Award-Winning Alumni Share Ideas on Success

What leads to success in businessa lucky experience, or a series of planned decisive steps?

It’s luck, according to Chicago GSB’s 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award winners. The four alumniAndrew Alper, AB ’80, MBA ’81; Tao Huang, ’99 (XP-69); Richard Steiner, ’70; and Richard Teerlink, ’76 (XP-36) shared their thoughts Saturday at a panel discussion after the dedication of the Hyde Park Center .

Steiner, a Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, said he met his future business partner at a boys camp when he was 10 years old. Huang, chief operating officer at Morningstar, said he chose projects at work not to advance his career but because they looked interesting. Teerlink, retired CEO of Harley-Davidson, felt fortunate that his parents valued education and supported him even when he quit college to join the army. And Alper, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, left a 21-year career at Goldman Sachs for public service because he was convinced it was a good opportunity by a friend and colleague who had just been named deputy mayor of New York .

However, they admitted, hard work played a part, as did their ability to see opportunities for what they were. One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor, Steiner said.

DAA winners fielded questions from an audience of about 75 people, offering advice on a variety of topics:

* Teerlink on leadership: Learn to be an influencing leader, not a directive leader. Through influence, you have the opportunity to have lots of people out doing things. If you're directing, you only direct one or two.

* Alper on attitude: The trick is to find something you really enjoy doing so you run to work in the morning, and you're enthusiastic and creative about it. And opportunities will find you.

* Huang on mentors: It’s very important to have mentors, both junior and senior. Try to have day-to-day conversations with them, not just work related. A lot of time in conversation, you hear something totally unexpected. And keep your mind open; there’s always more than one good solution.

* Steiner on choosing colleagues: I had faith in my partner. You have to know who you're in bed with and will they go through walls and how committed are they? Know who your partners are, know when to stick with them, and know when to give it up. And keep your ego out of it.

 

Patty Houlihan