"I suspect that the difficulty in increasing these Fellowships is primarily a financial one," said du Pont’s President Greenewalt in reply to my letter of thanks. I had written him about the values received from this summer’s six weeks at du Pont, and expressed my conviction that both industry and the academic world would benefit from a great increase in the number of firms participating in FEE’s College-Business Exchange Program.
How can a corporation justify to its stockholders an outlay of $800, plus travel costs, to cover one of these fellowships for a professor of business or economics? The limited company participation suggests that many firms either question the value of the program for their purposes or else lack familiarity with the details of it.
Several Applicants for Each Spot
Even from the professor’s point of view, there is the financial problem of balancing the net return, after the expense of living away from home, against the other summer earning opportunities. Summer school teaching would yield more income! But apparently the professors feel the program is "worth it," since there are about half a dozen applicants for each available fellowship.
I can’t prove that a firm gets its money’s worth from a fellowship program anymore than I could justify the last thousand dollars spent for advertising or public relations; some things aren’t measurable with such exactness. But let me review here some of my thoughts on the matter during these weeks since my return from
Suppose it is your firm that wants to participate in the program. What would happen? Something like this: Months in advance you would have told Dr. W. M. Curtiss of FEE what type of person you’d like to have—his background, field of interest, and the like. Based on these specifications, he would have sent you the folders of several applicants. You’d select one—or perhaps two or more—from these candidates. Dr. Curtiss would notify the person or persons selected, and from there on the communications would be up to you. On the appointed day, your professor (s) would arrive—for six weeks.
I believe each company is quite free to arrange the details of the six weeks. But, briefly, here’s how du Pont handles it.
How the Program Started
Incidentally, du Pont pioneered the program about 1938. As I understand it, Mr. Jasper Crane, now a director, but then a vice-president and executive committee member, was attending a meeting and became involved in a discussion of economics with a professor. This started Mr. Crane thinking about a program whereby professors of business and economics could come right into an organization and ask questions of the executives themselves. He felt that an important cause of academic suspicion and mistrust of "business" was that most professors have little or no such direct contact with those on the firing line of industry. Du Pont’s executive committee agreed, and the company since then, except for the war years, has sponsored one or two professors each summer. Later, FEE assumed coordination of the program, as other firms became interested in participating.
Hard Work—But Worth It
But, back to du Pont’s program: Probably six months before our starting date, Bill Harrison of the Employee Relations Department was telephoning executives throughout the organization, setting appointments for us. "Us," incidentally, included Dr. Paul Nadler, of
For us, it was six weeks of intensive, interesting—and exhausting—interviews with du Pont executives. Three to five or more per day took place at the home office and at two plants: across the river at Deepwater, N. J., and down at
Yes—like most truly valuable educational experiences—it was hard work. Day after day we talked and questioned our way through all 12 "Auxiliary Departments" (Legal, Traffic, Central Research, and so on) and two of the 12 "Industrial Departments" (Organic Chemicals and Film). Hard work to keep the mental machinery going at top capacity—trying to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime hour with Mr. Rittenhouse, head of the Legal Department; Dr. Salzberg, manager of Central Research; Mr. Knowles, plant manager of the huge Chambers Works. On and on, through Accounting, Engineering, Labor Relations, and other departments. Concentrate on the excutive’s summary of his organization and its place in the company. Try not leave unasked that which ought to be asked. Here are the people who come to grips "for real" with those thorny classroom questions like, "Just what should an executive do about a subordinate who is ambitious, but who has, in the executive’s opinion, reached his limit?"
I came back with two large boxes of notes, pamphlets, speech reprints—which I hope to distill into a final report. But also, I gained new ideas, new enthusiasms for my teaching of business administration subjects. And as Elbert Hubbard said, "Enthusiasm is the vital ingredient for doing great work." Time alone will prove the value of my ideas; but at the moment I have real hopes of doing a better job of developing my students’ abilities to think, to take initiative, to improve their preparation in college for their future careers in business.
Benefits to Business
We asked several of the company executives what du Pont expected to get out of the program. Their answers would, I believe, fit under two headings: (1) A contribution to higher education, hence a long-range return to all industry through better, more realistic, college teaching of business and economics; (2) The benefit to the executives of crystallizing in their own minds, in order to explain to us, just what their key functions are; what are their most important problems; how does each of them and the work of his section fit into the company’s forward movement. I think one of the most overlooked aspects of education is the process of learning through being asked penetrating, general questions. The question which most effectively challenged me on my Ph.D. oral examination came from the Chemistry Department—my minor field. I was fairly well prepared on such matters as the preparation of nylon, the electron configuration of nitrogen, and such details. But I floundered a good ten minutes over the question, "What would you say to a high school senior class in five minutes about the field of chemistry as a subject for career specialization?" I still feel guilty when I walk into Stanford’s Chemistry Department. But a few weeks later, a fairly good answer began to shape up in my mind, and since then I have tried to re-evaluate all my fields of study from that viewpoint. Needless to say, du Pont’s executives had little difficulty in giving us excellent answers, affording us real insights into managerial practice. But several of them later commented that the experience of formulating these answers was also of some value to them.
A word of advice: two heads are better than one. One professor alone would have an almost impossible task to bear six weeks of continual interviewing. Two, taking turns, can "keep the ball in the air." If a company must limit its participation to one candidate, I strongly suggest that he be given half of each day for studying files and reports—preferably for the department he will visit the next day.
Whether it was "worth it" to du Pont, or would be to your company, I don’t know. But in these days when all America seems bent on penetrating the iron curtain through exchange of personnel, may I voice the plea that American industry not overlook the need for piercing the "ivory curtain" between those who teach business and those who practice it.
A Printed Announcement of the 1960 College—Business Exchange Program is available. Businessmen and college professors who are interested can obtain a copy from:
W. M. Curtiss
The Foundation for Economic Education