Alan Greenspan Leads Wharton Graduation Ceremonies MBAs and Undergraduates Hear Speakers on Ethics and Leadership
“Rules cannot substitute for character,” Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told graduates at this year’s Wharton School MBA graduation on May 15.
In light of “recent corporate scandals in the United States,” Greenspan emphasized the importance of ethical leadership in today’s global business environment. He was also awarded the Dean’s Medal, Wharton’s highest honor, created in 1983 to recognize outstanding leaders of private enterprise, public service, and academia.
Greenspan and Harker Stress Business Ethics
Addressing over 1000 graduates, friends, and family on a sunny afternoon, Greenspan focused his speech on business integrity. “In the years going forward,” he said, “it will be your reputation — for integrity, judgment, and other qualities of character — that will determine your success in life and in business. A generation from now, as you watch your children graduate, you will want to be able to say that whatever success you achieved was the result of honest and productive work, and that you dealt with people the way you would want them to deal with you.”
Against the historical background of con men and robber barons “treading on, or over, the edge of legality,” Greenspan advised graduates: “I do not deny that many appear to have succeeded in a material way by cutting corners and manipulating associates, both in their professional and in their personal lives. But material success is possible in this world, and far more satisfying, when it comes without exploiting others. The true measure of a career is to be able to be content, even proud, that you succeeded through your own endeavors without leaving a trail of casualties in your wake.”
Therefore, he concluded, tomorrow’s business leaders “should be working on behalf of shareholders to allocate business resources to their optimum use. It seems clear that, if the CEO chooses, he or she can, by example and through oversight, induce corporate colleagues and outside auditors to behave ethically. Transcending all else is being principled in how you go about doing those things.”
Dean Patrick Harker echoed Greenspan’s comments by tying ethical business leadership to the legacy of Joseph Wharton, the school’s founder, who “recognized that wealth and privilege denoted the responsibility of leadership — the responsibility to create opportunity for others.”
“As a businessman,” Harker explained, “Joseph Wharton had amassed a considerable personal fortune — and he used that fortune not only to establish the world’s first business school, but also to support many other educational and social institutions.”
“Wharton believed, above all else,” Harker continued, “that business must lead — that economic growth enhances human freedom and human potential, and that this is fundamentally more essential than personal financial gain. He created this institution to empower you to provide that leadership — for your communities, your nations and the world.
So when we, as an institution, say that we seek to prepare you to be leaders, we mean that we want you to be men and women who will use the privilege of your educations to create economic growth that will benefit society as a whole.”
Wharton Undergraduates Get Life Lessons
Speakers at Wharton’s undergraduate graduation ceremonies emphasized how students will use the skills they learned at Wharton to make their way in the world ahead of them.
Vice dean Barbara Kahn, director of the undergraduate division, encouraged graduates to draw on skills beyond the ones they have learned in the classroom. “At some point in the future,” she said, “you are likely to find yourself in a situation where you have absolutely no prior experience, and where nothing specifically we have shown you in school can prepare you.”
She illustrated her point with a memorable story about finding herself by accident at a nude beach in Australia with her 10-year-old daughter. “The point of the story,” she concluded, “is that your Wharton education is designed not only to teach you the technical details of analyzing a stock portfolio or evaluating a balance sheet — but also to help you navigate our complex world.”
Echoing Kahn’s idea that “leadership and success in life is a process, and life’s events don’t always follow the rules,” John Core, associate professor of accounting and a winner of the David W. Hauck Award for Outstanding Teaching, delivered a short and spirited thank-you that sent students out on a rousing note.
“Before you leave, I want to give you one piece of advice: Have a good time ... all the time!
And what I mean by this is: Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep finding ways to make yourselves happy.”
