Speech at the graduation ceremony
University of Newcastle, Australia
在澳大利亞紐卡斯特大學畢業典禮上的講演
Shuming ZHAO, Ph.D.
Professor and Dean
School of Business
Nanjing University
Nanjing, P.R. China
BETVLCTOR伟德唯一官网教授、院長
趙曙明博士
Good morning, Chancellor, Deputy Chancellor, Academic Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen and Graduating Students:
尊敬的校長、副校長、學術界同仁、女士們、先生們和畢業生們，各位早上好！
It is a great pleasure and privilege for me to be here today, on this very special occasion, with the newest graduates of the Faculty of Business and Law, of the University of Newcastle. I would like to thank the university and the faculty, and in particular, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the faculty, Prof. Stephen Nicholas, for inviting me to join you and share with you this joyous occasion.
今天能與紐卡斯特大學商學和法律學院的各位畢業生，一起參加這個特殊的場合，我感到十分的榮幸和高興。非常感謝學校和學院，尤其是副校長Stephen Nicholas教授的邀請，使我得以參加畢業典禮和各位分享這快樂的時光。
Let me first congratulate the graduates. To reach this milestone, you have overcome many challenges and worked very hard on your studies.
首先請允許我祝賀各位畢業生。你們在學習中付出了許多的努力，克服了很多的困難和挑戰才到達了今天這一裡程碑。
Today, as you start the next stage of your life journey in this fast changing world, I am very happy to have a chance to share some thoughts with you based on my own experiences. When you leave this university and enter a new environment, you will confront many challenges and opportunities. Please allow me to share with you my views on three matters: life-long learning, cross-cultural capability, and social responsibility.
你們将要踏入人生新的旅途，步入日新月異的世界，在此之際，我很高興和各位分享我的經曆和感受。當離開校園，走進新的環境後，你們會遇到很多的挑戰和機遇。請允許我和大家分享我對終生學習、跨文化管理能力及社會責任感這三個方面的看法。
First, Life-long learning. You need to understand that learning is a life-long task for everyone. What you learn may be different at different stages of your life, but you can never decrease or stop your commitment to learning. If you do, you soon will lag behind the more dynamic members of society. Today we live in a knowledge-based society, and learning has never been so important for each of us. Whatever you do, you are often expected to be a learning member, in a learning team, or a learning organization or learning community, and you are required to keep learning new knowledge and skills, and keep pace with the fast development of science and technology. Here, I would like to introduce two great scholars’ ideas on how to learn. One is Professor Peter Drucker, who is honored as the father of “modern management.” I was fortunate to learn a lot from him while I was studying for my master’s degree in 1981-83 and then a Ph.D. in 1987-1990 at Claremont Graduate University. His advice of managing time effectively is very useful. As you know, most of you will not dedicate full time for learning after leaving the university, and your time for learning will be limited. By managing your time effectively every day, you can, however, find enough time for learning.
首先是終生學習。你們應該懂得，學習是陪伴大家一生的任務。或許人生不同的階段，學習的内容也不一樣，但我們任何時候都不能減慢甚至停下學習的腳步。如果這樣，你将很快在這多變的世界裡滞後。我們生活在以知識為本的社會裡，對于每個人來說，學習都顯得前所未有的重要。無論做什麼，大家都希望你能成為學習的團隊、學習的組織和學習的社會中的一員，不斷學習新的知識和技能，跟上科學技術飛速發展的步伐。在此，我給大家介紹兩位著名學者的學習理念。一位是被譽為“現代管理之父”的彼得•德魯克教授。我在克萊蒙特大學1981年到1983年碩士研究生階段及1987年到1990年博士研究生階段，曾有幸跟随教授學到了很多。他的高效時間統籌的建議讓我受益匪淺。離開學校以後，你們不再能用全部的時間來學習，學習的時間将會很有限。如果每天能有效地統籌好時間，那麼無論何時何地，你都能有充分的時間來學習。
The other scholar is Confucius, an influential Chinese teacher, who lived more than 2,500 years ago. One of his famous sayings about learning is that one can always find a teacher for himself or herself from whoever he walks together with. That means you can always learn something from the people around you. I hope the two wise scholars’ ideas on learning can be helpful for you.
另一位學者是生活在2500年前，具有深遠影響的中國老師--孔子。他有一句名言：三人行，必有我師。這句話說明，你總是可以向周圍的人學習。我希望，這兩位智者的思想可以在學習上對你們有所幫助。
I have worked for Nanjing University, the People’s Republic of China since 1977, more than 30 years. Some students for whom I served as an academic advisor, have become senior government officials, well-known professors, and successful CEOs. One of the questions I always asked them is ‘what the most important criteria for the people who they are hiring?’ They told me learning and critical thinking abilities. You are about to enter society. You should continue to learn and train your analytic abilities. We must develop the capacity to think analytically, think critically, think creatively, think across time and space, think across areas or fields, and have the ability to encourage and motivate others. Those are the qualities of my successful graduates. They succeeded because they continued to learn after graduation, think deeply and thoughtfully, and think before act. .
自1977年以來，我已經在中華人民共和國南京大學工作超過了30年。我所指導的一些學生如今已經成為政府高級官員、知名學者、成功企業家。有一個問題我常常問他們：“你們聘用職員時最重要的标準是什麼？”他們的回答是學習和思考的能力。你們即将踏入社會，要繼續學習和培養自己的分析能力。我們必須發展分析性的思維能力、批判性的思維能力和創造性的思維能力，要能跨時空，跨領域進行思考，并能鼓勵和激勵他人。這些是我的那些成功的畢業生們所具備的素質，他們之所以成功，是因為畢業後還繼續學習，深思熟慮，三思而後行。
Second, Cross-cultural management capability. It is well recognized that globalization today involves everyone in an international or multi-cultural environment. Hence, cross-cultural management capability, the ability to act in a cultural context different from his or her own, is extremely necessary. Studies of many multinational enterprises support the conclusion that one important reason for the high failure rate of expatriates is that they lacked cross-cultural management capability and could not make their management behavior adaptive to the local cultural context. Now, cross-cultural management capability is taken as one of the core competences in the selection criterion of expatriate staff in many multi-cultural organizations. The University of Newcastle is strongly committed to an international focus on teaching, learning and research; I believe that you have obtained a great deal of cross-cultural knowledge and skill at this university. Still, I hope you will continue to enhance your cross-cultural management capability because you will confront more complicated cross-cultural challenges in your future career. Sensitivity to and tolerance of different cultures are crucial elements for forming cross-cultural management capability. What you can do to acquire this perspective is learn about other cultures, really understand them, respect them, and only then you can increase your cross-cultural management capability and be able to perform better in a multi-cultural environment.
其次，跨文化管理能力。衆所周知，在當今全球一體化的形勢下，每個人都身處國際化或跨文化的環境之中。因此，跨文化管理能力——這一在不同于自己文化背景下工作和生活的能力變得不可或缺。對多個跨國企業的調查證明，許多外派管理者的失敗正是由于其缺乏跨文化管理的能力，不能使自己的管理方式适應當地的文化背景。如今，跨文化管理能力已經成為許多跨國企業挑選外聘管理者的核心指标之一。一直以來，紐卡斯特大學注重于國際化教學、學習和研究，我相信在這所大學裡，你們已經具備了許多跨文化的知識和技能。在将來的職業生涯中你們将面臨更複雜的跨文化挑戰，我希望你們能不斷提高跨文化管理能力。隻有學習他國的文化，真正的理解并尊重他國文化，才能提高跨文化管理的能力，并更好的應用于跨文化環境裡。
Third, Social responsibility. As a human being, the essential thing is that you should accept responsibility for the society. People and some media often ask me the same question: “What drives you to act successfully as a scholar, as a dean of a school of business, and as an active professional at the same time”? I reply: “The strong feeling of the responsibility and deep love for my country.” Here, I would like to give you my personal experience. In May 1990, I received my Ph.D. in Higher Education and Human Resource Management from Claremont Graduate University in the United States; three American universities offered me jobs. And because of the Tiananmen Incident, George Bush, the former President of the United States, offered a green card to all Chinese students who were then studying in the United States. I thought that I needed to return to China to contribute the knowledge that I learned in the United States and train more Chinese students. At that time, there was actually no human resource management (HRM) in China, no one was even familiar with the term HRM. My family and I returned to China in 1991 after I completed my post-doctoral fellow program at the College of Business, Florida Atlantic University, in the United States, in order to introduce advanced western theories of management and HRM into China. After working together with my colleagues at School of Business at Nanjing University for more than 18 years, and having done everything we could do to develop HRM in China, my dream has come true. To tell you the truth, Nanjing University is ranked No.1 for HRM research and study in China. Western HRM, applied to China’s environment, has spread rapidly and been accepted widely in Chinese enterprises and non-profit organizations during the past decade. My dream is to establish HRM with Chinese characteristics. I have been a called “workaholic” by people who know me. (It seems not a good thing; definitely I do not want you to be a “workaholic”). Personal happiness and a high quality of work-life are closely related. I feel very happy when I can contribute to society. I always think that society has given me more honors and awards than the value of my contributions to society. Please remember, service to society is not your burden, but your honor and responsibility. I strongly believe that the more you contribute, the more your life will be enriched. I have tried to live my life according to that preception and urge you to consider this as a guiding principle in your own future.
第三，社會責任感。作為一個人，很關鍵的一點是要對社會富有責任感。人們和一些媒體經常問我同一個問題：“是什麼驅使您同時成為一位成功的學者、BETVLCTOR伟德唯一官网院長和活躍的教授？”我回答：“是強烈的責任感和對祖國深深的愛。”在此，我要和你們分享我的人生的一段經曆。1990年5月，我在美國克萊蒙特研究生院取得了高等教育和人力資源管理的博士學位，三所美國大學向我提供工作機會。同時，由于“天***件”，美國前總統George Bush先生給所有當時在美國學習的中國留學生發放綠卡。我覺得我需要回到祖國，把我在美國學到的知識貢獻給國家，培育更多的中國學生。當時中國沒有人力資源管理，甚至沒有人熟悉人力資源管理這個詞語。為了把先進的西方管理和人力資源管理理論帶回中國，在美國佛羅裡達大西洋大學BETVLCTOR伟德唯一官网完成了博士後研究後，我和我的家人于1991年回到了中國。與BETVLCTOR伟德唯一官网的同事們經過了18年的共同努力，我們竭盡我們所能發展中國人力資源管理，我的夢想終于實現了。事實就是，南京大學在中國人力資源管理研究中名列前茅。西方的人力資源管理被應用于中國後，在過去的十年中快速廣泛地被中國企業和公共部門所接受。我的夢想是建立有中國特色的人力資源管理理論。認識我的人都叫我“工作狂”，（其實這不是什麼好事情，當然我不希望你們也成為“工作狂”）。個人的幸福感和高工作－生活質量是緊密相關的。當我能為社會有所貢獻的時候，我感到十分的快樂。我總感覺到社會回饋給我的榮譽和獎賞遠遠多于我對社會的貢獻。請各位銘記，服務社會不是你的負擔，而是你的榮耀和責任。我堅信貢獻越多，你的生活就會越充實越豐富。我曾以此為準則生活，也強烈地希望你們以此為未來生活的信條。
Finally, I sincerely hope that all of you will have the five C abilities: confidence, competence, communication, creativity, and collaboration.
最後，我誠摯地希望各位都能具備5種能力：自信、能力、交流、創新和合作。
I wish you all a great success in your careers! Again, Congratulations to All graduates!
我衷心地祝願大家事業成功！再次對所有畢業生表示祝賀！
Thank you!
謝謝大家！
