B-School Dean Offers Leadership Ideas For Service-Based Economies To Hong Kong Educators

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May 30, 2014, 08:05 ET

POTSDAM, N.Y., May 30, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Service-based economies demand a different kind of leader in government, education, industry and new start-up enterprises," says Clarkson University School of Business Dean Dayle Smith. "The challenge we face as educators is to create and support these leaders."

Smith says that means encouraging a new mindset, shifting from "making things" to "making things happen." She spoke before Hong Kong educators this month at an international conference hosted by the Hong Kong Institute of Service Leadership and Management on the campus of Polytechnic University of Hong Kong. There, she discussed connecting the service leadership model to global leadership roles and responsibilities.

"My keynote explored diverse views of leadership theory, experiential service learning, and service science thinking," Smith says. "I offered an integrated way of considering the ideas stemming from these three perspectives in shaping educational imperatives for Hong Kong tertiary institutions."

Smith is no stranger to this country's way of thinking, as she was part of a senior Fulbright team that worked with the eight University Grants Committees (UGC) universities in Hong Kong during the major general education reform initiative implemented in 2012. As this conference illustrates, Hong Kong universities are collaborating to offer courses and programs in service leadership, developing curriculum that's supported and enhanced by experiential learning.

"We are not only educating the next generation of leaders, we are doing so in a time where economies are changing, the developing world cries out for help, and the global marketplace is increasingly interconnected," Smith says.

The world stage demonstrates great needs for innovative, thoughtful and ethical leadership, she adds. The next generation will require skill sets that are different from a command-and-control orientation. To be globally competitive, they will have to look for opportunities and adapt to rapid change, working collaboratively across boundaries to address challenges and achieve results.

Smith and two other speakers -- Po Chung and Victor Fung -- opened the conference. Chung, founder and former CEO of DHL Asia, led the efforts to found the HK Institute of Service Leadership and Management. Fung, an international thought leader, is group chairman of the Fung Group, a Hong Kong-based multinational and the founding chairman of the Fung Global Institute, a non-profit think tank, promoting leadership development through scholarship programs with universities and educational institutes.

"Let's continue the dialogue recognizing that the influence we have on the next generation of leaders here in Hong Kong and across the world is very much our responsibility and has significant global implications," Dean Smith urged those at the conference.

Clarkson University launches leaders into the global economy. One in five alumni already leads as a CEO, VP or equivalent senior executive of a company. Located just outside the Adirondack Park in Potsdam, N.Y., Clarkson is a nationally recognized research university for undergraduates with select graduate programs in signature areas of academic excellence directed toward the world's pressing issues. Through 50 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, arts, sciences and health sciences, the entire learning-living community spans boundaries across disciplines, nations and cultures to build powers of observation, challenge the status quo, and connect discovery and engineering innovation with enterprise.

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SOURCE Clarkson University