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>> Through his compassionate inquisitiveness and his care for others,
this professor truly embodies what makes the GSB special.
It is for all of these reasons that now ask you to join us in congratulating
the 2018 recipient of the distinguished teaching award Professor Amit Seru.
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>> [SOUND] Thank you everyone on
the committee for those kind words and the award.
It's obviously a great honor to join the illustrious
colleagues who have won this award before me.
I want to especially thank the Talk to the Hat group,
my MBA2s from last year, you know who you are.
We weren't largest in numbers, but you all sure did make a loud noise.
And thank you for making the noise, and making me feel this appreciated.
Those were very generous and kind words, but I want to start by thanking my wife,
who's there.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> And
kids, actually, because innovation in teaching, it starts at home, actually.
Because most of the times I've realized,
when I've tried to teach them anything, it doesn't work.
But in the words of famous Rocky Balboa, it's not about how hard you hit,
it's about how you can get hit and then still keep moving forward.
And that's what I try to do.
Though I'm still looking for success at home,
with this award, I'm hoping that I can point to some
more credibility than I have now, hopefully that'll work.
I have to say that you all attributed too much credit to me.
I would be amiss if I didn't thank my finance colleagues,
specially those who helped shape the change in the curriculum and
allowed us to think about these things.
Professor Josh Rauh, Hanno Lustig, and Peter DeMarzo in particular, thank you.
>> [APPLAUSE] >> And other colleagues, like Tim McQuid,
who have gone ahead and implemented these changes.
But, to be honest, all of these changes cannot happen without all of you here.
All of you have been very gracious, in your thoughts, in your inputs,
in your feedback.
Been very patient in both absorbing and
acknowledging things that have worked and things that haven't worked.
But this is the tolerance for failure, which leads to a lot of innovation.
Not only in the classroom, but in the real world.
And so, I hope that you will continue to be patient,
because that's going to lead to more innovation.
Which is something that we always want.
Now, I should note, that if there is any innovation that's working,
it's obviously the work of my colleagues and me.
And, if it's not working, it's because of the feedback from all of you.
But more seriously, in the finance classes I have taught,
I have emphasized thinking about economic tradeoffs, incentives.
And I have suggested that the simplest way to think about this is
the Micky Mouse balance sheet.
Which those who have taken my class know what I am talking about.
And thinking about the MM framework.
Now, you know, knowing where the freak come from and where they go.
But these are interesting frameworks, but if you think about the big picture,
which I like to sort of talk about in all of my classes,
we are at very interesting times, at crossroads, really.
And that requires us to take all of these frameworks that
you're learning in finance or other classes and push them, really,
in directions that we haven't sort of really tested.
So, business, government policy, society, they're all interacting in ways,
and making changes at a pace, that we haven't seen before.
There's disruption, innovation, but they are disrupted, and a large number of them.
There is growth, but there is also polarization.
And then there's government, which is trying to balance all of these different
constituents, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much.
And, in this ecosystem, in this environment, the question for
you all, like the committee posed, they stole my thunder,
is how are you going to define success.
What's success for you?
It could be about innovating.
It could be about generating free cashflows,
making money, a lot of jobs, growth.
But I'm hoping that you'll be more fearless coming out of GSB, and
I'm going to push this a little bit further.
And when you do that, free cash flows are not going to be free anymore.
It'll require you to challenge yourselves, and
redefine what you mean by success, pretty regularly, really.
And when you do, I'm hoping, that when you go out from GSB, you will come back and
give us inputs and
feedback, like you have while you were here, so that you challenge us.
Because that's the only way we build knowledge stock on which the next
generations can really build on.
And, you know, I like to call it standing on the shoulders of giants,
which is all of you and us, where next generations can stand and look far.
But I was at a Midwest GST where I was told, No, no no, that is old school.
The new thing is you're standing on the shoulders of dinosaurs.
Because then you can see even further.
So whatever, you guys need to go out and then come back, and
let us know what are we doing right and what are we not doing wrong.
But the bottom is that the problems are complex and the solutions are unknown.
But my hope is that all of you who have taken my classes, and
we have learned together, are going to use some of this.
And, as you are going to be figuring out the answers, which will help us to
together, change lives, change organizations, and change the world,
to make it a better place than what you and I got when we sort of started.
So with that, again, thank you, everyone.
Really appreciate it.
And this is going to be a very memorable day for many years to come for me.
Thank you very much.
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