Editor

Letters

Allen and his executive classmates, 1953.

FOND MEMORIES
I was a member of what was called the Executive Development Program, Class of 1953. Although I have been far away from the campus in both miles and years, I think of the School often--and fondly. Your publication plays an important role in my reminiscing, and I commend you and your staff on it. I especially like the new name and the new look.
      Looking through some old personal papers recently, I came across an "original" mimeographed copy of our class song and our class picture. Both for your files if you wish. Perhaps you'll get a smile from these. I did. In case you're curious, I'm in the front row, third from the right.
      By way of explanation, back then we lived in Crothers Hall and our very effective guide and leader was Professor Paul Holden.

--JOSEPH H. ALLEN, SEP '53
Darien, Connecticut

SUCCESS CAN BE A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW
The article "Ambidextrous Organizations" [June 1997] pointed out many of the challenges and opportunities of managing through transitions. The book should be an interesting read. Clearly the pace of technology has intensified the need to move from past to future with more dexterity. While start-up firms continue as significant challenges, it's probably even more difficult for a mature firm to start up a new product or market. When the core business generates substantial profits and "entitlement" characterizes the financial expectations, few companies can make the move.

--DENNIS J. CRANE, MBA '80
Ann Arbor, Michigan

BOTTOMING OUT IN PATAGONIA
If I'm not mistaken, I see signs of GSB alums going soft ["A Frequent Flier's Guide to Survival," June 1997]. Fancy nominating Narita as the worst airport to wait at! Why, you can eat and drink well and amuse yourself trying to decipher the departure announcements (half of which are theoretically in English already).
      Your correspondent has obviously never stopped at Rio Gallegos at the bottom end of Argentinian Patagonia, which I nominate as the worst regular 747 stop. While the creaky Aerolineas Argentinas 747-200 loads fuel on the cold and windswept tarmac for the Antarctic loop to New Zealand, you can pace up and down in a stuffy terminal that may have once been military and contemplate the not-so-good local leatherwear in a shop called El Pinguino (The Penguin). Or you can watch mad backpackers and mountaineers board buses for the distant Andes. And that's about it until they are ready for you to board again. No doubt others can tell tales of the airports of Baku or Ulan Bator, but Narita is civilization!

--RALPH EVANS, MBA '71
Sydney, Australia

ALLOCATION ETHICS
I write as a sympathizer with Stefanos Zenios's efforts to maximize society's overall benefits from intelligent allocations of scarce resources ["Fair Play for Transplants," March 1997], but believe that ultimate acceptance of his models depends on a political discussion that has yet to begin.
      The issue in determining priorities for organ transplants is not one of fairness, because fairness can be defined only in the context of explicit ideological premises that a pluralistic U.S. society goes to great lengths to avoid. The issue is whether the determining criteria that end up being used come from advocates of individual decisions or from advocates of an elite's ability to make better judgments than an individual about what is in the common good.
      I am an instinctive believer in an elite's ability to make better choices about complex matters. Yet, as a believer in democ-racy, I also believe in government by the consent of the governed and in the protection of fundamental rights for minorities. The burden of proof is on the elitists. Why should I stop a rich kidney transplant candidate from buying a place at the front of the line? What public consent empowers me to stop it? Until that question is answered to the satisfaction of a democratic society's majority, allocation models will have little practical relevance.

SEBASTIANO SCARAMPI, MBA '73
Mountain View, California

DOCTOR DELTOIDS
["How to Keep Fit on the Fly," September 1997] Extremely mobile and time-constrained readers might want to be aware of the Lifeline gym, a 2-pound portable device that hooks into most door hinges and allows the user to perform some 50-plus different exercises including leg lunges, bench presses, abdominal curls, and triceps pulldowns. I've hauled mine to various locales, most recently on safari in Botswana, where, lacking door hinges, my guide and I tethered it to trees, a trailer hitch, etc. It was developed by an outrageous entrepreneur, Bobby Hinds, ex-juvenile offender and boxer. Full disclosure: I have no financial interest in Lifeline Corp., although I am a big fan of Bobby.

--PAUL FRISHKOFF, PHD '70
Eugene, Oregon

MISSING CLASSMATE
In the Spreadsheet section [December 1997], you provide a Sloan Program update that may contain an error. Your article says that this fall's entering class includes the "first class member from the Chinese Republic." I must point out that Zhou Tianbao from the People's Republic of China was a member of my Sloan Class of 1982. We have lost track of Tianbao since his return to his native land but should not lose track of his accomplishments while he was with us in the United States.

--CAROLE WESTPHAL, SLOAN '82
Englewood, Colorado

We'd love to hear from you! Please send your letters to Stanford Business, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5015 or gsb_newsline@gsb.stanford.edu. Letters may be edited for length.

BRAD HOLLAND (Cover): Print magazine has called Brad Holland "the fiercest and most independent political artist of our time." Internationally known, Holland has created covers for the New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Atlantic Monthly, Forbes, and Fortune, among others. His work is exhibited in museums around the world and is published in a book of his drawings, Human Scandals.

MARK GERVASE: Mark Gervase specializes in corporate advertising photography in Southern California. He is a graduate of the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara and has received several Awards of Excellence from Communication Arts magazine.

JENNIFER REESE: Contributing writer Jennifer Reese worked on staff as a reporter at Fortune in New York City from 1988 until 1993. She has been working freelance for the last five years and has contributed to the San Francisco Chronicle, Fortune, and Health, among other publications. She attended Stan-ford University as an undergraduate and currently lives in San Francisco.

ROBERT HOLMGREN: A Menlo Park, Calif., photographer, Robert Holm-gren specializes in editorial portraiture. His work has appeared in Business Week, Forbes, Inc., Time, Smithsonian, and Newsweek, as well as various computer-related magazines.

JAMES YANG: James Yang's art has appeared in numerous trade publications and has won more than 170 awards. Currently Yang is commissioned to design a sculpture for the Smithsonian Institution, to be exhibited in 1999. He teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York.