ROBERT JOSS

DEAN PROFILE: ROBERT JOSS OF STANFORD BUSINESS SCHOOL

By Rebecca Knight 2009-04-13

When Bob Joss arrived at for the first time as a young PhD student in 1965, business was not considered much of an academic discipline.

“It was for students who couldn't get into law school or medical school,” he recalls. “We were second-class citizens looked down upon by the academy.”

When he arrived at Stanford for the second time in 1999 – this time as the business school's eighth dean – things had changed.

“Now business schools are at the centre of the university,” he says. “It's increasingly hard to be a great university without a great business school.”

Prof Joss retires this year after an enormously successful 10 years at the helm at one of the most prestigious business schools in the world.

During his tenure, he raised hundreds of millions of dollars for Stanford, helped develop the redesigned MBA curriculum and – his proudest accomplishment – forged bonds within the university to encourage greater collaboration among students and faculty.

“Everyone is talking about it, and Stanford is doing it,” says Prof Joss, 67. “Business schools are by definition multi-disciplinary schools. We have social psychologists, statisticians, political scientists, economists coming together and concentrating on a problem: how do you get an organisation to work better?”

A native of Washington state, he spent most of his career in banks.

Prof Joss received his PhD from Stanford in 1970, and went to Washington DC as a White House Fellow and deputy to the assistant secretary for economic policy at the US Treasury department.

Deciding against a career in academia, he joined Wells Fargo Bank in 1971, rising to vice-chairman in 1985.

He left Wells Fargo to become the chief executive of Australia's Westpac Banking Corporation in 1993, where he was credited with managing its turnround.

Prof Joss rethought the bank's strategy, directed its return to financial health, and restructured the organisation's culture to emphasise teamwork, customer focus, and community support.

After six years in Sydney, he returned to Palo Alto, California at the peak of dotcom mania.

In his first months as dean, cable news crews were constantly on the campus lawn, and it seemed MBA students were forming new internet companies every day.

“Coming back to America from another country, I hadn't been swept up in all this dotcom stuff,” he says.

“There was a hubris that was unreal: the climate and the culture and the unbridled optimism. There was arrogance that anything was possible.”

Prof Joss soon discovered he had a lot to learn about the way academic institutions function.

“I don't know what it's like to be a professor, working your way up, trying to get tenure. I came in as dean, which is a rarefied atmosphere,” he says. “I came to the university understanding that it was a different culture. I knew I needed to listen and learn about the things people value, how decisions are made, how people get ahead.”

He understood one thing in particular: the university was in need of more innovative and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

“We needed to figure out a way to make the university do great things collaboratively.

“What does it take to be a great university in the 21st century? It takes integrating knowledge around big issues like human health, education, climate change,” he says.

Over the past decade, the business school introduced cross-disciplinary MBAs, and two joint degrees: the MBA-MS environment and resources and the MBA-MA in public policy.

Prof Joss also helped launched three academic centres – the Center for Leadership Development and Research, the Center for Social Innovation, and the Center for Global Business and the Economy – that, like the School's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, created a critical mass of cases, courses and activities in each area.

Prof Joss has been an adept fundraiser as well, increasing the business school endowment from $387m in 1999 to more than $1bn today.

He also accepted one of the largest gifts to a business school – $105m from Philip Knight, the founder of Nike and a Stanford alumnus.

The money will help fund the new 360,000sq ft, environmentally sustainable campus that is expected to be completed in 2011: the Knight Management Center. “The space is going to be fantastic, but what's more important is what's going on in the space,” he says.

In 2007, Stanford introduced its redesigned, highly customised MBA curriculum.

The programme offers a more global view and expanded leadership and communication development. “We're taking a much stronger role around thinking and research around leadership,” he says.

“We've always been good about teaching students how to think critically, but increasingly we want them to have [leadership] experiences while they're still students. To prepare students to actually lead on a global stage.”

The programme has four focus points: first, it aims to give each student a highly personalised experience by offering a wide-ranging menu of courses. Second, it attempts to intensify the school's intellectual experience through smaller, high-impact seminars focused on analytical thinking.

Third, it increases global business education opportunities through both new course options and a required international component.

And finally, it expands the school's focus on leadership and communication through courses that examine students' personal strengths in the topic.

In spite of the deepening global financial crisis, which has in part been blamed on the perceived avarice of Wall Street bankers, Prof Joss still believes business is a righteous occupation.

“By definition, managers are those who get things done through other people, who unleash talent in others. To me that is a tough job. And to do it well is an enormous benefit to society. It is a noble calling.”

“We're looking at something that got out of whack. Management wasn't valued as much as the deal or the transaction,” he says.

“The role of business, the role of good management has never been more important. There's a crying need for it. When it's done poorly, there are terrible consequences.”

1965年，当鲍勃•乔斯(Bob Joss)以年轻博士生的身份首次来到斯坦福大学商学院时，很多人并不把商业视为一门学科。

“只有无法进入法学院或医学院的学生才会来到这里，”他回忆道。“我们是二等公民，在学术界被人瞧不起。”

1999年，当他第二次来到斯坦福时——这一次他是作为该校第八任院长——情况发生了变化。

“如今，商学院变成了大学的中心，”他表示。“如果没有优秀的商学院，要想成为一所优秀的大学已变得越来越困难。”

乔斯将于今年退休。在执掌这所全球最具声望的商学院之一的10年中，他取得了巨大成功。

在他的任期内，他为斯坦福大学商学院筹集了数亿美元资金，帮助开发了重新设计的MBA课程，并建立了校内联系，以鼓励更多的师生合作——这是最令他自豪的成就。

“所有人都在讨论它，斯坦福则正在这么做，”67岁的乔斯表示。“按照定义，商学院属于多学科院校。我们把社会心理学家、统计学家、政治学家、经济学家会聚在一起，关注于一个问题：如何让一个组织更好地运转？”

乔斯是华盛顿州人，大部分职业生涯是在银行度过的。

1970年获得斯坦福大学博士学位后，乔斯以白宫学者的身份来到华盛顿特区，任美国财政部经济政策副部长助理。

1971年，他决定离开学术界，加盟富国银行(Wells Fargo Bank)，1985年升至该银行副董事长一职。

1993年，他离开富国银行，成为澳大利亚西太平洋银行(Westpac Banking Corporation)首席执行官，因成功令该银行复苏而受到赞誉。

乔斯反思了该行的战略，指引其重新走上财务健康之路，并改造了该组织的文化，强调团队合作、关注客户以及社区支持。

在悉尼生活了6年后，他在网络热潮巅峰时期回到加州的帕洛阿尔托。

在他担任斯坦福大学商学院院长的头几个月，有线电视新闻工作者经常出现在校园的草坪上，MBA学生似乎每天都在缔造新的互联网公司。

他表示：“由于是从另外一个国家回到美国，我没有陷入这股网络热潮。”

“当时有一种不真实的傲慢气氛：气候、文化和不受拘束的乐观主义。人们傲慢地认为，凡事皆有可能。”

乔斯很快发现，在学术机构的运转方式方面，他还有很多东西需要学习。

“我不知道做一名教授是什么感觉，逐步升迁，设法获得终身职位。我作为院长来到这里，这种情况很少见，”他表示。“我来到斯坦福，明白这是一种不同的文化。我知道我需要聆听，了解人们最看重的是什么，如何决策，人们如何成功。”

他特别清楚一点：这所大学需要更多创新性跨学科合作。

“我们需要找到让斯坦福合作成就大事的办法。”

他说：“在21世纪，要怎样才能成为一所优秀大学呢？它需要把有关人类健康、教育、气候变化等关键问题的知识综合起来。”

过去10年，斯坦福大学商学院推出了跨学科MBA课程以及两种联合学位：MBA-MS环境资源学位以及MBA-MA公共政策学位。

乔斯还帮助创建了3所学术中心——领导力发展和研究中心(Center for Leadership Development and Research)、社会创新中心(Center for Social Innovation)及全球商业经济中心(Center for Global Business and the Economy)。与该商学院的创业研究中心(Center for Entrepreneurial Studies)一样，这些学术中心在每个领域都创建了大量案例、课程和活动。

乔斯还是一位经验丰富的筹款人，该商学院获得的捐赠总额已从1999年的3.87亿美元增至如今的逾10亿美元。

他还接受了所有商学院获得的最大捐赠之一：斯坦福校友、耐克(Nike)创始人菲利普•奈特(Philip Knight)捐赠的1.05亿美元。

这笔资金将用于资助环境可持续的新校区——奈特管理中心(Knight Management Center)。新校区占地36万平方英尺，预计将于2011年完工。他说：“这里会非常棒，但更重要的是这里会发生什么。”

2007年，斯坦福大学商学院推出了经过重新设计、高度个性化的MBA课程。

该课程提供更为全球性的视点，以及领导力和沟通能力的进一步发展。他表示：“我们在关于领导力的思考和研究方面发挥着更为强大的作用。”

“教授学生如何批判性地思考一直是我们的长项，但我们越来越希望他们在学生时代就具备（领导力）经验。准备好让学生们在全球舞台上真正发挥领导作用。”

该课程有4个焦点：首先，它希望通过提供广泛的课程选择，让每个学生都获得高度个性化的体验。其次，试图通过关注于分析性思考、影响巨大的小型研讨会，增强学院的智力体验。

第三，通过新课程选择和必备的国际因素，增加全球性商业教育的机会。

最后，通过考察学生个人优势的课程，加强该学院对领导力和沟通的关注。

本次全球金融危机在一定程度上源自华尔街银行家明显的贪婪。尽管危机不断加剧，但乔斯仍认为商业是一个正直的职业。

“根据定义，经理是那些通过他人完成任务的人，他们会释放他人的才能。在我看来，这是一项艰巨的工作。如果能圆满完成，对社会是一项巨大福利。这是一个高尚的职业。”

他表示：“我们正在关注一些不正常的事情。管理不像交易那样受重视。”

“商业的作用、良好管理的作用从来没有如此重要过。我们非常需要它。如果不能做好，就会造成严重的后果。”

译者/梁艳裳

《FT商学院》