When jobs are hard to come by, visiting entrepreneurial speakers become celebrities.
So it was no surprise that Stanley Litow, IBM vice president for corporate community relations and IBM Foundation president, spoke to about 50 students on Nov. 6 at an event sponsored by the Fox Leadership Program.
"I thought IBM would be the last place you would find me," Litow said.
Students took comfort in his words.
Prior to joining the global corporation eight years ago, Litow had been a frontline activist in local government and education. But it was his work on the concept of corporate citizenship that helped IBM promote its philanthropic image.
"Corporate citizenship is more than just writing checks," Litow said. "It is about resolving problems in a [long-term], systematic way."
Litow said IBM's educational programs, including voice recognition software for learning disabled children, help reform communities.
Litow's "Reinventing Education," the umbrella group for all of IBM's educational initiatives, has been active in 21 states and eight foreign countries. It now serves over six million children and 66,000 teachers around the world.
The Fox Leadership Program invited Litow because of his innovations within IBM.
"We were looking for someone that changed something about the corporation he worked in," said Lauren Sercander, a College junior affiliated with the Fox Leadership Program.
Wharton senior Rob Smith, who introduced Litow, has been active in integrating corporate citizenship into Penn's undergraduate curriculum.
"We hope to have a corporate citizenship concentration in Wharton, starting from next semester," Smith said. "Many courses already focus on corporate citizenship, so why not combine them in a whole new concentration?"
Afterward, during a question and answer session, Litow added that IBM is looking for corporate citizenship talent from universities like Penn.
IBM is "still in a talent war with other companies," he said. When asked why corporate citizenship is so rare in industry, Litow dismissed the question, saying that it is a "hard" thing to do.
Some audience members were dissatisfied by this explanation.
"IBM would be more successful [in corporate citizenship] if they join with other companies," Wharton freshman Bradley Pennington said. "Right now it seems that they are only trying to promote their own image."
Others were less critical.
"I am personally interested in IBM doing community relations as I am part of the CommuniTech program," Engineering senior Ross Friedman said, hoping to reach Litow during the reception afterwards. "I am skipping class to go to this."
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
