Pray For Our Pastors

THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS

I met a friend at Wharton’s new building, Huntsman Hall, this evening. While I was waiting for him, I whipped out a news magazine and caught up on my current events. But I couldn’t help but take in the flurry of students darting in and out of the building. I’d like to record some of my observations, because they provide a fascinating contrast to the Wharton I remember when I first stepped on campus in 1991.

Everyone seemed in a hurry. Everyone seemed confident. Everyone was well dressed. Most of the people walking by themselves were chattering away on cell phones. Among the languages I could identify, I picked up Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, and Korean. Taken together, the whole scene in the lobby seemed like a beehive: a driven, cheerful, multiethnic beehive.

Me, circa 1991, would have been downright frightened by such a scene. The scene back then seemed much more sedate, much dourer, much more insecure. Technology back then meant doing complicated things on Microsoft Excel. And I believe a foreign language requirement was a new thing for the school back then.

I have seen the future of business, and I am impressed. And a little intimidated. But mostly excited to see that our future business leadership will be so techno-savvy, so cosmopolitan, and so multi-hued.