Remarks by Peter Phillips-Minet
Columbia Business School MBA Recognition Ceremony
Madison Square Garden, New York
March 14th, 2006
It is a tribute to the internationalism of Columbia Business School that someone
who sounds like I do has the honour of giving this address. That said, I suppose one
could argue that, after some initial difficulties, the United States and the United Kingdom
share a long tradition of cooperation and friendship.
There is perhaps no better example of this tradition than the diplomacy that took
place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, as the Second World War was drawing to a
close, when the two countries almost single-handedly designed the institutional landscape
of the postwar economic order – creating the organizations we know today as the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. As you might well imagine, the tone
at those meetings was entirely one of decorum and mutual respect. Take for example this
little verse, written on a yellowing piece of paper left over from the negotiations:
“In Washington Lord Halifax
Once whispered to Lord Keynes:
It’s true they have the money bags,
But we have all the brains.”
A great gulf of years now separates us from this mischievous scrap of paper and from the
American and British negotiators, half of whom, at least, it presumably delighted. But it
still holds a great deal of relevance for what I want to talk about today.
First, we clearly no longer live in a world of drawing room diplomacy, in which
two, or even a few, powerful countries can dictate terms to everyone else. This certainly
has important implications for all of us as newly-minted MBAs entering the global
marketplace. Second, today’s world cries out more than ever for the kind of courage and
vision as well as the ‘spirit of internationalism’ that inspired the architects at Bretton
Woods. And third, even on the most important of occasions and among the closest of
friends, human relations are inherently suffused with a competitive edge; in the case of
our negotiators a healthy competition of ideas - and perhaps a modicum of envy.
Today we must hope that Columbia Business School has helped to equip us all to
face the challenges of this brave and complex new world. We must have the humility
and flexibility to go on learning and evolving as the world continues to change around us.
We must have the vision to find new and better ways of doing things; to build businesses
that contribute valuable goods and services to the local economies around us, and to our
shared global economy. And we must demonstrate the courage and character to do the
right thing on the occasions when this doesn’t coincide with the easy thing, recognizing
that, when it comes to integrity, our enlightened self-interest is ultimately analogous to
our shared common interest. Finally, healthy competition is certainly good for business,
and we should definitely compete to win. But especially when the stakes are high, we
must beware of unhealthy, corrosive conflict, and remember not to take ourselves overly
seriously, nor lose sight of the bigger picture. “For in the final analysis,” as John F.
Kennedy observed, “we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all
cherish our children’s futures, and we are all mortal.”
Life is but a fleeting gift. What is it worth without enjoyment, humor, and
occasional poetry? In that spirit:
T’was the night before graduation
So many thoughts in my head;
Sadness, elation So what can be said?
Seems we just had orientation,
A whirlwind of fun
And so much information
About all that could be done.
We felt like young princes
Who would soon be kings
(Except for the ladies
Who felt feminine things).
Two years to explore,
Hang out and discover,
Such outstanding new people Perhaps even a lover.
“Wow! This is fantastic,
Too good to be true,
An expensive vacation,
But what can you do?”
Early days in our homerooms,
Meeting our clusters,
Recounting our stories,
The very best we could muster.
A designer, a dancer
Four consultants, a jock,
A writer, several bankers
And brokers of stock.
“I worked for the Peace Corps!”
“I launched a new brand!”
“I pitched for the Astros!”
“I played lead in a band!”
Such astounding achievements,
Such incredible flair,
It left me to ponder
Just how I’d got there.
Next came the clubs;
A bewildering array
Of everything imaginable
For the discerning MBA.
Soon followed elections
And we endeavored to get
The votes of the classmates
We’d only just met.
Then reality struck
Like a bolt from the blue:
We were hit with Statistics
And Financial Accounting, too.
Debits and credits,
Covariance, μ,
Correlation, net income And so much of it to do.
Before long it was clear
Our degrees of freedom were lost
To the lumberjack Clarkson
And marginal cost.
An avalanche of assignments
And to make matters worse,
Four brilliant A-types to work with A quite unbearable curse!
In those early days I developed I’m not ashamed to admit My own confidence interval:
I’d never felt such a twit.
Yet one class was different;
Our most prized possession:
The Thursday night workshops
In Applied Regression.
Disco lights in the deli,
Cheap beer on the floor,
DJ Joe playing Bon Jovi,
Talent-less dancing galore.
This caught on so well
That we didn’t stop there;
Soon beer pong and poker
Became standard fare.
A gossip column emerged
To rival any I’d seen;
Top ten lists for both genders
Scoops mundane to obscene.
For most men at b-school
It soon became clear
The art of courtship eludes us
And should be taught here.
Despite all of our talents
Just this one skill we lack,
But the sheer extent of our weakness
Took the ladies aback:
“Thought I’d meet a guy when I came here
But my logic proved flawed:
It’s true the odds are good,
But the goods are so odd.”
Lest we lose focus
On the reason we’d come,
The next thing that awoke us
Was the resumé drum.
Our latest tormentors,
The Office of Career,
Seemed concerned with our leaving;
“But we just got here!”
So we toiled and we troubled
And learned to our dismay
The GMAT score we’d been proud of
Was only okay.
Corporate events
Then gave us the chance
To engage on a daily basis
In a soul-destroying dance.
With Pepsi on Monday,
On Tuesday with Chase,
The networking was shameless,
The brown-nosing a disgrace.
And the emails kept coming,
And coming and coming,
And coming and coming,
It was truly mind-numbing.
Speakers and pizza,
Pizza and beer,
Did I mention the pizza?
It’s quite popular here.
The pace never relented;
No matter how hard I tried,
I could never escape
From the Upper West Side.
Then finally the home straight
As Eskimo Pie arrived,
Then Follies and finals
Wow! We’d survived.
Looking back now
That semester was golden,
An experience designed
To inspire and embolden.
Though our bonds with each other
Would continue to grow
Through the next installments
Of the CBS show
And so many more highlights
Intrigue and invention,
Boondoggles to everywhere,
Far too many to mention,
But from then on things were different,
Time started to fly,
Until this morning I woke up
And two years had gone by.
I appreciate your patience
With all my rhyme,
I’d love to go on
Alas! We haven’t the time.
But I’d be failing my duty,
Not playing my part,
If I didn’t leave you
With a few words from the heart.
And so I humbly request
Your permission to close
By switching from poetry
Back into prose.
I’d like to conclude with some thoughts about what the Columbia MBA
experience has meant to me. On the surface, it has been an academic learning experience
of great power and depth. Without any doubt, I now feel far better equipped to
understand, interpret and participate in the world. For this I am grateful to the many
professors whose dedication, skill, enthusiasm and patience have managed to penetrate
the thick fog of confusion I felt on arrival and made a profound and lasting impact on my
thinking on such a wide range of issues. The true gift of education is the transfer of the
‘source code’ to the beneficiary. In other words, it is sustainable, like teaching a person
to fish, as opposed to giving them food. Let us hope we all enjoy fruitful fishing in the
years to come.
The MBA has also been an intensely social experience. The opportunity to
associate with, and learn alongside, a group of highly intelligent, motivated and
accomplished colleagues from almost every conceivable walk of life and to do so free
from many of the inevitable political realties of the work environment, has been a unique
and extraordinary privilege. I feel very fortunate to have shared this special time with all
of you – students, staff and faculty - and built relationships which I am confident will
survive the tests of time and distance. And I am grateful for the fun we have had,
because when we enjoy our experiences their impact is deeper and longer lasting. Lastly,
I feel a responsibility toward each of you as a fellow custodian of the brand. Like it or
not, we will always be the Columbia Business School MBA Class of 2006 – de facto the
ultimate “best class ever.” And the first full class under Dean’s Hubbard’s ‘watchful’
eye.
For me, the MBA also provided time for a period of reflection and profound
personal growth. A wise man once observed that “while you can always count the seeds
in an apple, you can never count the apples in a seed.” During my time at Columbia, I
learned to stop worrying so much about the “apple” – the deficiencies I could see in my
present life situation - and seek instead to concentrate on cultivating the seeds inside my
core. In such a complex and competitive world it is easy to become dissatisfied with
one’s lot, anxious about one’s future and insecure about one’s ability to fulfill one’s
‘potential’, which has often been defined by others. It is tempting to point the finger of
blame, or bewail external circumstances and spend a good portion of one’s time
compulsively worrying about the past or anticipating the future. At least this was an
accurate description of your speaker some time ago.
A seminal part of my of personal journey this past year was spending time with
my eighteen-year old cousin Taylor, who in New York this February died before my eyes
after a life-long illness. Taylor was intellectually very limited, and as such he didn’t have
any ‘ego’, just pure spirit. Because of the way he was in spite of his limitations and the
lifetime of treatment he had to endure, Taylor taught me that everything of true human
value – courage, innocence, compassion, humility and unconditional love - comes from
beyond the mind, from within each of our cores. It follows that true fulfillment in life
comes only from within, not from external accomplishments. ‘Even if you win the rat
race, you’re still a rat.’
This may seem like a somewhat strange way to conclude a speech at an MBA
Recognition Ceremony. I am certainly not arguing that we all down tools to join the
Dalai Llama. Many of us will go on to seek power, fame and fortune, and rightly so. My
point is that the people who ultimately succeed in this world are the ones who seek out
the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, they make them - inside. In
other words they create their own meaning and purpose. I think this is an incredibly
empowering insight, although capturing its value demands tremendous discipline and
dedication. But I think it especially opportune to ponder at this juncture in our lives, for
in the words of Winston Churchill: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of
the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
I thank you for all the many gifts you have bestowed upon me these last nineteen
months and for the great privilege of letting me share these thoughts with you this
evening. Good luck!