Never Miss a Good Crisis -- Siemens CEO on Leadership

USA Today has a marvelous article on and interview with Peter Loscher, the CEO of Siemens, a high tech company with over 400,000 employees, which is 162 years old! The article notes that Loscher's leadership is based on his moral compass and that he was hired by Siemens in 2007 to clean up the corruption. His resume is incredible and he served previously as CEO of Aventis Pharma, CEO of GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences, and President of Merck Global Human Health.

In the interview, Peter Loscher talks about growing up in a small Austrian village and of his father telling him to always act ethically and that being a good man will result in a good life.

Today, Siemens is considered to be a role model with Dow Jones ranking the company on its sustainability world index with the highest score of 100 (when it previously had earned a 0).

Loscher (there is an "umlaut" over the "o" in his name) offers this piece of advice: never miss a good crisis. Under his leadership, he certainly "cleaned house," and replaced half of Siemens' 100 top executives. He also emphasizes the importance of being trustworthy and of transparency.

Peter Loscher received his MBA from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, which is actually the largest business school in Europe. I had the privilege of giving a talk at this university on March 10, 2009, and was hosted by Professor Manfred Fischer, a dear friend, and scholar in regional science. The presentation that I gave was entitled, Synergies and Vulnerabilities of Supply Chain Networks in a Global Economy.

My mother lived in Vienna during part of World War II, as did one of my uncles, so it was very special to visit and to speak at this renowned institution. Clearly, the Vienna University of Economics and Business Adminsitration is doing an outstanding job of educating leaders, as evidenced in Siemens CEO, Peter Loscher. Plus, having had a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright in Innsbruck, Austria, I welcomed a return to that gorgeous country. Of course, it was also wonderful that my Fulbright experience resulted in the matriculation of an Austrian student, Tina Wakolbinger, at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. Dr. Wakolbinger became my second PhD student from Europe (with Dr. Stavros Siokos being my first). Dr. Wakolbinger, as Peter Loscher, comes from a small village in Austria, and she is now a Professor at the Fogelman College of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Memphis in Tennessee.

Thank you, Vienna, and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration

The four days in Vienna have come to an end. The majesty of the Hofburg Palace with its state rooms, the beauty of the works of art in the Leopold Museum and the Albertina, the echoes of the music in the apartments of Beethoven and Mozart, are now embedded as memories. Vienna is a European capital in which time seems to have stood still. I managed to find the apartment where my mother lived with my uncle in the mid-1940s while they were students at the University of Vienna and the Technical University of Vienna, respectively. I saw the church where they had worshipped and where my uncle fell in love with my aunt only to see her again as refugees in New York City. What struck me most about this glorious city was the elegance -- of the architecture, the shops (from stamp collector shops to all sorts of specialty shops, including marvelous chocolate stores, and leather, hat, and clothing stores), and of the people. Music could be heard most everywhere that we walked.

It was safe to stroll through parks at night. The city was so clean and the transportation infrastructure simply fantastic! As we had seen last summer in Paris, there were bike rental units set up on the streets, the colorful trams flowed quietly and in a timely fashion, and our taxi driver to the airport showed up dressed in a suit and tie! I inquired of many that I met about the impact of the economic crisis and was told that Vienna and the Viennese are conservative; "we value what we have, and we are not (yet) feeling any effects of the global slowdown."

Against this magnificent backdrop, in a city of highest culture, and a center for the arts, literature, music, science, and psychology/psychiatry, I gave my invited lecture at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. The title of my lecture was "Synergies and Vulnerabilities of Supply Chain Networks in a Global Economy." Professor Manfred Fischer, my esteemed host, along with his assistant, Mr. Thomas Seyffertitz, made the wonderful arrangements for my lecture and visit. I very much appreciated their attention to detail and the specialness of the formalities. For example, Full Professors are assigned seats in the lecture hall with name tags and sit in the front of the room. The speaker is escorted by the host once everyone is seated and then introduced.

Time, indeed, "stood still." My lecture was to begin at 5PM and did so shortly therafter. When I next glanced at my watch it was 7PM! The questions that I received from the audience were brilliant and will generate further research. I was also so pleased to see so many females in the audience, which included faculty, students, and researchers from business specialties, from transportation, engineering, and statistics.

The innovations at Professor Manfred Fischer's Institute are amazing -- from an MBA with a specialty in infrastructure management to a new Master's program in supply chain management that will include different specialties, including a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) one. The dinner that followed in a local "pub" allowed for a continuation of the discussions and conversations in which we identified similarities/differences between business education in the US and in Austria (notably, in Vienna). We also discussed the importance of scholarship and adding to the scientific literature through one's research and the value of collaborative research. To see Professor Fischer's office filled with journals and his numerous books and articles is to be inspired!

I cannot thank my hosts sufficiently for the outstanding warmth and hospitality extended to me. Also, to see how Vienna "works" in 2009 is to have hope for the world. It is time to value what truly matters and "lasts."

An Invitation I Could Not Refuse and My First Fulbright

Recently I received an invitation to give an invited lecture that I simply could not turn down. Professor Manfred Fischer of the Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, which was ranked in the top twenty schools of economics in Europe by the Financial Times, extended the invitation. Professor Fischer is a Regional Science Association International (RSAI) Fellow and a marvelous scholar and gentleman. Given the audience, the location, and the venue, I accepted the invitation and will be speaking there in mid-March. Vienna is one of the most glorious cities on this earth and several of my family members have lived there. Although I had had a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright in Innsbruck, Austria, I had never visited this grand city filled with incredible architecture, museums, parks, history, and music!

During my Fulbright in Innsbruck, Austria, which took place March -July 2002, I taught at the SOWI Business School at the University of Innsbruck. Innsbruck is magical and words cannot describe the magnificence of the mountains, the nature, the Inn River, and the downtown, including the Old Town. Some photos from Innsbruck during this Fulbright capture the magic but we have heard that the house that we lived in (with a view of the 1964 Olympic ski jump) has been torn down. Its address was 94 Schneeburgasse. Of course, before traveling to Vienna, I will stop by Innsbruck to reconnect with those that made my family and me feel so welcome during that Fulbright experience, which, simply put, was heaven on earth.