The International Business School inaugurated the Perlmutter Institute for Global Business Leadership with a keynote address by Reuben Mark, Chairman of the Colgate-Palmolive Company, as part of a symposium on Oct. 7 entitled "Leading In the New Global Economy." University Trustee Louis Perlmutter '56 and his wife, Barbara Perlmutter, donated $5 million to establish the institute.

Louis Perlmutter said the economic problems spoke to "the motivation, the reason why we thought that the establishment of the institute was so important."

"What we've seen is that international financial markets dominate the world," he said. "Global business institutions . determine the content and structure of the global economy," he went on to say. Their leaders need to "have a basic understanding of the impact of geopolitics and economics in determining an enterprise's policies and behavior."

He emphasized that the new institute would allow students to interact "with practitioners of great success who have dealt with real problems as well as with academics, who have been researching those issues."

In the Sachar International Center's Silver Auditorium, students had the opportunity to hear from one such practitioner.

Colgate's devotion to company culture was essential to the company's success, Mark said.

"The accomplishment of establishing in a decade a school that is renowned all over the world is truly unique," Mark said of the International Business School.

Essential to his company's success was Colgate's devotion to company culture, he said. Referring to recent business scandals, he stressed the need for executives to serve as good examples with ethical business behavior and follow the guidelines they communicate to others. "In Colgate culture, it's the responsibility of all leaders to develop the next generation."

He explained that Colgate identifies promising new employees, based on their qualifications, to receive special personal attention and guidance from supervisors. "If one of you were to graduate and join Colgate, you would be identified as high-potential," he said.

Mark emphasized the importance of integrity to a company. "It is more than following the law," he said. He explained that while the company may be allowed to do something legally, it should also ask, "Should we really be doing this?"

He recalled serving on the board of a large bank when it made an acquisition and got involved in sub-prime lending in which financial institutions provide credit to borrowers who are at risk of defaulting on their loans. Few of the bank executives, he said, questioned whether "it befit[s] our reputation to be charging high rates to people who can't afford them."

Communicating effectively is also essential for a company, Mark said. "The concept of keeping things very simple and communicating clearly is vital," he said. "You want to be able to convey anything in business so that a bright 15-year-old can understand it." He warned against lapsing into jargon. "A bad idea clearly conveyed does better then a good idea conveyed poorly," he said.

University President Jehuda Reinharz bestowed the first Perlmutter Institute Award on Mark. "I cannot recall when so many pressing and daunting question confronted our global business leaders," he said. "The Perlmutter Institute gives us hope that calmer and wiser heads will ultimately prevail."

In a consequent panel discussion moderated by Betty Wong, Reuters global head of editorial operations, experts echoed Mark's concerns.

Lawrence Weinbach, former chairman, president and CEO of Unisys, said, "As a leader the most important thing is trust." He explained that "the only way you can create trust is to tell the truth."

Reflecting on political and economic scandals, "there are a set of people who think that they do wear a halo, who think that a different set of rules apply to them," Prof. Catherine L. Mann (IBS) said.

Liza Pliss, a second-year MBA student, attended the talk because of her deep interest in marketing. "Colgate-Palmolive is a giant in the marketing world, and they have a really great development program," she said."I thought [the talk] was amazing; I'm really impressed. I love the idea that they implement all these programs to develop their [employees]," she said.