Wed 1 Dec 2004
Someone like me should be pleased to see a famous alumnus and trustee like Robert Scott ‘68 speak at the College on a business-related topic.
Robert G. Scott, former President of Morgan Stanley, will discuss “Entrepreneurs are Good for Business” on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall on the Williams campus. The event is free and open to the public.
He will relate stories of entrepreneurship from his 33-year professional career with Morgan Stanley, and will discuss the role of entrepreneurship in creating and sustaining much of corporate America.
Kudos to Scott for taking the time to speak and to Morty for arranging the talk. (And thanks to Ali Moiz ‘06 of the WES for providing me with some background information.) Morty does a fine job of involving alumni in the life of the College. The more such events that go on, the better.
Yet, I am still having trouble getting excited about this. “Entrepeneurs are Good for Business”? Give me a break. Next up, “Mothers are Important for Children” and “Apple Pie Tastes Good with Ice Cream.”
A good way to know that a speech will be a waste of time is when you can’t think of anyone who would disagree with it. Is there anyone out there — left, right or center — who thinks that entrepeneurs are bad for business?
This is all the more disappointing because I have no doubt that Scott has a lot of fascinating stories to tell about life in the financial world. You don’t spend 30 years climbing to the top of the greasy pole that is Morgan Stanley without having some interesting adventures along the way. These stories would be both fun and educational for younger Ephs to hear.
I actually think that this is all a big misunderstanding. Scott would prefer to talk about something else, but he picked this topic because he thought that this is what these students (members of the Williams Entrepeneur Society) wanted to hear. The students would rather here something else but are glad to have Scott talk about whatever he might want to.
How to solve the problem? Ali Moiz should ask Scott if he would prefer to give a talk on something like: “Five Funny/Scary/Shocking Stories from my 30 Years at Morgan Stanley and What They Taught Me about Finance and Life.”
I suspect that Scott would have a lot more fun giving this talk and that the students would learn a lot more from it.
PS. Given my fascination with board service, I hope someone asks Scott (a member of the board at Morgan Stanley) during the Q&A” “How many hours per year should a diligent board member for a company like Morgan Stanley spend on board business? Would that answer be different for someone with no experience in the financial industry?”
December 1st, 2004 at 2:52 pm
Calm down and read your draft before posting. One - by your “will anyone disagree” test, clearly the faculty will provide some disagreeables if the anti-capitalism bias ascribed to it by prior rantings are accepted; Two - of course there will be at least five great stories in the speech, you can’t judge content from titles; Three - lay off the “how many hours was Morty working with rich people to save Marsh” investigation; like who funds the school district budget short-fall, that investigation will benefit from a period of benign neglect. And to end on a positive note: the Ephblog’s cheerleading for alum involvement in Williams (like it’s acknowledgement of the benefits of Morty hanging with rich people) is right on and, of course, that’s how you provided the good start to the above piece.