Restarting a StartUp
Posted on August 12, 2009 by Aaron
I have been at my new company for 4 months and that’s a good time to reflect on what’s happened and what we might be able to learn about startups from this experience. We’ve pruned the team, secured new capital, improved our board, hired new blood, and changed the company name from Poptok to AnyClip. Why?
1. Strategy matters. When I got to Poptok the company was focused on creating an emoticons company out of movie clips. Maybe this is an amazing idea, but betting a whole company on it? There were many risk factors including a violation of one of my favorite rules — the Penchina Maxim. Gil Penchina (CEO of Wikia, former Ebay Executive) once told me that Internet products should improve the user experiences of an already established widespread consumer behavior.
Was Poptok solving a consumer problem? There is little data to suggest that consumers want to send clips as emoticons. It’s an interesting hunch, but unproven. On the other hand, the newly created AnyClip solves two huge problems. First, people are watching billions of movie scenes on YouTube annually. The quality of these clips is consistently inconsistent. Many of these scenes are shot with handheld cameras that are filming a television. We are betting that consumers actually care about quality. That’s a bet I’m willing to make.
The second problem AnyClip solves is the inefficiency of the clip marketplace. Poptok found out that licensing movie clips is an expensive, cumbersome process. And guess what? Because the process is painful and economically inefficient the market for movie moments is small. But the movie industry is huge ($40 bn/year) and people watch movie moments all over the Internet right now with no measurable value creation tranferring to the owners or creators of this content.
2. Enter with a Hypothesis. During my discussions with Nate Westheimer before we arrived at what would become AnyClip we developed a hypothesis about what the consumer wanted. When we started working we set about validating our theories. We knew what we wanted to do, but we were not sure it was possible for many reasons including the legal landscape in the movie industry. We were moving forward immediately. This is not always possible, but Nate and I did considerable unpaid work trying to decide if this was an interesting opportunity for us. The results of that work gave us confidence to join the company and enabled AnyClip to have new management that hit the ground running.
3. Embrace DNA Change. There were some dedicated, well-intentioned, experienced people in charge of managing the team at PopTok. But unfortunately they had gone through cycles of executive change and disappointment. Morale was low. Cynicism about a variety of issues was palpable as was a dangerous lowering of standards for evaluating success. Early in my tenure, I was concerned about this teamearly, but I took 6 weeks to make an informed decision, and 2 weeks to prepare for the changes. This is never fun, but it has proven to be a crucial decision because it took the friction away from the massive changes we were trying to make.
4. Earn Your Team’s Trust. Lots of managers take trust for granted and I did this all the time earlier in my career. employees of companies that change directions every couple of months start to doubt management. This is very understandable. Realize that words are parsed and people don’t automatically believe you will do what you say you will do. We have a very fine team now. They need to know that we are in the trenches with them if we expect them to join us for each AnyClip battle. More than anything this means be transparent, consistent, and fair in all of your interactions with your team.
5. Recognize that you will never fully understand what really happened before you arrived. One of the challenges of the turnaround is that you inherit a series of issues that must be addressed. Contractual and organzational baggage created by your predecessors transfers to new management. PopTok did not have a particularly productive relationship with its Hollywood partners, but AnyClip must have an intimate real value-added partnership. Of course for Hollywood dealmakers, Poptok and AnyClip are the same and a name change doesn’t obscure that the shareholders, legal agreements and corporate history all remain the same. This is the baggage that needs to be addressed and put to rest.
6. Walk before you run, but make sure you run quickly. When taking on a restart, the first thing you have to do is stabilize. As the great entrepreneur and my friend Howard Tullman taught me a decade ago, “there is only one crime in a startup and that’s running out of cash.” We cut the burn by nearly 50% at AnyClip so we are walking, but time is of the essence.
AnyClip needs to demonstrate significant vaule to content owners, consumers, and application developers this fall. We will be presenting a massive transition from the old to the new in September only six months after we arrived and only 4 months after we started building software. It’s as if this venture financed company 15 person operation was operating at the speed of a Y-Combinator seed stage startup. Maintaining this velocity with productive, thoughtful improvements will probably determine whether this turnaround succeeds.
HINDSIGHT - WRITE SOMETHING WORTH READING ABOUT OR DO SOMETHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
FLASHPOINT ACADEMY PRESIDENT/CEO HOWARD A. TULLMAN JOINS PANEL AT CHICAGO-KENT LAW SCHOOL ON POST-LEGAL CAREERS
Chicago-Kent Corporate Law Society Blog
Career Panel Tomorrow: “From the Courtroom to the Boardroom: Using Your Law Degree in the Business World”
Please join the Corporate Law Society, Real Estate Law Society and the Career Services Office on Tuesday, October 13, 2009, when three accomplished executives will address the topic: “From the Courtroom to the Boardroom: Using Your Law Degree in the Business World.”
Howard Tullman is the immediate past President of Kendall College, which he recently sold to Laureate Education. Now, Mr. Tullman serves as CEO of Flashpoint, digital media arts college. After practicing law for ten years, Mr. Tullman changed routes and has founded or served as CEO or Board Chairman of nine companies and as a director and/or adviser to many other early-stage companies. In addition to teaching at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Mr. Tullman is the General Managing Partner of Chicago’s High Tech Investors, LLC, Director of the Cobalt Group and Passage Events, both located in Seattle. Mr. Tullman graduated, with honors, from both Northwestern University and Northwestern University School of Law.
Victoria Noonan is the Managing Director of Leasing for Tishman Speyer Properties, responsible for supervising and coordinating the company’s leasing efforts for the Chicago portfolio. Tishman Speyer is one of the leading owners, developers and managers of first-class real estate in the world. In Chicago, Ms. Noonan manages leasing efforts for eleven high-rise buildings in the area, including the Civic Opera Building. Ms. Noonan graduated from DePaul University in 1980 and received her J.D. from Chicago-Kent in 1984.
After practicing as a commercial real estate attorney at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and, thereafter, at Greenberg Taurig LLP, Dustin Cahan left his practice to become the Chief Operating Officer of Evaporcool Solutions, LLC, a “green” technology venture. Mr. Cahan, who is 29, oversees the development and manufacturing of a sophisticated cooling solution, which reduces energy and maintenance costs of air conditioning equipment. Mr. Cahan obtained his B.A. in economics from Northwestern University, and thereafter his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.
The event will convene at 12:00 p.m. in Room 270. Pizza and refreshments will be served.
Career Panel Tomorrow: “From the Courtroom to the Boardroom: Using Your Law Degree in the Business World”
Please join the Corporate Law Society, Real Estate Law Society and the Career Services Office on Tuesday, October 13, 2009, when three accomplished executives will address the topic: “From the Courtroom to the Boardroom: Using Your Law Degree in the Business World.”
Howard Tullman is the immediate past President of Kendall College, which he recently sold to Laureate Education. Now, Mr. Tullman serves as CEO of Flashpoint, digital media arts college. After practicing law for ten years, Mr. Tullman changed routes and has founded or served as CEO or Board Chairman of nine companies and as a director and/or adviser to many other early-stage companies. In addition to teaching at Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Mr. Tullman is the General Managing Partner of Chicago’s High Tech Investors, LLC, Director of the Cobalt Group and Passage Events, both located in Seattle. Mr. Tullman graduated, with honors, from both Northwestern University and Northwestern University School of Law.
Victoria Noonan is the Managing Director of Leasing for Tishman Speyer Properties, responsible for supervising and coordinating the company’s leasing efforts for the Chicago portfolio. Tishman Speyer is one of the leading owners, developers and managers of first-class real estate in the world. In Chicago, Ms. Noonan manages leasing efforts for eleven high-rise buildings in the area, including the Civic Opera Building. Ms. Noonan graduated from DePaul University in 1980 and received her J.D. from Chicago-Kent in 1984.
After practicing as a commercial real estate attorney at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and, thereafter, at Greenberg Taurig LLP, Dustin Cahan left his practice to become the Chief Operating Officer of Evaporcool Solutions, LLC, a “green” technology venture. Mr. Cahan, who is 29, oversees the development and manufacturing of a sophisticated cooling solution, which reduces energy and maintenance costs of air conditioning equipment. Mr. Cahan obtained his B.A. in economics from Northwestern University, and thereafter his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.
The event will convene at 12:00 p.m. in Room 270. Pizza and refreshments will be served.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
FLASHPOINT ACADEMY PRESIDENT/CEO HOWARD A. TULLMAN - SUMMARY OF CLOSING KEYNOTE PRESENTATION AT EPIC CONFERENCE
Closing Keynote
HOWARD A.TULLMAN
Flashpoint Academy
In this talk I spoke from my long experience in starting and building entrepreneurial businesses and, more importantly, about my more recent work in turning around several failing institutions and the many challenges of effectively implementing and managing change in established businesses even in the face of existential threats to their continued well-being. Change is easy – overcoming the resistance to change takes a little more work and a great deal of patience and preparation.
In applying the lessons from my various adventures to our industry’s present concerns and issues, I started with a simple suggestion. In today’s aggressively “dollar and sense” economy, where it is crucial to demonstrate and justify virtually every activity (and especially research and analysis) to senior management, it’s important to have a strategy and approach which makes the value and relevance of your activities apparent to the entire organization.
My suggestion was that we turn the “tools of our trade” inward and we use our skills and strengths to support and help better inform and educate the teams trying to “sell” and manage the ongoing (and often radical) changes occurring within our own organizations. This transition is actually an easier and more doable task than it might first appear because the references and methodologies we employ are precisely the techniques needed today to allay organizational fears and to ease the path to progress (thru change) for our peers and ourselves.
My shorthand for the entire idea was: “I Have Seen this Movie Before”. The basic idea (discussed in more detail below) is that there are problems and issues that consistently occur at various times in every business and there are also discoverable, concrete, recurring and reusable methods and solutions for each of these problems. Our “new” job within our organizations is to find what has worked and what is working now and to identify and generalize these solutions and then to share and distribute these effective approaches throughout the rest of the business. Easy to say – hard, but important, to accomplish.
The Perspiration Principles
In terms of some ground rules and concepts for implementing change within any organization, I presented what I call “The Perspiration Principles”:
1. Tell a Simple Story – Who are We? Where are We Headed? Why?
2. Solve an Important Problem – Increase Productivity or Save Time or Money – Pain Points
3. Keep Moving and Raise the Bar – Aim High - Feasibility Will Compromise You Soon Enough
4. Start with What You Have – Don’t Wait for Perfect – Successive Approximation
5. Make “Cheap” Mistakes and Make It O.K. to Make Mistakes
6. Make Room for People
7. Don’t Be a Slave to Your Model – The First Rule of Holes – If You’re in One, Stop Digging
8. You Can’t Add Value Unless You Have Values
9. Face the Facts and Expect the Worst
10. Work from the Inside Out
The Basic Methodology - Pattern Recognition
We live in an increasingly complicated world where simple is always better. In terms of the communication and the “sale” of changes, the basic objective is to demonstrate that what appears to be abrupt or radical change is actually and simply an extension from and the evolution of things we’ve done comfortably and successfully in the past. Gathering the references, assembling the examples and documenting the success stories of prior cases where things worked is a critical part of the process and one that relies heavily on the skills which our industry’s professionals regularly employ. Essentially, the pitch is that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
The key here is to understand the old Hollywood idea of “high concept” presentations or pitches. Where metaphors and analogies are everything. “It’s Top Gun Underwater”. “It’s West Side Story in Outer Space”. Elevator pitches and shorthand stories all function in the same way – they are succinct ways of telling people what they want to hear.
In times of anxiety and change, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt; it can mean comfort, company and confidence. Company is especially pivotal because most people don’t mind moving forward, they just don’t want to do it by themselves or be alone when they get there. The fact is that sometimes you just can’t see something right in front of you until it is put in the proper framework and context so that you can process and understand it in terms that you are already familiar and comfortable with. Analogies and references are the tools that provide the necessary context in business. A compelling analogy is worth hours of argument and pounds of proof.
The questions that drive this approach are simple: What Has Worked for Us Before? How Did We Solve a Similar Problem in the Past? Can We Adapt, Reuse or Copy a Prior Approach? Or better yet, Can We Steal Someone Else’s Really Good Idea/Solution? When you go with what has worked in the past and tweak it for the present, it’s easier to explain, it’s a proven answer in many cases, and it’s a cheaper, faster and more productive path forward.
But be careful not to “mash the metaphor” since if you push things too far or stretch the connection too much, the reaction will be prompt and negative. Familiarity breeds comfort until it suddenly breeds contempt. Yesterday’s hero, etc.
The Implementation Process
As a set of basic guidelines, I offer the following suggestions for starting the process once you have identified the objectives and the solutions you will be implementing:
1. Gather Internal Support Before Making Major Changes (Unless There’s a Crisis)
2. Make All the Procedural Changes ASAP to Get Them Out of the Way
3. Rely Upon and Employ the Existing Management and Governance Channels – Not New Ones
4. Consult, Collaborate and Communicate – Slowly, but Continually & Aggressively, if Necessary
5. Incorporate and Absorb the Culture - Recruit and Listen Carefully to Internal Opinion Leaders
6. Develop a Vision of the Future that Everyone in the Organization Shares and Aspires to
7. Once You Have Done the Necessary Preparation, Don’t Wait. Act Immediately.
HOWARD A.TULLMAN
Flashpoint Academy
In this talk I spoke from my long experience in starting and building entrepreneurial businesses and, more importantly, about my more recent work in turning around several failing institutions and the many challenges of effectively implementing and managing change in established businesses even in the face of existential threats to their continued well-being. Change is easy – overcoming the resistance to change takes a little more work and a great deal of patience and preparation.
In applying the lessons from my various adventures to our industry’s present concerns and issues, I started with a simple suggestion. In today’s aggressively “dollar and sense” economy, where it is crucial to demonstrate and justify virtually every activity (and especially research and analysis) to senior management, it’s important to have a strategy and approach which makes the value and relevance of your activities apparent to the entire organization.
My suggestion was that we turn the “tools of our trade” inward and we use our skills and strengths to support and help better inform and educate the teams trying to “sell” and manage the ongoing (and often radical) changes occurring within our own organizations. This transition is actually an easier and more doable task than it might first appear because the references and methodologies we employ are precisely the techniques needed today to allay organizational fears and to ease the path to progress (thru change) for our peers and ourselves.
My shorthand for the entire idea was: “I Have Seen this Movie Before”. The basic idea (discussed in more detail below) is that there are problems and issues that consistently occur at various times in every business and there are also discoverable, concrete, recurring and reusable methods and solutions for each of these problems. Our “new” job within our organizations is to find what has worked and what is working now and to identify and generalize these solutions and then to share and distribute these effective approaches throughout the rest of the business. Easy to say – hard, but important, to accomplish.
The Perspiration Principles
In terms of some ground rules and concepts for implementing change within any organization, I presented what I call “The Perspiration Principles”:
1. Tell a Simple Story – Who are We? Where are We Headed? Why?
2. Solve an Important Problem – Increase Productivity or Save Time or Money – Pain Points
3. Keep Moving and Raise the Bar – Aim High - Feasibility Will Compromise You Soon Enough
4. Start with What You Have – Don’t Wait for Perfect – Successive Approximation
5. Make “Cheap” Mistakes and Make It O.K. to Make Mistakes
6. Make Room for People
7. Don’t Be a Slave to Your Model – The First Rule of Holes – If You’re in One, Stop Digging
8. You Can’t Add Value Unless You Have Values
9. Face the Facts and Expect the Worst
10. Work from the Inside Out
The Basic Methodology - Pattern Recognition
We live in an increasingly complicated world where simple is always better. In terms of the communication and the “sale” of changes, the basic objective is to demonstrate that what appears to be abrupt or radical change is actually and simply an extension from and the evolution of things we’ve done comfortably and successfully in the past. Gathering the references, assembling the examples and documenting the success stories of prior cases where things worked is a critical part of the process and one that relies heavily on the skills which our industry’s professionals regularly employ. Essentially, the pitch is that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
The key here is to understand the old Hollywood idea of “high concept” presentations or pitches. Where metaphors and analogies are everything. “It’s Top Gun Underwater”. “It’s West Side Story in Outer Space”. Elevator pitches and shorthand stories all function in the same way – they are succinct ways of telling people what they want to hear.
In times of anxiety and change, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt; it can mean comfort, company and confidence. Company is especially pivotal because most people don’t mind moving forward, they just don’t want to do it by themselves or be alone when they get there. The fact is that sometimes you just can’t see something right in front of you until it is put in the proper framework and context so that you can process and understand it in terms that you are already familiar and comfortable with. Analogies and references are the tools that provide the necessary context in business. A compelling analogy is worth hours of argument and pounds of proof.
The questions that drive this approach are simple: What Has Worked for Us Before? How Did We Solve a Similar Problem in the Past? Can We Adapt, Reuse or Copy a Prior Approach? Or better yet, Can We Steal Someone Else’s Really Good Idea/Solution? When you go with what has worked in the past and tweak it for the present, it’s easier to explain, it’s a proven answer in many cases, and it’s a cheaper, faster and more productive path forward.
But be careful not to “mash the metaphor” since if you push things too far or stretch the connection too much, the reaction will be prompt and negative. Familiarity breeds comfort until it suddenly breeds contempt. Yesterday’s hero, etc.
The Implementation Process
As a set of basic guidelines, I offer the following suggestions for starting the process once you have identified the objectives and the solutions you will be implementing:
1. Gather Internal Support Before Making Major Changes (Unless There’s a Crisis)
2. Make All the Procedural Changes ASAP to Get Them Out of the Way
3. Rely Upon and Employ the Existing Management and Governance Channels – Not New Ones
4. Consult, Collaborate and Communicate – Slowly, but Continually & Aggressively, if Necessary
5. Incorporate and Absorb the Culture - Recruit and Listen Carefully to Internal Opinion Leaders
6. Develop a Vision of the Future that Everyone in the Organization Shares and Aspires to
7. Once You Have Done the Necessary Preparation, Don’t Wait. Act Immediately.
Monday, September 14, 2009
FLASHPOINT ACADEMY CEO HOWARD TULLMAN INCLUDED IN CRAIN'S WHO'S WHO IN CHICAGO BUSINESS 2009 FOR EDUCATION
Education
Paula Allen-Meares
Chancellor
University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago
Age: 61
Business: Higher education
Professional: Institute of Medicine of the National Academies; New York Academy of Medicine; National Assn. of Social Workers
John L. Anderson
President
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
Age: 63
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $194.0
Professional: American Assn. for the Advancement of Science; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; National Academy of Engineering; Economic Club; Executives' Club
Civic: Partnership for New Communities; Commercial Club; Chicago Council on Science and Technology
Henry S. Bienen
Vice-chairman
Rasmussen College, Burr Ridge
Former president
Northwestern University
Age: 70
Business: Higher education
Professional: Assn. of American Universities; Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics; Argonne National Laboratory
Civic: Council on Foreign Relations; Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Steppenwolf Theatre
Donna M. Carroll
President
Dominican University, River Forest
Age: 55
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $58.0
Professional: Chicago Network; Economic Club; Council of Independent Colleges
Civic: Fordham University; Rush Oak Park Hospital
Warrick L. Carter
President
Columbia College Chicago, Chicago
Age: 67
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $237.5
Professional: Illinois Chamber of Commerce; Economic Club; New City Bank; Jikei Group; Executives' Club
Civic: Rotary International; International House of Blues Foundation; Interlochen Center for the Arts; New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts; Commercial Club
Sunil Chopra
Interim dean
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston
Age: 48
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $184.6*
Professional: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
Civic: Pardada Pardadi Educational Society; Village of Kenilworth Planning Commission
* Kellogg
Judith A. Dwyer
President
St. Xavier University, Chicago
Age: 60
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $78.1
Professional: American Assn. of Colleges and Universities; Assn. of Catholic Colleges and Universities; Council of Independent Colleges; Fulbright Assn.; National Assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities
Civic: Catholic Theological Society of America; Chicago Council on Global Affairs; American Irish Historical Society
Jim Edgar
Distinguished fellow
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana
Age: 63
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $4,170.0
Professional: Alberto-Culver Co.; John B. Sanfilippo & Son Inc.; Horizon Group Properties Inc.
Civic: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation; Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Advance Illinois
Michael J. Garanzini
President
Loyola University Chicago, Chicago
Age: 60
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $1,175.3
Professional: Loyola University Health System; Loyola University, New Orleans; Fairfield University; Fordham University; Archdiocese of Chicago Board of Catholic Schools
Civic: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate; St. Gregory the Great High School; Loyola Academy; Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation; Chicago 2016
Sharon K. Hahs
President
Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago
Age: 61
Business: Higher education
Revenue (millions): $123.0
Budget (millions): $123.0
Civic: Sigma Xi; Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi; American Chemical Society; Illinois Academy of Science; South Carolina Academy of Science
Daniel M. Hamburger
President, CEO
DeVry Inc., Oakbrook Terrace
Age: 45
Business: For-profit higher education
Revenue (millions): $1,091.8
Professional: YPO-WPO; Economic Club; Chicago Club; Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors
Civic: Jewish United Federation
Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider
President
DePaul University, Chicago
Age: 47
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $485.0
Professional: Ascension Health; Assn. of Catholic Colleges and Universities; American Educational Research Assn.; Economic Club
Civic: Chicago History Museum; Chicago 2016; Illinois Reform Commission; Catholic Schools Board Ltd.; Commercial Club
Ron Huberman
CEO
Chicago Public Schools*, Chicago
Age: 37
Business: Public K-12 education
Civic: American Red Cross; Chicago House and Social Services Agency; Rush University Medical Center; Children's First Fund
* Fiscal year ends in June.
Alice W. Hunt
President
Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago
Age: 50
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $5.0
Professional: American Academy of Religion
Dipak C. Jain
Former dean
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston
Age: 52
Business: Higher education
Professional: Deere and Co.; Northern Trust Corp.; Reliance Industries Limited
Anthony E. Jones
Chancellor
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Age: 65
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $89.1
Professional: Illinois St. Andrews Society; Illinois Arts Alliance; Blue Star Art Gallery
Dennis J. Keller
Director emeritus
DeVry Inc., Oakbrook Terrace
Age: 68
Business: For-profit higher education
Revenue (millions): $1,091.8
Professional: Nicor Inc.; Economic Club; African Wildlife Foundation
Civic: Civic Committee of the Commercial Club; Princeton University; University of Chicago; Chicago Zoological Society; Mpala Wildlife Foundation
Martin J. Koldyke
Chairman emeritus
Academy for Urban School Leadership, Chicago
Age: 77
Business: Non-profit teacher preparation
Civic: Golden Apple Foundation; Academy for Urban School Leadership; After School Matters; National Council on Teacher Quality; WTTW-TV/Channel 11
Elaine P. Maimon
President
Governors State University, University Park
Age: 65
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $97.5
Professional: American Council on Education; American Assn. of State Colleges and Universities; Liberal Education; Chicago Network
Civic: Will County Center for Economic Development
Sylvia Manning
President
Higher Learning Commission, Chicago
Age: 65
Business: Higher education
Professional: Noble Network of Charter Schools; Chicago Network
Civic: City of Chicago Green Ribbon Commission; Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Sister Mary Paul McCaughey
Superintendent, Catholic schools
Archdiocese of Chicago*, Chicago
Age: 60
Business: Private K-12 education
Professional: National Catholic Education Assn.; North Central Assn; Assn. for Supervision and Curriculum Development; Archdiocese of Chicago Board of Catholic Schools
Civic: Healthy Kids and Families Network
* Fiscal year ends in June.
Gary E. McCullough
President, CEO
Career Education Corp., Hoffman Estates
Age: 50
Business: For-profit higher education
Revenue (millions): $1,705.4
Professional: Executives' Club; Economic Club; Sherwin Williams Co.
Civic: Chicago 2016
Charles R. Middleton
President
Roosevelt University, Chicago
Age: 64
Business: Higher education
Professional: American Council on Education; National Assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities; Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities; American Historical Assn.; North America Conference on British Studies
Civic: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute; Center on Halsted; Rotary Club of Chicago
John N. Popoli
President, CEO
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, Lake Forest
Age: 59
Business: Higher education
Professional: American Assn. of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities
Civic: Menttium 100 Program; Rotary International; Providence College Alumni Board
Wellington Reiter
President
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Age: 52
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $89.1
Professional: American Institute of Architects; Urban Land Institute; Lambda Alpha International; American Collegiate Schools of Architecture
Morton O. Schapiro
President
Northwestern University, Evanston
Age: 55
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $1,563.0
Edward A. Snyder
Dean
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Chicago
Age: 56
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $194.0*
Professional: Argonne National Laboratories; Career Education Corp.; World Business Chicago
Civic: Civic Consulting Alliance
* Booth
Howard A. Tullman
President, CEO
Flashpoint Academy of Media Arts & Sciences, Chicago
Chairman, CEO
Experiencia Inc.
Age: 64
Business: Education in digital arts and entertainment technologies
Revenue (millions): $9.0*
Professional: Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors; Cobalt Group; Experiencia Inc.; Passage Events; High Tower Advisors LLC
Civic: Paws Chicago; WTTW-TV/Channel 11; Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Endowment Committee; Northwestern University Block Museum of Art
* Flashpoint Academy of Media Arts and Sciences
David J. Vitale
Chairman
Academy for Urban School Leadership, Chicago
Age: 63
Business: Public K-12 education
Revenue (millions): $18.2
Professional: Economic Club; Ariel Investments LLC; UAL Corp.; ISO New England Inc.; Wheels Inc.
Civic: Museum of Science and Industry; Art Institute; Illinois Institute of Technology; Academy for Urban School Leadership; Chicago Public Education Fund
Wayne D. Watson
President
Chicago State University, Chicago
Age: 64
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $116.0
Professional: American Assn. of Community Colleges; National Assn. for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education; Northwestern University
Civic: Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture; Chicago Botanic Garden; DuSable Museum of African American History
B. Joseph White
President
University of Illinois System, Urbana-Champaign
Age: 62
Business: Higher education
Professional: Gordon Food Service Inc.; Equity Residential; Kelly Services Inc.; Argonne National Laboratory
Civic: Civic Committee of the Commercial Club; American Council on Education
Ray Whittington
Dean, College of Commerce and Kellstadt Graduate School of Business
DePaul University, Chicago
Age: 61
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $40.0*
Professional: Illinois CPA Society; Institute of Internal Auditors Foundation; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Institute of Management Accountants; Executives' Club
Civic: University Club
* Kellstadt
Robert J. Zimmer
President
University of Chicago, Chicago
Age: 61
Business: Higher education
Budget (millions): $2,823.0
Professional: Argonne National Laboratory; Fermi Research Alliance LLC; Consortium on Financing Higher Education
Civic: Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Council on Competitiveness
Sunday, August 09, 2009
JOHN HUGHES - R.I.P. - A GOOD FRIEND FOR MANY YEARS AND A GREAT TALENT
This was one of the most accurate and appropriate commentaries on John's work.
AN APPRAISAL
The John Hughes Touch
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: August 7, 2009
I’ve reached the age when my children sometimes ask, “Dad, what were things like in the olden days, when you were a teenager?” They mean the 1980s, and it’s not so easy to explain. The ancient past never is.
But in a pinch I can turn to “The Breakfast Club,” “Sixteen Candles” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” The haircuts, the music, the clothes — it’s all there, and also something of the buoyancy and confusion of being young in those days when VCRs were still a novelty, and vinyl records were not yet obsolete, when text was not a verb, and the potential of the Internet was something not even the nerds of “Weird Science” could intuit.
John Hughes, who died on Thursday at 59, directed only eight films, of which the four I’ve mentioned are the best. All but his last, “Curly Sue,” belong to the ’80s, a decade in which Mr. Hughes was also busy as a producer, a screenwriter and a pop-culture embodiment of the age. Historians of cinema may be slow or begrudging in appreciating his achievement, but if auteur status is conferred by the possession of a recognizable style and set of themes, Mr. Hughes’s place in the pantheon cannot be denied.
Especially for those of us born between the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Bicentennial, the phrase “a John Hughes movie” will instantly conjure a range of images and associations, including the smooth, pale faces of a bevy of young actors. I cringe at the phrase “brat pack,” but there they are: Judd Nelson, Jon Cryer, Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Anthony Michael Hall.
And above all, of course, Molly Ringwald, the ginger-haired teenager who, from 1984 to 1986, was for Mr. Hughes what James Stewart had been for Frank Capra at the end of the Great Depression, and what Anna Karina had been for Jean-Luc Godard in the mid-’60s: an emblem, a muse, a poster child and an alter ego. Especially in “Sixteen Candles” and “Pretty in Pink” (directed by Howard Deutch from Mr. Hughes’s script), she represented his romantic ideal of the artist as misfit, sensitive and misunderstood, aspiring to wider acceptance but reluctant to compromise too much.
In “Sixteen Candles” she’s Sam, the neglected younger sister and social oddball; in “Pretty in Pink” she is Andie, a poor girl in a sea of affluence. That both characters have boys’ names is evidence of just how much their author identified with them.
Shortly after I heard the shocking news of Mr. Hughes’s death, I was talking to a friend of mine, a few years older than I am, who had seen almost none of those movies. The half-decade gap in our ages made all the difference. While I was in high school, in my own private breakfast club, she was a budding undergraduate cinephile, dressing in black and watching Godard movies.
But I don’t think I’m alone among my cohort in the belief that John Hughes was our Godard, the filmmaker who crystallized our attitudes and anxieties with just the right blend of teasing and sympathy. Mr. Godard described “Masculin Féminin,” his 1966 vehicle for Jean-Pierre Leaud and Ms. Karina, as a portrait of “the children of Marx and Coca-Cola.” Mr. McCarthy and Ms. Ringwald, in “Pretty in Pink,” were corresponding icons for the children of Ronald Reagan and New Coke.
Which is not to say — I hasten to tell the children of Barack Obama and Vitamin Water — that Mr. Hughes’s movies provide a literal or comprehensive picture of that time. A lot of stuff is left out. Politics, for one thing. Black people, for another. And like many other filmmakers who solicit the favor of young audiences, Mr. Hughes has been faulted for smoothing over too many rough edges and softening harsh social and psychological realities.
The response, which will never satisfy some critics, is that his films are fables, not documentaries. These comic dramas may seem juvenile, but they have a classicism — an attention to nuances of dialogue, an elegance of narrative design — that places them well within the noble tradition of Hollywood romance. The spirit of Ernst Lubitsch smiles on “Sixteen Candles,” and some of Preston Sturges’s mischief inhabits “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
In any case, it is as fairy tales rendered from experience, rather than as blunt records of life, that his mid-’80s movies live on. They capture — with a winning mixture of optimism and melancholy, with a generosity of spirit tempered by a punitive sense of right and wrong — something essential in the experience of youth.
Not only in that specific era, but also before and, I’m guessing, since. Like most artists who are perceived as the voice of a generation, Mr. Hughes did not belong to the generation in question. He was a baby boomer, a member of the high school class of 1968 in Northbrook, Ill. And his vision of the classes of 1984 and after was certainly colored by a post-’60s sense of wariness and counter-counterculture suspicion.
A few years ago an article in Slate pegged Mr. Hughes as a conservative, even a reactionary, whose celebration of rebellion had more to do with the middle-class resentments that brought Reagan into office than with residual anti-establishment radicalism. The answers to this accusation are: maybe so, and so what?
It is true that while his heroes, most notably Ferris Bueller and the members of the Breakfast Club, are in conflict with authority, they are also stubborn in their individualism and often unapologetically materialistic. Which is part of what makes them authentic, and authentically confused. The unspecified North Shore Chicago suburb where most of these stories take place is, at first glance and in its own mind, a paradise of uniformity and privilege. And this setting, rather than being the facile hell imagined in movies like “American Beauty,” is shown as a genuine expression of the American utopian ideal, a pastoral city on a hill where everyone is comfortable and everyone’s the same.
The paradox is that most people feel, and want to be, different. Not to smash the system or flee its clutches, but rather to find a place within it where they can be themselves, even if they like strange music, come from a poorer family or favor eccentric styles of dress. That desire is what motivates Sam, the birthday girl in “Sixteen Candles,” and it also drives both the cocky Ferris Bueller and his nervous buddy Cameron. The great, paradoxical insight of “The Breakfast Club” is that alienation is the norm, that nerds, jocks, stoners, popular girls and weirdos are all, in their own ways, outsiders.
Adolescence is the stage at which this contradiction is most acute, and its possible resolution most tantalizing. And when Mr. Hughes moved outside of that zone, into childhood or early adulthood, a sour, hostile undertone crept into his films. You see this in the brutal slapstick of “Home Alone” (which he wrote and produced but did not direct) and the eruptions of misogyny in “She’s Having a Baby,” and also in the belligerence of John Candy, who replaced Ms. Ringwald as Mr. Hughes’s second self in “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “Uncle Buck.”
So you might say that, as an artist, John Hughes never outgrew high school. It’s disconcerting to consider how many of the stars of his films have remained stuck in the ’80s, unable or unwilling to turn the corner and become grown-up movie stars. And it’s a little eerie that Mr. Hughes died so soon after Michael Jackson, another fixture of ’80s popular culture locked in perpetual youth.
Their deaths make me feel old, but more than that, they make me aware of belonging to a generation that has yet to figure out adulthood, for whom life can feel like a long John Hughes movie. You know the one. That Spandau Ballet song is playing at the big dance. You remember the lyrics, even if it’s been years since you heard them last. This is the sound of my soul. I bought a ticket to the world, but now I’ve come back again. Why do I find it hard to write the next line?
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
GLEN TULLMAN HONORED AT JDRF BEST OF ILLINOIS 2009 BENEFIT
EVENING MC - MISS AMERICA 1999 - NICOLE JOHNSON
OPENING REMARKS BY HOWARD TULLMAN - FLASHPOINT ACADEMY - PRESIDENT/CEO
REMARKS
More than 25 years ago, I gave Glen his first real job. Frankly, my mother made me do it. One of the many things she taught all of us was the importance of lending a hand to others and giving back. We’ve never forgotten that or her.
I’m especially pleased to see so many people in the audience tonight who were an important part of our earliest businesses and who remain good friends and partners.
The truth is that no one does anything important today by themselves. A lot of our success over the years has come from building great teams and then turning them loose to conquer the world.
That’s another thing we learned from our mother – not to let yourself be defined by other people’s limitations or lack of imagination. To always ask for the best seat in the house. And, not to let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Our Dad’s idea was even simpler – if you don’t ask, you don’t get. I’m sure that resonates with a lot of us here tonight. And, finally, once you start something, you never, ever give up.
That’s the attitude and the spirit that I see Glen bringing to his latest and greatest adventure – the quest for a cure. He’s worked for a lot of companies in positions of increasing responsibility and he’s had a lot of financial success. But making a living isn’t the same as making a life worth living. As Jackie Robinson used to say: “A life is not important except for the impact it has on other lives.”
That’s why I’m so proud that he’s committed himself (and encouraged so many around him by his example) to not simply imagine a cure, but to work each and every day to make that dream a reality. We like to say at Flashpoint that there really is a right way to do almost anything you set out to do. You do it with all of your heart, soul and energy. You do it whatever the cost in blood, sweat and tears. And you keep doing it until you get it done.
It’s so critical today for each and every one of us to be a part of something bigger, more important, and outside of our little selves. I know for sure that it’s hard work, and that it’s often thankless (but not tonight, of course), but I also know that it’s always worth the effort. That’s why we’re honoring Glen tonight for making the effort and for making a difference and that’s why I’m so honored to be his big brother. Thanks.
OTHER PRESENTERS INCLUDED LEE SHAPIRO - ROBERT COMPTON
PRESENTATION BY GLEN'S CHILDREN
BEST OF ILLINOIS HONOREE VIDEO
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY TRISH TULLMAN
MARY TYLER MOORE VIDEO INTRODUCED BY JOHN McDONOUGH
AWARD PRESENTATION BY KAREN CASE
AWARD ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY GLEN
SAM TULLMAN REPORTS OVER $1 MILLION RAISED TONIGHT
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
FLASHPOINT ACADEMY CEO HOWARD TULLMAN'S MUCH YOUNGER AND FAR LESS ATTRACTIVE BROTHER GLEN TULLMAN INCLUDED IN CRAIN'S ARTICLE ON ALLSCRIPTS
A CHALLENGER
Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc.
The recession couldn't have come at a better time for Allscripts. The Chicago provider of electronic medical records systems already was looking forward to growth in 2008 as a result of a merger with Misys, a British provider of management software for doctors' offices.
The two companies' products overlapped well: When combined, they would have 160,000 clients, only 60,000 of whom were using electronic medical records. That left a market of 100,000 doctors who already had a relationship with the company.
Glen Tullman | Photo: Erik Unger
The September collapse of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. delayed the merger until October. But President Barack Obama's victory in November and his commitment to overhaul health care turned lemons into lemonade for Allscripts-Misys, which had combined pro forma revenues of $694.4 million in 2008.
Specifically, the economic stimulus bill passed in February contains $19 billion in incentives for doctors to begin using electronic medical records systems.
Only about a third of physicians' offices nationwide use such systems, largely because doctors bear the cost while patients and insurance companies realize most of the savings. The stimulus changes that equation with a carrot-and-stick approach.
Offices that adopt electronic medical records systems by 2011 receive up to $44,000 in bonus payments from Medicare. That's between two and three times the price of a typical system, says Corey Tobin, an industry analyst at Chicago's William Blair & Co. LLC, which is bullish on Allscripts.
The payments are spread over five years, and the amount is reduced for each year doctors delay beyond 2011. Physicians who don't get on board by 2015 will see their Medicare payments cut by 1% each year.
It's hard to blame CEO Glen Tullman, 49, for being giddy. "We've got a president who is stumping for our business and $20 billion in incentives targeted toward encouraging the use of our products," he says. "There are very few industries in America with a profile like that."
Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc.
The recession couldn't have come at a better time for Allscripts. The Chicago provider of electronic medical records systems already was looking forward to growth in 2008 as a result of a merger with Misys, a British provider of management software for doctors' offices.
The two companies' products overlapped well: When combined, they would have 160,000 clients, only 60,000 of whom were using electronic medical records. That left a market of 100,000 doctors who already had a relationship with the company.
Glen Tullman | Photo: Erik Unger
The September collapse of Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. delayed the merger until October. But President Barack Obama's victory in November and his commitment to overhaul health care turned lemons into lemonade for Allscripts-Misys, which had combined pro forma revenues of $694.4 million in 2008.
Specifically, the economic stimulus bill passed in February contains $19 billion in incentives for doctors to begin using electronic medical records systems.
Only about a third of physicians' offices nationwide use such systems, largely because doctors bear the cost while patients and insurance companies realize most of the savings. The stimulus changes that equation with a carrot-and-stick approach.
Offices that adopt electronic medical records systems by 2011 receive up to $44,000 in bonus payments from Medicare. That's between two and three times the price of a typical system, says Corey Tobin, an industry analyst at Chicago's William Blair & Co. LLC, which is bullish on Allscripts.
The payments are spread over five years, and the amount is reduced for each year doctors delay beyond 2011. Physicians who don't get on board by 2015 will see their Medicare payments cut by 1% each year.
It's hard to blame CEO Glen Tullman, 49, for being giddy. "We've got a president who is stumping for our business and $20 billion in incentives targeted toward encouraging the use of our products," he says. "There are very few industries in America with a profile like that."
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)