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The McIntire
School of Commerce and UVa LEAD Present
High-Impact
Leadership
The Seventh
Annual Spring Symposium
Co-sponsored by McIntire’s Center for Financial Innovation, Center for
Growth Enterprises, and Center for the Management of Information
Technology
University of
Virginia
Old Cabell Hall on the Lawn
April 13, 2007
Symposium History &
Program Summary
In 2000, the McIntire School of
Commerce at the University of Virginia initiated a series of symposia
considering the complex nature and origins of organizational success.
The symposium was created, in part, to reflect commerce’s integral role
in the cultural development and societal expressions reflected in the
arts, humanities, and sciences. Its focus, to date, on the broad theme
of organizational success or excellence reinforced the desirability and
necessity of collaboration among business, other professional studies,
and the liberal arts in the creation of knowledge. Discussions involving
a diverse set of perspectives facilitate such ends, and the symposia
attracted a dynamic, cross-disciplinary audience to achieve these goals.
Previous symposia were sponsored by McIntire’s centers in conjunction
with the University’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, drawing faculty
and students from Commerce; Law; Medicine; Engineering; and the
College’s numerous departments, including economics, psychology,
sociology, political science, and foreign affairs.
Recent Symposia
Organizations and their relative
success or failure, their excellence or mediocrity, reflect the sum of
their collective decisions over time. The 2003 symposium
addressed the very foundation of organizational excellence—decision-making
theory and practice. Its program dramatized the critical importance
of theory to enlightened practice and was anchored by Nobel laureate
Daniel Kahneman’s research that documents man’s regularized irrational
decision making. Heightening managerial awareness of the behavioral
traps has great potential to have a positive impact on managerial
practice and, over time, the path of societal progression.
Moving from a micro to a macro
perspective, the 2004 symposium addressed the managerial
implications of the most important revolution of our time—globalization.
Accompanied by a historical expansion of world trade, the “triumph of
markets” was imbedded in the unprecedented economic expansion of the
1990s. It was also marred by a series of major international financial
crises and near meltdowns, risks that are now only beginning to be
understood. Within that context, it also unleashed a highly acrimonious
international debate that spread to the streets over globalization’s
alleged social costs, including income inequality and environmental
externalities. The 2004 program assessed globalization’s future
directions with the hope of establishing an intellectual base from which
the University community could consider the strategic and leadership
challenges facing our world’s leaders—both corporate and public.
The 2005 symposium topic
evolved from the unresolved discussions during the 2004 symposium
regarding risk in a global age. Increased levels of globalization and
geopolitical complexity tend to heighten global perceptions of risk and
uncertainty. What is the reality of such perils? Are we really living in
a more risky world? What is the most likely future impact of such
“risks” on businesses, investment strategies, and society as a whole?
The 2005 symposium explored these topics as well as the shifting burdens
of risk and the potential for new risks, both expected and unforeseen.
These key symposia spawned
numerous interactions between commerce and the broader University as
well as a series of more focused forums addressing specific topics. The
Fall 2005 Forum, “Bubble Trouble? A Hard Look at Today’s Real
Estate Markets” addressed unresolved questions formulated during the
2005 “risk” symposium. In a similar fashion, the Spring 2006 Forum,
“Crisis Leadership” sought behavioral understanding of leadership models
appropriate to risk derived situations. We examined leadership models,
including Hurricane Katrina’s impact on a private New Orleans barge
line, the 9/11 attacks' impact on Sandler O’Neil Trading Partners, and
various distressed debt situations.
The Fall 2006 Forum,
Leadership and Positive Society Change, coincided with the kickoff of
McIntire’s UVa LEAD initiative (a three-year interdisciplinary
leadership program for U.Va. students who aspire to grow intellectually
in their chosen domains and to enhance their abilities to lead
effectively within their respective organizations and fields) and the
launching of the University’s Capital Campaign. The program featured
Harvard’s Howard Gardner discussing leadership and changing minds
followed by two excellent case studies of taking an “indirect”
leadership role into the public domain. The two U.Va. role models were
Medicine’s Dr. Michael Scheld, who quietly leads his area’s global fight
against infectious diseases, and Architecture’s Julie Bargmann, whose
student teams have set a global standard with their landscape
design interpretations of severely environmentally impaired sites.
The 2007 Spring
Symposium
The 2007 spring symposium,
High-Impact Leadership, continues to address the themes of the LEAD
initiative and concludes our broad investigation of organizational
success that evolved from McIntire’s interdisciplinary focus of global
trends. Our outstanding lineup of speakers includes
Simon Robertson, Chairman of Rolls-Royce; Discovery’s highly acclaimed former CEO,
Judith McHale; and groundbreaking
historian Douglas Brinkley, author
of The Great Deluge. Charles Sydnor,
former President and CEO of
Commonwealth Public Broadcasting and Moderator of the
"For the Record"
series, will
moderate the session.
The program centers on the
challenges and prospects global corporate leaders face in today’s
complex and turbulent world. What key leadership challenges are critical
to positive change within the world’s evolving global enterprises? What
experiences, positive and negative, molded our speakers’ leadership
styles and techniques? What avenues are open within the global
corporation from which one can initiate positive changes? How do they
see our global enterprises evolving in terms of their real as opposed to
stated goals and objectives? How does a socially responsible orientation
impact a global corporation’s ability to create shareholder wealth? What
can we learn from leadership failures such as those Douglas Brinkley
documents in The Great Deluge? Indeed, what can history tell us
as we contemplate the complexity of our world’s future and the need for
the right leadership? What does the future hold for those of us
attempting to educate their successors?
High-Impact Leadership in
a turbulent world is an important topic given the rise in global
complexity juxtaposed against recent leadership failures at both
corporate and political levels. Has the world changed faster than our
leaders’ understanding and ability to react successfully? Given the
challenges our world and its evolving global enterprises face, our
McIntire faculty and student body believes it is imperative to explore
these issues. Effective assessment of the global changes influencing
effective and positive leaders requires global experience and an
understanding of history. The backgrounds and mix of participants
reflect this requirement:
I. “Long -Term Thinking, Short-Term World: Leadership Challenges in a
Global Age,"
Simon Robertson, Chairman, Rolls-Royce
II. “Doing Well by Doing Good, Perspectives on Discovery,"
Judith McHale, past President
and CEO, Discovery Communications Inc.
III. "Leadership Lessons from the Past,"
Douglas Brinkley, Historian
IV. Roundtable Discussion, moderated by
Charles Sydnor,
former President and CEO, Commonwealth Public Broadcasting
The benefits emanating from the
symposium series have been significant, including the discussions, both
formal and informal, stimulated by insights from a series of
outstanding, articulate scholars and scholar practitioners. The output
of these events has informed and inspired student activities and
professional choices, faculty research and teaching, and managerial
behavior within the circle of alumni and friends who have participated. More
important, they have served as catalysts—rekindling old friendships,
inspiring our daily lives, and positively modifying our intellectual
approaches to life. They made us reconsider the
significance of Mr. Jefferson’s University in our lives and the vitality
of the nation. Dean Carl Zeithaml extends a warm invitation to you, and
we look forward to your attendance and participation.
Agenda
Old Cabell
Hall Auditorium,
The University of Virginia
8 a.m. Welcome
Reception
8:30 a.m. Introduction of
Program
Carl P. Zeithaml, F.S. Cornell Professor in Free Enterprise and
Dean, McIntire School of Commerce
8:45 a.m. "Long -Term
Thinking, Short-Term World: Leadership Challenges in a Global Age"
Simon Robertson, Chairman, Rolls-Royce
9:10 a.m. "Doing Well by
Doing Good, Perspectives on Discovery"
Judith McHale, former President and
CEO,
Discovery Communications Inc.
9:35 a.m. "Leadership
Lessons from the Past"
Douglas Brinkley, Historian
10 a.m. Break
10:15 a.m. Panel
Discussion (all participants)
Moderated by
Charles Sydnor, former President and CEO,
Commonwealth Public Broadcasting
11 a.m. End
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