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Imagine what it must take for a corporate executive to persuade colleagues from other countries to adopt a company-wide sustainability campaign—even if it means acting against their own best interests.
Chicago Booth students excelled in just such a scenario—plucked from real life—in one case at the LEADership Challenge October 23, 2010 at Harper Center. The annual competition brings together about 100 MBA students who face nearly 50 Booth alumni judges — including CFOs and CEOs — for 10 hours of negotiation on five different cases on a Saturday. This year, LEADership Challenge organizers based part of the student competition on a real-world case: Walmart’s global sustainability effort to reduce plastic bag usage.
Booth students took on the role of U.S. executives, facing alumni judges who acted as executives from different countries. The interaction mirrored the challenge Walmart executives faced in working together on the company’s sustainability campaign. “The students had to quickly understand our cultural bias from a country’s perspective and also Walmart’s perspective,” said Michael Fung, ’86, CFO Walmart U.S., who supported the sustainability case and served as a judge. “It’s very similar to what happens in real industry: they did not have authority over us. The students had a very ambiguous situation in which to exercise leadership and to influence us to achieve the overall objective — even when it was against our best interests,” Fung said.
In its sustainability program, Walmart set a goal in 2009 to reduce plastic bag waste by 33 percent by 2013. So far, Fung said, they have reduced plastic bag usage by 16 percent, or nearly 5 billion plastic bags.
Walmart has taken a three-pronged approach in the United States and other countries: reduce variety of bag sizes, decrease and standardize thickness of the plastic bags, and lessen use of the bags. Recycled bags are being used to produce new bags, employing a “closed-loop system,” Fung said.
In the LEADership Challenge, students were shielded from these facts. Their case centered on recyclable bags versus reusable bags. “It was a classic case where there was no one answer,” Fung said. “The students realized the value of empowerment in stating broad objectives and listening to what made sense locally, given countries’ laws, regulations, and customer experiences.”
Winners Were Good Communicators
Judges chose winners based upon who was most creative in their approach to endorsing their initiatives, he said. “We used what we learned in LEAD to communicate effectively, listen actively, and to present our points in a way that would stick with the judges,” said student winner Brittney Bradshaw, a first-year student in the Full-Time MBA Program.
Fellow winner Joshua Perry, also a first-year student, said the two made sure they clearly understood their roles and were able to “read and lead each other.” They also made sure to enter their role-playing with judges with plenty of positive energy, he said.
The course, Leadership Exploration and Development, was the key to success, Bradshaw said. “In LEAD, we focused on self-awareness and how others perceive us. As a team, Josh and I talked about how we both make decisions and how to play up our strengths and make up for each other’s weaknesses—skills we learned during LEAD.”
Bradshaw and Perry pitched a three-pronged plan: giving away Walmart-branded reusable bags for a limited time and then making them available for purchase; offering a discount determined by each country to customers who use the reusable bags; and putting receptacles in all Walmart stores for recycling plastic bags. “Our goal was to incorporate Walmart values into each part of our plan,” Bradshaw said.
Perry said facing the panel of alumni judges was “definitely nerve-wracking. For one, thing, they have been through the school, so they know there should be a certain caliber.” He said it was doubly challenging knowing that some of the judges could have been working on the issue in real life.
Judges said they were duly impressed. “I get immense satisfaction seeing the caliber of students that participate in the Challenge,” said Jim Bland, ’06, vice president of HCP, a Chicago-based middle-market private equity firm. “It is clear from the challenge that the school is producing capable leaders who will strengthen the Chicago Booth brand.”
Bland had participated as a first-year student in the Challenge and as a second-year student as a LEAD facilitator. “Needless to say, I am dedicated to the LEAD program and the skills it seeks to hone in first-year students.”
Anuj Bhasin, ’08, senior associate brand manager, Kraft Foods, agreed. “The LEADership Challenge was a formative moment,” he said. “It showed me the importance of developing my soft skills and pushed me to become a LEAD facilitator.”
Sentiment about the event runs strong. “We always enjoy great involvement from our alumni participants,” said Chris Collins, senior coach, Office of Leadership Development. “Students always finish the event and tell me afterwards, ‘This is the best thing I’ve done at Booth. The opportunity to engage in activities like this is what brought me back to school.’”
He praised the “very creative and thoughtful team from Walmart who worked for nearly four months to put together an interesting, timely, and demanding leadership challenge.”
Fung said after the event, “The judges have interacted with students at other business schools, but the combination of intellect, creativity, and insights of Chicago Booth is unique.”
—Mary Sue Penn