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In a time of complexity, change, and stress, it is more important than ever to question whether your perspective is broad enough to make the best possible decisions, said Curtis Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares. “Recognize there are very powerful forces out there – some intentional, some circumstantial – that are trying to get you to narrow your perspective,” Welling said at the inaugural event hosted by the GSB Philanthropy Club, led by students in the Evening and Weekend MBA programs, at its inaugural speaking event at Gleacher Center on October 17.
“It requires work to question your perspective,” he added. “It requires work to seek opinions that are going to better inform your view, particularly if they don’t feel comfortable. Take steps to get outside of your comfort zone. In this accelerating world where change is a constant, I have come to realize things are almost always different than they appear or seem.”
Welling questioned his own perspective when he left the financial services industry after 25 years to find a mission-driven organization in which his management skills would have an impact. He discovered certain things are common to all organizations with a mission or purpose, whether they are for-profit or not-for-profit: resources, strategy, and objectives.
“Your resources are both human and material,” Welling said. “How well you organize those resources, bundle them, and focus them on your mission determines how well you succeed. If you’ve managed in one sector — if you can recognize patterns and techniques — you can find things that are true in both profit and nonprofit sectors, things that are characteristics of good organizations.”
However, the sectors maintain very important differences, all of which are related to perspective, he said. “The perspective of the for-profit sector is the perspective of the marketplace,” Welling said. “For-profit companies exist to make money. They may have a mission within that context that has to do with a product or service, but everything within the company is oriented toward figuring out what resources are needed to make a profit in that marketplace and getting the capital necessary to execute the business plan.”
Unlike the for-profit sector, the nonprofit sector has no central auction market from which to secure such operating capital, he said. “The nonprofit sector operates from the perspective of the mission,” Welling said. “Everything is seen through that lens. In our economy, you are given nonprofit status under the Internal Revenue Service code because you are doing something that as a matter of public policy we have decided is good for society. We don’t exist simply to make a return on capital or equity.”
Welling’s presentation illustrated that a successful manager can apply many of the same tools from one context into an entirely different context and be very successful, said student Nick Kamboj, events chair of the Philanthropy Club. “Mr. Welling comes from a very legal, business-oriented background and now he’s in a philanthropic role – and he’s done very well in the last seven years,” Kamboj said. “You have to get out of your comfort zone. Being in another context may provide much better results than you would have imagined in your original context.”
Phil Rockrohr