Letters to the Editor
Two Sides of the General
Re: your June article about General Doriot: As a confused 23-year-old head of a very unsuccessful used-car business who needed help trying to decide between HBS and Cornell Labor School, I was introduced to the General, who ordered me to give up everything and devote myself to being a full-time HBS student. I told him that was impossible, and we parted hoping never to see each other again.
But I did choose HBS, and stayed on for sixteen years, as a research assistant and later as an assistant dean and instructor. I never took the General’s course, and Doriot and I barely spoke during those years.
In 1967 I became president of Emerson College, where the General’s wife was a trustee! Doriot and I got reacquainted, which led to a long-delayed sharing of his immense goodwill and deep understanding of the subtleties of nonprofit administration.
I came to regret that I never took the General’s course. That I had avoided him all that time is one of the significant mistakes of my lifetime.
Richard Chapin (MBA ’49)
Georgetown, ME
HBS Should Probe Capitalism’s Troubles
I read with keen interest the report on the June HBS faculty colloquium on “The Future of Market Capitalism.” Not a word was mentioned about the credit disaster facing our nation today.
The article stresses the remarkable recent prosperity of capitalism, and points out some concerns. It does not speak to the abuses of the mortgage industry that led to the credit crisis we now face. I would suggest that HBS give priority to analyzing the factors that led to this crisis, and make recommendations that will correct its abuses.
Stephen J. Rogers (MBA 6/’47)
Chelsea, MI
Ted Levitt and a Timely Remembrance
Julia Hanna’s very fine article on Ted Levitt in the September Bulletin evoked some funny, pleasant memories of his class back in the early 1960s.
What I remember of Mr. Levitt (he was always “Mister” to me) is his furtive pacing back and forth in front of the blackboard. At the third level were a couple of fellows who even in Levitt’s class would doze off (we referred to them as “Sleepy Hollow”). When Levitt saw them in such a state, he would immediately throw the chalk eraser at them. It was quite amusing.
I remember the “Regulus Time Clock” case about a clock company. Halfway through class, there was a loud RIIIINNNNGGG! Mr. Levitt stopped in his tracks, looked around, and then went to the wastepaper basket. He dug through it and pulled out and held aloft for all to see, yes, a Regulus time clock! We had some very clever jokesters in our section.
Yes, I did find Mr. Levitt intimidating, but not in a mean-spirited way, for I felt, underneath, that he had a good heart and a wonderful sense of humor. He was good theater, just about all the time, and I always looked forward to his class.
Thanks again for capturing and presenting the spirit of Ted Levitt as I remember him.
Daniel Woodhead III (MBA ’64)
San Francisco, CA
Levitt’s Melting-Pot Moment
I thoroughly enjoyed your article about Ted Levitt. I personally felt a special connection to him, perhaps as a result of our shared immigrant roots. We argued at length the concept that America was moving away from the melting-pot tradition he so much believed in. For my part, I forcefully defended the notion that the Hispanic market was indeed here to stay as a stand-alone entity.
At a dinner at our 25th Reunion, Ted Levitt, to my complete surprise, acknowledged that he had been wrong and that I had been right on the subject of the Hispanic market.
The only sad comment that I can add is that HBS has published hardly any marketing cases on the Hispanic market in the last 100 years. Too bad Ted is not around.
Jorge E. Reynardus (MBA ’73)
New York, NY
Professional Managers and HBS
The history of the current financial crisis has yet to be written, but unless I miss my guess, it will show that many of the central players undermining the trust that credit markets depended on were HBS graduates. That should make us look for new basic directions for the next fifty years.
Whatever else we might say about the approach of the last fifty years, it was not aimed at preparing professionals. True professionals must be ready to move beyond their self-interest to the interests of others, such as patients, clients, students, parishioners, the nation (in the case of military professionals), etc. Professionals adopt publicly announced ethical standards for which they are the principal enforcers.
I suggest that for the next fifty years, HBS should be centrally devoted to the advancement and development of professional management, complete with accepted and enforced ethical professional standards. In that context, HBS would become a leader in developing a professional school designed to train professional managers.
Willard F. Enteman (MBA ’61)
Providence, RI
Send letters to bulletin@hbs.edu or Editor, HBS Alumni Bulletin, Teele 521, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163.
