Chronicle-1971

It has been a great privilege for me to distribute the prizes on this the Kearsney College Golden Jubilee Speech Day. I thank you, Mr. Chairman,and you, Mr. Headmaster,for the honour you have given me, an Old Boy, on this day of celebration of a milestone in the school's history. When I accepted your invitation, I did so conscious of the fact that you were honouring not only one particular Old Boy but also the whole body of Old Boys,many of them far more accomplished and certainly with more distinguished records than mine. At the outset,congratulations should be the order ofthe day. Firstly,to the prize winners, who hy their diligence and application, have singled themselves out in a competitive environ mentas young men oftalent who have used their talents. Competition for prizes is rather differ ent now from what it was when I matriculated 41 years ago. Then one had only to beat three others to be dux of the school! The whole senior school of 1930 could have been conveyed in the magnificent new school bus given you by a practical, and indulgent, Board of Governors! Well done, all you prize winners! Secondly,I add my personal congratulations to the Headmaster,Staff, Parents and Boys on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee. As a Governor,I could not very well congratulate the Board, Mr. Chairman, but our old friend of many years, Mr. Max Oram,did that very thing so eloquently and inimitably on Founder's Day. Finally,Mr.Headmaster,all of us congratulate you on the wonderful year of achievement on which you have reported so fully today.You have ably led this great school for yet another year ofsolid accomplishments and progress,and proved yourselfthe peer of your distinguished predecessors, Matty Matterson and Stanley Osier. Keep on with the good work,Jimmy-we are all proud of you,and need you. On a deeply personal note,.thank you very much,Mr.Headmaster,for the sentiment that prompted you to give me the special privilege of presenting this year's award of the S. B. Theunissen Memorial Prize for Perseverance. The endowment of this prize recognised the fact that the backbone of the school is made up of excellent types of solid, conscientious and dutiful boys who persevere in their studies but do not normally receive recognition at prize giving functions. As an educator turned industrialist,I have decided to talk to you from the point of view of the manager/educator. After reminding you of the changing times in which we live, 1 plan to share some of my experience in identifying managerial talent (call it business leadership if you will) touching briefly on careers guidance. Then a few thoughts on what we require from the universities, and if time permits,on the frustrations that impatient young graduates often face whn entering the environment of middle and top management. My conclusion will relate to luck and opportunity. I am too practical to think that I'll solve any problems-only George Bernard Shaw could say:"I have solved practically all the pressing questions of our time, but they keep on being propounded just as if I never existed." We live in an age which calls for managers with enthusiasm for the challenge of change. As Professor C.W.de Kiewiet has said "the negotiation of change is the greatest challenge be fore us.To resist change is to run the risk of becoming its victim." Yet it is a well-known prin ciple of management that Man tends to resist change. We need men who are willing and able to become involved with the "unknowns"of the future-who view past experience and the status quo in the present only as a springboard for grappling with the future. Men with a kind of sixth sense about what lies "on the other side ofthe hill"-men with vision tolook further ahead than merely the next year ortwo.Thefuture needs young managers-as well as old timers with young minds-imbued with a dynamicsense of entrepreneurial mission. There has been an acceleration in the speed of change,and with it has come an increasing mystery. Mr. Warren Weaver of the Rockefeller Foundation has put it very well;"As science learns one answer,it learns several new questions. It is as though scientists were working in a huge forest ofignorance making an ever larger circular clearing within which things are clear. But as the circle of knowledge becomes larger and larger the circumference ofour contact with ignorance becomes longer and longer." A generation ofimpatient young men(some call them "angry")have entered the business scene during the past five years or so.There is a vitality in this generation which augurs well for the future. They have ambition,energy and enthusiasm.They have ability and the willingness to seek opportunity.Their horizons are wider.They havegrown up in an era ofradical change. Not only do they accept change, but they are impatient to create change. If adaptability to change is a major criterion in the management specification of the next two decades,top management has good human material in these impatient young men:they can adapt to change because they have known nothing else! How does one identify managerial talent? KEARSNEY COLLEGE GOLDEN JUBILEE Speech Day Address by Mr. A. B. Theunissen

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTc3MDU5Nw==