Senior Editor

Letters

HE WAS THERE
Your two-page picture in the March 1998 issue brought back a few memories.
       First of all, the picture was taken in 1946, not in 1940 as labeled. And that was not the great Paul Holden's class. It was the entire two-year biz school at the time. Dean Jackson had to empty the bathrooms to get all 27 of us there for the picture. No worry over crowded classes in those days.

--BOB KENNEDY, MBA '46
Salt Lake City, Utah

Much later, in the 1970s, the great Paul Holden himself identified the photo as having been taken in 1939 or 1940. However, Bob Kennedy must be correct in dating the pic-ture at 1946 because he was there. He's the fellow in the back row, second from the left. In 1940, Kennedy wasn't even in the Business School; he was a mere undergrad at Stanford.
      As for crowded classrooms, if Dean Jackson had emptied the bathrooms in the following year, 1947, he might have faced a stampede. Returning wwii vets swelled the MBA ranks, and the MBA Class of 1947 graduated 164, the most ever at the time. By contrast, Kennedy and his fellow grads of 1946 numbered 26.

--Eds.

"GIGANTIC" LESSON LEARNED
I read with interest Jeffrey Pfeffer's article on corporate downsizing and the negative impact this can have on a company's productivity and competitiveness.
       While working as a consultant at KMPG Peat Marwick, I led a research project to study what truly drives sustained, superior performance among top-performing community banks in the United States. When we asked bank CEOs to identify the one factor above all others that contributed most to their bank's success, the answer we received most often was "our superior employees." We probed further as to how they were able to build teams they felt were superior to their competitors, and we often heard ceos describe how "our people think and act like owners."
       When I asked one CEO from a small bank outside of Portland, Ore., for evidence of this, he responded essentially as follows: "We have better people than our competitors, people who operate with a sense of urgency and constantly look out for what's best for our customers and for our bank. A key contributor to this is that we have very few part-time employees. Our biggest competitor is 'Gigantic Bank and Trust.' Eighty percent of their branch staff are part-timers. Do you think those people really care about their jobs and about providing outstanding service to customers every time? No way! Most of them are merely punching a time clock. You smart guy consultants come in and tell us about all the money we can save with part-timers, staffing for peak customer traffic, and on and on. Maybe so, but what you lose by having less than fully committed employees pales in comparison to the nickels and dimes we might save in staffing expense. We have almost no part-timers in our branches, and, in fact, virtually all our employees are owners of the bank's stock through our ESOP. The bottom line is that in a competitive situation, our branch banking staff will beat 'Gigantic Bank' almost every time!"
       The message is simple yet powerful: Committed employees make a huge difference. And I agree with Jeffrey Pfeffer that establishing real commitment requires reciprocity.
       As a postscript to my anecdote, I had an occasion to speak to a group of community bankers in Portland on the results of our research and told the story of the small-bank CEO and his thoughts on his major competitor. After my speech was over, we adjourned for the luncheon and I seated myself at a table I selected at random. Four of the seven other people at the table were from "Gigantic Bank"! While I was expecting to be crucified, my tablemates could not have been more cordial or interested in my remarks. It turns out that the bank was in the midst of implementing a new strategy in its branches: no more part-timers except to accommodate employees who have a specific reason for wanting to work part time.

--GROVE NICHOLS, MBA '77
San Francisco, California

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.

Contributors

EVAN SKLAR (cover) is a freelance editorial photographer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, the New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Food and Wine, and Martha Stewart Living. He holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Photography from Yale University.

SAUL BROMBERGER and SANDRA HOOVER, whose photographs can be seen on the pages of Parenting, Health, and Life, specialize in editorial portraiture and documentary photography. They live in Alameda, Calif.

TODD BARRETT, MBA '95, was never asked to take part in a business school rankings survey when he was a GSB student. He's making up for it now.

TIM BOWER is an illustrator in Brooklyn, N.Y. His clients include the New York Times, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time, Business Week, and Harpers.

BRIAN SMALE: Admittedly lousy at hockey, the Canadian-born photographer specializes in editorial and corporate portraiture.

ROBERT STRAUSS is a freelancer who was formerly a reporter for Sports Illustrated, feature writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, and news producer for KYW-TV, the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia.