University President Speaks Language of Business
Published Apr 16, 2008
Patrick T. Harker, president of the University of Delaware
When the University of Delaware tapped Patrick T. Harker to be president, it got a business brain in the bargain.
After a nationwide search, the university in December 2006 offered the job to Harker, dean of the esteemed Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania since 2000. Wharton bills itself as “the most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world,” offering business degrees at all levels plus executive and interdisciplinary programs.
In July 2007, Harker moved into the president’s office on the UD campus in Newark. Here, he shares his thoughts on the role of a university in enhancing business acumen and success.
Q A business school can be one of a university’s critical links to its community. What is Delaware’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics doing right?
A Lerner has always had a very strong program in areas like accounting. But what we’re seeing today – and what I think is important for universities – is not just what the college itself is doing, but its linkage to other colleges and programs on the campus. So you’re seeing ties with Lerner and the engineering school and the agriculture school. Breaking down the barriers between those disciplines and trying to create new ideas that cut across typical academic disciplines, now that’s where the excitement is.
Q Are there business initiatives from Wharton that you might bring to Delaware?
A One thing that Wharton has always been very focused on is dissemination of results into the hands of people who need it and who can use it right away. Knowledge@Wharton, a biweekly electronic newsletter approaching 1 million subscribers worldwide, is an amazing resource. I think we can do that here.
Second is to continue to enhance our global outreach. Delaware has a great strength in this, having invented study abroad in 1923. But it’s not just sending our students out, it’s also bringing the world here.
Q When it comes to outreach, I think you would agree that the Delaware Technology Park is certainly a player.
A It’s a big, big player. We just had a group visiting the state from Trinidad and Tobago. They took a tour of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute at the park, and when I met with them, they were just thrilled at what was going on. It’s a great model for university, government and industry collaboration.
Q Why should an existing or prospective business be interested in what’s happening on campus?
A If I put myself in the shoes of a businessperson, what am I looking for and what can a university provide? In the short run, it’s talent. If you don’t have talented people, you’re not going to thrive or survive as a company. No. 2 is possibly some short-term help in thinking through business issues.
Q And longer term?
A To have a vibrant business, you need to also have some long-term big ideas that you’re working on. You have to lift your eyes from the day-to-day and ask, “What are the big issues? Where are the next breakthroughs?”
I think hanging around the university is quite beneficial to business leaders – and not just in the business school, but looking for ideas across all disciplines. Some of those ideas actually come from the artistic side of the university, the cultural side of the university.
Universities play an important role for businesses in helping them create those ideas and also in creating an environment where their employees want to hang around. A diverse workforce wants a diverse, exciting community to be a part of, and universities play a crucial role in that.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Kathy Atkinson
Current Weather Conditions In Newark, DE (19702)
Cloudy, and 39 ° F. For more details?
Click here...
