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Armand V. and Donald S. |
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Converging Technologies at Union Opening Remarks It’s always a great pleasure for me - and also for my brother- to return to the campus, particularly on the occasion of this Forum. Today’s Forum is of course taking place at a time of great importance for the strength and growth and indeed future of the College. These are times of important new opportunity for those educational institutions that have been appropriately positioning themselves in leadership terms for this new environment. What is increasingly evident in the transformational events and actions taking place throughout the campus is the powerful sense of purpose and the reinforcement of direction they represent for Union in such terms of leadership. It is leadership that is both important and distinctive in these times when academic institutions are facing issues that are the consequences of what can best be described as “backward creep.” That’s when the institution concentrates on more effectively and efficiently meeting its existing academic as well as administrative standards when the environment is in fact moving rapidly in the direction of other major values and demands that are not adequately being addressed. As you perhaps know, our basic global business in the General Systems Company is the transformation of strong institutions into even greater strength through operational fully as much as physical improvement. These institutions range from large industrial corporations, financial groups and major technology organizations throughout the Americas, Europe and the Far East. We have found throughout all of this experience that a necessary condition for successful transformation throughout all of these entities is their establishment of a clearly defined integrating theme. It is one that intelligent and committed men and women can understand and further define in their own terms. It is an overarching concept to which they can relate and for which they can develop enthusiasm and support. Without this, all transformation hits a wall; it progressively loses its way in trying to tie together the disconnects that have to be dealt with in all organizations. Converging Technologies can be very clearly defined in terms of what I’ve mentioned as such an integrating theme. It of course means very clear expression in today’s 21st Century terms of the new technical and scientific, as well as the economic, social, corporate and competitive forces that demand professional convergence. It particularly emphasizes the full alignment of its educational dimensions in the face of a “backward creep” type of silo mentality which is so destructive of progress. It is understanding of this which motivates the support and enthusiasm for the changes and which identifies the new opportunities the Converging Technologies provides – highly challenging as they are in terms of career and interdisciplinary issues today. Accomplishing this successfully means systematically making both transparent and continually participative for men and women in all areas of organization the full character of the change that is taking place. They can correspondingly establish their positive judgments of its connection with what they believe is important to them and to their values and expectations and their futures. We are aware of the significant progress that has been and continues to be made in these terms at Union, including the house system and the Minerva’s among other examples. It is, of course, an objective of today’s Forum to continue and extend the dialogue and exchange of views that continue to deepen and to place focus upon this progress particularly regarding implementation in terms of the new demands of these early years of the 21st Century. One of the most visible examples in our own General Systems Company is in information technology itself. It is now standard practice throughout major companies to recognize, for example, that the Internet is much more than just a technology; for us, it is also a business and economic and sociometric organizational model with processes that can anticipate customer behaviors, recognize market changes, cultivate new skills for managers and employees, and provide the potential for significant technical, scientific and economic developments. Today’s pacesetter organizations approach the Internet as both an ecosystem and a sociosystem in which men and women in the company are connected both externally with markets and suppliers and customers and internally as network, and it is both this specialized as well as integrated network thinking and capability that is essential. Putting this example more broadly, business leaders emphasize today that it’s what their companies can do with technology throughout their total business structure – rather than allowing it to be too much focused in the traditional research laboratory or the engineering departments of the latter decades of the 20th Century -- that has become essential. This emphasis is very different from the self-contained islands of specialization that characterized many organizations until recently. The evolution is instead that these broad 21st Century impacts of technology, science and social development are increasingly built into and directly integrated across all product and service development in the company as a fundamental competitive leadership strategy. Indeed, as compared with just a few years ago, the college and university graduate who enters an organization and allows himself or herself to be solely identified as an engineering department person – or primarily a particular specialist person whether economist, psychologist, biologist, sociologist or scientist – may be making a poor longer-term career decision as well as creating an intellectual growth limitation. And he and she are increasingly saying so to the college or university from which they graduated which still may be structured in traditional disciplinary-limited compartments. Through successful implementation of its Converging Technologies initiative, Union is placing itself in a major leadership role for education in this new era of multi-dimensioned learning. Indeed, I think of our discussions this afternoon as part of the continuing evolution of what has always been best about Union. Its periods of strength – such as now under the leadership of Roger Hull and all of you – are when it focuses on breaking new paths of excellence in continuing to build its intellectual, social and economic strength for serving its responsibility of educating for leadership in today’s enormously demanding new environment. Let me conclude by remarking how continuingly pleasant it is for us in our periodic returns to the campus to see and hear evidence of this growth and progress. Union is a part of us as with so many of its alums. Your progress and growth is also our progress and we thank you for it. And after the example of the intensive and productive Forum sessions in past years, both my brother and I once again welcome this opportunity to join with you to look forward to this afternoon of what has consistently been an illuminating, pleasant and constructive afternoon.
Donald S. Feigenbaum |
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