Commencement speech to the MBA class of 2013:
Good morning graduates and welcome everyone that has come to show your support for us and for this program.
When
I talk to my fellow graduates, I can’t help but feel a high degree of
excitement. For a few, it’s the relief of finishing a difficult journey
but for many, it is pure energy. Many of us came back to school to
acquire the business acumen, grow our business network and acquire the
tools to become a better and more effective business leader. These
skills that would allow us to take ideas and ambition and turn them into
viable businesses. Now that we have these skills, we can’t wait to
fully implement them.
The
last five years have been an unprecedented time for our country and our
economy. We have seen many false starts, ups and downs in
expectations. I have heard some people begin to get more pessimistic
and even lose hope. At minimum, everyone seems to be distracted and
reacting to the latest worry and the world is watching. The world is
watching North Korea, watching Europe, just watching. And that is the
crux of the problem, the world is watching.
With
turbulence comes opportunity. As the great Tom Callahan once said,
“You’re either growing or you’re dying, there aint’ no third direction!”
He’s right. Everyone that made investments in the future while
others have been hindered by fear understands this. While the world was
watching, everyone that went back to school to improve themselves for
the challenges of today and tomorrow understands this. We understand.
We need to grow, we need to move, we need to be dynamic or we will
decline. While others have taken a diminished role or dropped out of
the workforce entirely, we have signaled to the world through completion
of this MBA program that we can do more and adapt to challenges of the
future.
Despite
all the turbulent news, things are still pretty good. We are at the
height of human possibility. We can communicate and collaborate with
friends and colleagues from all over the world. Products and services
are getting better and more elegant. Consumer and business sentiment is
moving toward more organic and sustainable practices and technology is
moving to support that. We are living, longer, healthier and more
fulfilling lives. We do not have to worry about Newport razing the
tranquil fields of Irvine and instead our attention can focus on more
long-term challenges.
This
transformation in the human condition has largely been made possible by
capitalism. Capitalism has created the greatest advancement in human
well-being in history. Capitalism has showed us a way to avoid the
tragedy of the commons since now individuals have stock in what happens.
Critics of capitalism tell us that it is wasteful and it is greedy but
these characteristics are attributes of individuals that may practice
bad capitalism, not of capitalism itself.
Consumer
sentiment on things such as the environment can change the objective of
capitalism. There is no reason capitalism can’t be green. There is no
reason capitalism can’t be sustainable. Some of the best managed
private forests in Washington and British Colombia have shown that
companies can make a profit, and ecosystems can be preserved. So long
as we are all playing by the same rules and don’t abuse them, then the
best and most efficient organizations will prevail.
As
MBAs, we are at the forefront of capitalism. Through our actions,
capitalism will be executed and the image of capitalism will be
expressed. How are you going to portray that image? How are you going
to influence the views of others on capitalism and on business? Is this
relationship going to be us against them or is it going to be something
else?
Most
of us want to have wealth. But before wealth can be distributed, it
must be created. At the core of capitalism is value creation. When you
ask an economist where value comes from, you can sometimes watch them
visibly squirm as if you’d just asked your parents where babies come
from. Wikipedia and Yahoo! answers offer little guidance on this
topic. The truth is value is created at an individual’s perception and
therefore is hard to define. I perceive value as a consequence of taking
an idea and turning it into a product or service that is wanted.
Economic value is reaped when a market need is met and people adopt
your services.
Many
of us went back to school seeking to improve our wealth. Wealth,
property etc are really just ancillary benefits from creating value.
Would you rather spend your energy fighting over a bigger piece of a
small pie or making your pie bigger? You always have to claim your
slice but you will likely get a bigger slice if you were one of the key
people in growing the pie. If you want to learn how to become wealthy,
you must really learn how to create value and that is the fundamental
frame of mind of a capitalist.
The graduates and everyone here in attendance this morning are aware that we are at the end of one journey and the start of another. So as we prepare to embark on the next phase of our journey, many of us are likely to be thinking about how we are directly or indirectly going to create more value. We have a backlog of plans and have ideas keeping us up into the wee hours of the night as we wrestle on exactly how we are going to bring those ideas to fruition. We now have a new network, a new set of skills and a new understanding to help us on this journey but ultimately it is up to us to create value.
