According to the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Study Group, Chicago is one of the 10 Alpha Cities in the world, based on its position as a a global service center.  Just one more reason to live and work here in this “City in a Garden”.   The GaWC summarizes these global cities as:

Although there is a general consensus on which are the leading world cities, there is no agreed upon roster covering world cities below the highest level. This paper reports the construction of an inventory of world cities based upon their level of advanced producer services. Global service centres are identified and graded for accountancy, advertising, banking/finance and law. Aggregating these results produces a roster of 55 world cities at three levels: 10 Alpha world cities, 10 Beta world cities and 35 Gamma world cities. These are found to be largely geographically concentrated in three ‘globalization arenas’, northern America, western Europe and Pacific Asia.

A. ALPHA WORLD CITIES (full service world cities)

 London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, Singapore

B. BETA WORLD CITIES (major world cities)

San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Zurich, Brussels, Madrid, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Seoul

As we enjoyed the warm weather last week, here is a shot of the Chicago River with the Trump Tower prominent in the shot.  Don’t we live in the best city in the world?

Source:  Riva

This weekend, the Veggietales “Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” opens nationwide. The creators of Veggie Tales, Phil Vischer, Kurt Heinecke and Mike Nawrocki attended Park in the early 1990′s and many of the early character voices are played by Park people, including Kristin Blegen, Dan Anderson, Mike Sage, and Jim Poole, who is a co-founder of Steep Theater in Chicago. Park has had a long history of excellence in the arts and we are glad to see our alumni creating such excellent work! Get out there and check this movie out this weekend.

Besides its spiritual content, Nawrocki believes the Pirates film has a great deal to offer audiences. It’s based on some of the most popular VeggieTales characters — three wannabe pirates who are finally forced to become heroes. He described the film as part Pirates of the Caribbean, part Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and part Three Amigos.

Unlike many VeggieTales stories, the Pirates film isn’t based on a Bible story, Nawrocki said. There’s not an altar call at the end, and little mention of God. Instead, there is an Aslan-like king, who helps the pirates along their way.

The film is more of a parable. And while viewers will get a lesson about what it means to be a hero, Nawrocki says they’ll also have a good time along the way.”I love this story,” he said. “It’s well paced, and it’s a really funny piece of entertainment.”

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Many of you know that VeggieTales has had a roller-coaster history, one full of ups and downs and enveloped in God’s grace as the company had a big movie, yet succumbed to bankruptcy after selling more than 40 million kid’s videos. Vischer told Bob Smietana of the Tennesseean that Big Idea’s past struggles were a lesson in faith. He, Heineke and Nawrocki made the first VeggieTales episode, Where is God When I Am S-Scared?, for about $60,000, working out of an unheated storefront in Chicago in the early 1990s. By 2003, Big Idea had sold more than 25 million videos and had more than 200 employees. The company had experienced one miracle after another, Vischer said.

Then everything crashed.

Sales flattened out, causing the company to struggle to make payroll. Instead of cutting staff, Vischer held out hope that God would save the company. If the Jonah film, released in 2002, had been a blockbuster success, all the company’s worries would have been over. While Jonah did well, grossing more than $26 million despite being made on a shoestring budget for a computer-generated imagery film, it didn’t save Big Idea. The company eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and was bought by Classic Media LLC.

Vischer, who had been Big Idea’s sole owner, lost everything in the company’s struggles. Yet he seems remarkably content. He told a writer “Back then, my whole identity was wrapped up in 80 minutes of celluloid,” he said. “You don’t want to be in a place where a single project can destroy your identity.” If the Pirates film is a success, Vischer said, he’ll be glad for it. If not, “then I’ll move on to what God has in store next.”

In the book What They Don’t Teach You in the Harvard Business School, Mark McCormack tells a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. In that year, the students were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all.

Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings, while somewhat predictable, were nonetheless astonishing. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning, on average, ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together.

In spite of such proof of success, most people don’t have clear, measurable, time-bounded goals that they work toward. So, as you start out 2008, take the time to help achieve your dreams by putting your aspirations to paper. First, be specific with your goals and include a timeframe. Next write out three things you can do to reach each one. And finally, evaluate your progress every year. Start with family goals and work from there.

Debunking the myth that the SEC is the premier conference, Chad Henne threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns, Mike Hart ran for 129 yards and two scores and the Michigan Wolverines upset last year’s national champions and No. 9-rated Florida 41-35 Tuesday in the Capital One Bowl to win their first bowl game since 2003.

Henne, Adrian Arrington and Mario Manningham torched Florida’s secondary all game, as Arrington caught nine passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns, and Manningham added five catches for 78 yards and a score. The Gators (9-4) kept it close thanks to four turnovers and plenty of big plays by Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and speedster Percy Harvin.

This is such a sweet victory because one of our Pastors, Joe Riccardi, is an avid Gator fan and a big trash talker, and is convinced at the superiority of Florida and the SEC. For him, I present this mocked up a post-game photo of he and Lloyd with the following caption:

After the game, Joe Riccardi went down on the field and wished Lloyd Carr the best and then Lloyd put his arms around Joe and with a big smile said ” The SEC is okay Joe but the Big Ten dominates!”