Columbia

"Our global MBA program draws qualified candidates from such top business schools as Harvard, Stanford, Chicago-Booth, MIT Sloan, Columbia, Wharton and Kellogg in the U.S., as well as London Business School and IESE in Europe and CEIBS in Hong Kong. In 2014, we selected 21 MBAs for the program from a pool of 642 applicants."

"For reasons that are still a bit mysterious today, Columbia signed Dylan before he had any significant following, and that contract drew attention to him. Before long, however, it was the inherent authority of his music and lyrics which gave Dylan his success. In this he was like the thinkers. He was like Frankl, Leonardo, Einstein and Keynes – their personal vehicles were their dramatic insights, expressed in unforgettable images and words."

"When the film finally opened, we got the most outstanding reviews, but not great box office results. We were nominated for twelve Academy Awards, but David Puttnam, the head of Columbia, had his own competing film, *Chariots of Fire,* and he went all out publicly denigrating *Reds* as an out-of-control spendthrift production that took jobs away from Hollywood. That clever and craven campaign did us in."

"At the time, there was no such thing as “media.” Movie studios dominated entertainment, and the five majors (Paramount/Warners/Columbia/Fox/Universal) had worldwide importance. If you ran one of these film companies, you were a prominent figure wherever you went. In those early years, though, I wasn’t swanning anywhere; I was just trying to figure out this weird and dysfunctional studio I was now in charge of. Because I’d offed Yablans in such a public and brutal way, everyone was now afraid of me. And I was petrified that they would find out just how unqualified I actually was. Only if I slowed everything down could I begin to understand all the parts and then try to rearrange them into something coherent. I tend to make things worse in the beginning as I fumble around trying to get to base truths. Instinct, which I prize almost above all else, doesn’t work very well for me in abstruse matters. I have to get to the core DNA on any matter, its logical essence, before I can add anything of value. For me this takes a lot of time, often to the irritation of faster thinkers. But when it does crystallize, I can’t be deterred."