Sustainability: A brief timeline

March 26th, 2010

by Tonya Boone

Earth Day 2010 is approaching and for the month of April, I am going to feature multiple articles on Sustainability. To kick things off, today’s entry is a short history of Sustainability. The first entry is in 1824, with Fourier first discovering what will later be called the “greenhouse effect.” You will notice that this [...]

In Conversation: Smith Barney’s James W. Brinkley

March 15th, 2010

by Ram Ganeshan

In this edition of the Thought Leadership Project, I talk to James W. Brinkley, who is the Vice-Chairman of Smith Barney’s Global Private Client Group following Citigroup Inc.’s acquisition of Legg Mason Wood Walker, Incorporated (LMWW). He was previously CEO of LMWW.

He talks about leadership, operational challenges, and gives advice to graduating MBAs. As a professor, I could not resist giving him a quiz: I asked him “Say you were to write a letter to Alexander Hamilton explaining the current state of the financial industry, what will you write about?” Go on, read his wonderful response.

In Conversation: Saatchi & Saatchi’s Bob Seelert

March 4th, 2010

by Ram Ganeshan

In this edition of the Thought Leadership Project, I talk to Bob Seelert, who for the last 12 years has been the Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world’s leading creative ideas companies. His journey from small-town Connecticut to being CEO of five companies in three different industries, and a member of the board of directors of nine companies in the United States, England and France, reads like a script for “The Great American Success Story.”

He talks about leadership, the importance of excellence in execution, and his favorite brand.