As Darden’s Dean for ten years, I hosted dozens of class reunions. These events reinforced my sense that the Darden MBA experience fosters an inimitable bond among classmates. The joy apparent in the greetings among acquaintances was tangible evidence of social networks still strong despite the passage of…
“The past is never dead. The past is not even past.”–William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun Faulkner’s words have come to me repeatedly over the past year. Journalists, pundits, and webinar hosts have sought my views on the correspondence of recent events to earlier pandemics, earlier financial…
“Never confuse movement with action.” – Ernest Hemingway“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” — Lewis CarrollThere is a difference between speed and velocity. Physics teaches that speed is the rate at which you move; velocity is speed in a particular direction…
Nineteen months ago, a gift to Darden from the Sands family established 12 new faculty chairs, one of them named for me, a tremendous honor. It prompted me to reflect on why universities do this and what responsibilities those motives imply. Americans tend to harbor a distrust of elites and…
One of the more regular questions I’m getting this spring is “What are you reading?” After my response, it becomes clear that the questioner is not looking for entertainment, but rather seeks insight useful for dealing with the novel coronavirus crisis. Initially, I recoil from responding since the crisis…
Former President Harry S. Truman said, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” I cited this in an earlier blog post to argue that reading broadly and deeply is fundamental to making a good difference in the world. One should aim for a ‘T-shaped’ mind, in…
From the 61 books I have read so far this year, I have culled ten, warranting your careful consideration for holiday gifts or your own reading ambitions in 2019. For years, I have encouraged business people to devote more time to reading a diverse range of books and periodicals (see…
[Note: this post offers commentary of some of the notable books listed in my just-previous post. The comments here are an enlarged version of my article, “Crash Course,” that originally appeared in The Weekly Standard, November 18, 2018. This enlargement covers more books and extends my comments. I prepared…
This year, 2018, marks the tenth anniversary of the epicenter of the financial crisis of 2008. The crisis is not something to celebrate, only remember soberly. Memories are short. The crisis was devastating. Moreover, crises will recur: we cannot prevent, only mitigate. Therefore, we should take this opportunity to reflect…
My annual exhortation to students, friends, and family to read more started out as a bit of advice and has turned into a longer project than I had imagined (see 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016). Each December, people nudge me with “Where’s this year’s list?” So…
