{"id":1371,"date":"2016-04-27T21:31:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T20:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2016-05-02T18:06:26","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T17:06:26","slug":"focus-on-faculty-professor-rob-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/focus-on-faculty-professor-rob-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on Faculty – Professor Rob Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

What made you choose a career in academia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I co-founded a business in the 1970\u2019s that was backed by ten venture capital firms, with five rounds of financing, which is a lot. Harvard Business School wrote two cases about the company, and I used to go to Harvard, Stanford and Darden as a guest speaker. From that experience I enjoyed the classroom environment, and I also got to know Stanford professor Irv Grousbeck well, who later became a kind of mentor for me. When we sold the company after eleven years, I decided that I\u2019d like to try my hand at teaching and talked with several business schools to see if they might give me a chance to teach. The opportunity came up at the London Business School, so we decided to move to Europe in 1990, and I began teaching at LBS.<\/p>\n

How did you come to teach at IESE?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pedro Nue\u00f1o invited me to come to IESE to teach a session or two as a guest. That led to teaching a half course as a guest. Then when I resigned from LBS after ten years, I decided that I wanted to continue teaching one course a year and do that at IESE.<\/p>\n

You hold a Master\u2019s degree in Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue,<\/strong><\/p>\n

That was the best thing I ever did.<\/p>\n

Can you talk a little about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have always been interested in religions, I\u2019ve been very involved in the Christian church, and I read a lot of theology.<\/p>\n

I learned about a one-year course on Jewish-Christian relations and decided to take it. I liked it so much that when I realized that it was part of a master\u2019s program, I went back and did the whole program, which included studies in Islam and Buddhism also.<\/p>\n

As I said, it\u2019s the best thing I\u2019ve ever done.<\/p>\n

Does that help you in any way in the business environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I think it gave me a much greater appreciation for the differences in people and a sensitivity to others that I didn\u2019t have before.<\/p>\n

And are you optimistic in your views of the current state of the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m cautious.\u00a0 I think religion can play a very positive role, but it can also be abused — we\u2019ve seen that throughout history, and we\u2019re seeing it being abused right now.<\/p>\n

If you weren\u2019t in academia, what would you be doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I am a businessman, and I still work as an investor and a venture capitalist, so I would probably continue doing that.<\/p>\n

What are your hobbies?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Classical music and opera.\u00a0 I enjoy sports, like football (soccer as we call it in the US), but my real passion is music.<\/p>\n

Is that why you had to come to Europe?\u00a0 Football vs Soccer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know football until I came to Europe. I knew American sports from having played them, but now I don\u2019t follow them anymore because I don\u2019t find them as interesting as football.<\/p>\n

Regarding music and the opera, you must visit the Palau de la M\u00fasica Catalana often then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I go to the Palau, I go to the Liceu, and I also go to L’Auditori. In fact in two weeks when I return to Barcelona from Paris (where I live), my wife will join me and we\u2019ll go to an opera at the Liceu and a concert at L’Auditori.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been to two other concerts and one opera this term.<\/p>\n

Did you happen to see Cecilia Bartoli last year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, I did not \u2013 I was not here then.<\/p>\n

Actually, two weeks ago the hottest classical guitarist in the world, Milos Karadagli\u0107, was here playing at the Palau. He\u2019s a friend, but unfortunately I wasn\u2019t in Barcelona then either so I was unable to go see him.<\/p>\n

When we lived in London, we lived next door to one of the world\u2019s greatest conductors, Sir Charles Mackerras, and we went to a lot of operas and concerts which he conducted. From that experience, I now focus on the conductors as much as the soloists.<\/p>\n

Have you gone to any of the Ring Cycle operas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have never been to the Ring operas, but I have seen virtually all of Wagner\u2019s other operas.<\/p>\n

What is your favorite type of food or cuisine?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would probably say Italian, but I also love Indian food.<\/p>\n

A restaurant that you frequent here in Barcelona?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like the Catalan restaurant Ca I\u2019lsidre.<\/p>\n

Favorite book, genre and\/or author?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I read a lot of history and a lot of theology, but I enjoy fiction as well.\u00a0 I just finished a book by an Algerian novelist, Amara Lakhous, a fun novel called \u201cDispute Over a Very Italian Piglet.\u201d\u00a0 I also recently finished reading a very good history of Iran by Michael Axworthy called \u201cIran: Empire of the Mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about Karen Armstrong\u2019s books?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read a lot of her books.\u00a0 I think she has a good perspective on religions and on religious fundamentalism in particular.<\/p>\n

Is there a place that you might like to retire in?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Actually my wife and I have been talking about that a lot, although I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll actually retire.\u00a0 I would like it to remain somewhere in Europe.\u00a0 We like Europe.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been here for 25 years now, but who knows, you never know where you\u2019re going to finally end up.<\/p>\n

Closing comments?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my personal view, I think you are all very lucky to be here at IESE.\u00a0 IESE is a unique business school (in Europe at least) because of the sense of community here. When I say a sense of community, I don\u2019t just mean among you students but more broadly among students, faculty, staff and alumni. The school\u2019s values, which I think are very good, are something that you don\u2019t find in many other places.<\/p>\n

I feel fortunate to be part of this community, and I think you probably should feel the same as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to thank Professor Rob Johnson for his time and wish him good fortunes in his business career.<\/em><\/p>\n

Until the next issue\u2026\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Abdulaziz AlYousifi<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What made you choose a career in academia? I co-founded a business in the 1970\u2019s that was backed by ten venture capital firms, with five rounds of financing, which is a lot. Harvard Business School wrote two cases about the company, and I used to go to Harvard, Stanford and Darden as a guest speaker…. <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":1443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85920],"tags":[93317],"class_list":["post-1371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students-corner","tag-meet-the-faculty"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1444,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions\/1444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/mba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}