Giving kids the business - high school students learn about business in summer programs

Nation's Business, August, 1987 by Roger Thompson

Giving Kids The Business

Take 150 South Dakota high school students, put them on a Sioux Falls college campus for a week to learn about the business world first-hand from owners and managers --no textbooks please--and something interesting happens. They have a great time and carry with them lessons that may change their lives.

Said Valerie Riebe of Rapid City: "The most important thing I learned is that if you really want something out of life, you go out and get it.' Monica Nelson of Madison echoed that lesson, saying, "I learned that each and every one of us can be everything and anything we want to be.'

Pretty heady stuff for teenagers who have never held more than part-time jobs. But the students gained more than inspiration from their mid-June adventure at the Youth Business Academy, sponsored by the Industry and Commerce Association, a private, state-wide business group.

South Dakota's Youth Business Academy is typical of the 19 programs that have evolved since the first was held in Washington State 11 years ago. Coordination of the state programs is usually handled by a business organization, such as the state Chamber of Commerce.

At the South Dakota academy, the teens were bombarded with facts from a fast-paced program that presented speakers, films and one-on-one contact with business people who volunteered to serve as full-time advisers. Most advisers work for major corporations, such as banks or utilities. Two came from small businesses. Similar programs took place this summer in 25 other states.

Sioux Falls small businessman Jerry Simmons, the academy's irrepressible chairman, says the experience isn't designed to force-feed students a diet of free-enterprise doctrine. "First, we want the kids to have fun,' says Simmons. "We want them to get acquainted with other kids from across the state, some of whom come from towns with fewer than 1,000 people. We want them to experience what it's like to live on a college campus. Lastly, we want them to get a better understanding of who business people really are.'

Since South Dakota is an agricultural state, many of the students live on family farms. "One thing the academy stresses to these particular students is that the family farm is a business,' says Charlotte Conway, the academy's director. "These students need to be aware that to survive the farmer has to make the same business decisions as any other business in town.'

To that end, students are divided into 12 groups--or "companies'--with a business adviser assigned to each. In addition, a classroom teacher participates in each group as an aide to the adviser.

The advisers' chief task is to prime their student-run companies to do battle in a computerized business simulation that tests the students' abilities to manufacture either radios, razors or telephones profitably. The simulation is "the "golden thread' that holds the program together,' says Charlotte Conway, the academy's director. It introduces students to the language of business: return on investment, accounts receivable, sales volume, R&D, market share, sales commissions, unit costs and more.

Students play rounds over four days, with each round's decisions fed into a computer for evaluation. They quickly learn that business can be a roller coaster ride. One company, Bobby's Bongo Boxes, saw its stock value plummet from $44 to $29 a share and its market share skid from 27 percent to 17 percent in just three rounds of decision making.

The game's real-world value quickly became evident when the students toured Sioux Falls businesses on Wednesday. "The kids were asking questions about return on investment, R&D and advertising budgets,' said Dianne Hoffman, an adviser and small-business owner from High-more. "They had no idea what these things were at the beginning of the week.'

The students also learned a little marketing savvy. On Wednesday night each company must perform a two-minute commercial for its product. Students are not told in advance to bring props to the academy, and they have only three days to prepare. "It's amazing how these kids improvise,' says Conway. "But I know some of them must send their advisers all over Sioux Falls to find the props they need.'

As a group, the students showed a strong preference for practical advice. Ceasar Smith, personnel director of The Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, made a lasting impression with his advice about how to dress, shake hands and act at a job interview.

"Before I heard Ceasar Smith, I would have gone in and just asked for a job,' said Ken Behymer of Yankton. "Now I know to go in and really sell myself because the job is something that's important to me.'

Smith also cautioned his youthful audience against making career choices for money alone. Think twice, he said, about putting a big paycheck ahead of personal happiness. By a show of hands, all but a few indicated it was advice they would heed.

Students got a chance to show off their newly acquired knowledge of business in the Business Bowl, modeled after TV academic quiz shows. Three-member teams from each company competed to determine who had the sharpest grasp of business terms such as recession, tariffs, gross national product and capital investment. The bowl also showed how much they have to learn.