On the last day of January 1938, John took Walter with him to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 InfoThey came to Harvard Business School's Dean Dunant for help. In recent months, Walter has been emaciated a lot. The company's deputy general manager, who was six years older than John, was already maddened by the complicated and chaotic daily management work. Because of this, Mrs. Walter complained to Adele a lot on Ella's birthday. John also didn't want his longtime partner and friend to cripple his body. So this time, John also wants to poach a few management talents from Dean Dunant to help Walter lighten his burden.

John's first goal on his trip was McNamara. The future president of Ford Motor Corporation, US Secretary of Defense, and President of the World Bank is still studying for an MBA at Harvard Business School, and will not graduate until next year. But John: They can't wait.

Dean Dunant welcomed them very much. As a senior advisor to the FedEx think tank team, he has always been very concerned about the company's development and knows very well what problems John is encountering now.

"It's a completely new subject." Dean Dunant said: "Designing a management model for a new type of logistics company like FedEx is something that I think many professors in the college will be interested in. ”

"That's great that we can fully fund this research." John hurriedly took Dean Dunant's words, "We would like to invite Professor Ross Walker to take charge of this project, I wonder if you think it is appropriate?" John's little abacus was very good, Professor Ross Walker taught a course on "budget control" at the business school, and McNamara was his student and a big believer in his new management theory. As long as Professor Ross Walker is hired, it is equivalent to abducting McNamara in a different direction.

"Professor Walker, I think so. He recently came up with some interesting new ideas in cost accounting, control systems, and information management, which are just the right time to put them into practice with you. After saying that, Dean Dunant thought about it again; Let Professor Edmund of Statistics be involved, the math involved in the management of your company is too complex. Edmund is a genius at combing through the data, and he will be of great help to you in your quantitative decision-making in the future. ”

Of course, John would not refuse Dean Dunant's kindness. Soon, Dean Dunant summoned the two professors to his office. There, he and John detailed the situation FedEx is currently facing to the two professors. John provided very generous research funds for this project, and in order to facilitate the research team to go to various places, he even generously handed over the right to use the business aircraft. With such favorable conditions and challenging topics, the two professors agreed on the spot and drew up a list of research group members including 4 teaching assistants and 15 graduate students. John was pleased with the fact that McNamara's name was prominently listed. After Dean Dunant approved the list, the two faculty members went back and began to prepare, waiting for John's funds to be in place before they could get to work.

After returning to the company, John immediately asked Jacob, the chief financial officer, to call Harvard for the project, and then ordered the personnel department to gather information on McNamara. Although John knew a lot about McNamara from his memories in his past life, the experience of the past year had taught him not to fully trust this information that he didn't know how many things had been processed. Unlike Thomas Watson Jr., who was at the top of his "R list", John was just a short-term worker who came to work with him, and McNamara was one of the pillars of the company in his mind, and he had to be cautious.

The situation was quickly reported back to the HR department on a thin few pages of paper, with all the information that the HR department could gather. Although he was a little disappointed, after all, talking was better than nothing, and John still read it carefully.

According to the data, McNamara was born in a middle-class family in California, and his Irish father came to the West empty-handed when he was a teenager to work hard, and he only got married and had children at the age of nearly half a century. Now a business manager at a shoe wholesale company, McNamara Sr. is a Catholic, and his neighbors consider him to be a "rigid, dignified, and matter-of-fact man."

McNamara's mother, who was 25 years younger than his father, had a strange surname, Strange. Robert McNamara is the eldest son in the family, and he has a sister who is three years younger than him. "Old husband and young wife, I guess his mother has the final say." John speculated to himself as he flipped through the information.

Sure enough, the data showed that McNamara's mother was very strict with him, and if he didn't get all the A's on his transcripts, she would help him with tutoring endlessly. This feels similar to the Chinese parents who want their son to become a Chan in later generations, expecting knowledge to change their fate. However, judging from the high school transcript attached to the information, McNamara probably did not tutor much. During his three years at Pimont High School in San Francisco, he scored a total of 26 A's and 6 B's, of which 4 B's were in French and 2 B's were in physical education.

In 1933, McNamara entered the University of California, Berkeley, and was elected to the National Student Council in the second half of his sophomore year (which proved that he was a good student with good personal popularity and likability). He graduated from college in 1937 with an impressive total of 288 credits. When he graduated, he was offered an interview for an Oxford Rhodes Scholarship, but was not accepted, so he went on to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School.

After arriving at Harvard, McNamara began to focus only on his studies, becoming cold and even unapproachable. Most of the students still share a house with others, but he lives alone in Room C39 of the Jialating dormitory. John reckoned that this change in personality may have been influenced by the frustration of a failed interview for the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford.

Although the personnel department has not collected much information, John can still make a preliminary judgment about the current McNamara - a genius student from an ordinary family. Such people generally have smart brains, strong learning ability, full of self-confidence, and a strong desire to change their own destiny, but they are often stubborn in their personalities, lack of psychological endurance and overall vision, and are affected by the family and educational environment. Thinking of some information from his past life memories, John positioned McNamara's career vision as a corporate vice president in charge of the transportation business.

A week later, young McNamara showed up in front of John's office. It was a tall white man with metal-rimmed glasses, a shiny back suit and a meticulous tie.

"Hello, Mr. Vanderbilt! I'm Robert McNamara, a Harvard Business School professor at Walker, who asked me to come to you. Although McNamara's attitude in John's conversation was respectful and his manners were impeccable, there was a hint of the self-assertive identity of the academic elite. John was familiar with this kind of style, and he often used this attitude to people he met for the first time when he first started working. Seeing the youthful appearance of the future US Secretary of Defense, John smiled in his heart.

"Hello, Robert." John stood up from behind his desk and shook hands with his future right-hand man. "It's great that you're here so quickly. Professor Walker introduced you to me on the phone, saying that you were his best student and that he was going to let you stay on as his teaching assistant after graduation. ”

The fledgling McNamara was a little uncomfortable with John's enthusiasm, and unexpectedly blushed, not even knowing how to deal with John's greetings. Thankfully, John realized the problem right away. It seems that the rumors of this "digital genius" and "humanoid calculator" in his previous life may be true. John changed tactics and started working with McNamara.

"Professor Walker has communicated with me before, saying that you will bring a team of researchers to the company to collect the data required for design management specifications, how do you need me to cooperate with you?"

Sure enough, talking about work allowed McNamara to quickly get out of embarrassment and into the groove. "We need all the first-hand data of the company's operations, all types of work, all functional departments." Probably worried that John would not cooperate, he then explained: "Sir, all facts are measurable, and what cannot be measured is not a fact, but a phenomenon. Our knowledge of these figures and facts is fundamental to designing a management model. ”

This is all too clear to John, who received a modern management education in his previous life. "An unwavering belief in numbers and facts, and a cult of efficiency and control" are the most striking characteristics of McNamara, the founders of modern corporate management in the United States.

"Alright Robert, you're experts at this. I will inform you that you can ask any question you want to know from any employee at any time, in any department of the company. I say that, are you satisfied? Now that the Harvard elite had been invited, there was nothing to hide, and John readily agreed to McNamara's request.

"Thank you, sir." McNamara didn't expect John to agree so easily, and he had been thinking about how to convince John. "That's great, I'll go get ready." With that, he turned around and prepared to leave John's office.

"Go out to the third office on the left, find the administrative director Melvin, and he will arrange the guide and vehicle for you." John looked at McNamara's hurried back and shook his head. It seems that without a few years of training in the U.S. Army Aviation Statistics Control Office during World War II, McNamara does not have the ability to become a senior manager of the company for the time being. Poor Walter, it's going to have to work hard a little longer.