Episode #11
Leadership and Public Goods, with COL(R) Mike Yankovich
Aaron and Spencer talk with COL(R) Mike Yankovich, a vice president at Ramapo College and a former West Point economics and mathematics professor, about public goods, the value of a college education, and the cost of leaning too hard on a team's best performers. Mike Yankovich and Spencer taught economics together in West Point's Department of Social Sciences in the mid-2000s and won a couple of intramural championships along the way. Mike graduated from West Point in 1994, served as an Army engineer officer and operations research analyst, and earned a PhD in economics at MIT. He later became an Academy Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and Vice Dean for Operations at West Point. Since 2023 he has been Vice President for Operational and Administrative Integration at Ramapo College of New Jersey, a public liberal arts college. The first half of the conversation is about public goods, which Mike taught for years in a West Point course called Public Finance. A public good is one that costs essentially nothing to extend to one more person once it is provided, such as national defense. Education is a different kind of market failure because it produces positive externalities: an educated person is healthier and more likely to take part in civic life, and those benefits go to society as well as to the student. Mike argues that colleges have lost sight of that value by competing on climbing walls, lazy rivers, and dining halls, and that at a public college every dollar is a choice between marketing to applicants and fixing the electrical feeder cables under the campus. Spencer and Aaron connect this to the Leadership Economics idea that outside a market, information has to come from somewhere other than prices. Reputation, the word of a trusted coach, and visible sacrifice for students are what Spencer calls the currency of commitment. The conversation then turns to how communities decide what to fund. Mike points to Adam Grant's advice to approach contested questions as a scientist rather than a preacher, prosecutor, or politician, and he describes five years as West Point's liaison to the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery school board, where members of both parties made decisions based on data, the mission, and marginal analysis. Mike then turns the questions on Aaron, asking why he came to West Point and how he squares studying leadership as an academic with the practice of it. The last segment covers the topic Mike asked to discuss, which he calls the time value of time. As a young Army leader he leaned on his high performers because they got things done and always said yes, and he now asks how many junior officers and NCOs he burned out. Aaron describes burnout as a leader's failure to allocate a subordinate's time correctly, because the long-run costs never show up in the moment. Mike's advice for tomorrow is the old Social Sciences Department motto, "Be kind," which he defines as treating everyone with respect, telling the truth even when it is hard, sharing information promptly, and taking care of yourself. Mentioned in this episode Ramapo College of New Jersey and its president, Cindy Jebb West Point's Public Finance course Mike's coaches Larry Smoker, Paul Gorsuch, and Tim Miller Top Gun Milton Friedman National defense as a pure public good The College Scorecard Adam Grant, Think Again The Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery school board Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics Radio , on AI and jobs Rob Shaw on character as the one deal breaker (Episode 6) Josh Richardson, "great is just good over time" (Episode 3) Ben Summers and the West Point economics boot camp (Episode 7) David Hume and Adam Smith Lieutenant General Steve Speakes, Army G-8 "Be kind," the West Point Social Sciences Department motto Featured guest: Mike Yankovich — Michael Yankovich, Vice President for Operational & Administrative Integration, joined Ramapo College in 2023. Mike provides direction and leadership for facilities management, capital planning, information technology services, public safety, emergency preparedness, sustainability, and events and conferences in support of the liberal arts mission of the College. He serves on the Mission Element Team and several Board of Trustees Committees, and he leads the Cabinet of Agents. Prior to joining Ramapo College, he served as the Vice Dean for Operations and as an Academy Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served on active duty in the Army as an Engineer Officer with assignments in various operational units around the world and as an Operations Research Analyst with the Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis, the Army's Program Analysis and Evaluation Office at the Pentagon, and the Headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Mike earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematical Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke University, and Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ( Ramapo College of New Jersey ) Subscribe to the newsletter: leadershipeconomics.com
