Monthly Archives: February 2010
Zicklin Defines a Decade Part IV: People
The Zicklin Defines a Decade Series started by asking the Baruch College Zicklin School of Business community what are the top five business/organizations that defined the 2000s. We end the series by asking the community to identify the top five people that define the decade in business.
As we entered the decade, many continued to be amazed at the incredible wealth that Bill Gates was continuing to amass. As we leave the decade, we are amazed at how he is giving it away. In 2000, we were two years removed from the repeal of Glass-Steagall and Sandy Weill was creating the great global banking supermarket in CitiGroup. As we enter 2010, Citi has had multiple leaders since Mr. Weill and many are questioning the decision that created the banking supermarket. In May of 2001, the BusinessWeek cover praised Dennis Kozlowski, then CEO of Tyco. He is currently serving up to 24 years in prison. And then of course there are the two Stanford graduate students who created the preeminent search engine and a verb to go along with it. Did anyone Google anything in 2000?
The 2000s were shaped by many people. Some who dominated the headlines 10 years ago still do so today, albeit in a much different capacity. And, there were others who were relatively unknown ten years ago, but who are now shaping the way we do business. The following are proposed by members of the Zicklin community as the shapers of the decade in business. The lists are both global and distinctive with only Steve Jobs on all four.
John Elliott, Dean Zicklin School of Business
1. Warren Buffet
2. Steve Jobs
3. Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt
4. Lakshmi Mittal
5. Ratan Tata
Jason Cohen, Full-time Honors MBA Class of 2007
1. The Consumer
2. Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt
3. Steve Jobs
4. Jeff Bezos
5. Hank Paulson
Kishore Tandon, Department Chair Economics/Finance
1. Sergey Brin, Larry Page
2. Steve Jobs
3. Warren Buffet
4. Richard Branson
5. Ambani Brothers (Reliance, India)
Ashok Kamal, Full-time Honors MBA Class of 2010
1) Bill Gates – advocate of capitalism 2.0 who transitioned from leading one of the world’s most successful companies to heading the world’s largest philanthropic foundation
2) Muhammad Yunus – micofinance pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize winner as the founder of Grameen Bank, Yunus is at the forefront of social business in the 21st century
3) Steve Jobs – the king of innovative consumer products and cult hero for one of the world’s most revered brands
4) Ratan Tata – engineered the Tata Group’s growth from India’s most storied industrial company to one of the world’s most diversified conglomerates
5) Dr. Shi Zhengrong – visionary founder and CEO of Suntech, the world’s largest solar energy company
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Global Zicklin: Ashok Kamal @ IIM Part II
In November, we introduced you to Ashok Kamal, a second-year Full-time Honors MBA student who travelled to Kolkata India to study at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for a semester. Ashok returned from that trip about two weeks ago. And, as promised, he has provided us with an update from the second half of his journey.
During a recent talk with Baruch students, finance maven William Macaulay predicted that “the 21st century would belong to India.”
India’s ascent as a global economic powerhouse was never more apparent to me than during recruiting season at IIMC. My semester abroad overlapped with summer job placements for 1st-year MBA students. The process and outcome I witnessed would impress any business school in the world.
The IIMC community doesn’t strive for 100% placement of its students – that’s a given. The career development team, which is supported by the administration but led by 2nd-year students, measures its success in the number of days it takes to place every student, as well as the quality of its placements. In 2009, IIMC’s batch of nearly 400 1st-year students was placed in under one week. On the first day of recruiting, blue chip firms such as McKinsey, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan hired nearly 100 interns – by lunch time. The successful placement season at IIMC, even in the midst of a worldwide economic contraction, is an illustration of India’s greatest resource – human capital. The intelligence, creativity and ambition of its people are astounding.
Ashok Kamal (left in blue shirt) with classmates and administrators at IIMC
Following my studies, I was fortunate to spend three weeks traveling throughout India. Along with seeing the magnificent Taj Mahal and traversing the business hub of Mumbai, I visited a sustainable agriculture farm in Goa that gets all its water from recycled rain and all its nutrients from organic waste. Each experience was a reminder that a great education extends beyond the classroom.
Most striking to me was the diversity, within India, of the population. In fact, the variation across states was so pronounced, that India often seems more like a continent rather than a country. Like business school, it is the diversity — of culture, experience and thought — that makes India great.
Ashok participated in the study abroad program by working with the Weissman Center for International Business. For more information regarding the services offered at WCIB, including the study abroad program at IIM-Kolkata and other schools, please go to :
http://zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/centers/weissman/
We will hear more from Ashok tomorrow when the long-awaited list of the people that defined a decade is published.
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