Spring Break
A Lesson from the Class of 1959
by Jonathan Kelly (OD), Associate Editor
Issue date: 9/4/07 Section: Features
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Every now and again we take for granted that we have a special work to accomplish. And for those of us who have a fierce competitive spirit, we look not to others, but rather through our own eyes and beyond the horizon, ultimately finding that we are looking to construct challenges that require us to measure ourselves not only by outcomes but also the means through which these outcomes are achieved.
It was only a few days ago that I was in a car with some sectionmates in route to our section retreat, when the driver remarked upon facing rush hour traffic, "If I only had my Tomtom (GPS)…[I could find a better and quicker way to the retreat]. As surely as I write this article we found our way to the retreat, however life does not always afford us such a clear passage to where we want to be. In business we find that this is especially the case and although we find that men and women with good intentions can disagree about how they should handle the task of running their business enterprises and being otherwise reconciled to their own better ideals of business and its role in society. Even as a student I feel the burden of this struggle, accordingly I earnestly make time while I am here to consider intentions of the Class of 1959 in erecting the copper chapel and clock. For those of you who have not read the inscription on the chapel, it reads that the chapel is placed here at Harvard Business School, "to make our community complete and to remind us of our higher purpose and ideals." For me there is striking seriousness in the gift of the Class of 1959, for it is something which they hoped would remind successive generations of the special work of this school and the responsibility afforded to those educated here.
Jeffrey L. Cruikshank's book a "A Delicate Experiment" provides apt context for understanding the special work of Harvard Business School and ideals that cemented its origin. For starters we find that prior to taking the helm as president of Harvard, A. Lawrence Lowell was one of the champions of Harvard Business School, which he called "A great, but…delicate experiment." At the same time these great expectations for success were framed by Edwin F. Gay, the first dean of Harvard Business School, in such a way as to focus on educating business leaders who possessed the qualities of "courage, good judgment, and a sympathetic tact, as certain kindness of spirit which unites the two other elements, which purifies courage by removing its grosser belligerency and tempers judgment by the understanding heart." It was thought by Dean Gay that business, "[w]as the activity of making things to sell at a profit-decently." To be fair these ideals are laudable but they certainly come at a cost. Decency and/or maintaining one's "sympathetic tract" are not the only or even the easiest means by which one could maximize profits and results in business enterprises.
It was only a few days ago that I was in a car with some sectionmates in route to our section retreat, when the driver remarked upon facing rush hour traffic, "If I only had my Tomtom (GPS)…[I could find a better and quicker way to the retreat]. As surely as I write this article we found our way to the retreat, however life does not always afford us such a clear passage to where we want to be. In business we find that this is especially the case and although we find that men and women with good intentions can disagree about how they should handle the task of running their business enterprises and being otherwise reconciled to their own better ideals of business and its role in society. Even as a student I feel the burden of this struggle, accordingly I earnestly make time while I am here to consider intentions of the Class of 1959 in erecting the copper chapel and clock. For those of you who have not read the inscription on the chapel, it reads that the chapel is placed here at Harvard Business School, "to make our community complete and to remind us of our higher purpose and ideals." For me there is striking seriousness in the gift of the Class of 1959, for it is something which they hoped would remind successive generations of the special work of this school and the responsibility afforded to those educated here.
Jeffrey L. Cruikshank's book a "A Delicate Experiment" provides apt context for understanding the special work of Harvard Business School and ideals that cemented its origin. For starters we find that prior to taking the helm as president of Harvard, A. Lawrence Lowell was one of the champions of Harvard Business School, which he called "A great, but…delicate experiment." At the same time these great expectations for success were framed by Edwin F. Gay, the first dean of Harvard Business School, in such a way as to focus on educating business leaders who possessed the qualities of "courage, good judgment, and a sympathetic tact, as certain kindness of spirit which unites the two other elements, which purifies courage by removing its grosser belligerency and tempers judgment by the understanding heart." It was thought by Dean Gay that business, "[w]as the activity of making things to sell at a profit-decently." To be fair these ideals are laudable but they certainly come at a cost. Decency and/or maintaining one's "sympathetic tract" are not the only or even the easiest means by which one could maximize profits and results in business enterprises.
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