Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao Advises New MBA Students on Business Values
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| Chao Photo Stuart Cahill |
As part of the orientation for the MBA Class of 2004, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao (MBA '79) told 899 entering students that they had an obligation to help fix the American free-enterprise system. “This system, which has given so much to so many, is under attack because of the actions of an unscrupulous few,” she told the audience in Burden Auditorium. “Each of you has an extraordinary opportunity to help turn around the crisis in confidence we face today. You are the future business leaders of our country. You can and must lead by example.”
Chao praised HBS Dean Kim B. Clark for founding the Leadership and Values Initiative, an effort that for the last two years has sought to more fully integrate the School's community standards of integrity and honesty, respect for others, and personal accountability with students' experiences in and out of the classroom. “Dean Clark understands that ethics is the practical application of character,” said Chao. “And only character can help us resist the temptations that are out there.”
Noting that the Labor Department is the “regulatory watchdog for many of the nation's retirement plans,” Chao expressed deep concern about the current crisis in corporate America. “Safeguarding people's pensions is one of my top priorities as U.S. Secretary of Labor,” she said, lauding the corporate governance reforms signed into law recently by President George W. Bush (MBA '75).
Chao's experience of taking over the helm of United Way of America a decade ago after financial scandals and executive wrongdoing had shaken public trust in the charity taught her valuable leadership lessons. “Restoring financial integrity to the organization's basic business practices was just the beginning,” she said. “The most difficult task was rebuilding trust and confidence both inside and outside the organization.”
Following Chao's remarks, Dean Clark told the new students that they had come to HBS at “an extraordinary time,” because of changes in technology, the world's geopolitical structures, and the nature of markets. “We are living in a time of what I like to call ‘fast history.' It's a time when we need leaders who are prepared to take responsibility and be held accountable,” he said. “We believe that all of you have the capacity to be those leaders.”
