Spreadsheet One

First Entrepreneur Conference at GSB
More than 300 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and nonprofit leaders turned out for the GSB's first Conference on Entrepreneurship in March. The two-day event featured a keynote address by John Morgridge, MBA '57, who took over Cisco Systems when it was a funky startup and turned it into a Silicon Valley power; closing remarks by Scott Cook, the cofounder and now chair of the financial software maker Intuit; and 20 panels and seminars.
There was something for everyone in the small-group offerings, which were divided into three tracks­high-tech topics, general management and startups, and social entrepreneurship. Panelists talked of their own experiences raising capital, choosing a board, going public, and deciding to replace a founder as CEO.
"You have to ask: Why does the founder start the company? The three answers are ego, greed, or the vision thing. The second and third are easy to deal with," said Steve Dow, MBA '81 and a general partner at Sevin Rosen Funds, about replacing the founder of a startup. All in all, Dow wishes every founder were an effective CEO. "Venture capitalists are lazy," he said. "Nothing would make them happier than having the whole successful management team in place from Day One." Ariel Poler, MBA '94, I/Pro founder and board member who is no longer CEO, told how he joined the search for his own replacement at his World Wide Web startup. "I was very conscious of not being perceived as the founder who doesn't want to let go," said Poler.
Over at the social entrepreneurship track, which was a culmination of this year's Public Management Initiative, the day closed with a discussion of the future of social entrepreneurship. Said Heather McLeod, cofounder of Who Cares, a magazine for Generation Xers interested in philanthropy and the nonprofit sector: "There is a movement in this country. It is driven by young people like myself who are trying to practice models of entrepreneurship in a neither totally for-profit nor totally nonprofit area," McLeod said. "We need to have a national forum for nonprofit leaders in the same way that there's leadership development for the for-profit sector. Our academic institutions, such as Stanford Business School, need to break the mold."

The Forgiven
At least four members of the MBA Class of 1997 expect to take advantage of the GSB's Loan Forgiveness Program, which is designed to encourage students to make careers in the public and nonprofit sectors. Since the program was created in 1987, 18 graduates have offset a portion of the need-based loans they incurred to finance their Business School educations.
In the future, more grads are likely to apply. This year the program was revamped to remove the income eligibility earnings cap. Now, anyone working for a qualifying organization whose adjusted salary is under $30,000 is eligible for full loan forgiveness for that year. Those who earn more are eligible for partial loan forgiveness. Gross income of an alum (and spouse) can be adjusted downward to account for dependent children, child care, and non-GSB loan payments.
GSB alumni/ae from earlier classes who work for government agencies or organizations classified as 501(c)(3) or 501 (c)(4) are eligible.

Here We Grow Again!
Work is scheduled to begin this summer on a 14,000-square-foot addition to the Littlefield Management Center. The three-story addition will allow Littlefield to house the deans' offices as well as the School's 120 faculty members and the majority of emeritus faculty. At present, Dean A. Michael Spence and the associate deans for external relations and for the MBA Program have offices in the main building, while other associate deans are located in Littlefield.
The site of the new structure is across Memorial Way from the main GSB building where several temporary buildings have stood for some time. The architectural firm of Skidmore, Owens & Merrill LLP developed the design to ease the demand for faculty work space and to create a single entrance point for visitors to the School. The addition, flanked by a 19,000-square-foot outdoor plaza facing the older Business School structure, will improve traffic patterns between the two parts of the School. The proposal for the design was accepted at the April board of trustees meeting. Construction will begin in July, with completion anticipated in mid-1998.

Intellectual Game of Investment
Thomas Thornhill, MBA '77, managing director of technology equity research at San Francisco's Montgomery Securities, dropped into GSB Room 52 in February to talk to students interested in becoming equity analysts. The ability to write a compelling story quickly is essential, says Thornhill. Moreover, "it has to instill fear or greed because those are the two prime motivators for trading stock."
At Montgomery, which has a strong trading presence in technology stocks, Thornhill is currently building a new media and communications research department as more startups in this growing field are publicly traded. The firm is also about to open an equity research office in London to follow the burgeoning number of European growth companies that want to list on NASDAQ.
Thornhill predicts high-tech IPOs will mushroom in the next two years. "The demand for research has been increasing as the number of fund managers grows," he says. What's the best hire Thornhill can make? Someone who has work experience in the research sector being covered and also has an MBA degree. An absolute must: someone who is "very motivated, very competitive," he says. "Investing is the greatest intellectual game on the planet."

Boeing Chief wins Arbuckle Award
Understanding the human side of management and developing the ability to positively influence others are key elements in determining business success, said Frank Shrontz, Sloan '70, the quietly effective leader of the Boeing Company for over a decade and the 1997 Arbuckle Award winner.
"I've seen many outstanding functional performers at Boeing, particularly engineers, peak out two-thirds of the way through their careers because they lack the skills to motivate others," Shrontz said at the award ceremony in March. Shrontz rejects the idea, however, that one particular leadership style is essential for success. "How else can you explain a quiet, legal type running a high-technology company?" asked Shrontz, who earned a law degree from the University of Idaho.
A Boeing man for most of his life, Shrontz joined the firm in 1958, taking his only leave in 1973 to serve three and one-half years as assistant secretary of the Air Force and later of the U.S. Defense Department. In 1985, Shrontz became president of the firm, the world's leading jetliner manufacturer. He became CEO in 1986 and chairman of the board in 1988. He stepped down in 1996.
Over the years, Boeing has been credited for helping improve the U.S. balance of payments and criticized for its effect on the economy of Washington's Puget Sound area when business downturns occasionally forced layoffs. Today, spurred by the fuel- efficient 777 model, developed on Shrontz's watch, Boeing has a backlog of orders.
Accepting the award, Shrontz urged business leaders to not shy away from taking risks and to recognize the value of continuous process improvement. He also called for management education that forces young managers to think across functional disciplines, hones logical thinking skills, and teaches strategic thinking skills.
"At Boeing, we can identify a number of good leaders to run the company operations on a current basis. It's much more difficult to identify executives with ability or even the desire to think about the opportunities and challenges 20 years out. Yet strategic thinking is probably where senior leaders can make the greatest contribution in both the profit and nonprofit areas," he said.
Shrontz is concerned about the ability of K­12 public school systems in the United States to "meet the demands of the increasingly sophisticated design and production processes being put in place by American industry." Improving K­12 public education is key to the country's success, he said. "There is no more critical effort to ensure our future."

"The most important thing a young MBA can establish is a reputation of character. The world loves talent but pays off on character."

Peter Palecek, MBA '71, addressing new MBA students at the Czech Management Centre in his native country