As you know, most of my teaching and writing these days is focused on leadership, values and ethics, and what it takes to become a values-based leader and lead a values-based organization. Nonetheless, since I started out my career in finance and was the CFO of Baxter International before becoming the Chairman and CEO, I LOVE discussing financial topics!!!! I
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Normally by this time I would have written a blog post wishing everyone a “Happy New Year.” This year, however, given what has happened in our country over the past several months, I decided that I needed to wait. No, the cause of my waiting is not the COVID pandemic. As terrible as the impact of the virus has been
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A friend summed up 2020 the other day for me: “Harry, the only good news regarding 2020 is that it is almost over.” Very few people have seen anything like it: A pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people around the world, including 280,000 Americans; 25 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, significant social unrest, and a U.S. presidential
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Here’s a blog post to take your mind away (at least temporarily) from the US presidential election and COVID 😉 Many years ago, as an 18-year-old freshman at Lawrence University, a liberal arts college in northeastern Wisconsin, I learned an invaluable lesson in my required Freshman Studies class. We were assigned to read everything from Plato’s Republic to Shakespeare’s plays,
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As I am sure everyone is aware, tomorrow, Tuesday, November 3, 2020, is the day that Americans have the opportunity to vote for the next President of the United States. In full disclosure, this post is not going to include opinions or statements about Republicans or Democrats, nor Donald Trump or Joe Biden (although it is very tempting) 😉 Rather,
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When I was a student at Kellogg starting in the Fall of 1977 (I know, it is hard to believe that was 43 years ago 😉 ), one of my favorite professors was Professor Bala Balachandran. Professor Balachandran taught accounting, information systems, and management! I even remember him teaching my class in Fortran programming!! (How many of you remember Fortran
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I admit that I often (okay, VERY FREQUENTLY) mention that one of the biggest advantages of SELF-REFLECTION (and becoming self-aware) is that it minimizes the number of times you are surprised. I explain in my classes at Kellogg that anyone can determine if someone is really SELF-REFLECTIVE by talking to them for 15 minutes and seeing how often they admit
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Hi Everyone, First of all, I pray that you are safe and healthy during the global pandemic and significant social unrest. It has clearly been a remarkable year in many dimensions. As may be the case with many of you, I am constantly asked, “How are you doing?” For over a month now I have been responding to this question
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I want to wish all dads a very happy Father’s Day!!!! My day started with Daniel, Diane, and Suzie singing “Happy Father’s Day” and serving me my favorite disaster sausage omelet from Sarkis Cafe in Evanston (I highly recommend it as long as you take several long jogs the same day 😉). We then went on a wonderful bike ride
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Since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week, I have had numerous discussions with my Kellogg students both in classes and one-on-one. The words used to describe the horrible tragedy were a combination of shock, disgust, disbelief, anger, frustration and embarrassment. The student questions included: How could someone do that to a fellow human being? Why didn’t the
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