Thomas Cooley: How Do You Succeed In Business During a Recession? | Big Think

Thomas Cooley: How Do You Succeed In Business During a Recession?

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Dean Thomas Cooley on opportunities and leadership during a crisis.

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Thomas F. Cooley:

Thomas F. Cooley is the Richard R. West Dean and the Paganelli-Bull Professor of Economics at New York University Stern School of Business, as well as a Professor of Economics in the NYU Faculty of Arts and Science. He was appointed Dean of NYU Stern in 2002.

The former President of the Society for Economic Dynamics and a Fellow of the Econometric Society, Dean Cooley has received numerous awards for his teaching and is recognized as a national leader in both macroeconomic theory and business education. He is a widely published scholar in the areas of macroeconomic theory, monetary theory and policy and the financial behavior of firms.

Before joining NYU Stern, Dean Cooley was a Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester, University of Pennsylvania, and UC Santa Barbara. Prior to his academic career, Dean Cooley was a systems engineer for IBM Corporation. Dean Cooley received his BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his MA and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a doctorem honoris causa from the Stockholm School of Economics.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Topic: Thomas Cooley on Finding Success in a Downturn

Cooley: I’m Thomas Cooley. I’m the Dean of the Stern School of Business at New York University. I’m also a professor of economics.

Question: Is there a bright future for business school graduates?

Cooley: Well, I think there’re going to be a lot of new opportunities in other sectors, where we see people being interested in entrepreneurship so there’s a greater emphasis on wanting to create new businesses, new business models. There is a lot of interest among our students in social entrepreneurship. It’s really an interesting generational shift that’s occurred. And we see more people who want to do well and do good at the same time. There are going to be jobs on Wall Street. There’ll be different jobs. They won’t be as highly compensated. But there’s always going to be a demand for people to manage assets, to restructure businesses, to negotiate mergers and acquisitions. So our students, if they have a passion for it, are still going to seek jobs in finance. And they’re well-aware of the fact that this crisis is going to have on their economic prospects but they still see that as an interesting industry to work in. And… You know, I think the number of jobs in the compensation will shrink but they’ll still be there. The other thing that’s… that interest a lot of people nowadays is media and technology. I think, it’s very difficult to tell how the media industry is going to evolve. It’s clear that it’s going through a crisis of its own, of its very own making in some sense and… But a lot of our students see real opportunities on the other side of that. So it’s an interesting… an interesting evolutionary time.

Question: How should entrepreneurs approach the new economic realities?

Cooley: It’s a very different environment. And the, you know, the search for seed money and seed financing and that sort of thing are more difficult than an environment like this. People are more sensitive to risk. At the same time, I think it’s a time of opportunity because it’s a time when emerging businesses, firms that have a good business model can acquire talent, can find more people willing to take on some career risk in order to pursue an idea and really put in the sweat equity that’s required to succeed in an entrepreneurial venture. So, I think in… You know, that’s the upside of it. That there’s more talent available, who are willing to take those kinds of risks and they see the risk reward tradeoff as being a good one at this point in time, better than it would be when the alternative is some enormously paying job at an investment bank.

Question: Where are the greatest opportunities?

Cooley: Well, I… I think the most exciting opportunities are… that… I mean, the most exciting business plan that I’ve seen are people who are really looking at taking advantage of the opportunities and alternative energy and green technologies. Also in the healthcare field, I think there’s an enormous amount of entrepreneurial enthusiasm about improving the healthcare system and the healthcare delivery system and finding new technologies for managing and delivering healthcare.

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