“Often a team that plays as a team will
beat another team of superior athletes,” said Ryan,
who also is a director of the Chicago Bears Football Club
Inc. “Remember how important it is to sacrifice for
the common goal, because that will carry you through life
beyond business.”
Ryan related the Chicago Olympics bid to the
importance of setting high goals, adding that the ultimate
objective is not only for the city to be chosen to host the
games but to put on the greatest Olympics in history. “It’s
good to aim high,” he said. “Even if you miss,
you do better than you would have done.”
Ryan tied these ambitious undertakings to
the importance of making an impact. “You’ve got
a finite amount of time. You don’t know how much it
is, so in everything you do you should try to make an impact
on society, an impact on other people, an impact on your organization,”
he said. “Take on a role where you can make an impact.”
The first of the convocation’s two student
addresses was delivered by EMP-65’s Peter Walker, who
is president of Auvergne Holdings LLC, an investment and media
consulting firm. A former senior vice president for Tribune
Broadcasting, Walker cited the lessons he learned from a former
supervisor and mentor at the company.
“The ground rules were simple: work
hard, take intelligent risks and tell the truth,” Walker
said. “He wanted you to be comfortable being uncomfortable,
in a strategic sense. Only then would he think you were thinking
far enough ahead.”
Walker encouraged his fellow graduates to
apply those rules to their own careers. “Give co-workers
a chance to disappoint you. Chances are they won’t,”
he said. “Be true to yourself. When you’re successful,
give something back.”
EMP-66 speaker Lawson Copley, M.D., observed
that his class began its Kellogg experience with the students
identified by their career descriptions. “We were consultants,
entrepreneurs, company presidents and CEOs ... brand, product,
and platform managers ... and one socially well-adjusted physicist,”
said Copley, who is an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery
at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “Today marks our arrival.
We now identify ourselves as Kellogg MBAs.”
That identity carried with it responsibilities,
Copley noted. “Our business organizations, communities
and families will rightfully expect us to live up to this
brand with courageous, values-based leadership. And we will
exceed their expectations.
“May it enable us to lead with wisdom
and integrity, to formulate the best strategies and to create
value for all of the stakeholders in our lives.”
