美国韦伯斯特大学商学院院长本杰明. 阿坎德博士.docVIP

美国韦伯斯特大学商学院院长，本杰明·阿坎德博士致辞 Life is not a dress rehearsal Benjamin ola. Akande, ph.d. Dean of School of Business and Technology of Webster University Commencement address – Webster chinaDecember 15, 2012 This year, the year of the dragon, the iconic black and white Oreo cookie celebrates its centennial. One hundred years since the chocolate wafer sandwich first went on sale in the U.S. this favorite treat is now beloved around the world with $2 billion in global sales. Second, only to the U.S.. In Oreo cookie consumption is the world’s most populous country….your country of china. But those who travel here find the cookie you consume in china is nothing like the one you eat in St. Louis. In fact, the first Oreos sold here in china “crumbled.”? Consumers here were not too accustomed to Oreos as desserts and thought the treat was too big and too sweet. Kraft went back to the kitchen and came up with a culturally conscious cookie that sells and satisfies. Kraft got it right as a global business, they understood that diversity can drive and dictate the market. At Webster University, diversity is the tie that binds our institution. As a center of higher learning, we see our role primarily to bring people together to achieve things together that they could never achieve on their own.? Our students and faculty represent the world.? And, our programs mirror the world we live in. We call it inclusive excellence and it means drawing from all our generational and cultural strengths. We live in a time; we live in a place, where the popular belief is “show me the money.”? So many of us have become satisfied spectators in the unfolding drama of life content to sit on the fence and settle for pacing the sidelines as casual observers, watching the drama unfold right before our eyes.? And, lately, I have found that some of these spectators are leaders of organizations, who have survived by taking the road of least resistance.? They lea