Henry Tippie - The Steps to Success

HENRY TIPPIE

The Steps to Success

The motto of Henry Tippie's high school graduating class of 1944 was "Take the stairs. The elevator isn't working." It's a philosophy that has served him well for more than 50 years.

You're standing on a hill in a farm field near Belle Plaine, Iowa. The land is nearly flat. Rows of corn and beans are interrupted occasionally by windbreaks, and a few straggler trees mark the Iowa River just south of the town. The view may not be as spectacular as the mountains or the seashore, but there are unseen riches here. The soil beneath your feet is some of the most fertile in the world.

Henry Tippie, who was born on a farm near Belle Plaine in 1927, is as unassuming as--and probably more productive than--the land he grew up on. True, he wears a business suit much of the time now. And his flat Iowa accent has been embellished a bit with a Texas twang (the product of having lived in Austin for 28 years). But spend a few minutes with Tippie, and you'll realize quickly that he is essentially the same quiet man who left Belle Plaine to enlist in the Army Air Force in 1944: a hard worker who believes in common sense, sweating the details, and embracing risk.

Those qualities have served him well. Reporters often call Tippie a "successful businessman." That's like describing Michelangelo as a "noted sculptor." The Iowa native is involved in a bewildering variety of businesses, including the nation's third-largest truck leasing company, specialty food products, pest control, state-of-the-art NASCAR auto-racing facilities, and a 29,000-acre ranch in central Texas. Tippie is also director of six NYSE companies, which he helped to create. He credits his success, in large part, to the education he received as a student at the UI business school, where he graduated as an accounting major in 1949.

Tippie admits he didn't show early promise as a student.

"There were times in high school when I thought if I graduated, it would be an accident," he says today. But after his hitch in the Army Air Force, Tippie used the GI Bill to return to Iowa for an education. He was admitted on academic probation--a situation that changed after the first semester. He graduated in just 24 months, taking all his classes in the mornings, so that he would have the entire afternoon free for studying. Henry Tippie was motivated, a word that sums up the man.

"I look at it this way," he explains. "You've got someone who has the best grades in the world. But they don't care too much about being in college. And then you've got someone who may not have the best academic record. But they want to be there. They're motivated. Now, who do you bet on? To me, that's the easiest question in the world. You bet on the one who's motivated."

Tippie has made a substantial bet on motivated students at Iowa. In 1999, the University announced that Henry Tippie would be adding a considerable sum to his already generous series of contributions to the business college. The total figure was $30 million, the fifth-largest gift to a business school in the United States at that time.

Tippie is uncomfortable when the words "gift" or "donation" are used in reference to the funds. "It's a repayment," he insists, "for value received. I benefited enormously from my education here."

Whatever word is used to describe them, the funds will have a tremendous effect on the institution that was recently renamed the Henry B. Tippie College of Business. While large donations are frequently used to finance new buildings or to expand new technologies, that isn't Tippie's style.

"I wanted to invest in the basics," he says. "And that means people."

Because of Tippie's generosity, the college will double the number of scholarships it offers to undergraduates. In accordance with Tippie's philosophy, the awards will be based on financial need and motivation, not academic merit. A substantial portion of the funds also will be used to provide those students with the best business teachers in America; a half dozen new distinguished faculty will be hired to endowed chairs.

"All of these funds are going to be used to enhance the two most important things we have, our students and our faculty," says Gary Fethke, dean of the college.

Fethke adds that attracting and keeping talented faculty is critical to meeting a key goal of the Tippie College of Business: making The University of Iowa known as one of the top public business schools in the nation. Even before Tippie's repayment, the college was clearly headed in the right direction. The Financial Times of London recently ranked Iowa's Master of Business Administration program as the 25th best program in North America and Europe. The same program was ranked number five among all public programs in the United States, and Business Week called it the number one program in the country in terms of return on investment leading to a career in finance.

"All of that is great," Fethke says, "but we still have a long way to go toward our goal of making the Henry B. Tippie College of Business known as a nationally prominent business school. But we're going to stay focused, and we're going to get there."

Sheena Simonson believes that The University of Iowa is already the top business school in the nation. Admittedly, the UI junior accounting major is biased. But Simonson, who received a Henry B. Tippie Accounting Scholarship, agrees with Fethke about the importance of setting goals.

"If you're not setting goals and working hard to reach them," she says, "you'll never get there."

Simonson's long-term goal?

"I come from Whittemore, Iowa, a town even smaller than Belle Plaine," she explains. "I plan on working hard and becoming successful. And someday I want to create a scholarship to help someone else make their dreams come true. Just as Mr. Tippie did for me."