How do we define success?
Light on success
Transcript
I think our success, at the end of the day, should be measured in terms of the impact we have upon the world. But we have impact upon the world in many different ways. Our MBA program has produced people who we believe are going to be leaders down the road, and the success of our alumni is a very important part of the success of this institution. Our executive education programs teach people who are already leaders. And to the extent that we change and transform the way they think about their jobs, and the way they go about their management jobs we're having impact.
We produce ideas, and research, and cases that we hope change the way the world thinks about important ideas. And we're at least as interested in the extent to which our cases change the way business is taught in other universities around the world as we are here on our campus.
I think it's multiple dimensions of having impact on the world, some of them quite narrowly focused on the students who are here on campus, and some of them quite broadly focused on affecting the world through other ways—publishing ideas, our effect upon other schools. All of those are important.
In order to do those, you've got to be successful with some short-run things. You've got to have a business model that works. You've got to be able to finance the place. You've got to have the right buildings. And maybe most importantly, you've got to have the right faculty. And keeping one's eye on the nature of the faculty, upon one's ability to build a faculty, upon one's ability to keep the faculty pointed towards important strategic objectives—All of those are really important shorter-run ways that you get to the ultimate success, which is impact upon the world.