Spreadsheet One

The Big One That Got Away Budding entrepreneurs Rama Dev Jager and Rafael Ortiz, both MBA '96, were GSB students when they decided to find out how the big guys did it. The result is a recently published book of interviews with 16 stalwarts of the computer industry called In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations with the Vision-aries of the Digital World (McGraw-Hill). Among the giants are Ed McCracken, MBA '68, of Silicon Graphics; Trip Hawkins, MBA '78, of Electronic Arts and 3DO; Steve Case, EPSC '90, of America Online; and GSB lecturer Andy Grove of Intel. Among the missing is Scott McNealy, MBA '80, of Sun Microsystems--but not because the authors didn't try to include him. According to Jager and Ortiz, McNealy was so difficult to pin down for an interview that the two finally "bought" him for $650 at the GSB's annual charity auction. Bundled with the elusive McNealy were front-row seats for a San Jose Sharks game. Come game time, the authors had as little luck persuading McNealy to submit to an interview as the Sharks had in persuading their opponents that they were a hockey team to be reckoned with. Lose-lose all around.

Illustration by Michael Klein

Do It, But Don't Expect to Do It All During a spring lecture in Bishop Auditorium, Nike CEO and chairman Phil Knight, MBA '62, entertained students with lessons from the early days of his company and vigorously defended its wage and employment practices in Asia while about 40 protesters demonstrated politely outside. Critics have charged that Nike contractors are underpaying their workers in Vietnam and Indonesia, where the company recently opened factories in an effort to diversify its operations from Korea and Taiwan. In Vietnam, where there is no established shoe industry, Knight said that the company hires farm workers who were typically earning 75 cents a day. Nike starts the workers at $1 a day and promises them that after 15 years, they will be earning $10,000 a year. Reflecting on his career, Knight advised students to pick a job they love. Even in the difficult moments of Nike's early days, Knight said, he had a driving passion for his business. He urged students to find that sense of passion for themselves. One low point for Knight came in 1972 when Nike's single source of supply was cut off. "That left us with no source, no money, no brand--and no doubts," he said. It was then that Knight and his team decided to market shoes under their own label. For the former University of Oregon runner, there was never a moment he didn't love sports, shoes, and business. But along the way, there were choices to be made about how to spend precious time. Knight warned students to have no illusions about "having it all." "Can you have a great job, great family, great marriage, great freedom, great personal time, and a great business career all at once?" asked Knight. "Basically, no. You have to make trade-offs. Don't kid yourself."

Quotable "The only time you must succeed is the last time you try." FRANK SHALLENBERGER, legendary entrepreneurship teacher,quoted by one of his students, Phil Knight, MBA '62

Top Teachers Named This year, for only the second time, the Business School's Distinguished Teaching Award was presented to two members of the faculty--one of whom began his teaching career at Stanford when the other was an eighth-grader. In a May ceremony, James C. Van Horne and Matthew W. White were both named teachers of the year, and Paul Pfleiderer, the William F. Sharpe Professor of Financial Economics, was awarded a letter of commendation for his teaching in the core finance class. James van Horne, the A. P. Giannini Professor of Banking and Finance, was the first two-time winner of the award, having been its first recipient in 1982. Van Horne "makes no apologies about holding students accountable for being prepared, prompt, and attentive," wrote one student. Said another: "I've never experienced a professor who across the board elicits such glowing respect and genuine admiration from students while simultaneously cold-calling regularly and requiring inordinate amounts of class preparation." Assistant Professor of Economics Matthew White delighted students with his energy, his knack for challenging students at their level, and his ability to make statistical material relevant and interesting. "He loves numbers, and he loves sharing their power and beauty with others," said one student. "It is safe to say that I was expecting to loathe Data and Decisions," said another. "But Matt White changed those expectations." Receptive to feedback, White incorporated comments and suggestions from his first year of teaching in this, his second year. As another student summed up: "Matt White challenged us--and we were willing to work hard for him. He is a tremendous asset to this faculty."

James Van Horne(top) and Matthew White shared the 1997 Distinguished Teaching award. Photograph by Anne Knudsen

Lady Luck Is a Hard Worker Luck was never the determining factor in winning a Nobel Prize, becoming CEO, or even getting an education against long odds. Yet the phrase "I've been very lucky" crops up all too frequently when successful women are asked how they did it. "Saying you've been lucky is self-censorship. If you continue to say that, you make it impossible for ambitious young women to follow. You censor out ambition and make it impossible to pass on," said Jill Ker Conway, author and former president of Smith College and one of two key-note speakers at the GSB's 1997 Women's Conference. The conference, sponsored by the School and by its alumni association, was held in New York in May. Too many women have adopted the image of the romantic heroine: lovely, passive ladies carried by fate into occupations that put them in a position to succeed or simply to meet key people who open doors and make their dreams come true. Many women leave out their careful planning, strategic decisions, and gutsy approach to success when they tell their stories. "The romantic novel has no place for a successful woman," said Conway. "Once the heroine makes that link to the hero and achieves success, she drops dead. There's no other success role for her." What can corporations do to help women? Give them courses in military strategy. "Historically, strategy is left out of women's education. Women need a tactical sense of when to engage the enemy. If you engage constantly, you won't be heard." While Conway argues that women need to give themselves more credit for building their own success, she counsels them to maintain a little decorum in telling their story. "Men see relations between the sexes as a zero-sum game--if a woman wins, they lose. That belief can be a powerful motivator. What women have to do is to help men see a win for both sexes. That can only be done calmly and quietly."

Illustration by Michael Klein

Pick Your Battles
"There is no substitute for articulate communication and presenting an argument for your position," Darla Moore, the president of Rainwater Inc., a private investment firm that founds and builds companies, told the Business School Women's Conference in New York last spring. "You can't take on every fight or you will be considered a whiner and complainer. When you do take on a fight, you need the ability to fight to the death."
The three elements of success are ambition, confidence, and contacts."I asked for every promotion I ever got," she said. Moore finds the area women generally have the least strength in is conflict and confrontation. "Women tend to take criticism too personally. You cannot get angry, you must take it in a mature and professional manner. As the scar tissue forms, you get better at it."
Moore also advised: "You need a level of competence in your area that is exceptional. It begins with a relentless pursuit of information, but having information doesn't mean you know anything. You need the ability to artfully interpret information--to see what everyone else sees but think what no one else thinks."
Her own career hinged on that skill. In 1978, Moore spotted three lines of revised language in the bankruptcy code and pioneered "debtor in possession" financing, a new approach to filing bankruptcy that had never been used by large firms. A few years later, the Federal Reserve threatened to hand down a ruling that would have ended Moore's career. She argued her case successfully and the ruling was never issued.