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Operations management is important. It is concerned with creating the products and services upon which we all depend. And creating products and services is the very reason for any organization’s existence, whether that organization be large or small, manufacturing or service, for profit or not profit. Thankfully, most companies have now come to understand the importance of operations. This is because they have realized that effective operations management gives the potential to improve revenues and, at the same time, enables goods and services to be produced more efficiently. It is this combination of higher revenues and lower costs which is understandably important to any organization.

Operations management is also exciting. It is at the center of so many of the changes affecting the business world – changes in customer preference, changes in supply networks brought about by internet-based technologies, changes in what we want to do at work, how we want to work, and so on. There has rarely been a time when operations management was more topical or more at the heart of business and cultural shifts.

Operations management is also challenging. Promoting the creativity which will allow organizations to respond to so many changes is becoming the prime task of operations managers. It is they who must find the solutions to technological and environmental challenges, the pressures to be socially responsible, the increasing globalization of markets and the difficult-to-define areas of knowledge management.

(CNN) Carlos Alberto, the man who captained the Brazil team often described as soccer's greatest ever to victory at the 1970 World Cup, died Tuesday at age 72. FIFA, world football's governing body, confirmed his death on its website. A short statement said: "It is with tremendous sadness that FIFA has learned that Carlos Alberto Torres died at the age of 72 on Tuesday 25 October 2016." Alberto scored one of the most memorable goals in World Cup history in the final as his side beat Italy 4-1 in Mexico City. He rampaged forward from right-back to put the seal on victory, hammering home the most emphatic of finishes after a stunning move involving eight players including Tostao and Pele, who rolled the ball to him. Then aged 25, Alberto became the youngest-ever World Cup-winning captain having already skippered Santos, his club at the time. He had been appointed two years before the tournament and in an interview with FIFA recalled: "I was elevated to the captaincy of a team regarded at the time as the best in Brazil, and by many as the best in the world. "It included world champions like Pele, Coutinho, Pepe, Gilmar and Mauro. "There's no doubt that being the Santos skipper led to me getting the Selecao armband. I'm very proud still to be the youngest captain of a World Cup-winning team."

Alberto won 53 caps for Brazil, scoring eight goals, but it is for his dazzling 1970 performance that he is best remembered. He was the last captain to lift the Jules Rimet trophy, which passed into Brazil's possession after what was their third World Cup win. He missed the 1974 tournament with a knee injury but played for Brazil for a further three years before quitting international football in 1977. Alberto's achievements saw him named in the World Team of the 20th Century in 1998, while FIFA included him on its list of the greatest 100 living players in 2004. "Carlos Alberto is an icon of world football," Brazilian sports journalist Emerson Vicente told CNN. "Besides being a great technical player, he was one of the first defensive players to play in attack with the same efficiency. The fourth goal for Brazil in the 1970 final shows that. Read: Carlos Alberto on the decline of Brazilian football "His was a well-respected voice, and as a commentator he was a critic of the current state of Brazilian football." Santos will hold three days of official mourning for Alberto, saying in a statement: "Santos FC is saddened by the death of Carlos Alberto, an idol."

Alberto started his club career with Fluminese, establishing himself as an outstanding defender whose superb tackling, ability to break forward and instinctive reading of the game quickly attracted acclaim. In 1966 he joined Pele at Santos, moving briefly to Botafogo in 1971 but returning to Santos later that year and staying until 1974. He rejoined Fluminese the same year at the end of a domestic career in which he was a Brazilian Championship winner in both 1965 and 1968. He was to be reunited with Pele again in 1977 when both starred for New York Cosmos, becoming a title-winner in 1997 and 1978 before spending a year at California Surf in 1981 and then rejoining Cosmos, where he retired as a player in 1982. In a tweet, the Cosmos said: "We're deeply saddened by the loss of Carlos Alberto, a legendary player and wonderful person. He'll always remain part of the Cosmos family." Alberto coached clubs including Flamengo and Corinthians after calling time on his playing days and also coached in international football, most recently with Azerbaijan.

Adaptado de :http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/25/football/carlosalberto-brazil-soccer-1970-world-cup-final/index.html acesso em 09/11/2016

(CNN) A soft-spoken teenage girl has become the voice of a frustrated generation of Brazilian high school students after a video of her speaking to legislators in her home state of Parana became a viral sensation. Sixteen-year-old Ana Julia Ribeiro turned into a household name overnight after testifying before the legislative assembly in Curitiba and defending the student-led movement that has occupied hundreds of state schools since October 14. She has also drawn comparisons to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist and youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who fought for equal access to education for girls in Talibancontrolled regions. "To whom do these schools belong?" Ribeiro asked, with a slight tremble in her voice, at the beginning of her 10-minute speech. "This is our country, it will be the country of my children and the children of my children and I am concerned about the future." The students are protesting a provisional measure that would change the high school curriculum in public schools throughout the country. It would make classes like art and physical education optional and increase class time. The students also are against a proposed constitutional amendment, known as PEC 241, drafted by President Michel Temer, that would cap government spending for 20 years to reduce budget deficits and pay the country's debt. "We can't just sit back with our arms crossed," Ribeiro said. "We know that we need a reform in high school education and the educational system as a whole, but we need a reform that has been debated and discussed and promoted by education professionals." In Parana, 850 of the state's 2,100 public schools were seized by the student movements this month. Lawmakers accused the students of being influenced by leftist leaders who opposed the Temer government, which took office after former President Dilma Rousseff was impeached in August. "This isn't a game for us, we know what we are fighting for. Our flag is education, our only flag is education," Ribeiro said. "We are a nonpartisan movement. We are a student movement for the students." Her speech drew a loud roar of applause from sympathizers in the assembly audience and a scolding from its president, who threatened to suspend the session, when she accused lawmakers of "having blood on their hands" after the death of fellow student Lucas Mota in one of the occupied schools. "I went to Lucas' funeral yesterday and I don't remember seeing any of the faces there that I am seeing today. Not one," Ribeiro said. "Lucas' blood is on your hands. You represent the state." While the Mota incident was isolated and unrelated to the protest movement, Ribeiro took advantage of her time at the lectern to challenge the representatives as they chastised her for her "insults." "I apologize, but the Statute of the Child and Adolescent says that society, the family and the state are the ones responsible for the well-being of this country's youth and for its students." According to the Ministry of Education, 315 schools are still occupied by the student movements. Ribeiro traveled to Brasilia earlier this week and participated in a debate on the disputed constitutional amendment at a senate human rights commission meeting. The amendment, which was approved by the lower house, will be debated on the senate floor this month and is expected to be called to a vote on November 29.

Adaptado de: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/01/world/brazil-teenana-julia-ribeiro/index.html acesso em 09/11/2016.

         Reality television is a genre of television programming which, it is claimed, presents unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and features ordinary people rather than professional actors. It could be described as a form of artificial or "heightened" documentary. Although the genre has existed in some form or another since the early years of television, the current explosion of popularity dates from around 2000.

     Reality television covers a wide range of television programming formats, from game or quiz shows which resemble the frantic, often demeaning programmes produced in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s (a modern example is Gaki no tsukai), to surveillance- or voyeurismfocused productions such as Big Brother.

      Critics say that the term "reality television" is somewhat of a misnomer and that such shows frequently portray a modified and highly influenced form of reality, with participants put in exotic locations or abnormal situations, sometimes coached to act in certain ways by off-screen handlers, and with events on screen manipulated through editing and other post-production techniques.

       Part of reality television's appeal is due to its ability to place ordinary people in extraordinary situations. For example, on the ABC show, The Bachelor, an eligible male dates a dozen women simultaneously, travelling on extraordinary dates to scenic locales. Reality television also has the potential to turn its participants into national celebrities, outwardly in talent and performance programs such as Pop Idol, though frequently Survivor and Big Brother participants also reach some degree of celebrity.

        Some commentators have said that the name "reality television" is an inaccurate description for several styles of program included in the genre. In competition-based programs such as Big Brother and Survivor, and other special-living-environment shows like The Real World, the producers design the format of the show and control the day-to-day activities and the environment, creating a completely fabricated world in which the competition plays out. Producers specifically select the participants, and use carefully designed scenarios, challenges, events, and settings to encourage particular behaviours and conflicts. Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor and other reality shows, has agreed with this assessment, and avoids the word "reality" to describe his shows; he has said, "I tell good stories. It really is not reality TV. It really is unscripted drama."