leadership and responsibility

I have been believing that leadership and responsibility are inseparable.

Once a person volunteers to take the role of leader, he or she should take the responsibility for that group. There is no way to be a great leader while being irresponsible for the group.

People say the Management School is to develop future leaders. We also say we are here to learn.

I'm hoping we can see more and more great leaders with their responsibility and courage to make the world a better place. This may sound silly and idealistic, but that's one of the evidence showing I am still young enough to hope, right?

Inspiration from Drucker Centennial Week

The Drucker Centennial Week celebration finished with Drucker Centennial Day yesterday. We had Jim Collins, Charles Handy, and many other great guest speakers coming to Claremont and share all kinds of insights with us, especially about "Why we need Drucker now, more than ever"!

I was really excited that we have the chance to meet Jim Collins and can hear from him about Drucker's philosophy. And he didn't disappoint me at all! One sentence that really touched me is this, "The great leaders are extremely ambitious, but not for themselves!"

People tend to think the basic stuffs are not as important and new thoughts or innovations. Although some new ideas are pretty excited, the sincerity, honesty, trust, etc, are still the most important characters for a successful leader. And people usually forget these things because they are simply too basic.

There must be reasons that great leaders/thinkers are always talking about the basic things. However, many people focus only in narrow field and ignore the importance of the big picture. Human beings have unlimited capability, but we like to limit ourselves all the time.

One advice that Jim Collins offered was to "build your own personal board of directors. People selected not for their accomplishment, but for their character. The people you will be embarrassed talking to if you are thinking if this is really a right thing to do."

Every of his suggestion is just so deeply touching my heart, and I almost agree with every of them sincerely.

When Jim Collins talked about the first meeting between him and Peter Drucker. When Drucker left his advice for Jim Collins, Peter was not worried about Jim's survival in academic, nor about Jim's career or financial success, but Peter asked Jim to think about how to be useful. And as Jim Collins recalled, that 10 seconds conversation changed his whole life.

This week truly reminded me how great Peter Drucker is. The week also convinced me once again that I am extremely lucky to be in this fantastic school. Thanks for Jim Collins, I again listened to a speech with tears in my eyes.

As a co-director of Marketing Club in Drucker School, I was proud that I really have some trustworthy partners to work with now. The result can be so easily seen as we presented the club booth. On that booth, we had the collaborative work of many people in marketing club. The booth was beautifully designed and decorated. We had Prof. Darroch's new book presented on the booth. The certificate of being one chapter of American Marketing Association was so shining. I am also grateful that members designed different materials that make our project successful. To present the business card the member designed in the booth, I felt really proud.

This semester, the Drucker Marketing Club is having many activities and events going on. We are having guest speakers coming in next two weeks, too. I am really glad we are having members keep joining our events!

The final part I'd like to share is about the conversation with Masatoshi Ito, the founder and honorary chairman of the Ito-Yokado Group. His friendship and working relationship with Peter Drucker spanned more than three decades. Ito San is an amazingly humble person and a great leader in Japan. I am so honored to be in the school named Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito School!

Ito San was really kind and took time to meet Drucker School students. Because this event was decided at the last minute, we were worried that we could not broadcast the information fast enough to draw people to this event. However, we soon found that the worry was so stupid. Ito San is such a great leader that his appearance drew attention by nature. We ended up with a room full of people, and crowd even outside of the room.

Ito San talked about his relationship with Peter Drucker and how he learned from Peter. In fact, Peter insisted to have Ito's name on the school because he believed Ito San is a practical side of himself! Seeing the true friendship with two great men, I was deeply touched and felt so proud to be associated with them.

Non-surprisingly, the values that Ito San deeply embeds in every aspect of his thought totally match what Peter and all other great thinkers believe. They all value social responsibility, honesty, and dignity. They all dislike the "money centric" and "profit-only" ideas. Just like Jim Collins said, "The great leaders are extremely ambitious, but not for themselves." Ito San is a great example and role model for us, which I truly appreciate!

In this photo, the person in the center who had the great smile on his face is one of our professors. He is teaching self-management in our school, a field that is very important for knowledge workers, but are not addressed by most "B-schools" at all.

I have been studying in Drucker School for more than 1 year. Of course, this school is not perfect, and it's small with limited resources.

However, where can you find a school that all the professors are really passionate about teaching and students' success? Where can you find a school that everyone is so friendly and so tightly working together, even as volunteers? In what kind of business speaking sessions, you can find your eyes wet all the time while listening to different great speakers talking about their dream and Peter's dream.

The Drucker School is great. I am extremely lucky to be here and to share all the great thoughts with many many great people.

Crazy (Fun) Week

The midterm week finally finished. Since I had only two classes in 1st module and only one of them had midterm exam, this week became crazily fun week for me!

During this week, I played golf 4 times, One time in regular course, three times in short course!

Also, I played poker at the night before midterm exam, and although I was so lucky that I won the most at that night!

After the midterm, we went to golf (I almost got a hole-in-one), 燒肉, and then Karaoke. "Tamaen" in Torrance was so dili. Singing with friends is still one of my favorite activities!

Other than these, finally, my car has run more than 30,000 miles, and I went to car service, Ontario Mills (while waiting for my car,) and Costa Mesa (Book-off & Mitsuwa).

Finally, I bought the driver that I have been wanted to buy, and a pair of golf shoes. Although I have no idea how much time I need to practice before I can use the driver well, I am motivated by the purchase and eager to play golf more!

We also went to go-cart racing. This is really fun and tiring! I still can't move my arm even two days after playing this. However, I do find I am not a competitive person in this game. Although I was the 1st place in the 2nd tier group, because I bumped other people during the race, I felt a bit guilty at the end...

Well, it's still a great experience though. I enjoyed racing with so many friends. I am glad I went there!

I renewed my Disneyland annual pass in this week, too.

It's a pity that we didn't go with Disneyland expert this time, but we found we learned something from her. Even though it's Friday night and the park is extremely crowded. We took several rides and had a nice dinner in the park without waiting too much. I was still scared while taking Splash Mountain, and still feeling good while taking Pirates of Caribbean.

Today, thanks for the invitation from A & H, we went to Little Tokyo restaurant together. Luckily and surprisingly, we met K's family there. Of course, with this group of people, the meal would be amazingly good. We had not only nigiri sushi but also a lobster sashimi+nabe. This meal is so good that I almost couldn't stop eating even I was so full...

With this happy ending, I finished the happy week. And from tomorrow, the 2nd module will start, and I will be crazily busy again with tons of homework to do. However, I am glad to have so colorful life here. Claremont is the best! Drucker School is the best! My friends are the best!

Apple's new lineup for the holiday season 09

Apple just announced their quarterly report yesterday with profits surge 46% and record breaking Mac & iPhone sales.

Today, Apple released the new products for the holiday season 2009.

I have always been amazed by the way Apple introduces their product in a short video.

This iMac is a refinement of previous product.

On contrast to other computer companies, Apple is not trying to put a touch screen on the iMac, but build a multi-touch mice instead.

The reason is simple: "To add meaningless feature is never a good thing."

Differentiation is not just being different. Whether consumers perceived the value is the key of product success.

The following is the introduction video from Apple:

NSHMBA 2009

This is the 2nd time I attended NSHMBA career fair.

The event is one of the biggest for MBA in the US, and I have always learned a lot by just struggling in the career fair and talking with people.

Finding a job under this economy is really difficult even for Americans, not to mention for the international students.

As international students, it's just the reality we are facing.

In fact, I do think going back to Taiwan is also a good option. However, I also want to learn more in the US, since I really feel the diverse cultures here in California inspire me a lot.

Last year, the NSHMBA conference was in Atlanta and I went there with many classmates. Senior students taught me how to network with people, and we even debate whether trying to make friends with strangers is a necessary thing to do. The experience really shocked me because I had't understood how difficult for me to find a job in the US.

This year, Drucker School had much fewer students going with us even school is aggressively trying to send us there by sponsoring hotel fee. Several of us still went, and I felt it's totally worth it. The event is actually a bit smaller than last year. Companies are offering more internship but maybe not as many full time jobs. I practiced talking with recruiters again, and I realized I improved. My improvement really makes me happy, although it may be very little.

Also, this year, my brother joined me in job hunting in the US.

It's great to share with him and try to help.

The NSHMBA event itself may not be too much fun, but going there with friends, learning from practicing, talking with all kinds of different people, and confirming my own understanding of myself all are really useful for me.

I am glad I joined again this year. And I really enjoyed this trip with friends and my brother.