Principled Leadership: A Model for the “Reset” Economy
Deborah Merrill-Sands
In 2008, the world as we knew it turned upside down. The global economy careened perilously close to collapse and governments around the world made dramatic interventions to save financial institutions “too big to fail.” Billions of dollars in wealth evaporated, hundreds of thousands of employees lost their jobs, and thousands of organizations failed.
Today, we navigate in unchartered waters. We can no longer rely on many of the “truths” that served as our ballast, shaped our understanding and judgments, and guided our site lines into the future. Many of the systems and institutions that structured our commerce, our society, our economy, and the use of our environment have been shaken to their foundations.
As Jeffery Immelt, CEO of General Electric, declared in a recent speech at the Business for Social Responsibility conference, “"This economic crisis doesn't represent a cycle. It represen ... more »
Posted: August 30, 2009 7:37 pm | 0 comments
Tags: Anne Mulcahy, Boston Herald, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, Deborah Merrill-Sands, economic crisis, Indira Nooyi, Jeffrey Immelt, leadership, Simmons School of Management, sustainability, women
The facts: Response to negative press on the SOM - Bloomberg.com article
Some of you may have seen an article, "Colleges Flunk Economics Test as Harvard Model Destroys Budgets", on Bloomberg.com. The article focuses on the financial challenges facing higher education and includes references to Simmons, BU, and Harvard. I am concerned because the article focused on the School of Management and gave quite a negative profile. The article raises questions about the sustainability of the investment in the School and in the new building on campus. We strongly disagree with the way the reporter framed the article or the implications that he draws.
The College has submitted a formal rebuttal to the article. But, as stakeholders in and ambassadors for the School, I wanted you to have the facts. I also request your support in countering the reporters negative portrayal of the SOM. Key points for you to know include:
1) The SOM portion of the new building cost less that the proceeds for the Commo ... more »
Posted: May 7, 2009 8:41 pm | 1 comment
Tags: Bloomberg, Deborah Mewrilll-Sands, higher education, Simmons College, Simmons School of Management
SOM Dean’s Letter, E-News, February 2009 [long version]
Excellence in Women’s Leadership: The importance of vision
Harvard Business Reviews’ January 2009 issue on “Transforming Leaders” summarized a recent study comparing the leadership skills of men and women executives. The study shows that women are perceived to outperform men in most dimensions of leadership except for one – vision.
INSEAD conducted a global study of 2,816 executives’ 360o assessments of their leadership skills in which 22,244 subordinates, peers, and supervisors evaluated the executives’ leadership skills. Twenty percent of the executives and 27% of the observers were women. Similar to earlier studies, they found that female leaders were rated higher than male leaders in 7 out of 10 dimensions of leadership from both male and female leaders. These findings demonstrate, once again, that women are perceived to be successful in leadership roles.
However, the study revealed one critical are ... more »
Posted: March 21, 2009 11:32 am | 0 comments
Tags: Deborah Merrill-Sands, Harvard Business Review, Ibarra, leadership, Merrill-Sands, Simmons School of Management, vision, women's leadership
Business Ethics: Back in the spotlight
Deborah Merrill-Sands, Dean, School of Management, Simmons College
Business ethics are back in the business school spot light, yet again. And that light is shining hotly and brightly.
The current global economic crisis, unleashed by the sub-prime mortgage scandal, has made us question what, if anything, we learned from the corporate scandals that grounded high-flying companies such as Enron and WorldCom, just a short eight years ago. Once again, we have been propelled into an economic crisis by executives’ myopic focus on short-term results at the expense of long-term organizational performance, by organizational cultures that tolerate unbridled risk-taking over sound judgment and integrity in decision-making, and by a relaxed regulatory environment that reflects an uncritical faith in the corrective power of the markets. As we experience every day, the cost of these crises to companies, communities, and to each of us as individuals is en ... more »
Posted: November 9, 2008 6:58 pm | 0 comments
Tags: Business, business ethics, Deborah Merrill-Sands, ethics, ethics and MBA, MBA curriculum, Merrill-Sands, school of management, Simmons College, Simmons School of Management, women and leadership
All,
The appointment of Sarah Palin has stimulated a lot of discussion about its implications for women and leadership. Yesterday Mary Shapiro was interviewed on NECN to give her reactions to the NY Times article
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02mother.html?_r=1&ref=pol.... She had some great clips in the interview. You can see Mary's interview at http://www.necn.com/Boston/Politics/Will-Palin-pregnancy-affect-voters-/....
We had some very interesting discussions in preparing for this interview and processing all of our thoughts since Palin's announcement which raises many issues regarding women and leadership. I am using the new blog technology at Simmons to share some of my views. I am inviting faculty and other interested members of the SOM community (including our students)to join this discussion. I think that we can have a lively discussion that will help us all better understand how gender dynamics shape women's leadership and career opportunities.
My per ... more »
Posted: September 3, 2008 8:16 am | 8 comments
Tags: gender, leadership, palin, politics, women
