Here's where the opportunities exist for the next generation of leaders.<br /><br />Question: What <br />lessons have you learned from your HBS students? <br /> <br />Joe Bower: <br />We met with some of the students around these questions. And in the room were some staggeringly <br />successful, on our side from the class we have some amazing people. And to begin with, what they all talked <br />about was having a successful and stable family existence and that was really <br />rewarding. And that it was very <br />easy to let other ideas, let other activities get in the way of that. So, I was struck that across <br />everything, including teaching, academic work, we were saying boy, family <br />first. <br /> <br />And then I think the second <br />was that almost everyone had done what they wanted to do. Not, in one way or another, they had <br />followed what they wanted to do in the best way that they could and then just <br />tried to do the best the could about it. <br />And again, that kind of person, when you're looking at that kind of <br />success has been very careful, I think, to keep -- to stay away from the foul <br />line. To try as much as they could <br />to do what was right and not chase things that seemed marginal. <br /> <br />Question: Has the <br />definition of success changed over time? <br /> <br />Joe Bower: I don't think it has changed that much. I mean, for sure, the amounts of money <br />being made are staggeringly different, but that's not how people measure it <br />because there are people who have worked really hard over a period of years and <br />built a company that maybe had sales of $10 million, and it's stable and has a <br />good workforce and that's a fantastic fulfillment. And you have others who have had corporate careers and so on <br />and they don't seem very happy about it. <br />And the there are other leaders who just, I mean, I'm thinking at the <br />moment of Lou Gerstner who has had a number of careers. I do think he feels just remarkably <br />good about what he was able to do at IBM just because it's the idea that he was <br />able to restore a great company to health and prosperity was remarkable. He may have made more money when he was <br />at RJR, or American Express. It's <br />just, I think was meaningful to him was what he was able to accomplish. <br /> <br />Question: If you <br />were starting your career today as a 20-something, where would you see the <br />opportunities? <br /> <br />Joe Bower: <br />One, I would definitely be spending some of my time in Asia and learning what <br />was going on there. And second, I <br />would probably spend some time in government because I think, at least for the <br />next 10-20 years, in part because of what just happened, we're going to have <br />government as a partner in a lot of what we do and it wouldn't hurt to <br />understand it, or to have friends there and understand how to work with <br />government in a way that's sensible. Recorded on April 1, 2010
