5 minute read
Chaminade: Where East Meets West
CHAMINADE IS THE PERFECT PLACE TO STUDY THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EAST AND WEST. AND FOR HENRY "JAMIE" HOLCOMBE, IT WAS ALSO THE PERFECT TIME—THE RISE OF JAPANESE BUSINESS FOLLOWED BY THE BLACK MONDAY STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1987 PROVIDED UNFORGETTABLE LESSONS HE WOULD CARRY WITH HIM ALL THE WAY TO THE U.S. PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE.
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As an Army platoon leader stationed on O'ahu, Henry “Jamie” Holcombe ‘88 knew where every single telecommunications cable was buried on the Island.
He commanded the data center, and oversaw all base communications including the telephones. So it was only fitting that he got an MBA in information systems from Chaminade University.
When he first arrived on-island in 1986, he knew he wanted an MBA. He explored a few different universities, and ultimately settled on Chaminade. He was Catholic, and he liked that Chaminade educated in the Marianist tradition. But he was also attracted to the diversity that the campus offered.
“It was really because there were so many different backgrounds,” says Holcombe about his decision to enroll in Chaminade’s MBA program. “That’s what I wanted. I really wanted the island atmosphere that Chaminade offered.”
And thus began his two-year foray acting as soldier by day, and student by night. He was stationed at Schofield Barracks, and there were no H2 or H3 highways at the time. So he’d zip around on his motorcycle, sometimes making it to class just in the knick of time.
It was an interesting time to be a student in Hawai'i. In the late ‘80s, Japan was at the tail end of a period of record economic growth, and Japanese business was in hot pursuit of American business. Hawai'i offered the perfect location to explore the Eastern philosophies that were guiding that growth. In 1987, one of Holcombe’s professors gave everyone in the class a pretend $1 million to invest. Their grade was to be based on how well they did and how much money they had left over at the end of the assignment. But then came Black Monday— overnight, on October 19, 1987, the stock market crashed and sent world markets into disarray as they spiraled down. It is still one of the largest single-day declines in the history of the stock market. But Holcombe made good investments. “I got an A on that assignment,” he recalls. “Everyone in my class lost money, but I didn’t lose as much as everyone else.” Holcombe thinks back on his time at Chaminade fondly. Not only does he value the connections he made, but he values the excellent education. In fact, he loved his experience at Chaminade so much that after graduating he became an adjunct professor and taught computer science for a few years before leaving the island. It was his way of giving back to the institution. After leaving O'ahu, he went on to get his M.S. in computer science from George Washington University and after the Army, he founded two successful startup companies.
“The biggest thing [Chaminade] prepared me for is the confidence in being able to know what I know and know what I don’t,” explains Holcombe. “The MBA program gives you the basis and confidence to go up against others.”
Today, as the Chief Information Officer at The United States Patent and Trademark Office, Holcombe finds he uses the knowledge he gained at Chaminade on a daily basis— particularly his understanding of Eastern business philosophies.
“When you have an East meets West philosophy, the West is always ‘go, go, go,’” says Holcombe. “But if you do that all the time, you run out of gas. On the Eastern side, there’s a good balance, a good equilibrium.”
To Holcombe, having that different perspective is vital as every issue has more than just two ways of looking at it. To describe it, he uses the idiom, “There are always two sides to a coin.” If you just look at the two sides, you miss the entire outer edge of the coin.
It also helps that he gained a better understanding of Japanese culture, as he works regularly with his counterpart in Japan to stay up to date on knowledge, patents and trademarks coming out of the country.
Holcombe’s job is a big one—his department oversees nearly 10,600,000 patents.
“The Patent and Trademark office has been around since the beginning of our country,” explains Holcombe. “George Washington signed the first patent for an agricultural fertilizer, and Donald Trump signed patent number 10 million.”
When someone comes up with an idea that they want to implement, they have to make sure that it’s a unique and novel idea and that if they were to patent it, their patent would stand up in a court of law.
“You have to make sure that your idea doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world,” explains Holcombe. “How do you do that? You have to search the world.”
His office is responsible for designing and maintaining an easy-to-use platform so people all over the world can search for unique and novel ideas. They rely heavily on computers and search algorithms, and build classifications for all types of information, from genetics and microbiology to artificial intelligence.
His department also protects trademarks. Trademark fraud is a hot issue right now. According to Holcombe, 15 percent of apparel in the U.S. is fraudulent.
Despite the gravity of Holcombe’s job, he stays grounded and motivated by the Marianist philosophy that he learned at Chaminade.
Holcombe has taken the Marianist philosophy to create five priorities of his own that he makes sure his employees follow: 1) health, 2) spirit, 3) family, 4) friends and 5) work. When using his five fingers to list the priorities, he makes sure to use his thumb to represent work.
“Like your thumb, work makes everything possible,” says Holcombe. “I always ask my employees, ‘What work will you contribute to the other four priorities?’”
But the biggest thing that Chaminade instilled in Holcombe is the importance of having a heart and extending kindness toward others. “I try to use kindness as a theme throughout my management style,” he says. “We’re all about results and getting things done better and faster, but life is too short. You have to have kindness.”
