Today marked the third day for students at camp. After breakfast and a quick company meeting, the students and staff listened to Michael Keller’s speech on “Your Personal Brand.” Michael Keller is the CEO & President of Pearson Candy Company and former CMO of Dairy Queen, and knows quit a bit about branding. He described six “brand touch points” as the different ways that customers come in contact with a product. He urged the students to remember these different points while marketing for their business plan this week. Michael stressed how important it is to carefully craft the brand of not only companies but also the students personal brand. He emphasized the fact that “you get to write your own brand” and then he gave the students ten “personal brand touch points” to be aware of while crafting their image. Students were so eager to learn from Michael, that many approached him after his speech to introduce themselves and ask questions that he didn’t have time to answer during the presentation.
The companies then split into their smaller groups to attend Breakout Sessions on their Business Plans. During the Marketing 101 session, Janae Olinger, the former MBV Program Manager, now at the University of Minnesota, showed the marketing teams many different ways to reach and appeal to their customers and to advertise their product or service efficiently. Matt Molinaro from Ecolab taught the students how to develop their finance sheet, a budget, and also the basics of finance during Finance 101. The operations teams learned how to run and operate a company during Operations 101 taught by Allison Rubin from Target.
The students had an hour and a half to eat and prepare for their Mock Interviews. One by one the students were called in. Each student greeted their interviewer, shook their interviewer’s hand, and gave them a resume that they prepared earlier. Interviewers asked general questions that one would hear during any interview and then asked questions that were tailored to the job that the student was interviewing for. Students responses were recorded and critiqued by the judge. Scoring was based off of personal appearance, introduction, the resume, body language and eye contact, attitude, as well as the students responses to questions. The two highest scored interviews from each interviewer received one TQ point. Each interview lasted about ten minutes and once it had concluded the interviewer gave the student advice for when they are in a real interview. When students were not in their interview they were in company meetings working on their business plans.
Next, Rob Goggins, the President of Great Clips, gave the students his perspective on leadership. By pointing out different leaders throughout history, he conveyed these six leadership qualities: passion, inspirational, integrity/trust, vision, the ability to delegate, and empathy. Rob described the tough and best parts of leading and of a typical day as the president of a company like Great Clips. He concluded his speech by giving the students advice on how to get leadership experience.
Due to the weather, the picnic was moved indoors, but students still had lots of fun talking and eating the wonderful food catered by SCSU. Companies worked on a large majority of their business plan during the meeting after diner. After a long day the students had free time to unwind and even to bowl in the basement of Atwood Hall. As the sun set on campus, it marked the end of the first half of camp. Day four is sure to be just as busy (and fun) as today!