Students train for ‘business battleground’
What do business and boot camp have in common? Just ask Brenda Sun, assistant professor in Management and Human Resources. Sun has been teaching the capstone course Business Strategy in a Global Context, since the spring of 2007. To the initiated, the course is known as “global strategy boot camp.”
“Students are used to a highly structured learning environment,” Sun said. “That doesn’t apply in the fast-paced world of global business. You can’t ask your employer, ‘If I miss this meeting can I still get an A’?”
Sun said her course is aimed at helping students migrate from the arbitrary and often forgiving requirements of the academic world to the reality of the business battleground.
Sun likens the radical change her students need to make to the strategic transformation the U.S. Armed Forces underwent after 9/11. In “asymmetric warfare” soldiers and students need to be adaptable and flexible, she said. For the 9/11 anniversary Sun’s class met on the HPER field for instruction from an Army sergeant discussing the tactics of strategic thinking, Sun said. In October, the class will present group projects to a panel of industry, U.S. Army, and USU specialists to gauge their progress, she said.
With multinational experience in executive and management positions including vice president at Citicorps-Citibank, Sun said she focuses on preparing students to be competitive in the global and local business world.
“Now days in this downsizing global economy, if you’re not a candidate for promotion you’re automatically a target for downsizing,” she said.
Sun said she also brings a unique cultural perspective as a Chinese-American.
“We say it all the time, business is a battlefield,” she said. “In Chinese we grow up with strategic concepts, it’s our daily language.”
Sun’s unconventional approach on teaching sometimes throws students off at first.
“At first when I got into Brenda’s class I was utterly confused,” said Alyssa Callister, a Business Marketing Major and current student in Sun’s class. “It was a sea of confusion. On the first day of class I remember her saying that if we were confused that she had accomplished something.”
That is a common experience, Sun said.
“I always tell students, don’t benchmark this course on other courses, benchmark it against the workplace,” she said.
As a consequence of this real-world simulation, Sun said students just looking to fill a requirement or who want to coast along are often surprised.
“It’s like I’m buying a toothbrush, but I didn’t know that this one vibrated and costs $100,” Sun said.
Though the course may initially be jarring, students often appreciate the high expectations.
“Brenda’s class has affected me greatest so far by just provoking thought,” Callister said. “Because I am currently starting my own business, I find that every week activities and discussions that we have in class apply to what I am doing professionally.”
By not handing her students a step-by-step syllabus, Sun said she encourages students to seek out clarification on their own, an essential skill for the workplace. This intentional vagueness also emphasizes creativity and individuality, she said.
“The students may come up with something better than me,” she said. “Strategic thinking isn’t about following instructions.”
Sun said she tries to incorporate principles of modern warfare into the business world without excluding the importance of cooperation and ethical behavior.
“I find that many people are all too quick to adapt to practices with ethical implications while at the same time I see people all too inflexible and rigid,” she said.
–ben.abbott@aggiemail.usu.edu