Graduation Address

"Ceremony C: Encaenia Address." (26 May 1994). (UA Case 67, Box 3)

And so, after many years and many countries, a Fredericton and UNB boy has returned to receive a special honor from his university.

How many years? Well, 63 years ago on this same occasion this same boy stood on the stage and delivered the valedictory for the class of 1931.

How many countries? Twenty-three, mostly in the interest of the pulp and paper industry.

When the president called me to inform me that I had been granted an honorary doctor of science, for which I was highly elated, he also requested that I make some remarks oriented to the graduates.

So it seemed to me that it might be useful to tell the young graduates about some things not taught in university but of invaluable help out in the business world.

A main requirement is humility, and it is extremely important. I feel that quality is often lacking.

I shall call my short course Humility 101.

When you get out in the business world you must learn to temper your superior university knowledge with humility, especially during your first employment.

You may be working for a person and a problem arises that you know more about than he or she does. You must handle the situation with the utmost diplomacy. Carefully you must impart your knowledge with artful management and as a result you will be successful and also gain the acceptance of your superior.

It might be, as I did, that you go to work for a person who never went to college. It is also quite possible that this person is extremely competent. You must never "talk down" to this superior, but learn that this person has acquired his or her knowledge by other means and you will work as a team with mutual respect.

Now there is another phase. Much is happening outside North America. You might get a job in a foreign country. That country may have thousands of years of tradition which you must cope with. You might be dealing with a person who says "We’ve been doing it this way for 1,000 years," and you must work around this tradition with diplomacy and tact to get your point across and get acceptance as a person.

Then, as I did, you might go to a country whose religion is different from yours and whose government is run by that religion. You must cope with business practices which are thousands of years old, and dictated by that religion. A slight indiscretion may be a trifle to you but may be a serious breach of the law and subject to a severe penalty. You must learn to live within this framework with humility and respect for the law.

Then there is also the condition that you will have people working for you. You must learn to gain acceptance with your staff by handling your supervisory position with dexterity and tact.

In summary on this subject, you must summon all your powers of tact, diplomacy, care and humility and lack of arrogance because, in the vulgar terminology of the day, nobody loves a "smart ass."

Now I come to another subject and that is change. There is nothing more constant than change, and you will be forced to deal with it from the day you graduate.

In the pulp and paper industry which I am in, the day after you finish a brand new mill you will begin making changes and a major rebuild will be necessary in no more than five years.

Clear cutting has given way to selective cutting and there are prohibited areas of cutting, largely caused by government directives.

Bleaching processes have gone through many changes in the years I have been in the industry.

Other industries are the same. The Globe and Mail says that conditions now change so quickly that business has become a jazz combo. Graduates must be prepared to improvise and cope with constantly changing conditions.

We must also be prepared to deal with changes in governments. Let me show you.

In 1959 I traveled with a Canadian group 5,000 miles within Russia at the request of the Russian government to make an examination of their industry. I visited the people in their homes, and communism seemed to be well entrenched. After some years I saw the downfall of communism and the split-up of Russia into republics and somewhat in a state of confusion.

Another example. In 1952 and from then on I spent considerable time in Sweden. Sweden was the prime example of socialism. In my description it meant a free lunch from the cradle to the grave. The country went through this for 60 years and it finally found out that it could not cope with the extremely high taxes and handouts that were necessary to grapple successfully with Swedish socialism. Just recently the government changed and I saw the downfall of most forms of Swedish socialism.

Now I come to a strange case. About two years ago we had an election in Ontario where I live. The NDP, a socialist government, attempted to cause the downfall of capitalism in this prosperous province. Not long after, it was discovered that there was not enough money and taxes in the world to support the handouts and regular salary increases to labor. Premier Rae reversed the process and resorted to a process called the Social Contract which doesn’t please anyone, especially the labor unions which really put the socialists in power. We now have a system which I would call a form of capitalistic socialism. Our only hope is the next election which is about a year away.

Let me also say that your education will never cease. In a good part of the future you will be self-taught in learning to live with the problems that occur in your type of work. Make good use of your acquired university knowledge.

And so I have passed along some of the results of my long experience in Canada and around the world and some suggestions for dealing with life in the future.