Pierson Mapes
Pierson Mapes
Before becoming President of NBC Television, Pierson Mapes was a cadet at Norwich University, learning skills in a values-based environment that served him throughout his career. Pier graduated in 1959 as a business administration major.
When I meet people who don’t know Norwich, I basically tell them it’s a private West Point. Norwich is four years of continual challenge. The challenges are intellectual, physical, and emotional. Norwich provides you with the skills to make a good evaluation of life situations and to act accordingly.
More importantly, Norwich greatly reinforced what our parents taught us regarding integrity. In my view, integrity is the number one major ingredient for success in life. In the multi-billion dollar television business, your word must be your bond that customers can count on. Norwich-learned integrity was the key ingredient that paved the way for my career and my reputation.
The Norwich environment of continual challenge provides total leadership. You become a company commander, a battalion commander, or whatever position you accept, and you learn to assess situations and make excellent decisions because of the challenging environment you’re in. Later in life, whether you’re in the military or in the corporate world, you make a good estimate of the situation you’re in and make the decision that will best benefit your organization.
All Norwich students are in the same challenging situation, from the first day they arrive. That immediately builds teamwork and leadership. It’s just like being under fire. The guys under fire in a particular unit are best friends for life. You’re challenged as a team to become comrades in arms. The friendships you develop over the course of four years will last a lifetime. And there’s a common denominator among Norwich graduates from all classes. All Norwich graduates have a mutual respect for one another. They respect each other for the values that the school taught them. And those are the values we live by.
~ Pierson Mapes
