The Alumni Achievement Award is the School’s highest honor, first established in 1968 and bestowed upon only a handful of HBS graduates each year. That distinction, however, didn’t protect this year’s five winners from some tough questioning by HBS professor and senior associate dean for External Relations Bill Sahlman, who quizzed each recipient at a late September event held for the benefit of hundreds of first-year MBA students packing Burden Auditorium. Sahlman opened the discussion with this stumper: What is your greatest accomplishment?

“I’ve built some really great teams and some really great cultures,” said Donna Dubinsky (MBA ’81), cofounder and CEO of Numenta and former CEO of Palm Computing and Handspring. “That’s what pulled us through the hard times and made us more resilient and flexible for change.”

HATS OFF: Alumni Achievement Award winners (back row) Sorrell, Dubinsky, Zobel; (front row) Mixon, Wyss.

Photo by Stuart Cahill

After half-joking that his greatest accomplishment was getting his wife to marry “an Oklahoma cowboy,” Mal Mixon (MBA ’68) cited his successful purchase of Invacare, a manufacturer of in-home medical equipment where he serves as chairman and CEO. When he bought the company in 1979, Mixon had only $10,000 of the $7.8 million asking price. But he managed to raise the rest and led the company to annual revenues of $1.5 billion (those early investors have seen Invacare’s stock grow from 2¢ to $25 a share).

Hansjörg Wyss (MBA ’65) played down his own success as chairman of Synthes, a $2.3 billion global medical device company that focuses on surgical implants and tools for fixing broken bones. “My greatest achievement has been to influence young people in a positive and constructive way through scholarships,” said Wyss, an active philanthropist who has also devoted time and resources to protecting the world’s wide-open spaces.

Two of this year’s winners cited family life. “Finding a balance is something I’m proud about,” remarked Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala (MBA ’87), leader of the 173-year-old Ayala Corporation, a conglomerate involved in almost every sector of the Philippine economy. For Sir Martin Sorrell (MBA ’68), it was “bringing up three boys who we couldn’t figure out how to turn into girls.” As group chief executive of WPP Group plc, one of the world’s largest advertising and marketing services organizations, he confessed to struggling with the demands of career and family. “It’s a trick, a skill, an art, a science that very few people manage,” he said.

After the highs of achievement, Sahlman broached the darker subject of tough times.

“You turned immediately to me. This is extremely worrying,” joked Sorrell. On a more serious note, he cited the restructuring of WPP in 1991 and 1992 as a difficult time. Sahlman then noted that Zobel had guided his firm through volatile markets in the Philippines. “It’s easy to discount bad times,” Zobel observed. “Make the assumption that they’re part of life and think through the implications.” It’s important to build up reserves of trust with customers and markets to call on in hard times, he added, and don’t try to start the process when times are already difficult.

Dubinsky recalled her media ride on the high-tech roller coaster, from popular business magazine cover girl to persona non grata. “You have to be disciplined about sorting out what people tell you about who you are,” she said. “Keep a steady hand, be strong in your communications, and really have courage.”

Reflections on wisdom

Malachi Mixon: “It’s a collection of life’s experiences. If you’ve never had a fist fight, you don’t know what it’s like to be hit.”

Donna Dubinsky: “Wisdom combines the powers of keen observation and strong listening skills. We leave HBS with good talking skills, but sometimes our listening skills need some work. It’s important to listen, and to listen to the things someone is not saying as well.”

Sir Martin Sorrell: “The art of thinking, writing, and listening is being lost in Western cultures. In the future, that will inhibit wisdom and growth.”

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala: “Empathy and humility are underrated qualities. Wisdom comes from reflecting on different points of view.”

For more on this event and for profiles, please visit the Alumni Achievement Award winners website.

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