All the world is a stage
Jul, 2009
John Onto
Professorial fellow (Professor of Negotiations)
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143
Like the Shakespearean quote, John Onto’s career has unfolded in seven ages. Although he has by no means reached his final destination, he’s clearly enjoying the view from where he now stands, having just stepped down from his full-time role at MBS.
From consultant to academic
The first stage of John’s career began in 1961 when he entered the workforce as a marketing cadet for Unilever. This was followed by a series of jobs in banking, HR and consulting for ten years, in between marrying wife Judy in 1967 and doing an MBA at MBS in 1969.
The second stage saw John move into academia—three years at Swinburne University as a senior lecturer in management, then 13 years at Chisholm Institute of Technology as the Management department head, during which time he took an 18-month sabbatical to do his PhD course work at Arizona State University (U.S.), completing his dissertation on his return to Australia.
Stage three took place over eight years in the US, initially working as director for the Centre of International Business and Trade at Georgetown University Business School, then later as associate dean for the School’s Graduate Business program.
The next stage saw John accept a job offer in 1995 from John Rose, former MBS dean, teaching International Business and Negotiations as associate professor, Stage five began five years ago when John was promoted to professorial fellow.
MBS: 14 years of highlights
John is reluctant to pinpoint one single event as a highlight. He says, “The whole thing has been a highlight.”
Yet there’s much to choose from. He introduced two new subjects to the business school—Negotiations and Industry Studies in Asia. He also led the EQUIS accreditation program and the redesign of the EMBA program. And he was a faculty-elected member of the Board for three years, and the first associate dean of the relaunched EMBA.
John still views the EMBA program as one of the School's most successful initiatives.
“Travelling with the EMBAs overseas was one of many highlights, particularly the first time because the program was so experimental,” he says.
“Taking a group of mature, intelligent executives to Europe—Brussels, Germany, Bratislava—for four weeks of intensive learning was hard work and lots of fun and I’m still quite friendly with several of them.”
John is obviously proud of how these people have established successful careers for themselves and says it is still exciting watching how they progress and help each other.
It’s one of the reasons he continues his association with the EMBA program, saying, “Even after I cease all of my other teaching, I still want to stay involved with the EMBA.
“You can imagine the satisfaction I got from seeing that first EMBA class pledge $500,000 to the School last year.”
John confesses it’s also satisfying when past students invite him back to their organisations for consulting assignments.
He believes it’s the ultimate test of whether he’s made a positive impact on them.
An epic journey: twists and turns, victories and challenges
Of course, you can’t keep all of the people happy all of the time and John freely admits that during the course of his teaching there has been more than the occasional challenge. He’s learnt that students don’t like ambiguity and they are very concerned about the ethical dimensions in negotiations.
“One time a group of three or four students came to me after the class and said the exercise they had just undertaken, which was designed to force them to use deceptive behaviour and choose between group members, had served to damage their relationships with each other.
“So we went back into the class and talked about the issues openly. It led me to design a much more rigorous debriefing process so that these sorts of negative behaviours could be seen as a source of learning, rather than a source of friction.”
He believes that teaching negotiations experientially requires a sensitive approach to avoid jeopardizing relationships or undermining self esteem, and he admits that he will never be as good as he would like to be at this.
“It is very easy to move from giving and withholding information, to misrepresenting information, and students feel uncomfortable if withholding information is seen as deceptive or dishonest behaviour.”
“The challenge is having students realise that making mistakes in this setting is low risk-high impact learning,” he says.
Teaching: The greatest profession on Earth
He still advocates that it’s a privilege to teach and it’s obvious that he has enjoyed this sixth age act. He claims that if you are a teacher you never have to wonder why you are getting up in the morning or why you are going to work.
He reminisces that the primary reason he came to MBS was that the School was “utterly committed to teaching.”
“I’ve learnt that students appreciate people who are committed to their development and that is a phenomenal source of reward to me.”
It’s also something that he still takes very seriously. For example, if he has an early morning class he doesn’t sleep well the night before, drink or go out. According to John, every class is—to some extent—a performance and like many of his peers, he still suffers from some form of stage fright.
Despite—or perhaps because of this—John is a popular teacher, winning three teaching awards in the last four years. He takes a pragmatic view of this side of his career.
“Let’s not kid ourselves,” he says self deprecatingly, “some students come to my classes simply because they are (scheduled) at a very convenient time.”
So now all that remains is to investigate what he is going to do when he finally enters that seventh age—full retirement? He shakes his head, indicating never and then relents, “travel and indulgence”— a fair reward for a dedicated and passionate teacher.
One suspects however, that the seventh age will likely draw on earlier successes and that a lucky few may see John Onto in the classroom yet.
To contact Professor Onto you can email him at: j.onto@mbs.edu or read his full bio on the website.
