“Top Line,” If You Please!

My snailmail offerings recently included an opportunity to donate to the Stanford B.School. (Admission, though reluctant: I’ve done so in the past.) Part of the inducement was a photo of four recent Deans. To be sure, one bagged a Nobel in Economics; however, he’s offset by another who was chief of Enron’s board audit committee.

But it was something else that struck me. The quartet represented: finance, economics, accounting, finance. What’s missing in this picture?

Duh!
THE TOP LINE!

And so I was led to wonder:

Will my alma mater ever have a … MARKETER … as Dean?*
Will my alma mater ever have an … ENTREPRENEUR … as Dean?*
Will my alma mater ever have an … INNOVATION GURU … as Dean?*
Will my alma mater ever have a … SALES SPECIALIST … as Dean?*
Will my alma mater ever have an … PEOPLE/HR PERSON …. As Dean?* **
(*Fat chance!) (**HR/People Person is not, strictly, “top line” … though it’s a helluva lot closer than accounting!)

Now this will surprise you, but I’d vote (this is a “voting” day … see riff on Gerstner above) for bringing back a deposed prof, who was a student favorite: Jim Collins! Actually, I’m not so sure Jim is a “top line” guy … but at least he’s not from the finance-accounting-economics school-of-passionless-management. Hey, a guy who invented B.H.A.G.s—Big, Hairy Audacious Goals—can’t be all bad!

Tom Peters posted this on December 8, 2004, in Talent.
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