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2007
Commencement Address
posted
5/1/07
“Success in Today’s World”
By Shelley B. Milano, honorary
degree recipient
When President Docking asked me to
speak, I told him how honored I was – but what
could I tell this group of young, talented people? What
have I learned that might be relevant to them? He simply
asked that I speak from my heart and tell you that you
can make it and be successful.
I have had the good fortune to work
in senior management at some well-known and well-respected
companies. In thinking about what I have learned over
the last few decades, I have made the following conclusions.
I know that each of you can be successful. You each
have all the ingredients to be successful. You are here
today - the culmination of many years of hard work and
dedication. So now I actually have just two messages
for you – it’s so easy and it’s so
hard. Yet, the two areas I am referring to will surprise
you – success and sticking to your values.
If I asked for a show of hands as
to which of these two endeavors is easiest to attain,
success or sticking to your values – I bet you
would say that ethics and values is the easy path and
figuring out how to be successful is the hard path.
Well, I am here to tell you, it’s quite the opposite.
Let’s get the easy part out
of the way – how to be a success. I am convinced
that being successful in business or any other field
is really quite simple. We just make it so hard. Right
now you have the necessary components for making it
– you’ve all had a great liberal arts education
from Adrian. The hard part is over. You have learned
how to think and you know how to treat other people
with respect. I submit to you that if you always put
people into the equation, you will be successful.
Let me use a few of my experiences
as an example for you. After finishing law school at
Boalt Hall, in Berkley, CA, I came back to the Midwest
and joined a law firm in Columbus, Ohio. After four
and one half years in private practice, one of my clients
asked me to join as general counsel. I knew enough to
know that most general counsels of major companies were
old and experienced, certainly not someone with less
than five years practice under their belt. I was so
intrigued with the challenge and afraid I would regret
it if I turned the position down out of fear, I decided
to take the job. Given I had not worked with a general
counsel before and I did not have one as a mentor, I
had to make it up. Over the years, I ended up practicing
law in quite a novel way.
One day, this company received notice
of a major charge and investigation from the government.
I immediately hired a senior anti-trust lawyer who brought
in several other senior lawyers to prepare for a hearing
on the government allegations of wrongdoing. We had
to appear in front of a certain governmental commission
to testify and provide information they requested.
The president of the company asked
me to speak on behalf of the company – rather
than the experienced group of lawyers. As you can imagine,
these lawyers were livid and I was petrified. Having
no choice, I stayed up all night preparing my remarks.
At that time, my oldest daughter was around three or
four years old and as she often did - she sat at the
table in my study and worked with me until her bedtime.
Unfortunately, I fell asleep at my
desk while working and I did not wake up until 6:30
am. My flight was at 7:00 am and we lived 35 minutes
from the airport. I quickly dumped the contents of my
desk into my largest briefcase and literally dressed
in the car on my way to the airport. I luckily made
the flight – although I was quite a sight! My
hair was standing straight up from sleeping face down
on the desk. By the time we got to DC, I was back together
and mentally practicing my speech. When we arrived,
we were led to a room with investigators lined in a
row in the front of the room and the lawyers and I were
seated across from them.
The first order of business was to
exchange introductions and business cards. I reached
into my bag and grabbed cards that were strewn about
in my bag – the same bag that I had cleared my
work into. I passed out my cards to each of the governmental
investigators, as did the other lawyers. Immediately,
there was snickering and laughing, but I was so nervous,
I didn’t look up. One of the lawyers next to me
tapped my arm and pointed to the handful of business
cards I had remaining and I froze. My little daughter
– the night before – had taken all my cards
and drawn little stick figure dolls all over the business
cards! I thought I would die! I was supposed to be a
General Counsel representing this major company, and
here I was passing out business cards with crayon dolls
on them! The lawyers with me all rolled their eyes in
disdain.
Not knowing what the appropriate thing
to do was, I spoke up and apologized to the investigators
for the artwork of my child and then attempted to begin
my presentation. The lead investigator was a female
lawyer who also had a child. She was exceedingly amused
and interested in how I was holding the job I had and
handling a family as well. After some questions and
several laughs from these government investigators,
I then began my presentation. Because I felt at ease
and realized that I was addressing real people, I scrapped
my written presentation and just talked to the government
representatives. I told them the company’s story.
Following the presentation, the commission asked a few
questions, and called for a short recess.
My lawyers took me in a room and were
mortified. They were first embarrassed over my business
cards fiasco, and now they were dismayed that I didn’t
present all the barriers to the information requests
that we had discussed, but rather, had supplied, in
their opinion, far too much information. They told me
I had done a great disservice to my company.
When we were called back into the
room, the government investigators said that they were
so impressed with our honesty and straight-forward style,
and while they would need much more information and
review, they were going to focus on the other companies
in this same situation. While I can’t assert that
this novel approach changed the outcome, I can assure
you that the investigation went smoothly, friendly and
cost the company less than 10 percent of what it cost
the other companies for defense of these same claims.
The point I am trying to make here
is that no matter how difficult or challenging a matter
is - if you deal with people as human beings, talk to
them and understand what they need or want - you will
be successful. Had I followed the recommended typical
course of dealing with the government on these types
of matters, we would have wasted a lot of money and
time. It would have been exceedingly adversarial and
perhaps we would not have enjoyed such a positive result.
I think people get so caught up in their “roles”
that they forget we all are dealing with other people.
If you become self-important or fall in the trap of
doing it like the next guy, the people aspect gets missed.
When I said success is the easy part, the lesson is
“make people a part of the equation.” You
can be the brightest, most experienced expert on a subject,
but if you ignore the “people” aspect, you
won’t enjoy success.
Another story that illustrates this
point involves another company where I worked. We were
served with a lawsuit alleging that we had violated
the “ADA– American Disabilities Act”
because our tabletops were not the correct height as
required by the ADA for customers in a wheelchair. The
day after we were served, I received a call from a lawyer
representing the group who had brought the lawsuit.
He demanded that we pay untold millions in one week
or they would get their group to picket all of our stores.
My company took pride in being a good
corporate citizen and a corporation that follows the
law. I knew it would be detrimental to our reputation
if hundreds or thousands of disabled people picketed
our stores claiming we had violated their rights. I
contacted lawyers in DC that specialize in ADA and reviewed
with them our policies and specs. They advised me that
they believed we were in compliance, but it could be
an expensive fight given the vagaries of the law.
I told them I wanted to offer to meet
with the plaintiff and explain what we as a company
did to meet the regulations. The lawyers advised me
I would be wasting my time and money and that my approach
– with all due respect – was somewhat naïve.
In my career, I have enjoyed such
success with just talking with people, that despite
the admonition of these lawyers, I wanted to try. I
phoned the organization’s lawyer and asked him
if he would agree to bring his client and meet with
me. He readily agreed.
I brought a company store development
engineer and the ADA expert lawyer with me to the meeting.
We spent a few hours demonstrating to the plaintiff
how we had worked very hard to make not only the tables,
but also serving areas, etc. ADA compliant. We showed
them how we had gone above and beyond the requirements
of the law in many regards, and in fact, had received
awards for our progressive work in this area. We then
met with the plaintiff and his lawyer in the closest
store and demonstrated to him why we believed our tables
met the regulation requirements and were the appropriate
height. Despite all efforts during the day long meeting,
the plaintiff’s lawyer told us that they disagreed
with our interpretation of the law and unless we gave
them what they were asking, they would continue with
the lawsuit and picketing campaign.
I had to concede that this meeting
was not successful. But through this encounter I had
learned that this plaintiff had been injured in a car
accident at age 40 and was permanently disabled. Instead
of becoming bitter, he had made a decision to dedicate
the rest of his life to making life easier for others
restricted to a wheelchair. He was on a personal campaign
to bring attention to the difficulties disabled people
deal with every day – and he intended to make
a difference. Moved solely by my admiration for this
person, I asked his lawyer if I could address his client
directly. I told him that although I didn’t accomplish
what I had set out to do that day, I wanted him to know
that I had great respect for what he was doing. I told
him that the day wasn’t a waste since I felt it
was such an honor for me to meet someone who was dedicating
his life for the good of others. I told him the thing
I felt badly about was that he was going after the wrong
company, a company that was working hard to accommodate
everyone. I told him that I was sorry he chose to sue
us, rather than work with us, because he put me in the
position that I had to fight – and in the end
I would win. In closing our meeting, I encouraged him
to continue his good work and activism.
We shook hands and left. Of course
I got lots of “I told you so’s” by
the expert lawyer I was with. Again, I had to concede
that, this time, my honest and straightforward approach
with people didn’t work. Well, the next morning
the plaintiff phoned me and his message was basically
– “your words bothered me all night –
I am dropping the case. I believe you that your company
is trying hard to do the right thing and I am going
to focus on other companies.”
Of course, this kind of result doesn’t
always happen. But nine out of ten times, I have found
if you take into account “people,” I believe
you will reach a fair resolution.
So my advice to all of you is to remember
to speak from the heart and remember that people and
their needs are at the center of all issues.
While this sounds quite naïve,
I am here to tell you it works. It’s a novel approach
these days. Rules, laws, policies are so complicated,
that this simple rule of “considering people”
gets lost. At one of my companies, we experienced an
earthquake that shook so badly, our corporate headquarters
was damaged extensively. We could not inhabit the building
for over two months while repairs and retrofittings
were completed. We had been fortunate and not had to
deal with disasters before; that was the good news.
The bad news was that we didn’t know quite how
to do it.
Because the building was so badly
damaged, people couldn’t come to work. We had
to set up a small room in a coffee roasting plant for
the executives to meet to plan our course of action.
We had to figure out how to get back on course as quickly
as possible. After some of the planning that included
finding makeshift offices all over the city to accommodate
our employees, we were left with a decision. Our people
needed to know if they were going to be paid for the
time they were not working. Most of the people were
hourly and were paid only if they worked. We needed
to let them know if their paychecks would continue even
though we didn’t know if insurance would cover
the payroll loss. My immediate reaction was that we
had to pay them. Other executives argued that we didn’t
know how long it would take to get office space, the
insurance may not cover it and that we couldn’t
afford to pay people who weren’t contributing.
I then argued that doing the right
thing for people was the right thing for the business.
I told the CEO that in my mind the loyalty we would
garner from continuing to pay people in this crisis
would be worth far more than the cost of the pay for
these people. I reminded him of the costs of creative
benefit programs and asked him what could be a better
benefit program than this! I reminded him that we asked
a lot from our people and we built our culture on our
employees being partners of the company. Partners take
care of each other I argued, and what better way to
demonstrate this? Well, the decision was made to pay
people while we were getting them back to work. Not
only was I so happy we had made that decision, I was
so proud of what we had done. People responded exceedingly
positively. Our CEO received numerous letters and calls
from partners telling him how much the decision helped
them and how they never wanted to work anywhere else.
Months later, that decision formed the basis for our
company being placed on the Fortune Magazine’s
“Best Places to Work” list.
I could go on and on citing examples
of success others and I have enjoyed by putting people
into the equation.
Whether it’s recognizing there
are people on the other side of a dispute or whether
taking into account people in decision making, I am
convinced that this consideration is the easy way to
success. Now let’s move to the difficult part
- ethics and values.
It isn’t altogether easy to
do the right thing every time. For years, I thought
doing the right thing was a “no-brainer.”
In fact, even if I didn’t want to do the ethical
thing every time, I took an oath as a lawyer and the
punishment for breaching ethical obligations can be
disbarment. Who in their right mind would risk that?
Yet, what I found in my career is that it is not the
majority that follows their values and ethics, but rather,
the minority. When I was leaving my law firm to join
Honda, I remember being surprised - and a bit disappointed
- that the managing partner of my law firm told the
President of Honda that he was very lucky I was joining
their company because they were getting someone who
would stand up for what was right and do the right thing.
While that statement certainly is not a criticism, in
my mind at the time, it sure wasn’t a big accomplishment.
I was disappointed he didn’t point out that I
was a hard worker or a strong negotiator or something
that was a bit “lawyerly.” I also felt like
he simply credited me with having the common sense most
people had. Several years later, when I had to seek
this managing partner’s advice on a difficult
ethics question, he reminded me about that compliment
he had given me. He told me that the majority of people
are afraid to rock the boat or go against the grain.
It takes strength to stand up for what you believe.
I came to find that his words were
true. I believe most people are good and want to do
the right thing. The problem is that values and ethics
many times collide with money, power and greed or simply
the easy way out of a situation. There are some people
who will sacrifice anything, including their values,
to forward their own personal agenda – like getting
a position or a raise. What I have found is that most
people, though, are not like that. But what I have also
learned is that most people are afraid. They are afraid
to stand up for what they know is right because they
may not be seen as a team player. If they go against
the grain and recommend an alternate approach, they
may be seen as a troublemaker and then face the ramifications.
I am suggesting to all of you that
you will soon be in such situations. It is going to
happen. You will be confronted with a dilemma of choosing
to stand by your beliefs or turning your backs on your
values because “that’s the way its done”
or “just this one time we have to close our eyes”
or “everyone else is doing it.” It’s
very easy for me to say to you - do the right thing.
But you are going to find that it can be very difficult
to carry out. I believe if you stick to this belief
as a way of life, you will be successful in the long
run. You may suffer some setbacks with a particular
boss or colleagues, but in the end, you will be regarded
as a leader who acts with integrity. You will be a standout
and you will succeed. Someone once told me never do
anything that you don’t want to see published
on the front page of the newspaper. In this day and
age of celebrity culture, MySpace and reality TV, that
may seem like a quaint piece of advice, but it still
holds true. The news is full of stories of people who
just went along with the status quo and did not stand
up to say, “Hey – something’s not
right.” You can be different – you have
the strength to act with integrity. In summary, the
idea I would like to leave with you is the following.
To be successful – it is so easy and yet so difficult.
Always consider people. Live your values and ethics.
You each should be proud of your accomplishments
– of being here today. Your Adrian education has
provided the foundation for your success. You have all
of the ingredients – so go out there, be successful,
and do the right thing! Congratulations to each and
every one of you. Happy graduation! And best wishes
for the future.
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