Cornell University The Johnson School at Cornell University

Students Learn That "Leading Well Requires Thinking Well" in Strategic Thinking Program

Citi's John Grier Shares His View on Great Leaders

August 28, 2007 - Although the Core has only just begun, first-year students are already being prepped for the capstone event of their first semester: the integrative case competition. Once again sponsored by Citi, this competition is designed as part of the final exam for Managerial Finance and Strategy and will require students to integrate material covered during the core and apply that knowledge to a complex business problem.

To start preparing, first year students had the opportunity to learn why "Leading well requires thinking well" from Risa Mish, a new faculty member of the Johnson School and Director of the Leadership Skills Program. A day-long Strategic Thinking Program on August 24 introduced MBA students to critical thinking and problem solving skills, and emphasized the importance of these skills to success in the core, in the job search, and in their careers. The Strategic Thinking Program is part of the Foundations in Leadership course, which is designed to provide a pre-Core overview of theories and skills that are essential to effective leadership.

In the morning session participants received an overview of basic critical thinking skills, including deductive and inductive reasoning, recognizing and avoiding logical reasoning flaws, and constructing a factually accurate, logically valid, and persuasive argument. The afternoon session gave them the opportunity to practice a strategic approach to problem solving, offering a framework to approach the case-based and real-world business problems they will encounter.

At lunch, all first-year students welcomed John Grier, Managing Director & Group Head of Global Transportation Investment Banking for Citi. Grier oversees Citi's investment banking activities with respect to airlines, commercial aerospace and related businesses, shipping, rail, logistics, trucking and transport infrastructure such as airports and seaports. With over 20 years of investment banking experience, much of it dealing with high-profile sales and IPOs in the aviation sector, Grier has come across his fair share of great leaders. In his opinion, they all share five characteristics:

  1. They are expert at identifying the underlying problem and can readily discriminate between core causes and symptoms.
  2. They are quick to understand the political and environmental constraints of the business scenario and determine the opportunity set available given these constraints
  3. They have an intuitive ability to separate what they know, from what they think they know, and what they can only speculate on.
  4. They are extremely persuasive. Effective leaders come in all personality types. They can be both gregarious and larger than life as well as soft spoken and self-effacing. The common tie is that when they speak, people listen and pay attention.
  5. They have an uncanny ability to see the world as a dynamic space and can see both the immediate problem at hand, as well as what will happen down the road with the markets and competitors in response to certain business decisions.

As the Johnson School students progress through the core, the information and insights gained through the Strategic Thinking Program and John Grier's presentation will help them frame business problems, develop responses to business cases and interview questions, and ultimately help them to make a real impact on the Johnson School and their future work organizations.