Stories
Stories
AASU Holds 25th Annual Conference
"Our Silver Past and Golden Future" was the theme of the 25th annual Career/Alumni Conference of the HBS African-American Student Union (AASU), held January 30 to February 2 at HBS and the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel. Hundreds of students, alumni, and other participants attended a variety of talks, panel discussions, and seminars, including sessions led by Professor James L. Heskett and Associate Professor Kathleen L. Valley. A highlight of the conference was the presentation of professional achievement awards to W. Don Cornwell (MBA '71), Herbert P. Wilkins (MBA '70), and Terry L. Jones (MBA '74) and awards for civic and community service to Benaree Pratt Wiley (MBA '72) and Kenneth A. Powell (MBA '74). (Powell was also recently elected president of the HBS African-American Alumni Association, which features a large slate of new officers.)
In a forceful keynote address, Earl G. Graves, president and CEO of Earl G. Graves, Ltd., and publisher and CEO of Black Enterprise magazine, observed that a silver anniversary connotes "the blessings of longevity which include the verification of the soundness of your original purpose; affirmation that you have performed much more than adequately to have lasted so long; and a confidence that having come this far, you are well prepared to meet all future challenges."
"The nation's business community," Graves said, "continues to reserve the real positions of power for white males."
But Graves, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Associates of Harvard Business School, cautioned that the majority of African Americans, regardless of ambition or ability, "ultimately slam into the concrete ceiling in corporate America." The nation's business community, he said, "continues to reserve the real positions of power for white males."
Graves told his audience that their HBS education assured them of success but noted that with success comes an obligation to speak out against discriminatory practices engaged in by one's organization. "Far too many of us, having achieved a certain level, will not reach out to help others," Graves declared. To be truly successful, he said, "you will have to stand up for what's right and fair." Graves ended his talk by quoting the late F. Naylor Fitzhugh (MBA '33): "'We don't have time to be average. We've got to fly high where it's not as crowded.'"
Hong Kong Focus of Asia Pacific Conference at HBS
Hong Kong's future under China's sovereignty was the central topic of the fourth annual Asia Pacific Business Conference held at HBS from January 31 to February 1. Before a Burden Hall audience of some nine hundred students, business leaders, and academics, keynote speaker Dr. Edgar Cheng, chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, voiced optimism for the British colony's economic prospects after it reverts to China this July.
Basing his assessment in large measure on the mutual dependency of the two entities, Cheng said, "Hong Kong has benefited enormously from the economic opening of China. At the same time, Hong Kong has helped China build a successful market economy." Characterizing Hong Kong's economic relationship with China as "symbiotic," Cheng noted that Hong KongÐbased investments in mainland China total US$80 billion (over 50 percent of foreign investment in China), that Chinese leaders "have quite well-developed commercial instincts" and are keen to develop their own markets, and that they will likely look to Hong Kong for guidance in developing China's economy.
Cheng stressed, however, that Hong Kong's future economic success will depend on China's observance of the formal transition agreement whose terms state that Hong Kong, with its 6.3 million people, will maintain a separate legal, administrative, and regulatory infrastructure. Political corruption, restrictions by China on the free flow of information and opinion, or other official interference could be potential areas of conflict, he said.
Organized by the Asian Business Club at HBS in collaboration with similar student groups from Harvard's Law School and Design School, this year's conference hosted over fifty speakers from business, government, and academia in the United States and Asia. Panels focused on the economic future of countries such as Taiwan, India, Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam. Industry workshops covered various topics, including the information age in Asia, venture capital in India, and joint ventures in China.
Other conference highlights included the participation of Vietnam's Finance Minister Nguyen Sing Hung, Taiwan's Minister of State Ma Ying-jeou, and Daewoo International Corp. chairman Lee Kyung-Hoon.
At WSA Conference, Writer Anna Quindlen Addresses Passion and Success
Former New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen addressed a large Burden Hall audience on January 25 as the keynote speaker for the Women's Student Association's one-day conference "Personalizing Success: Identity and Passion in Career Choice." The author of three Times columns - "About New York," "Life in the 30s," and "Public and Private" - between 1981 and 1995, Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1992. Three years later, she surprised her readers and fellow journalists by announcing her decision to leave the newspaper to pursue novel-writing full-time. (Her two books, Object Lessons and One True Thing, subsequently became bestsellers.)
In keeping with the conference's "personalizing success" theme, Quindlen spoke about her life's twin passions - work and family - and how over the last decade or more she has managed to achieve success and satisfaction in both realms. She related how in June 1983, six months pregnant with her first child, she became the Times' highest-ranking woman when the paper named her deputy metropolitan editor. She took a six-month maternity leave after her son was born, and then, three months after returning to work, she became pregnant again. When she informed the paper's executive editor, he deadpanned, "You did that last year."
Prepared to leave the paper following her second child's birth, Quindlen said she was delighted when her boss instead proposed an assignment that would allow her more flexibility than her previous job. He asked her to launch the "Life in the 30s" column, which would take its inspiration from the daily joys and travails of her own life. After Quindlen's third child was born, she tried to quit again; this time, the publisher came up with the idea for "Public and Private." "The standing joke around my office," she quipped, "was that if I had one more kid, I'd come back as managing editor!"
"An executive who has a personal life and urges her employess to do the same will be beloved and better at understanding the marketplace and the world."
Levity aside, there was an important lesson in these experiences, Quindlen said. "I gave the Times value for money, and so it decided to accommodate the obvious fact that I had a growing family," she said. "The Times didn't lose anything, even though it made what it would call concessions. It gained enormous loyalty from at least one employee."
All businesses, Quindlen asserted, can and should find creative ways to support and retain their most valuable asset - people. "I believe an executive who has a personal life and urges her employees to do the same will be beloved and better at understanding the marketplace and the world," she concluded. "Not coincidentally, I want my boys to know the joys of rearing children, not dropping in and out of their lives like visitors from an industrial park."
Quindlen's address was followed by more than a dozen panel discussions led by industry professionals on topics such as career choice, entrepreneurship and women's economic power, brand management, gender differences and female leadership style, and trends in employer work/life initiatives. More than four hundred people attended the conference, in-cluding HBS students and students from other area universities.
Post a Comment
Related Stories
-
- 01 Jun 2017
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
@Soldiers Field
Re: Seth Klarman (MBA 1982); Jeanne Jackson (MBA 1978); Robin Greenwood (George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Research) -
- 18 Apr 2017
- HBS Newsroom
Harvard Business School Holds Topping Off Ceremony for Klarman Hall
Re: Seth Klarman (MBA 1982); Nitin Nohria (George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor) -
- 01 Dec 2016
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
@Soldiers Field
Re: Jodi Goldstein (MBA 1996); Jonathan Coslet (MBA 1991); Rohit Deshpande (Baker Foundation Professor Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, Emeritus); Nitin Nohria (George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor); Mihir A. Desai (Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance); Youngme Moon (Donald K. David Professor of Business Administration); Michael A. Wheeler (MBA Class of 1952 Professor of Management Practice, Retired) -
- 15 Nov 2016
- HBS Alumni News
HBS and SEAS Explore Opportunities for Innovative Thinking
Re: Nitin Nohria (George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor); Forest L. Reinhardt (John D. Black Professor Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Promotions and Tenure); Lauren H. Cohen (L.E. Simmons Professor of Business Administration); Karim R. Lakhani (Dorothy and Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration)