Kenneth Lewis
CEO, Bank of America

KENNETH LEWIS'S COMMENCEMENT SPEECH

... introduction given by Dr. Carl V. Patton, president, Georgia State University...

Dr. Patton... leaders and faculty of the Schools of Business, Health & Human Sciences and Law... parents, alumni, friends and invited guests... and, most of all, new graduates of Georgia State University... thank you for giving me the honor of addressing you today.

It's great to be back at GSU. It took me four years to finish my work here the first time. I promise I won't take that long this afternoon, and hopefully it won't seem that long to you. I came to GSU back in 1965 for many of the same reasons all of you did - the crazy campus social life and the national-championship-caliber sports programs. OK, not really...but I understand we're making great progress on these fronts. I came because I wanted a practical education that would give me the tools I needed to achieve results. I wanted a place where I could use experiences both inside and outside the classroom to prepare myself for life - and I did that, working in Atlanta during my time here as an accountant for a bond underwriter, a fire underwriter for an insurance company and a reservations agent for an airline. I wanted to be sure I would leave the university prepared to be useful to myself - and to the rest of the world.

In short, I wanted to get out, get a job and start making money.

Someone once said, "Almost nobody listens to a commencement speech except, perhaps, a few parents, who are engaged in one last hope that they will get something for their money." That may be true at some colleges or universities. It would not be true at this one. Georgia State University has a long and well-earned reputation for being a university that produces results - and the kind of graduates who are particularly good at producing results once they leave.

That's why I'm proud to be a graduate of this university...why I'm proud of all this class has accomplished, and will accomplish...and why I'm proud to be here with you today.

Some of you may be aware, if you've seen our advertisements lately, that my company recently adopted a new brand platform. The tagline is "Higher Standards."

I promise you I am not here today to talk about my company. The business school graduates, I hope, would be at least vaguely interested. The health and law school graduates... I'm not so sure.

But as I thought about what I should talk about today, it occurred to me that higher standards is a theme that should resonate as well with a group of new college graduates as with banking customers and investors.

Graduates of the Georgia State University Schools of Business, Health & Human Sciences and Law: You have all demonstrated a commitment to higher standards - in your choice of a university, your choice of a career and in your academic achievement. I congratulate you. Today, you can rest. Tomorrow morning you will have to get up and prove your commitment all over again. Doing that is what I'd like to talk to you about today.

We've been talking about higher standards in our company now for a while. Most of the feedback has been positive - who could argue with the idea of aspiring to high standards? But customers and associates also have asked important questions: "What does it really mean?" "How do we make the idea of higher standards real in our day-to-day lives?" "How do we translate the theory into practice?"

These are the same questions you will have to answer as you go forth into the world to build a career, to raise a family and to serve your community. If you are in business, you'll face many of the same questions I face. In medicine or law, you will face some challenges unique to those professions. But solving the riddle of how one meaningfully commits to higher standards is really the same for all of us.

The best way to answer the question is to look at real life examples. And since I'm addressing graduates from the Schools of Business, Health & Human Sciences and Law, I'll take my examples from those professions.

All of you from the business school - and many of you from the other schools - should know something of the life of J. Mack Robinson, after whom the business school here is named. Mack Robinson began a career in the newspaper business at age ten, and bought his first car at age 15. He graduated from what is now Grady High School, and went on to college at the Evening School of Commerce, which is now Georgia State. He interrupted his career at age 19 to serve his country in World War II, and went on after the war to build successful businesses in used car sales, consumer finance, insurance and banking.

In all of these ventures, Mack Robinson made a lot of money for himself and his business partners. He also created a lot of satisfied customers, who continued to do business with him as his companies grew. He inspired the commitment and loyalty of his employees, many of whom have stayed with his companies for their entire careers. And in all his endeavors, he has prized and protected his good name above all else. Robinson once said, "I would sell all my personal belongings before I would let [a company] go bankrupt because [to do otherwise] would ruin my reputation. I value the credit my name holds more than anything."

J. Mack Robinson thrived in business without sacrificing the interests of one set of stakeholders to the pressures and demands of another set of stakeholders. He preserved his good name at all costs. He acted on the belief that the highest standards of performance in business can only be achieved when we balance the competing needs and demands of customers, shareholders, employees and communities.

I have often said it would be easy to get 100% customer satisfaction in the short run - just give away the store. By the same token, we could raise shareholder returns in the short run by lowering customer service standards or employee benefits. Either strategy, though, would destroy the company in the long run. Aspiring to a higher standard in business means working hard every day to exceed the accomplishments of the past for all - and that's why it's so hard.

I was a little concerned that finding an example of higher standards in the legal profession would be difficult. I'm joking.

I did come across a passage from a history of Georgia written in 1917 that commented on the status of lawyers in the colony's early days: "There were no lawyers in the colony," the history reads. "It is generally held that these were excluded by order of the Trustees, though no order to that effect seems to have been issued." We were so close.

Of course, there is a perfect example of higher standards in the practice of law right here in the history of Georgia State: Ben F. Johnson, Jr., the founding dean of our School of Law. Dean Johnson had a distinguished career by any measure. He was first in his class at Emory University Law School in 1939. Like Mack Robinson, he served his country in World War II. He practiced law for a few years, earned a Master's Degree at Duke University, and served as a professor and dean at Emory Law School for more than 30 years.

These accomplishments demonstrate high standards. But Dean Johnson raised the bar even further. He served the state of Georgia in the late 1950's as deputy attorney general, specializing in tax litigation. He served as a state senator in the 1960's, and was the principal author of the legislation that created MARTA, Atlanta's rapid transit system. And in 1982, when he would have been fully justified in retiring from public and academic life, he instead came to Georgia State to build a new law school from the ground up, in part to provide opportunities for legal education to part-time students.

Dean Johnson has given to this school and this community a perfect illustration of a higher standard of selflessness and public service in the spirit of John Kennedy, of never asking, "What more can I have?," but always asking, "What more can I do?"

For an example of higher standards in the medical profession, I don't have to look far at all. The best example I know has been close to me for a very long time. My mother, Byrdine Lewis. My mother was a practicing nurse for 46 years. For most of her career she was a bedside nurse. She moved into administration late in her career. She took care of people in Meridian, Mississippi, where I was born, and in Columbus, Georgia, where I grew up. Like all nurses, hers has been a career, and a life, of service. She continues to live her life in a spirit of service to this day. My mother didn't talk a lot about her experiences as a nurse at home with my sister and me. As a single mother, she went to work every day and worked hard to provide for her family - often pulling double shifts, from 3:00 in the afternoon until 7:00 in the morning. When she came home, she focused on raising her children. Every once in a while, she would tell me a story that made my stomach weak - but I always knew it wasn't only once in a while she had to work through painful, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking situations in her job. Still, she was always strong... always positive... always optimistic.

Yesterday, as some of you know, we held a ceremony here to name the GSU Nursing School in honor of my mother and the high standards she has demonstrated throughout her life and career. Those of you who are planning to enter professions in health and human services will find those professions today more challenging than ever. And yet, if Mother's experience is any guide, you also will find personal reward beyond any measure.

Graduates, your time here at Georgia State is just about up. As you prepare to leave here today, what I want each of you to think about - the reasons I've told you these stories - is what you want to do with your life from this point on. It sounds like a trite request for graduation day, but there's a good reason: Graduation is one of the very few times in life when we are given the luxury of pondering the big questions about our life goals.

As you move forward from here, joining new companies, raising your families, building careers and communities, you will have less and less time to focus on those big questions. As those of you who have already been in the workforce know, the needs and demands of your boss, your employees, your spouse or partner, your children and your community will take up all your focus and energy, and then some. Asking the big questions - and acting on the answers - will get harder and harder.

It is now, with diploma in hand and the opportunity to create a fresh slate, that you must make the right choices that will determine your path in life - what you will do, with whom you will do it, and how you will make a meaningful contribution to your community and your world.

Will you find the wisdom to balance the needs of all those around you, like Mack Robinson? Will you find the energy to serve your community and go beyond what is expected, like Dean Johnson? Will you find the courage to face life's difficulties and challenges with fortitude and optimism, like Byrdine Lewis?

Every one of you has chosen to study for and enter a profession in which you will have profound opportunities to advance the cause of your fellow men and women, your communities and your country - as well as to make a good living.

I urge you to hold those opportunities close to your heart, and never stop striving to meet the higher standards you set for yourselves. Thank you.

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