Richard Linowes: Kogod Outstanding Professor, Kogod School of Business
AW: Where did you grow up? RL: I grew up here in Washington, D.C., 'til I was 12 years old, then, moved to suburban New York City through high school.
AW: Where did you attend college? RL: I went to Princeton University and then, I went to my first round of graduate school at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, [Mich.]. Then, after working for a while, I went to my second round of graduate school at Harvard Business School.
AW: What is your favorite way to relax after class? RL: Playing with my kids or gardening. I see a lot of parallels between parenting, gardening and teaching.
AW: What classes do you teach? RL: I teach the required senior course called "Business Policy and Strategy," which is the capstone experience for undergraduate Kogod majors. And I also teach "Entrepreneurship," which is about creating a brand new business, and I also teach "Managing Change and Innovation," which is about having to lead an organization through very important changes that it needs to survive.
AW: What is your favorite thing to see or do in D.C.? RL: I guess seeing foreign films or doing embassy functions. Something taking advantage of the unique cultural assets and the international mix of Washington, D.C.
AW: What is your favorite movie? RL: That would probably change from year to year. One that comes to mind recently is "Babel." It is amazing. So you're going back and forth between Morocco, Mexico and Japan. But these spies by some strange twist of fate, these people from these different corners of the world, their lives are intermeshed.
AW: What is your favorite book? RL: Well, I've taken a more active interest in the Bible these days. My dad passed away recently, so I've been paying attention more to that kind of stuff.
AW: If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be and why? RL: This is like the questions I ask my students. I ask people what gift they would give the world. But if I could change one thing about the world - increased tolerance for differences. That's something I try to do in class. Have the children of all world leaders as my students - that's what I would like to do, because if they were in my classroom, I could do something with them.
AW: What is one thing your students or colleagues don't know about you? RL: I'm a rock 'n' roll guitarist. That's what I was, my reputation in high school. I was the star lead guitarist of my high school, so when I taught the freshman business course, I did bring my guitar to class one day, the one time I ever brought it to campus.
AW: What has been your proudest career moment? RL: I guess maybe getting a standing ovation at the end of teaching a session either here or overseas when I've taught. Well, there was one time that was really great before I became a professor. I was working for this firm on Wall Street, and I did this one project where I was really suggesting that the firm do something pretty different from the way it had always done things. And here we are at the meeting of all the management of the firm, and the senior partner was there, and he said, "Well, you know, Richard Linowes did this thing and then he came back, and so now we're going to - he's really changing one of the sacred cows around here." And so I guess maybe their sacred cows went off and became hamburger.
