Michael Useem, Rina Williams, Robert Cartwright

February Breakfast Meeting Recap
By Philip April & Joseph Meklin, St. Joseph's University students who are presently co-op interns at USLI 

The February 21, joint meeting of the Philadelphia Chapter CPCU Society and RIMS, held in the historic Union League building in Philadelphia, proved to be a powerful showcase of one of the most influential educators in Philadelphia. Dr. Michael Useem, accomplished professor from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School for Business, spoke on the topic of leadership and offered a great deal of his personal insight to the group.  

Professor Useem began by noting that because a runner always warms up before a race, we too must do the same before delving into the topic at hand. He proposed several questions concerning leadership to involve the audience. He first asked for a good definition of the word leadership. Some of the answers ranged from “someone who engages the hearts and minds of others,” to “someone who motivates.” Next, he asked when leadership is most needed. The overwhelming answer appeared to be “in time of crisis.” The most difficult to answer question was the final challenge: specify the value of a good leader. Several answers were offered, but none on which the group could agree with confidence. 

Professor Useem gave answers to some of the questions: quoting Webster’s dictionary for the first answer, agreeing with the group’s opinion on the second question, and also diving deeper into the value of leadership question. He presented several pictures of top CEOs, along with a graph showing the "value" of retiring and incoming CEOs. He discussed the compensation of CEOs in terms of how much they help or hurt the bottom line of the company. The next slide pictured 7 or 8 of the most famous leaders, including Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, and a few leaders from corporate America. He asked the question: what is the common thread in leaders?  Some of these are natural born leaders. Others have to work hard in order to gain the ability to lead successfully.  First the individual has to be self directed and have a passion to better himself and the company.  Next, he/she has to be given new opportunities and not be afraid to make mistakes, but must be able to overcome these obstacles and have confident decision-making skills. He also pointed out that coaches and mentors who will help show individual strengths and weaknesses are vital to the success of leaders. 

The next section of the presentation was a case-study exercise. Professor Useem described the 1995 IBM takeover of Lotus Notes and how the IBM CEO Louis V. Gerstner had to address the employees of Lotus in a “state of the union” speech. Two minutes were given to the audience wherein everyone was charged with creating the speech that Gerstner should deliver in that meeting with the Lotus employees. One audience member was "volunteered" to deliver his speech and answer some burning questions from the audience, acting as employees.  

Next, Dr. Useem stepped back to take a look into history when he brought up the topic of the Civil War. He spoke at length about the battle of Little Round Top, in which a small group of Union soldiers defended a hill against a much larger faction of Confederates. A clip from the movie Gettysburg showed how a simple handshake between Strong Vincent and Joshua Chamberlain committed Vincent to one of the most important battles in American history. Professor Useem had just proved how leaders are created out of the most unlikely candidates in unlikely situations.  

One of the last segments of the presentation was marked by Dr. Useem’s creation of a list of practical traits and ideals for the everyday leader. He believes that one must develop the ability to make meaning for other people, that respect for others must be conveyed at all times, that body movements are extremely important, that methods to motivate others are vital to a leader’s success, and most importantly that you must believe in yourself and have a passion for what you do. To quote the German poet Hebbel, “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”