Harvard Business School - Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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IIEIIIIIATIIIN To JVlaIcoIm Perrin? IVIiuNair WE osoicmr inns Boar Admired and respected for his Fighting spirit, intellectual honesty, and good iudgment, he is an outstanding leader in the Field of retailing and a teacher whose genuine good heartedness and sincere willingness to help others win the attec- tion of all with whom he comes in contact.

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AHen County Public LIDIHU 900 Webster Street P0 Box 2270 Foft Wayne, IN 46801-2270 MALCOLM P. MCNAIR

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lm the Importance ut Being Tough-Minileil VVILLIAM JAMES, a great teacher of philosophy at Harvard during the early years of this century. made the useful distinction between people who are tough-minded and people who are tender-minded. These terms have nothing to do with levels of ethical conduct: the toughness referred to is toughness of the intellectual apparatus, hardihood of the spiritfnot toughness of the heart. The tough-minded have a zest for experience, they dare to grapple with the unfamiliar and wrest useful truth from stubborn new factsg theygdo not wall themselves in with comfortable illusions. For two years the Business School has tried to make you tough-minded. lYe have forced you to acquire knowledge by the hard route of the case method instead ofthe easy route of the text book and the lecture. Vile have expected you to dig things out for yourselves, because we wanted you to develop powerdbecause we wanted you to understand that education is a process of drawing out the students mind, not of pouring in the instructors ideas. If we have been at all successful in this undertaking, you are not under the illusion that the Business School provides you with any body of specific knowledge, any set of formulae, any ready-cut pattern of behavior that will enable you to go out into the world of business and be successful administrators: on the contrary, you are aware that the principal value of your professional training at the Business School lies in the power you have developed to analyze a situation, to work out a programlof action, and to carry that program into effect. All this means that the Business School has given you the initial impetus toward being tough-minded. But you have to keep it up after you leave the School: for the rigorous discipline of the School's training you have to substitute your own discipline. What are some of the characteristics of the tough-minded professional business administrator? There are three which I think are impor- tant for you. as graduates of the Harvard Business School, In the first place, if you are really tough-minded, you won't look for the easy job. Some jobs offer an easy transition from school to business, because they involve the making of analyses, the giving of advice, opinion, and criticism, without the responsibility of carrying out the action recommended. These jobs look attractive, but they frequently prove to be blind alleys because they do not build the necessary qualities of disciplined leadership. Don't start with this kind