End of the 'crisis-free' generation
- Oct 08 2001 15:10:41
Harvard Business School student Rich Leimsider was glued to CNN mid-morning on September 11, watching Americans run for their lives past his former high school in Manhattan. "I couldn't even think for the first 45 minutes," he says. "Everything changed."
America's youth, until a short time ago part of a "crisis-free" generation, has awoken to a new world. The transformation is particularly striking for the country's MBA candidates. Two years ago, the most taxing concern facing many of them was choosing between a lucrative career in banking or consulting, or a possibly even more lucrative career with a dotcom.
Things are different now. The tragedy has inspired many Americans to re-examine their lives and priorities. Business students have engaged in similar soul-searching but with an added twist: classes once dedicated to examining the rise and fall of US corporations are now grappling with more profound questions.
Discussions on leadership, for instance, now touch on the importance of guiding employees out of a building about to collapse. A conversation about ethics includes the question of whether it is right to dismiss workers following a national crisis. A debate on the family/work balance addresses the way a company can care for children who are suddenly deprived of their bread-winning parent.
A forum at Harvard University 10 days ago focused on corporate responsibilities in bridging the gap between have and have-not nations, as one way to reduce the risk of terrorism. "We're all asking how important it is to understand things not normally in the province of corporate leaders," says Carl Kester, senior associate dean at Harvard.
Crisis management Crisis management itself has taken on a new meaning. George Daly, dean of New York University's Stern School of Management, recounts the events of September 11 with a sense of bewilderment. "I had a meeting with a group of overseers that morning when my assistant came in and told us about the plane hitting the World Trade Center.
"We turned on the television and saw a picture of a gaping hole - but for some reason, we just went on with the meeting." In the business world, where even emergencies are customarily dealt with in pre-scheduled time slots, the terrorist attacks challenged managers' ability to comprehend the depth of a crisis.
After the meeting, when participants had returned to their offices, Prof Daly climbed up to the roof of Stern's administration building to look at the World Trade Center. "The first tower started to collapse about a minute after I got there," he recalls. "I just can't describe to you how that felt."
Once the significance of the attacks had sunk in, business school administrations around the country began to deal with the crisis with systematic vigour. Many students had close ties to the World Trade Center. Some had worked there during summer internships; others had relatives and friends in offices there. Setting up counselling services became a priority for many programmes; and while the number of people lost - though tragic - turned out to be far less than originally feared, many administrators are most proud of their efforts in this area.
Many classes were cancelled on September 11, as asking students to concentrate on their regular assignments seemed pointless. With telephone systems overloaded in many areas, universities resorted to e-mail to keep in touch with students, faculty and alumni. Even e-mail, however, proved problematic. Harvard resorted to hand-lettered signs to make certain announcements.
Message boards, which many schools set up after the attacks to account for friends and relatives, were a mixed success. While many were comforted as alumni and others checked into the site, the silence from others was nerve-wracking.
Stern, located in Greenwich Village, just north of the twin towers, faced acute logistical challenges. After Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York city, blocked traffic south of 14th street in the city, there was a question as to whether the business school, located on 4th, could even be reached. As faculty and students stayed at home, the university reached out via e-mail.
Rational approach Dozens of Stern students with apartments in the Wall Street area were left temporarily homeless. "That problem was solved in about half an hour, as other members of the community offered places to stay," says Prof Daly. Despite the chaos, students and administration managed to organise memorial services, help the needy and keep the community abreast of what was happening.
Even under such unusual circumstances, MBA students did not abandon their rational approach. "Other schools complained about how difficult it was to [persuade] blood donors to come in next week, not this week," says Mr Leimsider. "We had no problem with that here. I guess even in times of altruism business students recognise the value of strategising and planning."
Normally driven, single-minded MBA candidates have been filled with self-doubt in recent weeks. Students say they are re-evaluating their plans and questioning their place in the world. "I came to Harvard to become an investment banker," says Brendon DiBella, a Harvard MBA candidate. "Now I think I will serve in some part of the government." Harvard is considering a tuition-forgiveness programme - a reduction of tuition fees - for graduates who accept lower salaries to perform public service.
Next year's MBA graduates may also find their plans stymied by one of the toughest job markets in recent memory. Although most students from elite schools will find work, it may not be in the area they imagine. In general, they seem surprisingly resigned to their fate.
"A part of me wishes I had been here four or five years ago when everything was so easy," says Michael Parduhn, a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School. "But the tragedy also made me realise that my wife and baby are the most important things in my life. As long as I have them, everything else will fall into place."
There is a strong sense at the MBA programmes that some good will come out of the tragedy. "We're coming out of a period of unprecedented prosperity, the last few years of which were marred by self-indulgence," says Prof Daly. "It's not a bad thing for us to engage in a certain level of self-reflection."
Four weeks after the tragedy, business school students are trying to get on with their lives. The morose atmosphere that permeated campuses in the aftermath of the tragedy has yielded to animated conversation about topics that have nothing to do with the September 11 events. Yet the tragedy has had a profound impact on US business schools. Students' experience will likely be felt in business circles for years to come.