Transcript

I wrote a report on the proposal that Harvard Business School engage with the Alianza para el Progreso to set up a school in Central America, under the auspices of the Agency for International Development, which was promoting this. And either the Agency or George Lodge got President Kennedy to write a letter to the Harvard Business School saying, "This is very important. We hope you'll do it," on and on.

George Baker, who was then Dean, called me in and said, "We have a report from a committee of your colleagues who went to Central America, and they have written a very favorable report on this proposal. But I believe we should have a second view. I would like you to go to Central America, take your wife, and do whatever you think you have to do visiting schools, businesses, government. And venture a second opinion on the project."

I went. I traveled all over. I interviewed people. But I was very, very struck by the fact that the people in Central America, particularly the elite, lacked one very important ingredient, which was compassion. I didn't think, when the push came to shove, that they gave a damn about the plight of the infant mortality rate, about the plight of poor people. And so I wrote a report, which was maybe 15, 20 pages. And there was a faculty meeting, and Nathan Marsh Pusey was in the chair. And the faculty had read the report of the people, and then I read my report. And I said, "This is the wrong program, in the wrong place, for the wrong institution. We are not prepared by ourselves to deal with the nature of the poverty and all the other problems that affect this area." And I said in the report that they have not done the prerequisites in their own society which would then enable our Harvard Business School to function well there.

There was a tremendous discussion, and the faculty voted with the majority—for the regular program. I mean, with a letter from Kennedy, what were they going to do? It was against Zaleznik. "Who the hell is he?"