University of Pittsburgh

Careers

Samme Thompson’s April 27, 2007 Commencement Speech

Good afternoon Dean Delaney, distinguished guests, members of the Pitt community, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to help celebrate this special occasion. I would also like to congratulate today’s proud graduates.  

I appreciate that each of today’s graduates decided to enter the Katz MBA program for different reasons: Some saw it as a requirement for progression up the corporate ladder; perhaps, a few of you found your last job unfulfilling and were attracted to the intellectual rigor and stimulation that an MBA program offered; yet others, I am sure, are considering a career change, and view an MBA as an efficient way to acquire new skills, broaden your network and explore new career options.

Despite your personal reasons for toughing it out the last one or two years, I am confident there is unanimous agreement that the grind was well worth it and that today you share a common drive to succeed in achieving a vision that is uniquely your own.

I am equally confident that you are sitting here today with great excitement and anticipation about what future lies ahead. No doubt, you are asking yourselves a host of questions:

How do I maximize my chances for success?

How do I leverage what I am really good at and, better yet, how do I determine what I am really good at?

Am I targeting a profession, an industry, or a company that is poised for long term success?
Or have I misread the tea leaves, and am I about to join a team that is headed for trouble or a company that is poised for stagnant or negative growth? 

As I look across the room today, I am reminded that my fellow classmates and I sat in these same seats asking ourselves these same questions over thirty years ago despite the fact that the world has changed dramatically since that time.

Back then, our professors relied on chalk, talk, and Xerox copiers as their communications aids of choice. There was no Internet. There were no laptops or mobile phones. High speed computing was a dream. Product cycles were long and, I might add, a lot more predictable. And career options in private equity or hedge fund investing, venture capital, biosciences, and Web-based commerce were virtually nonexistent.

I am also confident that today’s graduates share the same mixed emotions that we had in terms of our perceived readiness to leave business school and launch our new careers.

On the one hand, we were cocky and self assured, believing we had all the right stuff to take on whatever analytical, managerial, or financial engineering challenge our new bosses might throw at us.

On the other hand, however, we were anxious and, I must admit, somewhat intimidated at the prospect of working in new, fast-paced, highly competitive environments where we would likely be the newest member on the team, without the support of those faculty members, partners, and other critical thinkers we had grown to trust and respect while matriculating here in the business school.

Suffice it to say, the successful transition from business school to the real world for myself and many of my peers was partially due to our ability to quickly adapt to intense work environments, and an ability to creatively dissect complex business problems or market strategies, while analyzing transactions, using skills and techniques that we honed while studying here at the University of Pittsburgh.

To a much greater degree, however, I attribute my success to three world class companies and professional organizations, including: Westinghouse Electric Company, based here in Pittsburgh; McKinsey, the consulting firm; and AT&T.

I had the good fortune of spending my formative years immediately after business school working at each of these fine institutions. 

It was not just that each of them stimulated me with demanding assignments that were both domestic and global in scope or that they provided me an opportunity to learn from the masters such disciplines as the critical necessity of effective writing and communications skills or the role of financial engineering in the formation of compelling business strategy. Rather, they also represented workplace environments that were a perfect fit with my temperament, my developmental needs, and my loosely-defined career aspirations.

Over the years, I have come to realize that a fundamental reason why these institutions played such an effective role in my successful transition was due to the simple fact that they individually and collectively defined themselves by three common guiding principles or three overarching management traits:

Fist, leaders at each of these companies displayed an abundance of passion for their business’ strategic vision and the roadmap they were following to realize this vision;

Secondly, each company was steadfastly committed to, and driven by, integrity; and
Thirdly, each company routinely…almost religiously…exemplified courage.  Courage in the way they conducted business, dealt with people, and handled difficult business decisions.

I will now comment briefly on each of these qualities, as I believe those of you graduating today would be well served by including them in your due diligence checklists as you proceed to refine and re-evaluate your career options and  manage your own workplace selection process over the next several years. 

By a large margin, I have consistently been attracted to institutions and individuals that exude passion: passion for achieving excellence; passion for solving the tough problem; passion that is shared by senior leaders, as well as all levels of the management hierarchy.

Even before graduating, an especially memorable example of passion occurred during my enrollment here in Pitt’s MBA program. And that was when I met, and got to know former dean Jerry Zoffer.
I remain impressed and encouraged by the boundless energy, enthusiasm, and passion displayed by Dean Jerry Zoffer in conveying the academic standards adhered to by the University of Pittsburgh in general and the Graduate School of Business in particular. In doing so, he became a trusted coach, not a detached administrator, who was truly committed to helping me and my fellow classmates navigate through the MBA program.

I especially appreciate that Dean Zoffer spent considerable time and energy advising and mentoring me and four of my fellow classmates to strive for academic excellence while also motivating us to succeed in our landmark roles as the business school’s first African American students.
After graduating, I was neither seeking nor expecting a career that afforded me a forty hour work week, four weeks’ vacation, or work-free weekends.

To the contrary, I, like most of today’s graduates, was seeking to join a team of talented professionals that was truly passionate about what they were doing, while striving for excellence themselves and for everyone around them. 

I also wanted to work for leaders who were eager to share their wisdom and insights with young, inexperienced, yet well trained team members from diverse cultures and backgrounds.

Leaders such as Marshall Evans, Westinghouse’s former vice chairman; Fred Gluck, McKinsey’s former managing partner; Bob Casale, a senior executive at AT&T; plus many others took great care in helping me appreciate the fact that true success in business is not how much money you make, how big your office is, or, how high up in the organization you climb. Real and tangible success comes to those who follow their hearts as well as their minds. It can only be measured by asking yourself if you are truly excited, or shall I say passionate, about getting up and going to work every day.

Fortunately, the value of an MBA for me was not that it led to a job that paid more money, which of course it did. The real value was that early on in my career it provided me with a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with some first class business leaders who were genuinely committed to what they were doing and were very demanding, yet generous in sharing their skills, their wisdom, and their commitment to excellence with those of us who were around them.  

Now let’s examine integrity, a leadership trait that I am pleased to see represents a center of excellence here at the Katz School, but also one that has received a lot of attention recently.
There are few things I value as highly as a reputation for integrity, both my own and that of the people and institutions I deal with. It’s so important, yet so fragile.

Such a reputation is built up over a lifetime, but can be destroyed in seconds. Just open the newspaper and look at the countless politicians, celebrities, and corporations that have had fine reputations tarnished by a moment of indiscretion.

Many of you have some corporate experience. You have tested yourselves on the field of competition. You know the critical importance of commitment, team work, perseverance, and imagination. But without integrity—that moral compass to do what is right, not just what is expedient—these important traits lack a “bonding agent.” They require integrity to make them truly adhere to business goals.

I recently read an interesting speech delivered by Robert Lane, chair and CEO of John Deere & Company, wherein he defined integrity as practiced at Deere to simply mean, “No smoke, no mirrors, no tricks....straight down the middle.”

Chairman Lane went on to say this particular phrase applies to how Deere works with its employees, as well as with its dealers, suppliers, legislators, and industry associations.

No one hears one thing internally, only to later read another story in the newspapers. Integrity goes beyond just acknowledging the truth in a timely manner.

W.H. Hindman once said, “Integrity is doing the right thing [even] when no one is looking.”

Max DePree, former CEO of Herman Miller furniture and noted author, defines integrity as “a fine sense of one's obligations.” He goes on to characterize integrity as the difference between gesture and commitment.

You graduates have an exciting future ahead of you, but what goes with it is an awesome responsibility. So always take responsibility for your own actions and when in doubt, just do the right thing. Life is too short to waste time doing otherwise.

Throughout the course of my career, I have observed that managers who lead with integrity, who follow the rules of ethical engagement and avoid the trap of self-deception and public embarrassment will, in the long run, be the winners on Wall Street, as well as on the competitive battlefield, all the while advancing the lives of all who depend on their respective businesses.
Finally, let me speak briefly about courage. 

Throughout my career, but especially during my roles as chief strategy officer for Motorola and investment banker on Wall Street, I have been intrigued by the ability of those colleagues and business leaders who skillfully display courage— that ability to repeatedly make tough, yet correct, business decisions—on a daily basis, while also empowering others up and down the corporate hierarchy to do likewise.

I find it refreshing to work with leaders who know the difference between pride and arrogance, hard-driving determination and recklessness, or swagger. Leaders who gracefully, and often quietly, project a sense of self confidence during periods of uncertainty and turmoil—and believe me, I have witnessed an impressive array of corporate turmoil. In fact, some of my most memorable promotions occurred during periods of turmoil, owing to creative and compelling solutions that I was able to apply to complex transactions and business decisions.

I need not remind you that today’s marketplace is substantially more competitive and more complex than it was when I graduated. Today’s business environment is largely driven by new technologies; intensified global competition; and ever-changing consumer, investor, and regulatory demands. These new realities constantly challenge us to rethink what is critical to sustained growth and profitability and what strategic game plan is required to realize important performance objectives. Courageous leadership, complimented with sound judgment and skilled execution capabilities, are essential competencies in this demanding environment.

Ken Chenault, chair and CEO of American Express, recently wrote that he elicits courage by inviting confrontation and debate. In Chenault’s view, it’s not personal.

He invites subordinates to argue with him. It requires courage to offer a different perspective and challenge current or popular views. It requires courage to speak out, especially when one doesn’t personally benefit from it. Or, as will be the case for many of today’s graduates, it will take courage to speak your mind, even though you might be the most junior member of the team.

But it also takes courage for your new corporate leaders to adopt Chenault’s approach of creating a work environment that encourages you to do so. I share Chenault’s view, “to build ‘follow-ship,’ one has to be courageous.”

On a lighter note, I am reminded of a classic example of courage. Some years ago, a rising star at Citibank made a colossal error that cost the bank $20 million. Without a second thought the junior executive promptly reported the mistake to his superiors.

When he was later summoned to CEO John Reed’s office, he explained the error, took full responsibility for it, and said to the CEO, “I guess now you’re going to fire me.”

Reed paused for a moment and said, “Fire you? I can’t afford to fire you. I just spent $20 million training you.” This junior executive later rose to become a senior member of Citibank’s executive management team. 

One word of caution graduates, I don’t recommend you expect this outcome too often. Get it right the first time.

Another less flattering example of courage, or the lack thereof, is Enron, which had terrific values, but they weren’t values in action during a crisis. People saw things happening but didn't have the courage to speak out and say, ‘I will not compromise my integrity.’ Courage means people have values that they adhere to in good times as well as times of crisis.

In closing, I challenge you graduates to seek out those institutions and work environments that demonstrate the moral courage and intellectual honesty, to lead and not to follow.

Those companies that seem able to spot new trends and shifting circumstances early; those companies that have the vision and agility to embrace complex management challenges emanating from globalization, work place diversity, and the rising importance of China, India, and other historically-developing nations, these are the companies that will be best positioned to adjust quickly, respond wisely, and retain a competitive advantage. 

Accordingly, I have no doubt that these are the companies and institutions that will continue to offer the exciting and rewarding career challenges that you highly-skilled graduates of the class of 2007 deserve.

Again, let me congratulate you on this memorable day and wish each of you the best of luck and God speed in your new careers.