Graduate Commencement Speech

Graduate Commencement
Illinois Institute of Technology

M. Zia Hassan
Dean Emeritus and Professor
Stuart Graduate School of Business

It is the custom at events such as this for a speaker to offer some advice. I would like to think that by my age, I have some wisdom to impart. I hope I don’t disappoint you.

I wish to address the question of success, which we all hope to achieve.

In my opinion, success in life rests on three pillars: character, capability, and commitment. It is obvious that you have the capability and commitment to succeed, or you would not be here today celebrating your most recent success—your graduation!

This morning, I wish to talk about character, the third pillar, as the basis of success in the business world—the world most of you will soon be entering.

Nowadays I have heard it said that ethical character traits, such as honesty, truthfulness, patience, trustworthiness, and courage, are obstacles to success—and that the way to get ahead is to get away with whatever you can.

But I have observed over my many years that unethical behavior does not lead to success. Today’s belief that success results from doing “whatever you can get away with” is not true. I have observed this during my 50 years of experience both in the business world and in studying the business world.

There has been a lot of change in those 50 years. Fifty years ago, when I first came here as a graduate student, Crown Hall had just been completed, and the Prudential building was the tallest in Chicago.

I had to do the calculations for my assignments with paper and pencil. There were no sophisticated calculators and no Excel. My telephone had only one line—no hold, no conference calls, no messages. Instead of buttons and tones, it had a rotary dial. Overseas phone calls cost so much that very few could make them. Written messages traveled by “snail mail, “ not e-mail. (Though a 1st class U.S. stamp cost 3 cents.)

For information, I depended on physical libraries, using card catalogs and my legs as search engine. As an instructor, I used a manual typewriter to type class materials. I had to manually erase mistakes or “white them out” and then make copies on a machine called a mimeograph, by turning a hand crank.

Today, the Internet and World Wide Web enable anyone—anywhere—to communicate over any distance or time zone, and to immediately access unlimited information databases. And desktop computers and printers can turn anyone into an instant publisher.

But despite all that change, over those 50 years, I have continued to observe that unethical behavior is not the road to success. Let me support that by examining some ethical character traits—what people once called virtues.

Let us start with honesty, in the sense of truthfulness. Would being untruthful—would lying help your career?

Well, first, people who lie, say, at business meetings, would be very, very surprised to learn how many in the room know they are lying. Over my many years, I have noticed how few really get away with lying.

Second, once people are caught lying, they lose their credibility. Their colleagues won’t even want to work with them—a rather basic obstacle to a successful career.

A friend of mine once received a salary check for more than it should have been. She went to her boss and had it corrected. Three weeks later she got a raise. She went to her superior and thanked him. He said, “Thank you,” clearly referring to her honesty.

Let’s look at Patience. As an engineer, manager, scientist, or architect working on a problem, your worst enemy is the quick fix—not having the patience to properly solve the problem.

As a manager, you’d be surprised, by how many people grow into their jobs and gain confidence and capabilities—if only you have the patience to let them. Firing them, because you are an impatient person, may make you look like a “take charge” executive to your boss, but you may be losing a talented employee and destroying the morale of the other people who work for you.

And as a manager or administrator, you’d be surprised by how many problems just solve themselves, if you don’t jump in right away.

Let’s look at being Trustworthy.

People must be able to count on you. Clearly, no company, no business, no enterprise of any sort, can operate if people cannot be counted on to do their jobs. People who can’t be counted on are not promoted.

Being trustworthy also has a higher sense—being worthy of trust, being able to keep a secret, doing nothing illegal. Sensitive jobs are only given to trustworthy employees. Boards of directors do not select untrustworthy people to be CEOs. (At least, not intentionally.)

Of course, you also have to trust others. A manager who doesn’t trust others, not only creates a toxic culture, but can’t even delegate work.

Coincidentally, when I was putting these thoughts together, I came across an interview in the New York Times of November 20, in which the dean of the French business school Insead stated his thoughts on this same subject.

He was asked “Is wanting to make money bad?” He answered that there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be successful and wanting to measure that success by how much money you make for your company and for yourself. But that the issue should not be the conflict between ethics and making money, but how to make money in an ethical fashion and how to include ethical behavior in the criteria for success.

Let us now look at some ethical traits not usually associated with the business world—courage, generosity, and humility.

Out in the business world you’ll hear “I couldn’t criticize that idea. He’s the boss,” and people will say that it’s just practical to behave that way. But this exhibits the lack of an important character trait—courage. You must have the courage of your convictions to succeed. Acting obsequious works only in the short run. In the long run, management rewards independent thought. (If the word “courage” sounds too military, you can think of this trait as “confidence.”)

Generosity is a virtue too often overlooked in the business world. Generosity is always rewarded with loyalty—whether from people who work for you or from outside suppliers. For instance, squeezing every penny from a supplier’s price, while supposedly business-like, can turn out to be short-sighted. When the product goes into short supply, that supplier will have no reason to help you out.

Generosity does not apply only to money. Effective managers and leaders are generous with their praise and give credit to others. As someone once said, “It’s astonishing how much work gets done, when no one worries about who will get the credit for it.”

Another form of generosity is giving back to the community.

Another important virtue in business is being unassuming, being modest
about who you are. Some call this humility. It is the opposite of being controlled by your ego. Ego—judging everything in terms of narrow self-interest—runs counter to the interests of the company or the team you are working with. For instance, those CEOs who cut research and marketing budgets, so they can make the quarterly numbers that result in bonuses, are harming their companies.

In conclusion—While the reason usually given for behaving ethically is that it is the right thing to do or because of a religious belief, I am advising you that being ethical can be practical as well. Let me close with a striking example of this from the area of government and politics.

Forgiveness is definitely a virtue, but practicing forgiveness can also be practical. After a war, how can societies look beyond the injuries they have done to each other and build a future that is not poisoned by the past? In this case, forgiveness is not merely a spiritual matter, it can help societies avoid a “cycle of vengeance” in which “violence propagates violence for generations.” To a great extent, forgiveness seems to be working in South Africa, where the government, as a part of its reconciliation policy, has made forgiveness, the underlying philosophy of moving forward.

I invite and encourage each one of you to consider building strengths of character, capability, and commitment. These will help you enjoy a happier, more successful, and more productive career and life.

Thank you for your time and patience.

Good Luck!!!!

Delivered December 17, 2005

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.