Chicago Business

Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: GSB Life

During a recent interview at Gleacher, Professor Haas explained the origin of the Practice of Leadership course, its content and goals. He also explained what drives him as a voracious reader and a true scholar of leadership at a time in life when many others might elect to kick off their Guccis and slide off their Rolexes.

His extracurricular interests range from education to art to philanthropy. An Illinois native, Haas retired as CEO of Sealy, the mattress firm, in January of 1987 and then began his solid second career as a GSB professor. Whilst a CEO, Haas crossed paths with professors who served as board members and advisors to his firm. For example, before he joined the GSB, he was professionally involved with renowned economist Professor George Stigler. Haas notes, "I got to know George quite well because I taught him about the mattress business." He also was close to Professor James Lorie, who established the Center for Research in Securities Prices at the GSB along with Professor Lawrence Fischer, in 1960.

Initially, Haas was invited to speak as a guest lecturer to the GSB on the topic of retailing. Then, he was invited to speak on the topic of strategic management. After this period of lecturing, he was invited to join the faculty.

Teaching CEO precepts and leadership lessons attracted Haas from the start. He felt strongly that this study would yield benefits to students and says, "I felt it was very important. Especially today, I can see where leadership skills will eclipse quantitative concepts that may be out of date within a few years of graduation."

Back in the 1980's, very few schools offered courses of this ilk. In order to gain familiarity with topical literature, Haas says, "I went over to Regenstein Library and I started with books from the year 1900. And the more books I saw on leadership, the more I realized that the shelves contained nothing on actual, day-to-day components of business leadership." In his searches he found, "all these apocryphal stories that had nothing to do with the practical aspect of leadership in industry." It was not a failed expedition because, he notes, "I finally found a book by James McGregor Burns. It's called Leadership and it was written in 1978. I just ate it up. It was magnificent." He devoted his considerable energy and all of his time to this research in order to gain a solid understanding of this terrain.

In his first class on the topic, he recalls, "I had students from many disciplines in this course." He found them to be deeply interested in the topic and remembers, "A group of these students became acolytes, devoted to leadership studies." This support drove him to further explore the field and extend the development of the course.

Continued...

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