Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59966
Educational Benchmarking Quality Assessments for Management Education to Support Accreditation & Drive Continuous Improvement EBI Assessments were developed in cooperation with AACSB to support accreditation efforts. Since 1994 over 450 institutions have benefited by participating in our Management Education Benchmark Assessments in such areas as: Student Exit, Alumni, Employer and Faculty for both MBA and Undergraduate programs. For more information visit: www.webebi.com or Contact Viviana Harper at 417.866.7163 or email viviana@webebi.com wide range of skills. To be eligible to play, students must be fluent in English, part of a team from a participating school, and registered through the TrustWeb site. Five-member stu- dent teams band together to develop a business strategy for a new subsidiary to be launched by Danone. The first stage takes place in a single day on the campuses of participating universities.During "TrustDay," as it is called, students have an opportunity to lunch with Danone managers and direc- tors while they're competing, interacting with Danone man- agement in a unique setting. One or two teams from each participating university become finalists and compete with other universities within their countries; one finalist team per country attends an international event in Paris. There, students take part in workshops revolving around analytical skills, creativity, rapid- ity, and teamspirit. They also present their work toDanone's Management Committee and get a chance to meet Groupe Danone CEO Franck Riboud. During the first year of the Trust competition, partici- pants included more than 500 business and engineering stu- dents from universities in six countries—China, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, and the Czech Republic. The second year, 11 countries were involved, with new additions includ- ing Belgium, Germany, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, and the U.K. Countries were chosen based on areas where Danone had recently expanded and wanted to recruit heavily. "Trust helps us reach students who might not always think of Danone as a starting point, like those from engi- neering schools," explains Mougin. "Trust by Danone is an effective tool for spotting talents who are likely to under- stand and share our culture." Among the traits Danone recruiters watch for is empathy, as they look for students who pay attention to other individ- uals. Says Mougin, "Whether those individuals are con- sumers, colleagues, or fellow citizens, we want them to have a greater understanding of others.We also want themto have a pragmatic hands-on approach." But the game wasn't organized merely to give Danone a new pool of potential hires; it was also designed to give stu- dents a more complete picture of the company itself. "We want them to realize that we're not just a company with effi- cient marketing and good products, but also a company that is responsible toward its stakeholders," says Mougin. The goal was reached: Of 300 students interviewed after the game, 97 percent said they viewedGroupeDanone as a com- pany that both offered good products and was a socially responsible firm. Thus, for Danone, as for these other companies, the com- petition is serving a key role in familiarizing students with the corporate culture. All three competitions are also proving successful in helping students see that every decision they make can have a far-reaching impact. While choices made in business games don't carry the same repercussions as real- world business decisions, competitions are high-pressure sit- uations that force participants to examine every decision, research every action, and pay for every mistake. Such sce- narios, say competition organizers, aren't bad substitutes for real life—or real business. s z BizEd MAY/JUNE 2005 45