GSB | Chicago: Fall 1997 Letter to Alumni from Dean Robert Hamada

EVERY INSTITUTION has a culture of its own, and business schools are no exception.
As the GSB celebrates its centennial and we prepare to enter our next century of leadership in business education, I find myself considering the unique culture that has developed here over the past 100 years.

The culture of the GSB is rooted in the school’s founding principles. Laurence Laughlin, the political economist whose influence shaped the school, believed that a professional business education should prepare graduates to apply disciplined thought to practical problems and issues. This rigorous, analytical, no-nonsense approach remains the bedrock of the GSB’s culture today. But for me, after more than 30 years at this school, three additional defining characteristics stand out.

First, this is and long has been an innovative place. We are the second oldest business school in the country but we’re always coming up with something new. These innovations, often imitated, have become standards of business education. We are credited with creating the first compre-hensive curriculum, Materials for the Study of Business, in 1916. In 1922, we published the first academic business journal and granted the first Ph.D. in business. Other innovations included the nation’s first executive M.B.A. program (1943), the first minority scholarship program (1964), the New Product Laboratory (1978), and the LEAD program (1988).

In 1982, George J. Stigler became the first member of a business school faculty to win the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Merton H. Miller, Ronald Coase, and Robert Fogel followed in his footsteps–a string no other business school has matched. Clearly, the GSB is a place where pathbreaking work is encouraged and supported.

Second, the GSB has always aimed to be what I call a full-line department store, as opposed to a boutique. Although we have some well-known strengths, we have always covered the full range and spectrum of business disciplines and fields. We have developed top-notch programs for every type of student–full-time, part-time, seasoned executives, and employees of companies seeking customized courses. To serve all these audiences, we must maintain a certain scale and depth, and we do.

Third, we have always produced our share of successful alumni. We placed third among M.B.A. programs in the number of graduates making Forbes magazine’s 1997 list of corporate America’s most powerful people. Scores of other alumni are running their own flourishing ventures, large and small. We take pride in preparing our graduates to assume leadership roles around the world. Their achievements are, I believe, a sign that we are giving them the right stuff to lead and succeed.

An institutional culture–even one with as many plusses as ours–can be a constraint. Some deeply ingrained cultural traits can inhibit progress and necessary change. Just because we have deep–some might say old-fashioned–values at the GSB does not mean we cannot retain and benefit from those values as we move into the future.

We are blessed with the flexibility to innovate, with breadth and depth among our faculty, and with a rich pool of alumni who give back to the school in ways that expand our educational offerings. These traits, rooted in long-standing GSB tradition, are exactly the kind of assets that equip us for success in the next century.

A message from Dean Robert S. Hamada

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		EVERY INSTITUTION has a culture of its own, and business schools are no exception. As the GSB celebrates its centennial and we prepare to enter our next century of leadership in business education, I find myself considering the unique culture that has developed here over the past 100 years. The culture of the GSB is rooted in the school’s founding principles. Laurence Laughlin, the political economist whose influence shaped the school, believed that a professional business education should prepare graduates to apply disciplined thought to practical problems and issues. This rigorous, analytical, no-nonsense approach remains the bedrock of the GSB’s culture today. But for me, after more than 30 years at this school, three additional defining characteristics stand out. First, this is and long has been an innovative place. We are the second oldest business school in the country but we’re always coming up with something new. These innovations, often imitated, have become standards of business education. We are credited with creating the first compre-hensive curriculum, Materials for the Study of Business, in 1916. In 1922, we published the first academic business journal and granted the first Ph.D. in business. Other innovations included the nation’s first executive M.B.A. program (1943), the first minority scholarship program (1964), the New Product Laboratory (1978), and the LEAD program (1988). In 1982, George J. Stigler became the first member of a business school faculty to win the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Merton H. Miller, Ronald Coase, and Robert Fogel followed in his footsteps–a string no other business school has matched. Clearly, the GSB is a place where pathbreaking work is encouraged and supported. Second, the GSB has always aimed to be what I call a full-line department store, as opposed to a boutique. Although we have some well-known strengths, we have always covered the full range and spectrum of business disciplines and fields. We have developed top-notch programs for every type of student–full-time, part-time, seasoned executives, and employees of companies seeking customized courses. To serve all these audiences, we must maintain a certain scale and depth, and we do. Third, we have always produced our share of successful alumni. We placed third among M.B.A. programs in the number of graduates making Forbes magazine’s 1997 list of corporate America’s most powerful people. Scores of other alumni are running their own flourishing ventures, large and small. We take pride in preparing our graduates to assume leadership roles around the world. Their achievements are, I believe, a sign that we are giving them the right stuff to lead and succeed. An institutional culture–even one with as many plusses as ours–can be a constraint. Some deeply ingrained cultural traits can inhibit progress and necessary change. Just because we have deep–some might say old-fashioned–values at the GSB does not mean we cannot retain and benefit from those values as we move into the future. We are blessed with the flexibility to innovate, with breadth and depth among our faculty, and with a rich pool of alumni who give back to the school in ways that expand our educational offerings. These traits, rooted in long-standing GSB tradition, are exactly the kind of assets that equip us for success in the next century.

	A message from Dean Robert S. Hamada
E-Mail GSB Chicago - Front Page - GSB Home - Current Issue -Archive