Stanford GSB: Stanford Business August 2000

Choose people of integrity, says Frank Ramirez MBA '83, winner of the Latino leadership award

Photo by Steve Castillo

TO FRANK RAMIREZ winner of this year's Jerry I. Porras Award for Latino Leadership, few challenges are as important as choosing the right people to work with. While it's tempting to pick partners who promise a shortcut to success, "we must have the courage to seek the high road of working with people of character and integrity. Surround yourself with good people, people who are principled, kind, and compassionate," advised Ramirez, MBA '83, who was honored in February by the School's Hispanic Business Students Association for being just the sort of person he recommends.

After some 15 years in banking and finance, Ramirez founded Structured Capital Management in 1995 and now is a consultant to various private companies. He is a member of the Stanford Business School Trust and has served on the national advisory board of the University's Center for Chicano Research.

At a banquet in his honor, Ramirez described himself as a "simple boy from Pueblo, Colorado," the eldest son of a "very poor, blind widow from Michoacán." It was his mother who exhorted him to find the shade of a good, strong tree. Business School students should serve as "strong oak trees" for Latino undergraduates, he said. Ramirez is the fourth recipient of the award, named in honor of organizational behavior professor Jerry Porras.

Illustration by Michael Klein

PATAGONIA, DESIGNER AND distributor of clothing for outdoor enthusiasts, was prepared to lose some business to stand behind its environmental ideals. But, CEO Michael Crooke told a View From the Top audience, "Whatever we've done as a company to follow our environmental beliefs, the bottom line has followed." A case in point: When the company dispensed with the eye-catching but wasteful packaging for its Capilene fiber underwear, it prepared itself for a 25- to 30-percent dip in sales. Instead, Patagonia's sales went up 25 percent once consumers could feel the fabric without the packaging.

Also popular has been its innovative Synchilla fleece.The fabric is made from recycled soda bottles, which are manufactured from a petroleum byproduct. Crooke estimated that Patagonia's jackets and sweaters made from recycled containers have had the effect of reusing the equivalent of 600,000 gallons of oil.

HE TOOK OVER the largest cable operation in the United States, engineered its turnaround, and initiated its sale to AT&T in one of the biggest corporate mergers in history all in about 15 months. Then, six months after AT&T's takeover of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) was completed, he announced his resignation.

Leo Hindery, MBA '71, has a passion for racing stock cars, and keeping track of his corporate moves can be as exhilarating as watching him in one of his Pontiacs.

Taking a pit stop at the Business School's Future of Content conference in March, Hindery gave some insight into his decision to sell TCI. One key reason, he said, was Moore's Law—the trend of rising performance, and hence falling prices, of memory chips. "Moore's Law applies to a much broader spectrum of life than simply chips," Hindery said in his keynote speech. "It is a truism in every aspect of media and entertainment, broadband, and Internet." Moore's Law, Hindery noted, helped to revive the ailing cable TV industry as it upgraded to digital networks. But the ever-lowering cost of delivering TV to homes threatened to defeat cable operators, as they faced competition not only from telephone companies but also from wireless technologies. "Moore's Law never stops when you get rich," he said.

In March, Hindery became CEO of Global Crossing Ltd., a provider of international fiber-optic communication networks designed to support voice, data, and bandwidth-intensive, next-generation applications such as e-commerce and video conferencing.

The Future of Content conference, which drew more than 80 speakers, was the brainchild of students in the School's Arts, Media, and Entertainment Club. The organizers are hoping to make it an annual forum for exploring the latest issues in media convergence.

MARK BREIER, WHO ONCE appeared on national television in his boxer shorts advertising his company Beyond.com, now has come out with his own management guide, The 10-Second Internet Manager.

"I've used my experience at Amazon.com and Beyond.com to assemble tips on how to hire, act fast, hold meetings, embrace email, and so on," he says. Breier, MBA '85, was vice president of marketing at Amazon. com before becoming CEO of Beyond.com, an e-commerce services provider and online software store, in early 1998.

Breier left in January and now serves as an independent dot-com advisor and investor. His book, to be published by Crown, reaches stores this fall.

Spreadsheet One