{"id":230473,"date":"2025-05-12T15:11:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T19:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=230473"},"modified":"2025-05-12T15:11:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T19:11:36","slug":"commencement-speaker-servant-leadership-distinguishes-top-companies-stellar-executives-from-the-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/05\/commencement-speaker-servant-leadership-distinguishes-top-companies-stellar-executives-from-the-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"Commencement Speaker: Servant Leadership Distinguishes Top Companies, Stellar Executives from the Rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alumnus Rich Eldh \u201981, an entrepreneur who created a $300 million global research and advisory firm, told business undergraduates that servant leadership is one of the most important, and misinterpreted, components of business success.<\/p>\n

\u201cServant leadership means leading with strength, for the benefit of others,\u2019\u2019 he told more than 700 graduates, their family and friends, during the Commencement ceremony on Saturday at Gampel Pavilion. \u201cIt means empowering your team, fostering growth, and creating environments where others can shine.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Eldh is the co-founder of SiriusDecisions, Inc., a B2B research and advisory firm, which he ran from 2001 until its sale in 2018. The company, which employed 400, provided advisory, consulting, and learning services to help executives improve the performance of their sales, marketing, and product strategies. Clients included Adobe, IBM, GE, Cisco, and Motorola.<\/p>\n

\u201cServant leadership has been misinterpreted over the last 10 to 15 years,\u2019\u2019 Eldh said prior to his Commencement address. \u201cSo-called leadership gurus have considered it passive or weak. That is a total misinterpretation.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cServant leadership is doing what is right by three constituencies: your employees, your customers\/clients, and your shareholders,\u2019\u2019 he said. Honesty, integrity, selflessness, curiosity, respectfulness, and humility are some of the traits of a servant leader, Eldh said. Those values spread through an organization and create a culture that\u2019s a joy to work in and to lead.<\/p>\n

At SiriusDecisons, that philosophy was paramount.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe displayed our values through our business decisions,\u2019\u2019 he said. For example, to retain its talent, the company provided an environment that respected them as individuals and paid well for high performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years, even as a startup company, we paid for all employee benefit premiums,\u2019\u2019 he continued. \u201cThis seemingly simple, but expensive, decision was one of the top reasons people with families chose to stay versus pursue jobs at other companies. If it is critical to one’s security and peace of mind, why wouldn’t we, as an employer, pay for our associates\u2019 insurance?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Trust Yourself and Your Journey<\/h2>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Richard
Richard Eldh Jr. ’81 (BUS) gives the address at the School of Business Commencement ceremony at Gampel Pavilion on May 10, 2025. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eldh also reassured the new graduates that almost all of their experiences will be valuable and that nothing happens by chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe universe has your back\u2014and will conspire, inspire and guide you, as long as you\u2019re listening,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

As a sophomore at UConn, Eldh shattered his ankle playing intramural basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a brace and on crutches for nine months,\u2019\u2019 he recalled. \u201cAll my classes were across campus, and most days that felt like too much effort. Needless to say, that year was difficult academically.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

By the end of the year, he felt like he was wasting his time and his parents\u2019 money. He convinced a friend to leave UConn with him and move to Germany. His adviser thought he was crazy and his parents were shocked, but that September he began his adventure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to be honest, I was scared,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI remember thinking, \u2018What have I done?\u2019 I truly thought I had made a huge mistake.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

But he had mentioned his plans to a friend\u2019s father who helped him get a job in Kempten, Germany, writing code for a manufacturing firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat job, and that year abroad, changed my life,\u2019\u2019 Eldh recalled. \u201cI was completely out of my comfort zone and I discovered my love for technology. I discovered a love for travel, and for the world.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat experience, which began with what seemed like a rash decision, became the foundation for my life and career,\u2019\u2019 he said. A year later, he returned to UConn and completed his degree, majoring in finance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t pretend to have all the answers, but I do believe\u2014with all my heart\u2014that if you make decisions that feel right for you, the universe will put you in the right place at the right time,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

He also told the graduates to work hard and not believe the myth of overnight success. Consistent hard work, like compound interest, leads to greater knowledge, promotions, a bigger income, and a competitive edge, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGraduates of the UConn School of Business, you have the brains, you have the insight, you have the passion\u2026and more than anything, you have the power to shift the world!,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rich Eldh ’81 is the co-founder of SiriusDecisions, Inc., a B2B research and advisory firm, which he ran from 2001 until its sale in 2018. The company, which employed 400, provided advisory, consulting, and learning services to help executives improve the performance of their sales, marketing, and product strategies. Clients included Adobe, IBM, GE, Cisco, and Motorola.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":230476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1862],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2105],"class_list":["post-230473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-busn"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 19:23:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230481,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230473\/revisions\/230481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/230476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230473"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=230473"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=230473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}