Clarence Otis, Jr., CEO of Darden Restaurants
Interesting interview with Clarence Otis, Jr., CEO of Darden Restaurants here. Two reasons I’m posting this.
1. It’s good to hear from a minority CEO, especially as it relates to hearing ideas. Minority CEOs not only break stereotypes, but they also contribute to the dialogue on what constitutes good governance.
2. Look what he says:
Q. Anything in your background that, looking back, prepared you for the art of building a team?
A. The thing that prepared me the most — where the team was front and center — was theater, which I did a lot of growing up, in high school, during college, law school and even for a couple of years after law school.
It’s a great endorsement of the humanities. Hopefully some parent will see this and will refrain from pushing math and science against their children’s will. Especially for Asian Americans, we need more students of the arts.
No related posts.
But here is an...
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Many countries are overtaking the US in Math and Science. I think we still need to hammer away at that.
With anything balance is the key. There is no reason someone cannot be a molecular biology and theater major. If a child expresses interest and talent in a field, the opportunity to grow and explore should be given.
People should also do what he or she is good at. Recognizing a person’s talents and developing those talentsis another key to success.
Parental support is vital to a childs sucess. One thing I would love to see less of is less T.V. ad video games. Those activites are major time sucks.
I agree. A CEO isn’t so good if he can’t talk about numbers, and many of our innovations in this generation are going to be science based.
By the way, I just read a good parenting book that addresses recognizing and celebrating talent in your children. The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel.
Why would American students study math and science when there is no incentive for it? Companies would rather hire foreigners for a fraction of what they pay to American workers in the fields of engineering and technology. Not only do these disciplines require a lot of discipline, they are difficult subjects to master, and might not be financially rewarding in the long run.
I have some Asian clients who are engineers, and what they make is appalling to what the Asian dudes earn in Finance.
“Many countries are overtaking the US in Math and Science. I think we still need to hammer away at that”.
Chr., you’re right, there currently is no incentive for it.
But the government could always make more incentives for hiring locally through laws and taxation.
Byron, I’ll let everyone know who reads your post about Asian Americans and study of the Humanities in regard to this crucial subject. I repeat again that Asian American Studies is a farse discipline not worthy of anyone’s time and money. I can’t imagine an AA spending 4 years of their life wasting away on a major that marginalizes instead of empowering them. Going through a series of Maxine Hong Kingstonesque literature on why Asian women don’t want Asian men. Ughh! We get the picture.
Almost a decade ago, I attended some readings at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and it was disheartening to hear many Asian women writers imitating the style of MHK. I tried to ask some of these ladies if they found literature written back in the old country inspiring, that is Classical literature and early modern fiction. They didn’t even want to talk to me, because they were so focused on hating Asian men.
Again, Chr, you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
Yes, I don’t disagree with you. Asian American studies in general discriminates against heterosexual Asian men, especially young men. I’ve posted on that lots of times. But just avoiding it isn’t going to help it. You need to join their organization and start to change things around.
Whoa there! Join their organisation to change things around? Has there been ANY success at all using this method? Four years just to study and basically be shat on by Asian-male hating works lionised by certain Asian women sounds like a martyr’s wish.
Let’s say I join a university and take this course. I immediately notice how I am turned into some kind of symbol of “Asian patriarchy” and shat on by professors and students alike, and treated with scorn and contempt, and purposely kept on the sidelines lest I “encroach” on what they do. What sort of support could I get right now?
Not even counting what sort of impact this would have on a young man’s development.
“I’ve posted on that lots of times. But just avoiding it isn’t going to help it. You need to join their organization and start to change things around”.
Huh?
What for? Basically there isn’t anything intellectually challenging or enlightening about Asian American studies. Why waste your time on a major (if it exists in your college) that doesn’t hold on any water? We need to study our glorious past and not something degrading/superficial as AA studies.
Did you know that the first novel was written by a woman in Medieval Japan? I’ll bet you most of those MHK wannabes don’t even know this. This comes to show the kind of people we are dealing with.
The Tale of Genji written by Murasaki Shikibu is considered the world’s first novel.
Yup, I posted on it:
http://www.bigwowo.com/2009/01/happy-birthday-to-the-novel/
“What for? Basically there isn’t anything intellectually challenging or enlightening about Asian American studies.”
Again, Chr, it’s what you CHOOSE to see. I may post on the front page about this later.
Unfortunately, my encounters with the AF writers at the AAWF proved to be a dissapointment. They knew nothing about East Asian Literature, but MHK was whom they knew the best. Inferior mindset breeds an inferiority complex!
“Yup, I posted on it:
http://www.bigwowo.com/2009/01/happy-birthday-to-the-novel/”
“Again, Chr, it’s what you CHOOSE to see”.
Raguel is right. What pay thousands of dollars to study something so you could be sh*t on, and be told how marginalized you are, when you can get the same experience at a minimal cost by watching the Joy Luck Club, and documentaries of the Chinese Exclusion Act or Japanese Internment camps? Even much better, attend a few poetry and short story jam readings hosted by the ladies of the AFCC, coming to a town near you, Asian guys! That’ll do the trick! <img src="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/39b64af2a0fc80cefa796d3b8026808e?s=40&d=wavatar&r=Gif"
Unfortunately, my encounters with the AF writers at the AAWF proved to be a dissapointment. They knew nothing about East Asian Literature, but MHK was whom they knew the best. Inferior mindset breeds an inferiority complex!
“Yup, I posted on it:
http://www.bigwowo.com/2009/01/happy-birthday-to-the-novel/”
“Again, Chr, it’s what you CHOOSE to see”.
Raguel is right. What pay thousands of dollars to study something so you could be sh*t on, and be told how marginalized you are, when you can get the same experience at a minimal cost by watching the Joy Luck Club, and documentaries of the Chinese Exclusion Act or Japanese Internment camps? Even much better, attend a few poetry and short story jam readings hosted by the ladies of the AFCC, coming to a town near you, Asian guys! That’ll do the trick!
I’ve only taken one course in Asian american studies. I needed some sort of GE for undergrad. The professor was an Asian male probably around early-mid 50′s in age today. I thought it was pretty good and informative and didn’t feel any snipes against AMs. We covered chinese exclusion acts, railroads laborers, history of japanese americans (issei, nisei, onsei), koreans, filipinos, his own personal stories of racism growing up. How we need to define ourselves in the media instead of letting others define us etc….
I vaguely remember writing around 3 or 4 essays on various topics and books about the history of Asian americans.
of course, my experience may be more positive since i had an AM for a professor