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Leadership Club Members Dine with CEOs of Flextronics and Harrison Street

2012-12-24
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The second honored guest of the night was Mr. Christopher Galvin, who is CEO of Harrison Street Capital and former CEO of Motorola. Mr. Galvin showed up with passion and vigor after the weariness from a long and tiring journey. A while later, his easy-going and humorous opening set a relaxing tone for discussion and all the students joined in very quickly. One student raised a question which Mr. Galvin considered to be “very challenging”: “Why did you leave Motorola?” Then, around this topic, other students followed with questions on Mr. Galvin’s experience at Motorola, and Mr. Galvin answered the questions in details as an experienced senior. After this discussion, the students not only had a better knowledge of the whole event but also a better understanding of Mr. Galvin’s “principle of persistence”. Later, discussions shifted to the trends of various industries, during which Mr. Galvin illustrated his “investment philosophy” in an easy-to-understand way. He believes that it is of higher value to invest in untapped sectors than in current hot industries. Mr. Galvin emphasized the importance of “innovation”, by elaborating his view on the essential drivers of innovation and his efforts as a CEO both in Motorola and in Harrison Street to promote innovation, including constructing corporate culture, encouraging entrepreneurial attempts and some concrete incentive initiatives. He said that, apart from innovation, sensitivity to technology trends is also key for success in business. During his tenure at Motorola, he and his father, from time to time, would make predictions about the future of technology on a macroscopic level. Such issues as evolution of the battery technology, change of internet technology and innovation of cell phone hardware have all been discussed.