The Heart of Business

The Heart of Business

Though she says, over and over, she isn鈥檛 a business person, Keiko Krahnke teaches ethics as an associate professor of management and business communications at 麻豆传媒鈥檚 Monfort College of Business. It鈥檚 how she helps save the world.

January 24, 2017

Associate Professor Keiko Krahnke lives and teaches ethics, sharing her insights with 麻豆传媒 business students

Every night after teaching at 麻豆传媒, Keiko Krahnke drives west to her home nestled among the hills, rocks and canyons of Masonville, where the distant city lights cannot diminish the stars.

Though she has Wi-Fi, there鈥檚 no cell phone service here. Her horses wait for her another half-hour away, or she can go for a walk, where she sees deer among the foothills or even a bear on occasion.

She can take off her shoes, just how she learned at her home in Japan, and sit in her living room, a room full of windows twice as tall as her to let in the soothing starlight.

This is a place where she can quiet her mind and try to leave the world to its own devices.

Though she says, over and over, she isn鈥檛 a business person, Krahnke teaches ethics as an associate professor of management and business communications at 麻豆传媒鈥檚 Monfort College of Business. It鈥檚 how she helps save the world.

Businesses from Volkswagen to Wells Fargo have been gaining plenty of front-page space for unethical business practices. A Gallup poll conducted in early 2016 reported that only 17 percent of Americans gave business executives a 鈥渉igh鈥� rating for honesty and ethics.

Krahnke鈥檚 efforts to help students cultivate ethical behavior is a critical part of a 麻豆传媒 business education, and Krahnke is an advisor (with colleague Sharon Clinebell) for the 麻豆传媒 Ethics team. She focuses on helping her students see their responsibilities as future leaders and understand the impact their choices can have in the world. She encourages them to think beyond their own actions鈥嗏€斺€唗o see the interconnectedness of the world鈥嗏€斺€唅n subtle situations in the business world.

In some ways, businesses are arrogant, Krahnke tells her Business Ethics class early in the fall semester. 鈥淭hey think of ways to help themselves. They see themselves as the center.鈥�

Krahnke鈥檚 goal is to help her students think about a more holistic vision of business鈥嗏€斺€哸 vision that鈥檚 not centered on themselves, or the place where they work or one day could lead.

鈥淚 want you to think about the world as a system and not a machine,鈥� she says to them. 鈥淚f you want to become a leader, you have to be a human before you can become a leader.鈥�

It鈥檚 a vital lesson, says Paul Bobrowski, dean of the Monfort College of Business. 鈥淐ompanies only have their product and their reputation,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have that, you鈥檙e losing value for your employees and for your shareholders.

She鈥檚 Reaching Her Students
Krahnke said she worries about whether her beliefs about business ethics are reaching her students. The results of student teams from her 麻豆传媒 classes in business ethics competitions show that she is.

A team from her class won the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Consortium Case Competition in 2016 competing against 10 teams that included Colorado State University, the University of Colorado Denver, the University of Denver, New Mexico State University, the University of Wyoming and the University of Utah.
The 麻豆传媒 team took third place in the 2015 competition, posting the top finish among Colorado schools.
In 2014, the 麻豆传媒 team won the Phillips 66-Enactus Business Ethics Case Competition against teams from Texas A&M, Truman State University, the University of Oklahoma and Iowa State University and host school Kansas State University.
Teams from Krahnke鈥檚 class also regularly take top honors for their papers and presentations nominating companies for the Torch Award for Ethics from the northern Colorado and Wyoming chapter of the Better Business Bureau, competing against teams from CSU and the University of Wyoming.

麻豆传媒鈥檚 emphasis on promoting business ethics education is made possible by the Daniels Fund鈥檚 generous investment in the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative.

鈥淐heating on a test is pretty obvious, but cheating can mean something else in the business world,鈥� Bobrowski says. 鈥淚t might not even appear to be cheating.鈥�

Krahnke says many businesses still view the holistic approach as weak, but it can be beneficial to all, even profitable, she says. There鈥檚 a restaurant in Japan that she loves to visit. The owner knows where the fish are caught in a sustainable manner, and he likes to promote all the restaurants that operate near him. It helps everyone that way. People will visit the district and come back if they like one place, he said. Maybe they will try his place next time.

鈥淲e are taught that you have to compete,鈥� Krahnke said. 鈥淏ut the most successful companies have CEOs who say we do not compete.鈥�

In her book, Organizing Through Empathy, which she co-authored with Kathryn Pavlovich, Krahnke writes about 鈥渢ranscendant empathy鈥濃€嗏€斺€唗he 鈥渁bility to see the larger system.鈥�

鈥淓mpathy,鈥� Krahnke says, 鈥渋s the force that makes a community whole through recognizing the interconnectedness and interdependencies among us, rather than it being merely a collection of individuals.鈥�

Being able to see the 鈥渋nterconnectedness鈥� of the world can change how corporate leaders do business. Krahnke and Pavlovich offer multiple examples in their book, writing, 鈥淚n a global marketplace, it鈥檚 not always easy to know where or how the products we use every day have been produced. 鈥� It is ironic that a garment that carries a tag that says, 鈥榓 portion of the proceeds go to help children in need鈥� may have actually been made by a child in need.鈥�

If her approach seems idealistic, students soon begin to see its practical, successful applications. Krahnke points out that when the 鈥渇air-trade鈥� concept (assuring living wages for producers) began nearly 20 years ago, its viability may have seemed dubious to some in business. Yet fair-trade coffee, says Krahnke, became the fastest growing segment of the industry, hampered more by supply than demand.

Businesses that act responsibly have found that it can be an effective marketing tool. Patagonia, the outdoor gear and clothing company, has long talked about operating in a sustainable manner and devoted millions to outdoor and environmental causes. Other outdoor companies have followed, either because they want to or because they recognize that Patagonia may be appealing to an audience that values outdoor stewardship.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing that more and more,鈥� says Don Gudmundson, who was the MCB dean from 2008 to 2013 and still teaches as a professor. 鈥淐orporations are still driven by the quarterly numbers and the stock market.
But they鈥檙e trying to balance that.鈥�

鈥淚t takes a special skill to look beyond those quarterly reports, and Krahnke is ideal for that job. It鈥檚 perhaps better that she does not consider herself a business person,鈥� Gudmundson says.

鈥淚 think people respect her views and her willingness to have them and share them,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n reality, business is based on many other disciplines.鈥�

As proof, Krahnke now chairs the management program at MCB. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not typical, at all, to be chair of a department in a business school if you weren鈥檛 in the business world,鈥� Gudmundson says.

Krahnke earned her bachelor鈥檚 in English from Doshisha Women鈥檚 College in Japan, and her master鈥檚 in English and Ph.D. in Human Resource Development from Colorado State University. She came to see her role as a teacher as one that could address the need for ethics and empathy in the world.

When Krahnke returns to the refuge of her peaceful home in Masonville, she doesn鈥檛 leave the lessons of ethics in her classroom. It鈥檚 an intrinsic part of her life, and central to her character since her childhood in Japan.

When she was a tiny girl, she saw a program on TV about a hunter who was going to kill a bear, and she banged on the TV and said 鈥淣o, No, No!鈥� Her favorite day of the year was New Year鈥檚 Day because all the stores were closed, and they didn鈥檛 sell meat, and so she thought it
was the one day of the year when nothing was killed.

She worried constantly about the world and the injustices it presented to animals and the unfortunate others who didn鈥檛 have food or comfort or shelter.

Her empathy and sense of justice have formed her view of the world and the actions she takes. She鈥檚 worked hard on behalf of animals and their treatment, rescuing many animals, of many different stripes. Horses, goats, dogs鈥嗏€斺€唗hey have an esteemed, beloved place in her life. She adopted greyhounds back in the 1980s, when many people didn鈥檛 know their cruel fates after their racing careers ended, and before rescue organizations began to pop up and offer adoption.

She鈥檚 not afraid to show her students how she lives her life or her beliefs. In fact, she鈥檚 proud of them.

鈥淥ne of the biggest compliments I receive from my students is when they tell me, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e the same person (outside the classroom) as you are in the classroom,鈥� Krahnke says.

Krahnke admits she鈥檚 a dreamer, an optimist, someone who likes to work things out diplomatically. She can鈥檛 change people, she said, but there鈥檚 power in inviting people to see another side to their own beliefs.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the art of communicating,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f you tell them they鈥檙e wrong, they will shut down. But if you just say, 鈥楬ow about this?鈥� sometimes they will reconsider.鈥�

But she also loves to acknowledge a contradiction about her. She is, she says, 鈥渧ery much a samurai.鈥�

She likes and admires the samurai鈥檚 unwavering principles. She enjoys Japanese archery, and though she does practice shooting targets, she does it for the focus it requires. It teaches her to empty her mind.

But she also likes the fierceness a samurai will employ to defend those principals.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 like to get into an argument, and I prefer compassion and kindness,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut when I have to fight, I know how to fight.鈥�

Still, Krahnke worries about the world, and she worries that the students she鈥檚 throwing back into it, the future generations who will one day rule it, may not listen to her. She wonders if she鈥檚 reaching them.

Even so, there鈥檚 a part of teaching that she finds especially gratifying, and it鈥檚 why she does it rather than lead an organization to save animals or work for a nonprofit. Graduates will come back to visit her, and when they do, sometimes they say something that will help her relax in her living room just a little better when she goes home to Masonville for the night.

鈥淭hey tell me that they鈥檙e making a difference,鈥� Krahnke says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 my favorite part of my job.鈥�

This story by Dan England appeared in the fall/winter issue of 麻豆传媒 Magazine.