Wademan - Remember Who You Are

Remember Who You Are

Remember Who You Are

15 Harvard Professors Tell
Life Stories That
Inspire the Heart and Mind

Daisy Wademan

In Collaboration with
Professors of Harvard Business School

Harvard Business Review Press

Boston, Massachusetts

Copyright 2004 Daisy Wademan

All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to , or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

Cataloging In Publication Data is available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2004002150
ISBN 159139-2845

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives Z39.481992.

A Fall Before Rising: The Story of Jai Jaikumar (A) and A Fall Before Rising: The Story of Jai Jaikumar (B) (Harvard Business School Publishing cases 9600-047 and 9600-048, respectively) by Richard Squire, Sarah Vickers-Willis, and Harry Wilson, prepared under the supervision of Professor H. Kent Bowen. Copyright 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Adapted with permission of the President and Fellows of Harvard College and with permission of the authors.

Ideas, Policies, and Outcomes in Business History by Thomas McCraw. Business and Economic History Second Series, Volume Nineteen (1990), Copyright 1990 by the Business History Conference. Excerpts adapted with permission of the author and with permission of the Business History Conference.

Katharine Hepburn and Me Copyright 2003 by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Reproduced with permission of Rosabeth Moss Kanter.

The Stuffed Bird by Jeffrey F. Rayport. Copyright 2003 by Jeffrey F. Rayport. Reproduced with permission of Jeffrey F. Rayport.

For Paul

Relaxenjoy and celebrate your life

Jai Jaikumar

Ignore the distractions, have confidence, and focus on the task at hand

Jeffrey F. Rayport

Draw a nuanced distinction betweenwho you are and what you do

Richard S. Tedlow

Examine your own past, where your ideas come from

Thomas K. McCraw

Stay grounded and accessible

Stephen P. Kaufman

Reframe the way you think about risk

David E. Bell

Let a new image of yourself emerge

Nancy F. Koehn

Find a powerful leadership voice

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Realize that no one is a number

H. Kent Bowen

Give the gift of high expectations

Frances X. Frei

Sacrifice some measure of your own power

Timothy Butler

Help people gain more positive perspectives on themselves

Thomas J. DeLong

Be tough, lucky, selfless, and fair

Henry B. Reiling

Begin to fix what has been broken

Nitin Nohria

Dream and hope and believe in yourself

Kim B. Clark

If I were to sufciently thank every single person who has helped me throughout the long and sometimes difcult process of writing this book, this acknowledgments section would take longer to read than the volume itself. However, the generous support of certain friends, mentors, and colleaguesnot to mention the contributing professorsdeserves special mention, and I would therefore like to offer them here a sincere and heartfelt thank you.

Eighteen months ago, Nitin Nohria helped me to get the ball rolling on this project, immediately seeing merit in my raw idea and urging me to pursue it. Throughout the entire process, his tactical advice and doses of encouragement have been invaluable. While I am appreciative for all of his assistance and advice, I am particularly so for his introduction to the incomparable Helen Rees, my agent. Minutes into our rst phone call, I knew it was going to be a joy to work with Helen, and over time that initial impression has proved true a thousand times over. With humor and good grace, Helen guided me through the daunting task of turning my one-page summary into a full-edged proposal, and, over the past year, into a manuscript. Her talents have beneted this book enormously. Thanks are due also to Helens colleague, Joan Mazmanian.

It has been both an honor and a pleasure to work with the talented staff of the Harvard Business School Press. As acquiring editor, Suzanne Rotondo spotted the potential for this book and put her support behind it; she also provided critical feedback on several early essay drafts. When Suzanne moved on, the extraordinary Hollis Heimbouch picked up the project without a hitch, and it has been my privilege to work with her since. With her unerring editorial eye, Hollis was instrumental in helping me shape each and every chapter; the themes, messages, and writing are inestimably better for her efforts. For her amazing energy, talent, and belief in this book, she has my humble thanks. I am also indebted to Carol Franco and Walter Kiechel for bringing this project on board; to Astrid Sandoval for her excellent editorial and structural suggestions and logistical oversight throughout the process; to Mike Fender, for a wonderful jacket design. Special thanks goes to the talented members of the marketing, publicity, and sales teams for their vigorous efforts on the books behalf: Gayle Treadwell, Sharon Rice, Susan Minio, Leslie Zheutlin, Daisy Blackwell Hutton, Mark Bloomeld, Zeenat Potia, and Christine Turnier-Vallecillo.

As I labored to translate these stories and observations from spoken format onto the page, my job was made easier and my end product better by the hard work of three gifted people. Connie Hales work as line editor dramatically increased the clarity and readability of this entire manuscript; she deftly sharpened key points while helping me make the language both more graceful and more vivid. (If there are muddy ideas or clunky sentences anywhere, the fault is mine, not Connies.) Sebastian Stuart lent a hand in shaping several pieces, particularly when time got tight. Stephanie Murg transcribed interviews and checked facts at a dizzying speed and pored over essay drafts with a fresh set of readers eyes, offering excellent suggestions for improvement.

While in preparing this volume I have consistently beneted from an awe-inspiring array of talents, my greatest honor has been working with professors of Harvard Business School. For sharing their stories and speeches, ideas and observations, I am deeply grateful to them. Over the past year each has given generously and unaggingly to this project and gone out on a personal limb in having his or her stories and musings set down on paper. They have all done so despite their own busy schedules and pressing deadlines, and several in the face of extremely difcult personal circumstances. Their thoughts and words were the original inspiration for this bookand it is my fervent hope that this book, in return, is a tting tribute to them. I also send thanks to the faculty assistants who worked with me throughout the process: Chris Albanese, Leah Cofn, Cheryl Daigle, Susan Deavor, Rowena Foss, Kathy Ivanciw, Joan McDonald, Sandra Nunley, Elizabeth Scheele, and Elizabeth Sampson. Special appreciation goes, too, to Jean Cunningham in the Deans ofce.

Several people offered me enormous and unselsh help as I worked to research this book, and each one has my most sincere appreciation. The inclusion of Jai Jaikumars story, A Fall Before Rising, would never have been possible without the generosity and forethought of ve individuals. Professor Kent Bowen alerted me to the story and provided me a copy of the case study from which it was adapted. Richard Squire, Sarah Vickers-Willis (now Sarah Harden), and Harry Wilson, the case authors, had the inspiration and talent to have captured Professor Jaikumars story so completely and movingly on paperand the magnanimity to allow me to use it. When I contacted Mini Jaikumar to ask if I might include her husbands story in this collection, her response was as gracious as it was supportive; I am deeply in her debt. On a separate note, I am grateful to Jeffrey F. Rayport for the preparation of his essay, The Stuffed Bird. I also send my thanks to Harvard Business School Publishing and to the Business History Conference for permission to adapt previously copyrighted work.