raja Mi

Transformasi Bisnis Si Raja Mi

Posted By Eva Martha Rahayu On February 17, 2011 @ 6:01 am In Manajemen, Swa Majalah


Untuk mengakselerasi pertumbuhan, produsen mi ini pun bertransformasi. Bagaimana prosesnya?



Entah apa yang akan dikatakan Tan Pia Sioe pada cucunya, Joko Mogoginta. Perusahaan keluarga yang dibesut Tan pada 1959, tak dinyana, kini berkembang dari sekadar berjualan mi kering dan bihun cap Cangak Ular menjadi pelaku bisnis pangan dan fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) yang diperhitungkan. Di bawah kepemimpinan Joko, rintisan Tan itu, PT Tiga Pilar Sejahtera (TPS) , tumbuh sangat pesat, agresif dan ekspansif.


Sejak bergabung dengan TPS tahun 1992, Joko memang “gila”. Dia banyak melakukan aksi mencengangkan. Strategi akuisisi ditebarnya. Mula-mula, PT Asia Inti Selera Tbk. (AIS) dibelinya. AIS bukan pemain sembarangan. Ia produsen mi Ayam 2 Telor yang menjadi pemimpin pasar. Tak ayal, akuisisi ini mengukuhkan posisi TPS sebagai raja mi kering dengan menguasai pangsa pasar nasional (38%). Aksi pencaplokan itu otomatis juga membuatnya masuk bursa secara backdoor listing dan namanya resmi menjadi PT Tiga Pilar Sejahtera Food Tbk. Potensi bisnis FMCG yang wah, yang nilai pasarnya ditaksir Joko sekitar Rp 500 triliun setiap tahun, membuatnya mengayun langkah akuisisi ini.


Tidak puas hanya menjadi raja mi, Joko tergiur menikmati legitnya bisnis permen. Tahun 2005, giliran Polymeditra Indonesia, produsen permen merek Gulas dan biskuit, yang direngkuhnya. Masih kurang juga, Joko menggelar operasi yang bikin geleng-geleng kepala. Bagaimana tidak, dia mengakuisisi tiga perusahaan senilai lebih dari Rp 500 miliar, nilai transaksi yang berada di atas aset perusahaannya. Kemudian, dua dari perusahaan itu berada di luar lini bisnis yang menjadi kompetensinya: perkebunan kelapa sawit dan energi.


Bagi Joko, seluruh langkah yang ditempuhnya sudah tepat. Akuisisi adalah pilihan rasional untuk menggejot pertumbuhan anorganik. Kemudian, anggapan bahwa dia melenceng dari kompetensi inti juga tidak tepat. “Transformasi (itu) seperti (perubahan) dari ulat menjadi kupu-kupu. Memang benar kami dari food, kok larinya ke kebun sawit atau beras. Namun jika dicermati, ekspansi kami masih berbasis agrikultur. Jadi, bidang garapannya tidak jauh-jauh amat bedanya,” ujar Presdir & CEO TPS Food ini berkilah.


Visi lulusan Jurusan Teknologi Pertanian Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, ini adalah mengembangkan perusahaan sebesar-besarnya. Begitu ada peluang tumbuh, akan sigap ditangkapnya asalkan dalam koridor agrikultur yang masih terkait lini bisnis perusahaan.


Sawit, misalnya. Awalnya, TPS memang mengakuisisi pabrik pengolahan minyak sawit, tetapi berikutnya dikembangkan ke perkebunan sawit. Kebun yang dimiliki saat ini ada di Kalimantan Selatan dan Kalimantan Barat seluas 12 ribu hektare. Adapun tanah perkebunan yang belum ditanami seluas 80 ribu ha, ada di Riau dan Sumatera Selatan. Tahun ini TPS akan mengakuisisi kebun sawit lagi di Riau seluas 12 ribu ha. Rencananya, dua tahun ke depan bakal menanam 15 ribu ha. Tahun 2013, total kebun yang ditanami mencapai 40 ribu ha. “Ini artinya, TPS sudah punya otot di kancah bisnis kelapa sawit nasional,” kata Joko.


Mengapa masuk ke sawit? Menurutnya, crude palm oil (CPO) adalah bisnis yang sangat potensial. Harga sawit terus melambung dari tahun ke tahun. Tahun lalu di kisaran US$ 800 per metrik ton setelah sebelumnya US$ 678 per metrik ton (2009). Selain itu, TPS juga memakai minyak sawit untuk bahan baku produk mi dan biskuit. Tentu akan sangat menguntungkan jika memiliki jaminan pasokan kelapa sawit.


Namun, diakuinya, gurihnya bisnis CPO tidak bisa langsung dipetik dalam waktu dekat. Dibutuhkan waktu 4-20 tahun untuk memanen. Rencananya, bisnis sawit yang telah menelan dana investasi sekitar Rp 600 miliar itu kelak selain untuk kebutuhan sendiri, juga akan dilempar ke pasar dalam negeri dan diekspor ke Cina plus India.


Bagaimana dengan energi? Apakah bidang ini tidak terlalu menyimpang?


Joko menampik tudingan itu. Dia memiliki alasan khusus saat mengibarkan bendera TPS Energy. Menurutnya, lima pabrik TPS yang berpusat di satu kawasan di Solo luasnya 50 ha, tetapi kapasitas listriknya byar-pet. Selain itu, perusahaan pun butuh tenaga uap dan listrik. Diharapkan, proyek yang telah diberi suntikan dana sekitar US$ 12 juta itu dapat kelar pada dua tahun mendatang. “Nantinya, kami akan menjajaki TPS Energy juga dikomersialkan,” ayah dua anak ini menjelaskan.


Bisnis yang lain adalah beras, yang diklaim Joko tidak semata-mata bisnis. “Kalau soal rice terkait dengan ideologi dan potensi pasarnya juga besar,” ujar pria kelahiran Surakarta, 16 September 1967, ini tentang alasannya mengepakkan sayap bisnis ke beras sejak 2010. Ideologi?


“Ya, saya ingin harga beras yang selama ini naik-turun dapat stabil dan petani terbantu,” ucap Joko yang menggemari kesenian wayang serta koleksi aneka jenis wine. Potensi bisnisnya, menurutnya, sangat besar. Tilik saja: bangsa Indonesia adalah pemakan beras terbesar di dunia, rata-rata tiap orang mengonsumsi 130 kg per tahun, sementara negara lain cuma 60 kg/orang saban tahun. Dengan kata lain, Joko mengalkulasi, tiap tahun kebutuhan beras negara kita sekitar 40 juta ton dengan taksiran nilai pasar Rp 240 triliun. Memang margin bisnis beras terbilang tipis, 3%-4%. Namun jika bermain dalam volume besar, akan sangat menguntungkan. Lagi pula, hingga kini belum ada pemain bisnis beras terbesar di Indonesia.


Itulah sebabnya, sebagai wujud optimismenya, dia tak ragu mengguyur dana investasi Rp 200-an miliar. Langkah pertama yang diayunkannya adalah mengakuisisi PT Jatisari Sri Rejeki, produsen beras skala industri. Dengan akuisisi ini, pihaknya menargetkan produksi beras TPS mencapai 200-300 ribu ton/tahun. Angka ini terbilang kecil, yaitu 0,1% dari total kebutuhan beras nasional 38-40 juta ton/tahun. Namun, sudah lumayan.


Lalu, agar bisa meraih keuntungan lebih besar, Joko sudah memutar otaknya. Beras akan dikembangkan ke sejumlah produk turunan. “Contoh, di negara-negara maju, beras dikembangkan menjadi vitamin dan zat-zat yang baik untuk tubuh,” Wilson Lie, Direktur TPS, menimpali.


Di luar akuisisi tersebut, Joko juga mengembangkan bisnis distribusi yang menurutnya merupakan bisnis penunjang. Mengapa? “Karena, bisnis food dan beras perlu strong distribution network,” jawabnya. Sekarang, TPS memiliki jaringan distribusi dari Lampung, Banten, Jawa Barat, Yogyakarta, Jawa Timur, hingga Bali yang mencakup 29 teritorial. Jaringan distribusi ini harus dibangun dengan kuat, lantaran percuma saja mempunyai produk bagus jika tidak bisa disalurkan ke tangan konsumen dengan luas. Sebanyak 29 titik distribusi TPS itu dibagi dalam tiga kategori: distribusi independen/wilayah, distribusi TPS, dan campuran.


Dengan langkah-langkah akuisisi itu, TPS pun terlihat bertransformasi dari sebuah perusahaan mi dan bihun menjadi grup yang terhubung dari hulu ke hilir: dari bahan pangan sampai distribusinya. Kini berdiri sejumlah pilar bisnis. Pertama, basic food (mi dan bihun) serta FMCG (permen, biskuit, snack) di bawah naungan TPS Food. Kedua, kelapa sawit/CPO dipayungi PT Bumi Raya Investindo. Ketiga, beras dengan bendera PT Dunia Pangan. Keempat, bisnis energi (TPS Energy). Dan kelima, distribusi. Semua bisnis ini berada di bawah perusahaan induk, TPS Food.


Steve Sudjatmiko memuji langkah pembenahan TPS terkait dengan transformasinya. “Joko telah melakukan hal yang terpenting dalam membangun bisnis berdasarkan komoditas, yaitu perbaikan infrastruktur,” kata Mitra Pengelola RedPiramid Consulting itu. Pernyataan ini merujuk pada sektor yang dikuasai Joko, seperti sawit, beras dan energi, sebagai infrastruktur untuk bisnis mi kering dan bihun.


Pendapat Wilson menguatkan opini Steve. Wilson menilai, tahapan transformasi yang dilakukan TPS sudah tepat. Dilihat dari siklus perusahaan: establish, growth, mature, down, maka perusahaan ini berada di level antara growth dan mature. Sebab, produk-produknya telah eksis dan menjadi pemimpin pasar untuk mi kering. Kelemahan TPS, lanjutnya, justru terletak pada faktor agak telat berekspansi.


Wilson boleh jadi benar. Namun, harus disadari bahwa melakukan transformasi tidak boleh gegabah. Dibutuhkan kalkulasi dan pengelolaan yang cermat untuk seluruh kapital yang ada, mulai dari financial capital (dana) sampai human capital (kesiapan sumber daya manusia), plus sistem. Lantas, dari mana sumber pembiayaan ekspansi dan transformasi TPS? “Kombinasi pembiayaan bank dan kas internal dengan komposisi fifty-fifty,” ungkap Joko yang mempekerjakan 5.000 karyawan.


Lalu, apa kompetensi inti TPS dalam melakukan transformasi? Jawabannya, menurut Joko, mengacu pada filosofi transformasi yang dianut TPS: good people dan good system, sehingga perusahaan diharapkan mampu berkembang (double train). Good people di sini maksudnya adalah good discipline, seperti disiplin dalam touch, action dan people. Dengan demikian, bila karyawan bekerja, tidak perlu diawasi ketat lantaran sudah punya sikap disiplin yang melekat. Begitu juga dengan sistem yang bagus, yang membantu people dapat bekerja sesuai dengan harapan manajemen.


Selain good people dan good system, Joko perlu menyambungkan antara operation, people dan execution. Untuk itu, dibutuhkan SDM yang bagus, perencanaan yang cemerlang, operasi yang hebat, dan strategi yang jitu. Jika kriteria ini dipenuhi, tidak mustahil TPS akan lekas tumbuh lebih pesat lagi.


Sayangnya, seperti diakui Joko, transformasi yang digelarnya ini dihadapkan pada kendala yang tak mudah: sulitnya mencari great people. Wajarlah, kemudian dia pun akhirnya gencar memburu great people karena perusahaan ingin maju menjadi great company. Apa yang dibutuhkan Joko kini adalah tipikal perusahaan yang tengah melaju kencang: para business leader.


Sekalipun masih menghadapi persoalan, transformasi ini membawa sisi positif di lingkup internal TPS: memacu inovasi. Kini, pengembangan produk dan pengembangan bisnis kian diintensifkan karena perusahaan berupaya menguasai pasar lewat produk-produk baru. Agar transformasi ini berhasil, juga dibuat bagian riset dan pengembangan yang sebelumnya tidak ada. Mulai 2011, TPS menargetkan bisa meluncurkan satu kategori produk baru yang meliputi 3-4 item produk.


Inovasi yang diintensifkan adalah bagian dari lima strategi Joko dalam menghela perusahaannya meraih pertumbuhan. Empat lainnya adalah effective distribution, creative marketing, lean manufacturing, dan learning human capital.


Menurut Steve, transformasi TPS sungguh memiliki potensi yang bagus. “Tumbuh dari sekadar perusahaan mi menjadi perusahaan pangan dapat membuat operasinya lebih efisien, biayanya lebih terbagi, menggunakan skill yang sudah ada untuk maju dan nilainya lebih besar karena TPS memiliki portofolio, bukan cuma beberapa produk,” ujarnya. Lalu, bagaimana hasil transformasi itu sendiri?


Perlahan-lahan bisnis TPS terus tumbuh. Memang, dari sisi pendapatan, sumber bisnis lama, yakni mi plus bihun dan FMCG, masih dominan: menyumbang 50%.Tiap tahun bisnis mi dan bihun tumbuh 5%-10%. “Target pertumbuhan mi dan bihun plus FMCG tahun 2011 sebesar 57%,” ujar Joko tandas. Namun, dengan adanya sejumlah lini baru, pada 2011 diharapkan bisnis beras mulai mengimbangi pendapatan divisi makanan. Target total pendapatan 2011 sebesar Rp 1,5-2 triliun. Adapun pendapatan 2010 diperkirakan Rp 986,49 miliar dan laba bersih Rp 49,71 miliar (belum diaudit). Jumlah ini naik tajam dibandingkan pendapatan 2009 sebesar Rp 533,19 miliar.


Joko punya keinginan besar terhadap bisnis rintisan kakeknya ini. Dia ingin TPS kelak menjadi pemain food & agriculture industry. Kedua bidang ini masih dapat diandalkan sebagai cash cow perusahaan hingga 10 tahun ke depan. Itulah sebabnya, jika ada peluang bisnis terkait, dia akan segera menangkapnya.


Namun, Joko harus tetap waspada. Steve mengingatkan, bila Joko sembarangan ekspansi, risikonya besar. Maklum, dalam hematnya, selain distribusi, TPS belum terbilang hebat dalam pemasaran. “Jadi, ciptakan kemampuan marketing dalam membangun brand,” ujarnya menyarankan. Masukan Steve itu rasanya laik didengar. Terlebih, Joko sendiri tengah berupaya keras meningkatkan pangsa pasar, khususnya untuk mi kering dan bihun. Maklum, sebelum sawit dan energi jadi mesin pertumbuhan, produk-produk makanan itulah yang diandalkan. ***


Infografis:


Tahap Transformasi TPS

•1959: masih fokus pada mi kering dan bihun

•1992: mulai beralih dari gaya perusahaan keluarga menjadi manajemen profesional

•2000: mulai ekspansi, mengakuisisi produsen permen dan biskuit, babak baru masuk ke FMCG

•2006: memasuki bisnis kelapa sawit

•2010: ekspansi bisnis beras

•Ke depan: pemain food & agriculture industry



5 Strategi TPS Mencapai Pertumbuhan

•Effective distribution

•Creative marketing

•Innovative business development

•Lean manufacturing

•Learning human capital

Senin, 21 Februari 2011

Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition

Creating a Customer-Centric Business

Social Intelligence and Leadership

Understanding Your Strategic Purpose

Executing With Strategic Speed

Building Simpler, More Effective HR Processes

Innovating Your Business Model

How Companies Can Make Better Decisions, Faster

How Companies Break Into Emerging Markets

Lessons on Leadership: From Mandela to Obama

Leadership Brand

Dave Ulrich co-author of HR Transformation

Be Strategic With Your Workforce

How to Cut Costs--Strategically

The Descent of Finance

Politics and New Media in the Muslim World

YouTube, Blogs, Texting, the Web: How Are New Media Changing Politics?

Discover Cal - UC Berkeley's Nobel Laureates

Chinese amputee dance 3

Disabled Dancers

Hermawan Kartajaya Doctor Honoris Causia part 3

Hermawan Kartajaya Doctor Honoris Causia part 2

Hermawan Kartajaya Doctor Honoris Causia part 1

Sunaryo Suhadi (Cak Naryo) di PWEP Osaka 2010

Henky Eko Sriyantono (Cak Eko) di PWEP Osaka 2010

Prof Rhenald Kasali PhD di PWEP Osaka 2010

Hermawan Kartajaya di KBRI Tokyo

Bryan Tracy - Increasing Your Income 1000% Formula.mp4

Philip Kotler.mp4

Peter Cetera David Foster LIVE 2002

Neville Isdell Calls for 'Connected Capitalism'

Cat Stevens' transition to Yusuf Islam

Warren Buffett's Successor - Bloomberg

The Truth About Warren Buffett

Q&A: Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell - Why do some succeed where others fail? What makes hig...

Malcolm Gladwell - Blink - full show

Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus speaks at York College

Creating A World Without Poverty:

Muhammad Yunus speaks at Pepperdine University School of Law

Authors@Google: Muhammad Yunus

Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus

Minggu, 20 Februari 2011

2009 Global Business Forum: Jack Welch - Former CEO, General Electric

2009 04 20 Energy Smart Miami CEO Forum

Obama Campaign Stop: Economic Competitiveness Summit

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt

HP's New Leadership: A Vision for the Future?

Transform Your Mind, Change Your Brain

Think faster focus better and remember moreRewiring our brain to stay yo...

The Human at the Heart of our Work: Advancing Social Theory and Engineer...

Tribal Leadership

Conducting Effective Negotiations

Former HP Boss Faced 'Tough Choices'

Davos Annual Meeting 2004 - The World in 2014

Obama Speech In Indonesia - Full Video

Obama Proposes Sweeping Changes In Health Care To AMA

Obama In Egypt On US-Muslim Tensions-Full Speech

Recovery Act Cabinet Meeting

The 2011 State of the Union Address

Martin Luther King "I have a dream"

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Michelle Obama Visits Carnegie Mellon

Heinz Talks: Climate Change and Energy Policy

Carnegie Mellon Lecture: Global Climate Change

Kim Stanley Robinson On Google and Climate Change

Colette Carlson "The Truth About Communication" www.SpeakYourTruth.com

Jack Welch on Leadership and the State of Corporate America, UCLA

Jack Welch: Create Candor in the Workplace

Michael Porter on Competitiveness

Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE - Haas School

The World is Flat

The World is Flat

Asia Business Conf 2010: Arun Sarin - Haas School

Vinod Khosla on "The Innovation Ecosystem" - Haas School

Khan Academy Exercise Software

Arun Sarin on Leadership - Haas School

Vodaphone CEO: Finding Solutions to Perfect Storm

Carlos Ghosn: Differences the Key to Partnerships

Carlos Ghosn of Nissan/Renault: Look Ahead, Dont Stand Still

2/7/11: How to Build An Ad Based Business

Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Commencement Ceremony - Class of 2011

Bryan Tracy - Increasing Your Income 1000% Formula.mp4

Selasa, 15 Februari 2011

Jeffrey R. Immelt : A blueprint for keeping America competitive (Washington Post)

A blueprint for keeping America competitive

By Jeffrey R. Immelt

Friday, January 21, 2011; 12:01 AM
President Obama has asked me to chair his new President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. I have served for the past two years on the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and I look forward to leading the next phase of this effort as we transition from recovery to long-term growth. The president and I are committed to a candid and full dialogue among business, labor and government to help ensure that the United States has the most competitive and innovative economy in the world.
Business leaders should provide expertise in service of our country. My predecessors at GE have done so, as have leaders of many other great American companies. There is always a healthy tension between the public and private sectors. However, we all share a responsibility to drive national competitiveness, particularly during economic unrest. This is one of those times.
My hope is that the council will be a sounding board for ideas and a catalyst for action on jobs and competitiveness. It will include small and large businesses, labor, economists and government. Areas that we will focus on include:
l Manufacturing and exports: We need a coordinated commitment among business, labor and government to expand our manufacturing base and increase exports. The assumption made by many that the United States could transition from a technology-based, export-oriented economic powerhouse to a services-led, consumption-based economy without any serious loss of jobs, prosperity or prestige was fundamentally wrong. But there is nothing inevitable about America's declining manufacturing competitiveness if we work together to reverse it. For example, we have returned many GE appliance manufacturing jobs to the States by collaborating with our unions and making our operations more efficient.
Working with Boeing CEO Jim McNerney, who leads the President's Export Council, the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness will look for ways to harness the power of international markets - home to more than 95 percent of the world's consumers. Currently, the United States ranks lowest among the world's largest manufacturing nations in the ratio of domestically produced goods sold overseas, or export intensity. We must set as our highest economic priority not just increasing our exports, as the president has pledged, but also making the United States the world's leading exporter in the 21st century.
l Free trade: America cannot expand its manufacturing base without greatly increasing the volume of goods it sells overseas. That is why I applaud the free-trade agreement recently concluded between the United States and South Korea, which will eliminate barriers to U.S. exports and support export-oriented jobs. We should seek to conclude trade and investment agreements with other fast-growing markets and modernize our systems for export finance and trade control. Those who advocate increasing domestic manufacturing jobs by erecting trade barriers have it exactly wrong.
l Innovation: Businesses should invest more of their cash and resources in advanced products and technologies that will create jobs in the United States, and government should incentivize this investment in innovation. Today, GE is investing more than ever in research and development - about 6 percent of revenue - aimed at solving challenges in transportation, energy and health care. As one of America's largest exporters, GE remains committed to producing more products in the United States, which is our home and largest market. In the past two years, GE has created about 6,000 manufacturing jobs in the States, many resulting from investments in innovations such as advanced batteries, which we will make at our 100-year-old plant in Schenectady, N.Y.
GE sells more than 96 percent of its products to the private sector, where America's future must be built. But government can help business invest in our shared future. A sound and competitive tax system and a partnership between business and government on education and innovation in areas where America can lead, such as clean energy, are essential to sustainable growth.
It is possible to be a competitive global enterprise and still care about your home. In fact, it is not just possible but imperative. There is no easy solution to "fix" the American economy. Persistent and high unemployment - and the pessimism it breeds - should not be accepted. We must work together to construct an economy that creates more opportunity for more people.
The writer is chairman and chief executive of General Electric.
Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR2011012007089.html

Wikipedia : Khan Academy (@KhanAcademy)

Wikipedia : Khan Academy (@KhanAcademy)

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit educational organization created by Salman Khan. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the Academy supplies a free online collection of over 2,000 videos on mathematics, history, finance, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and economics.[1]
Contents
• 1 History
• 2 Vision
• 3 Recognition
• 4 References
• 5 External links

History
Salman Khan is a Bangladeshi American born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.[2] His father is from Barisal, Bangladesh and his mother was born in Kolkata, India .[2][3] Khan holds three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a BS in mathematics, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and an MS in electrical engineering and computer science. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. In late 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin Nadia in mathematics using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought his tutorial, he decided it would be more practical to distribute the tutorials on YouTube.[2][3] Their popularity there and the testimonials of appreciative students prompted Khan to quit his job in finance in 2009 and focus on the Academy full-time.[3]. Bill Gates once said that "I'd say we've moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job."[4]
As of December 2009, Khan's YouTube-hosted tutorials receive a total of more than 35,000 views per day.[3] Each video runs for approximately ten minutes. Drawings are made with SmoothDraw, which are recorded and produced using video capture from Camtasia Studio. Khan eschewed a format that would involve a person standing by a whiteboard, desiring instead to present the content in a way akin to sitting next to someone and working out a problem on a sheet of paper: "If you're watching a guy do a problem [while] thinking out loud, I think people find that more valuable and not as daunting."[5] Offline versions of the videos have been distributed by not-for-profit groups to rural areas in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.[2][6] While the Khan Academy's current content is mainly concerned with pre-college mathematics and physics, Khan states that his long-term goal is to provide "tens of thousands of videos in pretty much every subject" and to create "the world's first free, world-class virtual school".
The Khan Academy also provides a web-based exercise system that generates problems for students based on skill level and performance. Khan believes his academy points to an opportunity to overhaul the traditional classroom by using software to create tests, grade assignments, highlight the challenges of certain students, and encourage those doing well to help struggling classmates.[3]
His low-tech, conversational tutorials -- Khan's face never appears, and viewers see only his unadorned step-by-step doodles and diagrams on an electronic blackboard -- are more than merely another example of viral media distributed at negligible cost to the world. Khan Academy holds the promise of a virtual school: an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus and administrative infrastructure, and even brand-name instructors.
Several people have made $10,000 contributions; Ann and John Doerr gave $100,000; total revenue is about $150,000 in donations, and $2,000 a month from ads on the Web site.[7] As of September 2010, Google announced they would be providing the Khan Academy with $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages, as part of their Project 10^100.[8] Salman is aiming at making nothing less than "tens of thousands" of tutorials offering the "first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything."[2]
Vision
Major components:[9]
• Video library (over 2130 videos and counting in various topic areas - logging over 36 million visits [10]
• Automated exercises with continuous assessment (99 modules, mainly in math, 4 challenges, 95 individual modules)
• Peer-to-peer tutoring based on objective data collected by the system (future projected)
• Khan Academy videos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.[11]
Not-for-profit partner organizations are making the content available outside of YouTube. The Lewis Center for Educational Research, which is affiliated with NASA, is bringing the content into community colleges and charter schools around the country. World Possible is creating offline snapshots of the content to distribute in rural, developing regions with limited or no access to the Internet.[2][12]
Khan has stated a vision of turning the academy into a charter school:
This could be the DNA for a physical school where students spend 20 percent of their day watching videos and doing self-paced exercises and the rest of the day building robots or painting pictures or composing music or whatever.[7]
Recognition
• Salman Khan has been featured in San Francisco Chronicle,[3] on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS),[1] National Public Radio, CNN.[13]
• In 2009, the Khan Academy received the Microsoft Tech Award for education.[6]
• In 2010 at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Bill Gates endorsed the learning resource, calling it "unbelievable" and saying "I've been using [Khan Academy] with my kids."[4][14]
• In 2010, Google's Project 10100 provided $2 million to support the creation of more courses, to allow for translation of the Khan Academy's content, and to allow for the hiring of additional staff.[15]
References
1. ^ a b Michels, Spencer (2010-02-22). "Khan Academy: How to Calculate the Unemployment Rate". PBS NewsHour. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/02/khan-academy-how-to-calculate-the-unemployment-rate.html. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
2. ^ a b c d e f "About Us: Frequently Asked Questions". Khan Academy. 2010. http://www.khanacademy.org/about#faq. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
3. ^ a b c d e f Temple, James (2009-12-14). "Salman Khan, math master of the Internet". sfgate.com. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/13/BUKV1B11Q1.DTL&tsp=1. Retrieved 2009-12-23.
4. ^ a b David A. Kaplan (2010-08-24). "Bill Gates' favorite teacher". CNN (Fortune). http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/index.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
5. ^ "Need a tutor? YouTube videos await". AP. USA Today. 2008-12-12. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-12-11-youtube-tutoring_N.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
6. ^ a b "2009 Education Award Laureate: Salman Khan". Techawards.org. http://www.techawards.org/laureates/stories/index.php?id=220. Retrieved 2009-12-14.[verification needed]
7. ^ a b Young, Jeffrey R. (2010-06-06). "College 2.0: A Self-Appointed Teacher Runs a One-Man 'Academy' on YouTube". The Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/article/A-Self-Appointed-Teacher-Runs/65793/. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
8. ^ "$10 million for Project 10^100 winners". The Official Google Blog. 2010-09-24. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/10-million-for-project-10100-winners.html. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
9. ^ "Khan Academy Vision and Social Return". YouTube. 2010-04-13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRf6XiEZ_Y8. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
10. ^ "Khan Academy". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/khanacademy. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
11. ^ "Khan Academy". Khan Academy. http://www.khanacademy.org/. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
12. ^ "Partners". Worldpossible.org. http://www.worldpossible.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=37. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
13. ^ "Salman Khan on CNN". YouTube. 2010-03-11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY5VKiG_IXE&feature=player_embedded. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
14. ^ "Sal's Amazing Global Academy". The Gates Notes. 2010-10-07. http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Conversations/specialfeature.aspx?id=171. Retrieved 2011-01-05.
15. ^ "Project 10100 Winners". Project 10100. Google. 2010. http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html. Retrieved 2011-01-05.

External links
• Official website
• YouTube channel
• Khanacademyespanol (Spanish translate)
• Open Source Khan Academy app for Windows Phone

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Rich Lyons: For Business Schools, Culture Matters (BusinessWeek)

For Business Schools, Culture Matters

To create a different kind of B-school graduate, a dean argues that a key first step is creating a different kind of B-school culture

By Rich Lyons

Have business schools contributed to creating overconfident and self-focused leaders? I suspect many of you will nod your head in agreement. You might even declare that, by extension, business schools share blame for the economic crisis. As a business school dean, I take these perceptions seriously; there is enough in them to warrant careful reflection.
An antidote to overconfidence and self-focus in business leaders may lie in building more focused cultures in our business schools. Culture is the set of values and norms in an organization that shape behavior. It acts as an internal gyroscope for everybody in the organization to keep them in balance, acting ethically and in line with the larger interests. It is what people do "when the manager is not looking."
While all business schools have them, however, cultures are often unarticulated, reducing their impact on behavior, or articulated so generally that fundamental issues such as overconfidence are unaddressed.
The business world is far ahead of business schools in putting their cultures to work for specific ends. Companies such as Procter & Gamble (PG), General Electric (GE), McKinsey, Nordstrom (JWN), and Southwest Airlines (LUV) use their cultures to earn their customers' trust, as well to earn a profit. For example, Southwest has remained at the top of its game for decades by promoting a strong internal culture focused on serving the customer better through team effort over individual results. The firm's guiding values are responsible for the popular image of Southwest employees as a fun-loving group that eagerly pitches in to get the job done, including having pilots sometimes clean airplane interiors and load baggage. As a result, Southwest operates more efficiently than other airlines, while its customers are happier—and pay less.
Professional Will, Personal Humility
To what ends might business school cultures be more productively put? Reducing overconfidence and self-focus are good candidates. So is the related concern about lack of humility among certain business graduates and leaders. Research is pointing to the commercial value of achieving these ends. For example, Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, finds that the leader type that has created the most extraordinary value over recent decades is one with a "paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will"—will for the institution or something greater, not the self. This value may arise because the leader's job is, in essence, to get results through others, and the first step may not be to convince others how stunningly good you are. David Brooks echoes this in a recent New York Times column, in which he concludes that "if this leadership style were more widely admired, the country could have spared itself a ton of grief." That there is commercial motivation for achieving these ends is important for judging the realism of using culture more deliberately in this way
Marketplace motivation is not enough, though—articulation of a business school's culture should "ring true" for prospective, current, and former students if it is to create the kind of meaning and peer-to-peer enforcement that truly affects behavior. Its content needs to align with the way things actually happen in the school—which behaviors are rewarded and which are admonished. If a school's statement of cultural values could apply to any organization, it is probably not specific enough to be effective. Related to this is the question of culture vs. codes of conduct. If culture is what people do when the manager is not looking, codes of conduct may be what people do when the manager is looking. The question is whether commitment to a code is at a level that's deep and personal enough to have the effect on actual behavior of a strong culture.
Spreading the Values
Equally important as the content of culture, though, is the "how" of culture. How is culture reflected in the school's operations? Does it substantially change who gets admitted? Does it alter the experiences of students when they learn about the school for the first time, on their first day at school, when preparing for interviews, and when interacting with alumni? A strong-culture community reinforces its own values every day by signaling favor or displeasure to its members. Does the dean take every opportunity to emphasize core values when addressing students, in social media, and when interacting with recruiters? The "how" needs to be taken at least as seriously as the content to get powerful results.
The approach we took at Berkeley-Haas with our new curriculum, for example, was to codify our culture in a set of four defining values designed both to capture the school's essence and to support traits that lead to better outcomes for our graduates and society. Naturally, our choices are unlikely to fit other schools. Examples include: "Question the status quo," which supports leaders who ask tough questions when things do not seem right and who continually seek different and better approaches. "Students, always" encourages an openness to learn from others and helps graduates avoid drifting into the belief that they have all the answers. "Confidence without attitude" reminds us that true confidence generally does come with humility. These defining values are now driving our operations, including admissions, hiring, and alumni relations.
It is time for business schools to take culture as seriously as the great businesses do.
Rich Lyons is the dean of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a professor of international finance.

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/dec2010/bs2010129_872785.htm

CNNMoney: Innovation in Education


Khan turns out thousands of videos from a converted walk-in closet in his Silicon Valley home.

Innovation in Education
Bill Gates' favorite teacher


By David A. Kaplan, contributorAugust 24, 2010: 5:53 AM ET



FORTUNE -- Sal Khan, you can count Bill Gates as your newest fan. Gates is a voracious consumer of online education. This past spring a colleague at his small think tank, bgC3, e-mailed him about the nonprofit khanacademy.org, a vast digital trove of free mini-lectures all narrated by Khan, an ebullient, articulate Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager. Gates replied within minutes. "This guy is amazing," he wrote. "It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources." Gates and his 11-year-old son, Rory, began soaking up videos, from algebra to biology. Then, several weeks ago, at the Aspen Ideas Festival in front of 2,000 people, Gates gave the 33-year-old Khan a shout-out that any entrepreneur would kill for. Ruminating on what he called the "mind-blowing misallocation" of resources away from education, Gates touted the "unbelievable" 10- to 15-minute Khan Academy tutorials "I've been using with my kids." With admiration and surprise, the world's second-richest person noted that Khan "was a hedge fund guy making lots of money." Now, Gates said, "I'd say we've moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job." Khan wasn't even there -- he learned of Gates' praise through a YouTube video. "It was really cool," Khan says.
In an undistinguished ranch house off the main freeway of Silicon Valley, in a converted walk-in closet filled with a few hundred dollars' worth of video equipment and bookshelves and his toddler's red Elmo underfoot, is the epicenter of the educational earthquake that has captivated Gates and others. It is here that Salman Khan produces online lessons on math, science, and a range of other subjects that have made him a web sensation.
Khan Academy, with Khan as the only teacher, appears on YouTube and elsewhere and is by any measure the most popular educational site on the web. Khan's playlist of 1,630 tutorials (at last count) are now seen an average of 70,000 times a day -- nearly double the student body at Harvard and Stanford combined. Since he began his tutorials in late 2006, Khan Academy has received 18 million page views worldwide, including from the Gates progeny. Most page views come from the U.S., followed by Canada, England, Australia, and India. In any given month, Khan says, he's reached about 200,000 students. "There's no reason it shouldn't be 20 million."
His low-tech, conversational tutorials -- Khan's face never appears, and viewers see only his unadorned step-by-step doodles and diagrams on an electronic blackboard -- are more than merely another example of viral media distributed at negligible cost to the universe. Khan Academy holds the promise of a virtual school: an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus and administrative infrastructure, and even brand-name instructors.
Quick, free, and easy to understand
Distance learning and correspondence courses have been around since the invention of mail. And private, for-profit schools flourish; the University of Phoenix has half a million students enrolled, most of them online. Other private operations, like the Teaching Co., specialize in amalgamating "great courses" from nationally known teachers: the 12-hour Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond, from one academic star, costs $254.95 on DVD.
What's remarkable about Khan Academy, aside from its nonpareil word of mouth and burgeoning growth, is that it's free and prizes brevity. Remember your mumbling macroeconomics teacher whose 50-minute monologue in a large auditorium could bore the dead? That isn't Khan. He rarely cracks wise -- if you want shtick, check out Darth Vader trying to teach Euclidean geometry on YouTube ("The Pythagorean theorem is your destiny!") -- but in less than 15 minutes Khan gets to the essence of the topics he's carved out.
Online critics question whether he amounts to a dilettante who's turning learning into pedagogical McNuggets. But while you obviously don't learn calculus in one session -- the subject is divided into 191 parts, which doesn't include 32 more in precalc -- Khan's components seem to hit the sweet spot of length and substance. And he covers an astonishing array. There are the core subjects in math -- arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics -- and the de rigueur science offerings, like biology, chemistry, and physics. But Khan also gives lessons in Economics of a Cupcake Factory, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Alien Abduction Brain Teaser.
The seeds of education
Like so many entrepreneurial epiphanies, Khan's came by accident. Born and raised in New Orleans -- the son of immigrants from India and what's now Bangladesh -- Khan was long an academic star. With his MBA from Harvard, he has three degrees from MIT: a BS in math and a BS and a master's in electrical engineering and computer science. He also was the president of his MIT class and did volunteer teaching in nearby Brookline for talented children, as well as developed software to teach children with ADHD. What he doesn't know he picks up from endless reading and cogitation: His gift, like that of many teachers, is being able to reduce the complex. "Part of the beauty of what he does is his consistency," says Gates. Of Khan's capacity to teach, Gates, who says he spends considerable time trying to help his three kids learn the basics of math and science, tells Fortune, "I kind of envy him."
In the summer of 2004, while still living in Boston, Khan learned that his seventh-grader cousin, Nadia, in New Orleans was having trouble in math class converting kilograms. He agreed to remotely tutor her. Using Yahoo Doodle software as a shared notepad, as well as a telephone, Nadia thrived -- so much so that Khan started working with her brothers, Ali and Arman. Word spread to other relatives and friends. Khan wrote JavaScript problem generators to keep up a supply of practice exercises. But between their soccer practices, his job, and multiple time zones, scheduling became impossible. "I started to record videos on YouTube for them to watch at their own pace," Khan recalls. Other users tuned in, and the blueprint for Khan Academy was created.
Khan continued to work for the small hedge fund he had joined after Harvard, Wohl Capital Management. He said he took away "under $1 million" before the Silicon Valley-based hedge fund wound down, and briefly started his own fund in mid-2008, which didn't really get off the ground because of the financial crisis. ("I called it Khan Capital," he says, "but it never got much beyond 'Khan's Capital.'") He used his nest egg to buy a house with his wife, Umamia, a rheumatology fellow at Stanford Medical School, and as a reserve when he gave up his investment career. On a typical day he tapes a few tutorials, answers posts from students, calls experts when he's stuck on how best to explicate a concept, and fields queries from curious potential backers.
He maintains he has no interest in monetizing the operation by charging subscriptions or selling ads. "I already have a beautiful wife, a hilarious son, two Hondas, and a decent house," he declares on his website. But that hasn't stopped the inquiries, the most notable from John Doerr, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and his wife, Ann. Not long ago a PayPal donation on Khan's site came in for $10,000 (a typical gift is $100). Khan e-mailed the donor. Her name was Ann Doerr. He knew of a John Doerr but just assumed the name was more popular than he realized. He e-mailed her to say thanks. She suggested lunch.
When they met, Ann Doerr told him she couldn't believe hers was the largest donation. "This is, like, criminal," she said. "I love what you're doing." When he got home, he found a message from her: "There's $100,000 in the mail."
Khan is using that money to pay himself a salary. Later, he met John Doerr and has since relied on both Doerrs for entrée to others in the philanthropic establishment. After Gates mentioned Khan in Aspen, John tweeted it to his Silicon Valley legions. In July the academy received another $100,000 -- from John McCall MacBain, a Canadian entrepreneur who made a fortune in publishing. "If I had a million dollars," Khan says, he'd fund software development of more automated problem sets and extensive translations of his videos. Gates, whose foundation spends $700 million a year on U.S. education, plans to talk to Khan soon as well.
An academy or a library?
Khan has his skeptics in the education business. They don't doubt he means well and is helping students, but they question the broad impact of any tutorial that doesn't test performance or allow student-teacher discussion. "It's a solid supplemental resource, particularly for motivated students," says Jeffrey Leeds, president of Leeds Equity Partners, the largest U.S. private equity firm specializing in for-profit education. "But it's not an academy -- it's more of a library."
But Khan intends nothing less than "tens of thousands" of tutorials offering the "first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything." The advances envisioned by Leeds and others wouldn't hurt either. The education industry can use all the innovation it can find.

Link: http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/23/technology/sal_khan_academy.fortune/index.htm