Day with Dean Douglas Anderson

Dean Anderson is an amazing individual, and I’m grateful for the opportunity we had to visit with him and have a more individual experience with him. While at the Bel Air Hotel in Switzerland, we spent a day in the breakfast room and had an interactive presentation with him. We learned about his background as a Harvard professor, an entrepreneur, a professional business consultant, and as a counselor to the Secretary of the United States Treasury.

As we met and conversed, one of the most engaging parts of the day was the time when he opened up for suggestions and ideas regarding the Huntsman School of Business. We discussed ideas as to how to market to top students, how to manage the business degree program, and ideas for the building itself.

Part of our discussions encompassed strategic thinking, and how easy it is to get sidetracked from reality. A prerequisite for a good strategy is seeing the environment as it is, not as we would like it to be. He made a good point when he said that we usually don’t wake up each day and say to ourselves, 'I’m going to live out of reality today, I’m going to dream all day about what I wish I could be rather than where I am now.'

We also discussed creativity, and talked about how we so often think of mistakes as outright failures and don’t see them as avenues to greater learning and success. We watched a film about IDEO, a design and innovation consulting firm. The aim within the teams of this company is to fail fast and learn the best ways of doing things by quickly finding what doesn’t work. What an unconventional approach! But it’s how we learn, so why not speed it up? IDEO is a very successful organization, and their approach to finding new ways to improve works.

As I consider how I would sum up what I gained from the day with Dean Anderson, I’d say it helped open my mind to the possibilities of my career and it made me think differently about how I approach life and learning. Also, it gave me the opportunity to get to know my dean a little better, and he is a great leader and is an individual capable of taking the Huntsman School of Business to amazing new heights.