One of the things I love about life here is that there are so many opportunities to listen to people; we have a lot of speaker events both at the Said Business School and in other locations within the University of Oxford. It’s really nice to think about what is important to the speaker, how he/she has been making decisions, and what about his/her values appeals to me. Actually, it’s a great way to think about you yourself, what you would like to be like in the future, getting away for a while from hectic daily life. Personally, when I am impressed with the speaker, I always try to look for the very element that strikes me, and think about how I can possibly learn it myself.

Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, Chairman of L’Oreal, one of the distinguished speakers who visited the Said Business School this term, was especially impressive. What I personally found amazing that seemed to underlie his talk, was his most sincere yet such a natural attitude to respect people’s “dignity,” both within and outside the corporation. When talking about having a wide array of brands with diverse nationalities, he mentioned how it also makes people from many different backgrounds in the company proud – proud of brands of their home countries, and proud of being there as world citizens in such an international company, listening to and understanding the needs of each sold country. I believe his respect for other people’s dignity must have cheered up and motivated a lot of people around him even if he himself has not been totally aware of it. It was all the more impressive since he also told us how he felt a sense of familiarity arriving in Oxford from L’Oreal because two places commonly embrace people with diverse nationalities, and both offer a unique opportunity for us to become world citizens.

Seeing respect for people’s “dignity” as the key, I conjured up several other people who I believe share this attitude. One person is Prof Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank; I sincerely admire him because he helped the poor to become able to live their own lives and explore their potential – perhaps to live with dignity –, instead of simply giving out aid. Another person, — I hope he does not mind my writing here – is Dr Tomo Suzuki, who taught us Financial Reporting in the previous term. I always liked the way he treated us, students, with respect while also encouraging, or sometimes urging us to be responsible. For example, the following is the phrase he put on the very first page of preliminary exercises for the course:

Why Enron scandal happened?
Because, bookkeeping has been treated as “trivial,” and people do not know how accounting figures are made up.
As Oxford graduates, we are socially responsible to know at least some basics of bookkeeping.

I personally found it very impressive.

It was some thoughts on people, who, in my view, naturally keep encouraging other people to be proud of themselves in ways they deserve, each in totally different places and in different ways. I personally think it is one of the best things you can do in your life, and I hope to be like them.