I am not politically inclined as a general rule, I am environmentally inclined because as an environmentalist, it is easier to see that the winner is the planet and the people on it. Likewise, it is pretty easy to see that waste is bad, preservation is good. Not so easy in politics to spot clear winners. However, even the Democrats appear to be running for the hills politically. This, from the Wall Street Journal.
This is the fifth year I have had the pleasure of judging the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition in San Diego at the Bahia Resort. Students come from all over the world to compete in this simulation of a real business, and it is an excellent learning experience for them, win or lose.
While this video is a long, amateurish video (I did it) of 20 minutes or so, the contents are worth watching for the joy of seeing professionalism at a young age. The team included Ryan Rotariu, CEO; Asia Snook, VP Marketing, Kim McIntyre, VP Operations and Michelle Plamondon, VP Finance. Their challenge — to make executive team decisions while running a public, international company over a seven year period. This is a stellar executive presentation to their “board of directors,” of whom I was one, in the Intercollegiate Business Strategy Competition (ICBSC), at the end of year six of the simulation.
I understand second hand that they participated in this simulation for a measley 1 college credit, and returned to college from the San Diego competition to take finals (they are undergraduate seniors).
Anyone who has presented results will be sufficiently impressed with their thoroughness of analysis, and indeed they did win against three competitors in their “world” of four competitors. Enjoy!
For 25 years I have helped senior executive teams in companies small and large to rectify faulty belief systems and focus on strategic issues to attain breakaway success. What has stood out as the single greatest roadblock on the way to achieving success is having the right people in the right seats on the bus and then giving those individuals clear and focused guidance. Jim Collins’ research, in his best selling book Good to Great, also confirmed this as the key to breakaway success.
Dr. Peter Drucker agrees. He said, “The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage since very few organizations are very good at it.” Read More...
