By Carolyn Gray Anderson and Paul Feinberg
On Wednesday, November 2, 2016, UCLA Anderson recognized The Boeing Company’s retired chairman, CEO and president W. James (“Jim”) McNerney, Jr., as the ninth recipient of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award. The audience of nearly 500 included UCLA Anderson Board of Visitors members and other generous supporters gathered under the Space Shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center.
“I’m deeply honored by this award,” McNerney said upon receiving the award from UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian. “John Wooden — if you’re of my generation you know who he is, what he meant and what his values were. The prior (recipients), I know them all, and I’m very proud to be included in that group.”
The distinction is awarded annually to an exceptional leader who espouses and embodies the principles exemplified by the legendary UCLA coachteacher and leadership expert John R. Wooden. In her remarks, Dean Olian expressed admiration for McNerney’s decades of business success, which in 2015 earned him Chief Executive Magazine’s CEO of the Year, a distinction he shares with the 2014 Wooden Award honoree, Bob Iger.
One of the highlights of the evening (in addition to the Chicago Cubs’ winning Game 7 of the World Series; McNerney and UCLA Anderson’s Board of Visitors Chairman Bob Murley [’74] were among those pulling for the Cubs) was a discussion between McNerney and Michael Hiltzik, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from the Los Angeles Times. Their discussion touched on a range of topics that included the current state of manufacturing in the United States and how a chief executive may impact corporate culture.
“Manufactuing, when you look at the numbers, has been down,” McNerney said. “But we are entering a place that should be a sweet spot for us. Technology is unlocking cost improvement, delivery and customization through digitization and automation. We’re exiting a period where we were disadvantaged but entering a period where technology and digitization are taking over. If we can grab that, we have a chance to regain our leadership.”
With the dozens of UCLA Anderson students and alumni in attendance in mind, Hiltzik queried McNerney about the qualities it takes to reach the upper echelons of management. “By the time you’re ready for a job at the top, you have a threshold cap on hard skills,” McNerney said, referencing decision making and investment strategies. “(At that point), the softer skills become more important. How do you motivate people, how do you work with a team to define a new culture, how do you push people (while) motivating them? It’s a lot more leadership, communication, alignment — dealing with gray areas outside company. It’s more about being able to handle the unstructured environment. Those skills are the differentiators.”
A Harvard MBA, McNerney began his career with Procter & Gamble and McKinsey & Co. In 1982, he joined the General Electric Company as the vice president of GE information services and spent 19 years at the company in a number of top executive positions. He took the helm of 3M as chairman of the board and CEO in 2000. Drawing parallels between this year’s honoree and the figure for whom the award is named, Olian said, “Both Jim and Coach understood the importance of setting goals while demonstrating a willingness to adapt to the style and talent of their people.”
McNerney enjoys a solid reputation as possessing singular integrity: When he joined Boeing in 2005, he said, “We are focused on turning ethics and compliance into a competitive advantage for Boeing.” In his first year as CEO he returned credibility to the company amid turbulent ethics controversies, rising to the occasion to steady the ship despite a rocky start. McNerney retired from Boeing in 2015, which marked the company’s 100th anniversary. In 2010, McNerney was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the President’s Export Council, an advisory committee on international trade. He served on the Council with Xerox’ Ursula Burns, herself the 2015 recipient of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award.
In a video tribute to McNerney, Burns called her successor “a very effective leader with a mix of fun and intelligence that allows work to get done.” She said, “I am proud to pass the torch of this prestigious award to my good friend — my good friend — Jim McNerney.”
Other testimonials came from AmEx’s Ken Chenault, who received the Wooden Award in 2009, and Frederick Smith of Fedex, who received it in 2010; and Coach’s daughter Nan Wooden. To their warm congratulations and expressions of praise, McNerney replied with a laugh, “They read it exactly as I wrote it.”
The annual tribute to Coach Wooden was delivered by two-time American Basketball Association All-Star Swen Nater, who played on two of Coach Wooden’s title teams, and UCLA’s head women’s basketball coach, Cori Close.
Close recalled her first meeting with Coach when she was an aspiring assistant at UCLA in the 1990s. “I was so insecure going into that room,” she said. Yet, she said, “I felt seen, I felt cared for, I felt valued. People were always more important to him than things.”
Nater lauded Coach for the example of humility and respectfulness he set, saying, “When the UCLA team went on the road, we wore blue blazers and blue and gold ties, and we left the locker room cleaner than when we found it.” He remembered thank you notes from custodians, praising the team’s consideration. “UCLA was the only team that did this,” he said.
Nater has penned at least 100 poems in homage to Coach. Among his succinct observations of what his mentor taught him, Nater said, “Beyond the how I learned the why.”
Olian welcomed members of the extended Wooden family, among them Coach’s daughter Nan and son Jim. “They are extraordinary partners to us at UCLA Anderson,” she said, “in keeping with Coach’s principles so central to our leadership programs.”
Recipients of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award include: Burns, (then) chairman and CEO of Xerox (2015); Paul E. Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm Inc. (2014); Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company (2013); Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (2012); Peter Ueberroth, managing director of Contrarian Group (2011); Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx (2010); Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express (2009); and Howard Schultz, chairman, president and CEO of Starbucks (2008).
Proceeds from the dinner fund four $25,000 John Wooden Leadership Fellowships, given to deserving UCLA Anderson students based on their exceptional leadership, academic merit and financial need. This year’s recipients are Doug Larratt (EMBA ’17), Corey McMillen (’17), Datra Oliver (FEMBA ’18) and Eric Potocek (FEMBA ’18).
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