Karl Moore: This is Karl Moore talking management for The Globe and Mail. Today I am delighted to have Professor Michael Porter, who is a University Professor at Harvard and just one of the biggest names in strategy around the world, join us today. Michael, you were speaking to a bunch of new grads from McGill today, a lot about 21 and some older. If you were back at 21 again, what would you want to do? What would your advice be for young people as they face a very uncertain world, one very different than what you and I grew up in?
Michael Porter: Well, I didn't say this in my speech today but unfortunately this graduating class has got unlucky timing.
There is going to be a difficult period here where we sort through the resuscitation of the economy. But I think today there is an interesting opportunity for young people to cross lines that we never used to cross before. I talked about it in my address today. I think business leaders, like the graduates today, more of those kinds of people are going into social enterprises and [non-governmental organizations] and seeing their opportunity as not necessarily running a for-profit business but running a different kind of organization.
For all the criticism of business, every part of society is just crying for management skills. I think we've understood in health care, in government and in all walks of life, [that] what really is critical is management. So I think this generation is going to have many more opportunities to have leadership positions in a very diverse set of organizations and I think the opportunities today are just incredibly international! I was sitting on stage watching those incredibly attractive young people go by and they literally were every shape, every size, every nationality, and every language you could possibly imagine. Those young people are now incredibly interconnected globally. The fundamental sense of optimism that I have about the future is that we now have young people that, I think, see these broader issues and are very sensitive to these broader issues, and are much more understanding and tolerant of other nationalities, religions and walks of life, and I think they will do a better job perhaps than we did in navigating through this new complex world we have.
I think, particularly, students in business and management have an incredibly contribution to make in all walks of society and even in their companies. I think that the nature of the manager's role has broadened considerably from the days when you did your narrow function in your narrow department in a self-contained organization. Now think of how many organizations today are incredibly outsourced, networked and connected in so many ways, and all that creates a lot of interesting excitement. So I think my advice to young people is to build on that, take advantage of the different education you received and take advantage of the different experiences you've had and strengthen those skills, invest in those skills, and I think there's a sense of hope we should all have that things are going to be better.
KM: This has been Karl Moore talking management today for The Globe and Mail with Professor Michael Porter, Professor at Harvard and McGill's latest honorary doctorate.
