I scored 7/9. ;-) in the quiz on MSN. Try it out:
eLearning Quiz Src=
http://encarta.msn.com/quiz_98/Are_You_CEO_Material.htmlNow if you want prep for the CEO quiz, check out some very interesting anecdotes below:
For his invention of an automated stock ticker, Thomas Edison received $40,000. He and a business partner, who operated a machine shop, used the money to start a new company to manufacture Edison’s improved stock ticker. In 1876, Edison established a laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, the first laboratory dedicated to industrial research in the world.
In 1914, the automobile factory operated by Henry Ford was experiencing a monthly personnel turnover of 40 to 60 percent, largely because of the unpleasant monotony of assembly-line work and repeated increases in the production quotas assigned to workers. Ford met this challenge by doubling the daily wage then standard in the industry, raising it from about $2.50 to $5.
In the mid-1920s, Warner Brothers acquired the Vitagraph Company, which enabled them to distribute their films directly to theaters. In 1926 they formed Vitaphone to develop a sound-on-disk process by which a recording could be played alongside a film and synchronized with it. They first used the Vitaphone system in a feature-length film during several musical numbers in The Jazz Singer (1927), thus revolutionizing the film industry.
In 1962 Sam Walton managed 15 Ben Franklin stores. That year, unable to convince the Ben Franklin Company to start a chain of stores that offered discounts all the time on all items, Sam and his brother opened their own store, Wal-Mart Discount City, in Rogers, Arkansas. By 1969, they operated 18 Wal-Mart Discount City stores (now called simply Wal-Marts).
In 1968, H. Wayne Huizenga teamed with a partner to create a nationwide company for waste collection, a business traditionally made up of small, local companies. The new company, Waste Management, Inc., became the foundation of his fortune.
In 1963, Ted Turner inherited his family billboard-advertising business. In 1970 he bought a failing UHF (ultrahigh frequency) television station in Atlanta, Georgia, and by 1975 Turner had transformed it into the first "superstation," WTBS, by transmitting low-cost sports and entertainment programs via satellite to cable systems throughout the country. This was a highly profitable innovation that accelerated the spread of cable television nationwide.
While attending Harvard University in 1975, Bill Gates teamed with Paul Allen to develop a version of the BASIC programming language for the Altair 8800, the first personal computer. They licensed the software to the manufacturer of the Altair and formed Microsoft (originally Micro-soft) to develop versions of BASIC for other computer companies. Gates decided to drop out of Harvard in his junior year to devote his time to Microsoft.
In 1986, Oprah Winfrey formed Harpo Productions to produce her own show and other projects. With distribution rights to her shows, Winfrey used profits to expand her business activities. By 1998 Winfrey was worth $675 million.
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos grew interested in online retailing in 1994 while working as a business analyst in New York City. After researching the success of different mail-order companies, Bezos decided that books were the perfect product to sell via the Internet. That year he left New York to establish his new company in Seattle, chosen for its proximity to major book wholesalers and the booming high-tech industry. In July 1995 Amazon.com launched its Web site, and has since expanded to offer many other retail products in addition to books.
