Commencement Speaker Urges Grads To Transform Business

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (May 22, 2009) – More than 1,200 members of the Smeal College of Business class of 2009 received their degrees on May 17. Shelly Lazarus, chair of the advertising, marketing, and public relations agency Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, addressed the graduates and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

The following is a transcript of Lazarus' address to the class of 2009:

Thank you, Dean Thomas, distinguished faculty, trustees, present and past, family and friends, and the people who got you graduates here, and, most specially, the members of the Penn State Smeal College of Business, class of 2009.  

Congratulations on getting to this wonderful day. And good afternoon. 

I am enormously pleased to be here with you, and to have the honor of addressing you on this day of your Commencement.

I stand before you as someone who believes in the power of business.  I am unabashed in my belief that business is a force for good.  Now, I do admit that two or three years ago, I might have given a very different talk in this same spot … more glowingly optimistic, perhaps.

But it's hard to look at the business world right now, without thinking, "What a mess!"  (I like simple language.)  We have had too much excess, too little regulation, too much mismanagement, too little leadership. 

We are seeing individuals who were once held in high esteem brought low either by their own misdealing or just by the blinding hubris that success can, and often does, bring.  

A few years ago I would have talked about the business world that I have always loved:  the dynamism, the creativity, the entrepreneurs, the chance to create new markets, to believe that if you had an idea, you could make it happen. Reach for success …

But these same words like "create new markets," or "reach for success" seem somehow darkly ominous today.  They are double edged, with different meanings depending on the perceived motivation of the person who is doing the creating or the reaching. 

(I will admit to you that we were the agency that gave AIG the line, "The biggest risk is not taking one," but that was years ago.)

There are plenty of critics today who ascribe a single motivation to business … and that is greed. 

I have no interest in defending the richer than Croesus CEOs who were just lucky enough to be at the top of the pile when the money rolled in.  Or the folks on Wall Street who made a bundle without actually making anything.  Or the leaders of companies who took big performance bonuses when they performed (OK with me) but then still took them when they failed to perform (not OK).  I can’t defend this, and I won't.

What we are facing right now is a total loss of trust.  Plain and simple, the public no longer trusts business.

According to a recent Conference Board Study, almost 80 percent of Americans say they trust corporate management less than they did six months ago. 

And when you ask them how corporate management has responded to the current financial crisis, less than 5 percent give them a passing grade.  Let me give you the actual figures.  They are chilling. 

To the question: "How would you rate U.S. Corporate Management's response to the current crisis?"  About two-thirds of people said "poor or very poor"; another 25 percent or so said "fair"; about 4 percent said "good" (that's a 'B'); and less than 1 percent said "very good."

This is a crisis of confidence of major proportions.

President Obama recently reprimanded the bankers, reminding them when they said they needed more support from the White House: "I'm the only thing standing between you and the guys with pitchforks." The public is angry and they are frightened. They have lost faith in Corporate America and in the people who lead these companies.

And yet there is so much reason to believe in business, in its power to transform, to create progress and prosperity.  

From its inception, business has always been an inherently good thing. It's about a fair trade. I give you something you need in exchange for something I need. And we all win.

But the truth is too many in the business world lost touch with their partners. They forgot who those trading partners were—that everyday person, the employee who exchanges work for wages, the consumer who exchanges money for goods, the client who invests because he trusts. 

For too many in the business world, there was a disconnect. In fact it got to the point were we didn't seem to speak the same language. We certainly didn't use the same math. 

We have gotten to a point where numbers—like executive compensation—have lost meaning. To the public, the salaries of some CEOs are obscene. 

Why would you need to pay someone hundreds of millions of dollars to go to work? What can they actually do that is that valuable? How big a brain do they have?

We have a challenge in this country right now to both value and values. You, who are entering the business world.  And I, who have been part of it for many years.

We have lost the trust of the public.  We must win it back … Not through words; but through deeds.

At this point, you might expect me to talk about Corporate Social Responsibility.  And I will.  But not the kind you're thinking of; not the kind where the nice big conglomerate writes some checks, sponsors a ballet or two, and then boasts about it in full-page ads (not that there’s anything wrong with ads).

I want to talk about the real corporate responsibility, the kind that business must address in order to once again take a place of respect and value in our society.

I want to talk about the most basic responsibility … the responsibility to create meaningful work for populations of people on an ongoing basis. Work that gives people satisfaction, allows them to provide for their families. Work that is steady and long term.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos a few years ago, in the middle of a seminar on Corporate Social Responsibility, where there was a lot of conversation about charitable giving, someone from South Africa stood up and said: "If you really want to help my country, please don't just write checks for hospitals and schools; please start building factories. What we really need is investment so that we can build our own vibrant economy."  That's real Corporate Social Responsibility. That's business's vital role in driving the world forward. That is business as a force for good.

When people question whether capitalism has a future any more, I think about micro finance, where people of no means secured better lives through capital; capital that allows them to start businesses. Capitalism … pure and simple. Good Capitalism … Creating prosperity for all. (Remember those days?) Business as a force for good.

And if we want to think positively about business and people in business, let's talk for a minute about what the number one and number two richest men in the world are doing.  Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, realizing that their outsized fortunes could be a force for social good are doing just that through the Gates Foundation. Business, or businesspeople, as a force for good.

I cite all this to persuade you that there is good reason to think positively about business, even in 2009.

We, as Americans, still have plenty of dynamism and creativity. We are the original entrepreneurs.

But I have a suggestion.  How about if we take all that energy and put it towards making things again.  We have to reward the people and companies that create the things that make our lives better, easier, richer, fuller, more entertaining, more enjoyable, more fun.  We need to do more creating and less manipulating.

How did we ever wind up in a place where we were paying the most money to the packagers and the manipulators? 

I’m on the Board of Columbia Business School. We got to the point several years ago where almost 80 percent of the graduates went to work for the investment banks or the consulting firms. Now there is nothing wrong with investment bankers or consultants. We need these people. But it was sad to have come to a point where making things, manufacturing products, had seemed to lose all its cache. We were an industrial nation where the best and the brightest seemed to be losing interest in industry.

So it's time to reset for the next industrial age. IBM talks about a "smarter planet." GE talks about "ecomagination." But it's more than just talk … It's about new ways in which business will yet again transform the world. It's about creating and manufacturing and distributing new things that will make a difference to the world.

The printing press was a business invention that gave us access to new worlds of knowledge. The assembly line was a business invention that gave us access to well-produced and well-priced goods. The personal computer was a business invention that changed communication, opened the globe, and changed how we do business in ways we are just beginning to fully appreciate.

Cars, light bulbs, iPods.  Business will continue to be the force that transforms society. Business will lead us in being green. Business will lead us in being smarter about the use of global resources. Business will lead us in creating new goods and services that we want and need, and in providing access to them to everyone in the world.  Business will lead us in sharing the largesse of the planet with everyone on the planet.

We live in a world that is being transformed. And the most optimistic, the most hopeful thing I can say to you this afternoon, is that you can, you will be, part of that transformation.

Your generation will lead the transformation, the next industrial revolution. So while the short term is scary, the long term is very exciting. This economic crisis will end.  We may disagree on when, but it will end. And we'll be smarter for it. And then it will be your turn to lead.

Now, it is in this context that I want to add just one piece of personal advice before I end. It is the single most important lesson I have learned in my career. And it is simply: Please, please do something you love.

It sounds too simple; maybe even simplistic … but hear me out.

I think finding real fulfillment and joy in your job is the ultimate challenge you face, because it's the key to success on every level. People who succeed tend to love what they do. People who succeed in finding balance in their lives always love what they do.

When people ask me, as a mother of three, how to balance work and family, I say the same thing to them that I am saying to you: Find a career, an industry, a pursuit, a job that you love because I promise you, you will love your kids. 

And if you don’t love—not like a lot, but love—what you do professionally, your life will never be in balance. 

Go do whatever it takes to get yourself in a position where you love what you do, where you care about what you do, where you want to inspire others, build great things, do great deeds. 

If you think you always wanted to work in marketing, and you try it and you find it dull and irrelevant and soft and fluffy and silly (I know how some people consider what I do for a living!) move on … just move on. 

Life is short.  Go find the things that you find exciting, important, intellectually stimulating. I always promised myself that the day I didn’t look forward to going to work, the day I was bored, that was the day I would quit. I'm still here.

I am excited for you, and envious too, for your future and for your opportunities. 

I am also very happy because from this day forward, I will consider myself a member of the class of 2009 of the Smeal College of Business and I will always be very proud of it. I can't wait to watch you all change the world.

Thank you.

Lazurus' career with Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide has spanned decades. During her career there, she moved from an account executive through numerous promotions to become president of the company's advertising headquarters in New York in 1991; then president of Ogilvy North America in 1994; chief executive officer (CEO) of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide and finally CEO (1996 to January 2009, when she stepped down from that position) and chairwoman—a position she has held since 1997.

As chairwoman and CEO, Lazurus expanded the company's practice of brand building by encouraging a cross-disciplinary approach to public communications. She has worked with such clients as Unilever, Kraft, Kodak, Kimberly Clark, and American Express. She landed a $500 million global account with IBM in 1994 and helped the company with its identity transition. She has been named Advertising Woman of the Year, received a Distinguished Leadership Award from Columbia Business School, and has been listed in Fortune magazine's annual rankings of the 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business since its inception in 1998