# 11 Entry : 20500297

Oprah's Favorite 'Favorite thing'

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

* Mini Case Presentation
Today our team and team Shasta gave a presentation about Oprah Winfrey's business, 'Harpo production.' While I was preparing for this presentation, I learned why Oprah and her business became successful. She has something that other people don't. Through this article, I want to talk about more about Oprah and her 'favorite thing' which made her 'differentiated'. The author basically talks about Oprah's "gift of appreciation.'


* Summary of the article

Considered as an inspiring leader, Oprah said that while material things are nice, the greatest gift you can give a person is to communicate how you FEEL about them. Oprah is a type of "caring mentor" who is honest, caring, and generous do the best job in motivating employees to deliver great customer service and therefore increase customer loyalty. It is important that you give employees local fame. Actually, there are only few people who trully want to be famous. However, they want to be famous and accepted in their local community, such as in family, school, and workplace. As Oprah does in her show, praising individual person specifically can give people local fame. Another thing you need to know is that you'd better not be stingy with praise. Whenever you watch Oprah Winfrey show, you can notice that Oprah always shows her appreciation and expresses praise to both guests and audience. 'When people receive genuine praise, their doubt diminishes and their spirits soar,' Oprah suggests.


My thoughts & Feelings
As we all know, Oprah had a very hard time in her childhood. Her parents got divorced and the environment was not helpful. (You may know what I'm talking about.) It was just too difficult for her to have a positive attitude toward her life. She was a type of girl in a minority society. However, that's just her past. Overcoming those obstacles, she become the most influential, powerful, and richest woman in the world. Without any future plan, Harpo production will fail after Oprah retires since Harpo production is based on Oprah's reputation and power. What made her take this position, then? Her optimism? Speech skill? Out-going characteristic? These could be right, but most importantly, as the author say, Oprah's attitude of showing appreciation is one of significant keys to her success. In these days, many business leaders are lack of caring, especially those Korean leader since Koreans usually feel uncomfortable with expression. In order to be an inspiring leader like Oprah, we should learn to express our true feelings - appreciation. Expressing appreciation is not a job of employees only. The reason why people are touched by Oprah and her show is because Oprah tries to understand thier feeligns, share them together, and show her appreciation.

Annotaion: Carmine Gallo, Oprah's Favorite 'Favorite thing, Journal, December 14, 2007
URL: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/dec2007/sb20071214_702526.htm?chan=search

Entry 11, 20500297