ILLUMINE
Education, Scholarship, Beyond the Campus
KRAVIS
LEADERSHIP
Spring 2010
INSTITUTE
ADVISORY BOARD
Henry R. Kravis, Founding Chair
Michael Grindon, Chair
Marc S. Bathgate
Geoffrey L. Baum
Meredith Brenholdt
Jay A. Conger
Jean I. Cox
John K. Edwards
Steven L. Eggert
Pamela B. Gann
Carol O. Hartman
E. David Hetz
William Hunckler lll
Dean S. Jensen
Jeffrey S. Klein
Duane Kurisu
Michael P. Lazarus
Beth Lowe
Harry T. McMahon
Scott D. Miller
Mustafa Mirza
Susan E. Murphy
Kenneth M. Novack
Sarah Smith Orr
Joseph Petrowski
Ronald E. Riggio
Leigh Teece
Samuel J. Sanzeri
David H. Spencer
Nicholas Warner
Peter A. Weinberg
David West
Alison A. Winter
2010 Henry R. Kravis prize in leadership goes
to pratham, india’s largest nonprofit devoted
to educational gains
Pratham, India’s largest nonprofit organization
focused on education, is the fifth recipient of the
Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership. The Kravis
Prize, which carries a $250,000 award designated to
the recipient organization, recognizes extraordinary
leadership in the nonprofit sector.
Dr. Madhav Chavan is Pratham’s Co-founder and
C.E.O. Founded in 1994 with the mission of “Every
child in school and learning well,” Pratham strives
to improve the quality of education for India’s most
vulnerable children. “Read India” is Pratham’s
flagship program, and works with governments and communities to improve
the reading, writing, and basic arithmetic skills of children ages 6-14. They
have reached approximately 34 million children to date, resulting in large-scale
improvements in literacy levels across several states in India.
Award ceremonies will take place in New York City March 24th and at the
Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on the CMC campus March 25, 2010.
Henry Kravis has noted that, “Pratham’s work is making a difference in the
lives of millions of children. Their approach to improving educational quality is
targeted, cost-effective, and sustainable.”
The Kravis Prize, established in 2006 by Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis ’67,
recognizes and celebrates extraordinary accomplishment and bold, visionary
leadership in the nonprofit sector. The Kravis Prize is presented and administered
by Claremont McKenna College and Mr. and Mrs. Kravis. Mrs. Kravis, an
economist, is a Senior Fellow of the Hudson Institute; Mr. Kravis ’67, founding
partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is a trustee of CMC.
Spring 2010
Page 2
Report from
the Director
Ron Riggio
Welcome to our first completely on-line version of our Illumine newsletter. It’s the environmentally friendly (and economically sound) thing to do and we hope that you will enjoy
that we will be able to publish more frequently.
This issue reports on our very busy Fall, 2009 semester, and our even busier Spring 2010
events. We hosted some terrific speakers, including our KLI board chair, Michael Grindon,
Bob and Gregg Vanourek for Leadership Day, and Morgan McCall on the “Path to Leadership Mastery.” Our student team – sophomores all – won the undergraduate case study
competition at the meeting of the International Leadership Association in Prague. It was a
wonderful time and a valuable learning experience for our students. We look to involving
even more students in next year’s conference in Boston. Speaking of students, we profile
our 2009-2010 Kravis Fellows in this issue.
Our cover story is on the 2010 Kravis Prize winning organization, Pratham. The Kravis
Prize, which honors outstanding leadership in the non-profit world has been an amazing
success story. The quality and impact of the Kravis Prize winners is truly remarkable, and
offers a wonderful series of “case studies” for our developing student leaders.
KLI Speakers series
The Kravis Leadership Institute brought Morgan McCall, Jr. to speak at the
Athenaeum on Wednesday, February 3, 2010. He spoke about “The Path to
Leadership Mastery.”
If leadership were a gift that was easily identified or a commodity that could
be taught in programs and courses, then either selection or training would have
produced a bevy of outstanding leaders. Clearly that is not the case. In his Athenaeum address,
Professor Morgan McCall suggested that leadership can be learned, but not by everyone; that the
primary teacher is experience, but not just any experience; and that the path to mastery of leadership has much in common with the acquisition of expertise in any field.
Morgan McCall, Professor of Management and Organization in the Marshall School of Business
at the University of Southern California, specializes in executive leadership. He was previously
Director of Research and a Senior Behavioral Scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership in
Greensboro, North Carolina.
McCall writes about the early identification, assessment, and development of executives. A
sought-after speaker and consultant, he has worked with a variety of organizations including
Amgen, Boeing, British Airways, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Sun
Microsystems, Royal Bank of Canada, and Toyota Motor Sales to develop corporate strategies and
systems for executive development.
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Michael grindon shares his leadership Expertise
Michael Grindon ‘76, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Kravis Leadership Institute, visited campus November 19, 2009 as part of President Gann’s Leaders Forum. Grindon, who is President of Sony Pictures Television International, presented his thoughts on
“Leadership in the Entertainment Industry”.
Having recently read The Curse of the Mogul:
What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies by Jonathan Knee, Bruce Greenwald, and Ava
Seave, Grindon used the book as a jumping off place
to discuss the perils of the business as well as to stress
the opportunities available for an industry in transition. He stressed efficient management, competency,
and the importance of catering to local tastes as tools
for productivity in the global market.
Grindon pointed out that access to the industry is
not as hard as one might believe. Anyone can make a
film. Yet, few people can make the film as well as distribute it, and also have enough films
in the pipeline to try to recover financially if the first one is not a hit. The projects that do
earn significant amounts of money cover the losses of those projects that do poorly. This is
why although many small-scale production companies can enter the industry, few survive.
Hiring really smart people is crucial. To be a leader in the industry, you need both creativity and business sense. To be sustainable, having the whole chain from production
to distribution is also key. Because management and investment decisions in the movie/
TV business are often inefficient there are great opportunities for people who can bring
greater efficiency and expertise to the enterprise.
Student Internships 2009
The Kravis Leadership Institute (KLI) offers leadership program support to all CMC students participating in summer internships, which includes an academic online course to complement the experiential learning experience of an internship (INT 199: Summer Internship
in Leadership).
This summer, KLI is proud to establish a new summer sponsored internship program for
international internships: The KLI International Internship Program. In May 2009, Susan
Mirza, widow of Muzzafar Mirza, ’80, established the Muzzafar Mirza Kravis Leadership
Institute Endowment Fund for International Internships. This fund has led to the creation
of the KLI International Internship Program. The international program complements the
already existing KLI Social Sector Internship Program designated for domestic internships
in the social sector.
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Bringing student experiences home to campus
Regan Rahardja attended a summer course that he found of great interest. He brings his reflections
home.
This summer at the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, I attended a class taught
by Professor Stew Friedman entitled “Total Leadership”. This class covered several interesting concepts
that I wanted to bring back to the students and leadership community in Claremont. Based on the concepts
of his book “Total Leadership” and the website “totalleadership.org”, the class focused on creating 4-way
wins among the four domains of our lives – personal, work, family, and community. The idea is that the
more integrated these domains are, the more value we are able to create for ourselves and for other people.
This concept begins with the understanding that tradeoffs (i.e., between work and life) are not always necessary. Instead, we should seek to “integrate”, or find mutual value in common ground between life domains
to see where wins can be created. Examples include initiating a project (i.e., a charity project) that promotes
self-growth yet also benefits the organization. The organization could benefit by having improved PR and
having greater interaction between its members. Meanwhile, the individual initiating the project benefits
by having the opportunity to work on a project that he or she is interested or passionate about. Alternatively,
one could also involve one’s family in one’s work. One member found that he was able to relate more easily to his father by communicating on their shared common interest in business. Similarly, one could also
invite one’s co-workers to go to the gym, thereby combining the personal and work domains together. One
member invited her family, friends, and co-workers to train with her in a marathon. This would benefit all
of them as they engage in a mutually supportive endeavor that promotes personal health. She then uses the
money that she raised from the marathon to benefit a non-profit community that she believes in.
These examples illustrate how finding value in common ground integrates different life domains together
to produce greater mutual wins. However, this is only one aspect of the Total Leadership concept. Another
important aspect is being authentic by finding out what and who is important to you. Through engaging
in an exercise of having “stakeholder dialogues”, participants in the course prepare for dialogues with the
most important people in their lives by writing down what they believe each party expects from one another.
After preparing for their stakeholder dialogues through role-playing with a classmate to practice coming
from a position of curiosity and desire to improve the well being of the other party/relationship, the participants engaged in these dialogues. Most participants found that what the important people in their lives
expected was often simpler than what they expected of themselves. Normally, they are the ones who are
harder on themselves. Having this invaluable information has enabled many people to focus more on what’s
important to other people and vice versa.
In addition, this course also emphasizes the importance of taking action. By engaging in “experiments”,
course participants all engage in at least two activities which they believe will benefit all four domains of
their lives. They then create metrics to measure the success of their goals. In groups of three, they then help
coach two of their fellow classmates while receiving feedback from two of their classmates. This coaching process has been invaluable in receiving and practicing giving feedback, further strengthening one’s
leadership abilities. Finally, this course also involved more typical but timeless leadership exercises such
as clarifying one’s vision and values. I hope that by sharing the insights that I’ve gleaned from this course
that the community in Claremont will benefit.
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Lifting our leadership
Each year the Kravis Leadership Institute sponsors Leadership Day for Claremont McKenna
College. This year the unique activities, arranged by Jessica Briggs, KLI’s Assistant Director
for Leadership Programs with students Marissa Gaulton ‘12, Kenley Turville ‘10, and Lauren
Wong ‘10, revolved around lifting our leadership to the next level.
The first event was a Life Entrepreneurs Vision Workshop Luncheon featuring Gregg Vanourek ’92, founding partner of New Mountain Ventures, and his father, Bob Vanourek P ’92, a
retired chief executive who specializes in applying ethical principals to turnaround crisis situations.
The second event was an afternoon presentation by Deloitte Consulting LLC directed to students interested in the
consulting field. This well attended session was a useful introduction to case study analysis.
As part of our KLI Speakers Series, the Vanoureks then
offered an evening presentation at the Athenaeum. They discussed the book they are currently writing together entitled
“Creating Great Leadership Organizations: Achieving Results with Integrity.” In collecting data for the book, Gregg
and Bob Vanourek interviewed people in 50 organizations in
both the for-profit and social (not-for-profit) sectors, such as
Google, GE, Xerox, Procter & Gamble, and Ashoka about
leadership and leadership philosophies.
They discussed four practices that lead to the zone of results with integrity. These are: synthesizing a shared future, careful personnel selection, hard and soft versatility with people flexing
between these types of leadership, and instilling plural leadership throughout the organization.
For more information on practices that foster values-based leadership go to Veronica Pugin’s
interview with the Vanoureks at www.leadershipreview.org
Annual Innovative Startup Award from KLI
Alums Adam Altman ’99, Sunil Rajaraman ’01, and Jason Yardi ’00 have donated $10,000 to
establish an Entrepreneurship Award Fund at the Kravis Leadership Institute. The Fund will provide
for one or more annual prizes to be awarded to a qualified team or teams of CMC students who have
created a viable entrepreneurial venture. In the inaugural year, the Prize was administered through
Professor Jay Conger’s seminar, “Leading Entrepreneurial Ventures.”
Seniors Ryan Anderson, Eric MacColl, Andrew Hess, and Michael Widmann made up the winning
team. They will develop BrewTours, a company that hosts tours of craft breweries in the San
Francisco area, providing marketing and education for the craft beer niche.
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Spring 2010
CMC Sophomores Return from Prague with
First Place and Life-Changing Experiences
When classes resumed for the Fall semester of 2009,
not one of Team KLI’s members imagined that the four of us
would spend a school week in Prague competing in the International Leadership Association Student Case Competition for
$1000, a free membership to the premier leadership association, and bring honor to the Kravis Leadership Institute (KLI)
and Claremont McKenna College (CMC). After undergoing
an application process Miles Bird, Michelle Kim, Veronica
Pugin, and Zephanii Smith were selected to represent KLI and
CMC by competing as Team KLI. From November 9th to 15th,
Team KLI travelled to Prague and won first place in the leadership Student Case Competition.
We will never forget the one email that changed our lives
and served as our ticket to one of the most transformational
leadership and personal experiences. It was a message from
Jessica Briggs, Assistant Director of Leadership Programs for
KLI, congratulating the four of us on our selection. Criteria included the application process,
leadership at CMC, involvement with KLI, past experiences, and future potential as a leader. Each of us represented almost completely different sectors in the CMC campus society.
Consequently, we had had very limited, if any, interaction with each other prior to our selection. However, we became a beautifully diverse, fully functional team in a matter of weeks. As
a team of four, we were required to organize and prepare materials for the competition through
weekly meetings and travel across the globe to participate in the conference.
Team KLI underwent a twenty-two hour journey each way to make it to Prague and back.
On the way there, the team stopped in London, and on the way back we stopped in Frankfurt
and San Francisco. We traveled across the globe, attended a leadership conference, competed
and won a student case competition, met individuals whom we will never forget, and explored
a city we had never been to before all in less than a week.
The ILA’s mission is to promote “the global network for all those who practice, study,
and teach leadership. The ILA promotes a deeper understanding of leadership knowledge and
practices for the greater good of individuals and communities worldwide.” The 11th Annual
ILA Conference hosted six-hundred attendees ranging from leadership scholars, business leaders, non-profit pioneers, government leaders, and other individuals interested in learning about
leadership. The theme of the conference was transformational leadership, which is defined as
a leadership style that raises the followers, transforms them, and turns them into leaders. The workshops presented at the conference were varied, ranging from such topics as
“How to Motivate like a CEO” to discussions of well known leadership books. Workshops
were often interactive, and discussion leaders encouraged attendees to engage with one another in order to gain a better understanding of the material and to promote networking.
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For the Student Case Competition,
Team KLI had to complete two
rounds of the competition. In the
first round, Team KLI received a
case study from the Harvard Business School and a list of questions
by email one month before our arrival to Prague. The case centered
on Seagate Technology’s change
in management in 2001 and the
challenges that the company’s culture and leadership experienced as
a result of this change. Team KLI
was responsible for acting as professional consultants by researching Seagate Technology and the disk-drive industry as a whole in order to answer the list of questions and to
provide recommendations for the company and the CEO. These questions and recommendations focused on how to improve Seagate’s corporate culture, improvements for
the CEO to make regarding his leadership style, and steps to take in order to improve
investor relations and Seagate’s shareholder value. Team KLI compiled this information
into a formal case brief which was submitted prior to their arrival to the competition.
Three of us were students of Professor Riggio’s Organizational Psychology course
and, without realizing it, applied several elements of team building to our experience with
one another. One example of this was our ability to determine one another’s strengths and
play to each of them in order to win the competition. It pays to pay attention! In addition
to our application of leadership studies to team work, we found our CMC course work to
be very meaningful for our research and presentation of facts and recommendations for
our case study.
Upon our arrival in Prague, Team KLI focused on completing the tasks of the second
round. On the first day of the conference, which was Team KLI’s first day in Prague Michelle, Miles, Veronica, and Zephanii all woke up at 6:00 AM to prepare their materials
for the competition’s Student Case Poster Presentation. Team KLI had the opportunity to
present the case to the ILA’s attendees by means of this poster presentation. At the end of
the poster presentation, Team KLI was given a new set of questions.
We found answers to these new questions by attending the conference’s workshops
and speeches. As a team we decided to take advantage of the fact that we were at a leadership conference and apply the strategies that we learned in the conference in recommendations and presentation of the case study. We divided relevant lectures and workshops
among ourselves and sought to apply information learned at the session to recommendations for the case study. We networked with speakers and used their expertise for help on
the case as well, and this may have been the tipping point that pushed us to win first.
By taking thorough notes, the team was able to incorporate the experiences and expertise of the conference speakers in formulating answers to the new questions. Finally,
Page 8
Prague Trip Continued
Spring 2010
the questions were turned into a formal fifteen minute presentation with Power Point. After
a late night of preparation for the presentation, Team KLI delivered their analysis to a panel
of judges. As part of the ILA’s conference closing ceremony, the Student Case Competition
winning team was announced: Team KLI.
Our experience at Prague was exciting and enlightening. Prague did not fall short of
Team KLI’s expectations. Home to more than 1.2 million people and visited by over 20
million tourists annually, this metropolitan area was not like any city that Michelle, Miles,
Veronica, nor Zephanii had ever been to before. The hustle and bustle of city life combined
with the ancient architecture of the Holy Roman Empire makes Prague beautiful. From its
buildings to the diversity of people, Prague is unique in numerous aspects. Prague is a beautiful city, with almost all buildings ranging from three hundred to over a thousand years old
with gargoyles, Renaissance carvings, and beautiful architecture. The Czech people were
incredibly friendly, with the exception of several encounters with the older generations.
Nearly everyone speaks English and probably three other languages. The weather was chilly
but we were prepared for it. There is so much history in the city that one cannot help but
learn about past events even while walking down the street. The food consisted mostly of
meat and potatoes, which we all enjoyed with a few servings of beef goulash throughout the
trip. Also, the Czech people love their beer! Prague’s culture, night life, historical significance, and architecture are all reasons that Team KLI recommends that travelers make their
way to this city.
While the leadership conference itself was extremely valuable and served as a fantastic
setting to learn about leadership through scholars and practitioners, a profound and lifechanging aspect of the Prague experience was meeting people and specifically students from
all over the world: the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Jamaica, Denmark, New York,
Colombia, Panama, Abu Dhabi, and more. Spending time networking with highly motivated, like-minded individuals was a fantastic experience, and all of us made friends that
we are looking forward to keeping a connection with and reuniting with in the future. Team
KLI learned about the cultures, ideas, and perspectives of other students and young leaders
through genuine discussions at restaurants and while walking around the city.
Team KLI wishes to thank the Kravis Leadership Institute and its supporters for its
complete sponsorship of this experience. This served as a milestone in each of our lives and
careers at CMC. To show our appreciation, we worked hard to bring home the gold and we
are each committed to maximizing our experience by sharing it with others and building on
what we learned at the conference by continuing our leadership studies. We recognize that
for most students an opportunity like this one is extremely rare. We are proud citizens of the
CMC/KLI family and are honored to have had the opportunity to represent KLI and CMC
internationally.
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Kravis - de roulet conference
This year’s Kravis-de Roulet Conference (co-sponsored with CGU and the Claremont
Leadership Roundtable), is themed “When Near is Far and Far is Near: Distance in Leader-Follower Relations.” An international cast of scholars reflects on questions that arise as
leaders face new challenges from changes in culture, technology, and the workplace.
March 6, 2010
Surinder Kahai, Center for Leadership Studies, SUNY-Binghamton
Leading in a Digital Age: What’s Different, Issues Raised, and What We Know
Birgit Schyns, University of Portsmouth, UK
The Role of Distance in Leader-Member Exchange (LMX)
Alice Eagly, Northwestern University
Women As Leaders: Negotiating the Labyrinth
Boas Shamir, New York University
Distance from the Leader: Psychological and Follower-Centered Considerations
Suzanne Weisband, University of Arizona
Do You Know Who the Leader Is?
Creating Awareness Among Followers of Leaders at a Distance
John Antonakis, (speaking virtually from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland)
The Far Side of Leadership
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Spring 2010
KLI RESEARCH FELLOWS 2009-2010
Alexa Maturana-Lowe ‘10
Alexa is a senior at Claremont McKenna, majoring
in Economics and Government with a Leadership sequence. She started working for the KLI in 2007, working with Dr. Murphy on her research on gender stereotype threat. During her time with the institute, she has
branched into researching for other projects, including
the Global Mindset study under Dr. Riechard, for which
she is now project manager. She has presented her work
on this project, along with KLI alum Greg Hall ’09, at
the ILA in spring 2009.
In addition to her research work for the KLI, she has been a participant and counselor in many
of the leadership activities hosted by Kravis. In 2007, she was part of the first annual Sophomore
Leadership Experience and was introduced to leadership curriculum and activities with the counsel of Jessica Briggs and Kevin Arnold. In 2008, she assisted Dr. Murphy and Dr. Reichard with
a weekend leadership camp for the freshmen and senior classes of Pasadena’s Polytechnic High
School. In 2009, she spent a week as a counselor for the Step-Up program, working with high
school students from across the country. Next year, she plans to work for Analysis Group in Los
Angeles, as an economic consulting analyst. She will take many fond memories of the KLI and
a solid set of leadership skills learned through her participation in leadership activities with her
upon graduation.
Kenley Turville ‘10
Kenley Turville, a senior Psychology and International Relations
major, has been working at the Kravis Leadership Institute since
the end of her sophomore year. She spent a semester abroad in Argentina, and when she returned, she kicked off her involvement at
the KLI by participating in the Hatton W. Sumners Student Leadership Conference at University of Texas in Austin. Since then,
she has participated in multiple research projects. She assisted
with the Teamworks project that examined the effects of mentoring in middle schools, and even completed her senior thesis
on the Undergraduate Leadership Education study. Kenley loves
the fun atmosphere of the KLI, and always looks forward to the
Thursday meetings. She plans to work in undergraduate admission after graduation.
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KLI RESEARCH FELLOWS 2009-2010
Lauren Wong ‘10
Lauren Wong, a senior majoring in International Relations, started working at the Kravis Leadership Institute
as a freshman. After a few months of doing research for
Kravis’ Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr. Becky Reichard, she
flew with other Kravis staff to an annual international
leadership conference in Chicago to see her research be
presented. She continued to do research throughout her
freshman year and became a Senior Research Fellow
her sophomore year. Lauren was abroad for her junior
year, spending a semester each in Beijing and Paris. She returned to Kravis as one of three
Senior Research Fellows and is currently working with the National Science Foundation on a
research project. Lauren believes that transformational leadership, where the leader is invested in the growth and
morale of his/her followers, is a particularly powerful style of leadership. Her favorite memory
of KLI is of hanging out with the rest of her old team, Team Pygmalion, at 21 Choices. After
graduation, Lauren plans to go into the design industry, focusing on innovation/strategies or
brand positioning.
KLI 2009-2010
Spring 2010
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Leadership and technology: kli adopts
orgsync
By Angelica Quicksey ‘12
Orgsync Campus Liaison, Kravis Leadership Institute
The Kravis Leadership Institute not only focuses on imparting leadership skills and experience to CMC students; it also leads the way on campus in embracing new technologies. This
year, it has adopted Orgsync, an online tool that helps students effectively and efficiently manage campus organizations. The platform was created for student leaders and administrators to
more easily engage with the members of their organizations and to create a “stronger campus
community.” The system operates successfully at over 100 institutions including UCLA and
Georgetown Law School and now the Kravis Leadership Institute has employed Orgsync to
expand and improve its programs.
The platform makes it easier than ever to send messages (including text messages), schedule
meetings and events, keep and share a calendar, create paperless forms and polls, share news,
photos, and more, all in one place. Even more valuable, Orgsync allows students to connect
through a site that many of them use every day – Facebook.
Several areas of KLI have been utilizing the new technology, especially the summer Step
Up Program. Orgsync allowed KLI administrators to follow up with the summer participants
after the program ended. Meanwhile the Step Up high school students posted about their summer, viewed pictures from the events, and could use the site to review leadership information
learned during the program.
Over the course of the fall semester, KLI student leaders used Orgsync to plan events.
Leadership Sequence assistant Marissa Gaulton, for example, used the platform to plan and
execute Leadership Day in the Fall, while the site helped streamline the application process
for the International Leadership Association’s Leadership Competition in Prague. Next summer, Kravis interns will be able to communicate with each other and with KLI staff, even from
remote locations, and Step Up will continue to use the system for it members.
As new gadgets like smart phones further integrate technology into our every day lives,
utilizing such technology to advance educational interests could be imperative. In embracing
Orgsync, KLI has led the way in using new technologies to engage students at CMC and in so
doing, has provided the tools to allow CMC-ers to become leaders in their own right.