After facing a group of the world's most successful business professionals on Wednesday night, Lehman Brothers Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld faced perhaps a tougher crowd last night -- Wharton graduate students.
Fuld came to Penn last night as part of the Zweig Executive Speaker Series after accepting Thomson Financial's 2001 "Bank of the Year" honors the day before.
The focus of the 250 graduate students in attendance was Fuld's theory of leadership, which was unveiled during an hour-long lecture and a question-and-answer session.
"For me, there are basically four critical qualities of leadership," Fuld said, adding that knowing one's business, knowing how to leverage teamwork, being surrounded by great people and leading by example are the key attributes of effective leaders.
The main point he tried to get across was that there are lots of people who are capable of being successful, but no one can truly rise to the top without the help of other people.
"You can't carry the ball by yourself, and you have to be brave to understand that," Fuld said.
However, Fuld was kept on his toes during the question-and-answer session when Natalie Jenkins, an African-American female, challenged him on the company's diversity policy.
Fuld answered that his company's statistics reflect some diversity because he has employees from Asia and Latin areas working for him in their native countries. However, he admitted that diversity remains an issue for the firm, and that there are not enough women or African Americans at his company.
"We're on it," he said, adding that his company has instituted several diversity-oriented workshops and programs.
Some students felt his response to the diversity question was inadequate, especially for someone in his position.
"It was surprising that the CEO of a major [investment] bank found it difficult to answer a question about diversity," Jenkins said. "I felt his answer was somewhat scripted and he appeared to be a bit uncomfortable talking about issues of diversity. Given his audience, I was somewhat surprised."
The beginning of his talk, however, was focused on a brighter note: Fuld's company's history of recruiting and hiring Wharton graduates.
"It means a lot for me to be here, because, to be honest, we do very well here," he said.
He also stressed the importance of valuing what other people have to say. He acknowledged that everyone makes mistakes and said that until he had questioning children, he did not realize that this rule applied to him, as well.
The room became silent when Fuld began to describe the impact Sept. 11 had on his company when the terrorist attacks took the life of a Lehman Brothers' employee and destroyed the company's headquarters.
Fuld attributed the company's ability to come out of the tragedy so successfully to the hard work of his company and employees.
Most students found the prepared speech to be insightful and appreciated the pearls of wisdom he had to offer.
"I felt that his points about leadership were very interesting," said Jenkins, a Wharton graduate student. "I enjoyed hearing him speak about that."
Also in the question-and-answer period, Fuld reiterated his belief that being surrounded by excellent people is the most important way to be successful.
And he said that everything he believes about what makes a good leader in the business world applies to leaders in every other area.
