The Zicklin School of Business is turning a deeper shade of green as countless initiatives grow across the campus with issues of sustainability at the forefront. At the graduate level, Zicklin’s chapter of Net Impact (herein known as the Sustainable Business Club (SBC)) lies at the helm. Recently, the leadership of the SBC attended the national 2009 Net Impact conference at Cornell University along with 2,683 other participants and exhibitors representing numerous Fortune 500 companies, NGOs, professionals and academic institutions.
Prior to the conference, Wal-Mart, an event sponsor, opened applications for their QuickPitch Challenge, giving a select group of entrepreneurs 90 seconds to pitch their sustainable product to a panel of Wal-Mart executives while at the conference. Ryan O’Connor, a Full-Time Honors student and Co-President of the Sustainable Business Club was among the few invited to enter the semi-final round, and was ultimately awarded status as a top-five finalist amongst prestigious competitors from top competing business schools. This is Ryan’s first-hand account of his experience during the challenge.
Looking at the list of corporate sponsors at this year’s Net Impact conference, I was pretty blown away. Free fair trade coffee and t-shirts from Starbucks and GAP, all the Honest Tea you could handle and a career expo that hosted the likes of Accenture, KPMG, Intel, FedEx, Microsoft and Morgan Stanley. All of these companies came to eye the future leaders of the business world because of a single commonality- we knew sustainability. We understood the triple bottom line and that put our talents at a premium.
Ryan O'Connor Semifinalist @ 2009 Net Impact Conference
Prior to the conference, I was preselected to participate in the Wal-Mart QuickPitch Challenge. I had spent the summer working for BagtheHabit.com, an amazing startup making chic-o-friendly tote and produce bags. Their target market was unique and their value proposition was solid. I had worked with the two founders getting their house in order as a general management consultant focusing on pipelining wholesale deals. I knew if anyone was going to be receptive to the product, it would be Wal-Mart. So when they opened the call for entrants, you can bet your hybrid that I was going to take full advantage of the opportunity.
90 seconds was all we were given. 90 seconds to tell them why they should invest in us. Think about every filler word you’ve ever used in a sentence. Every “like,” “uh,” or “um,” was now taking up prime real estate in the 90-second landscape that is known traditionally as the “elevator pitch.” These judges weren’t soft either. The nature of this competition was clear as the room filled with tension as the participants were picked out of a hat at random to make their case.
The judges followed every initial pitch with 60 seconds of questions. They were fast and they were loaded. They had no time for hypothetical or half-baked ideas. This was not an “everyone gets a ribbon” kind of game and it showed after the first participant was cut off and excused.
I came prepared. I had the value proposition set, the competitive landscape down, and the market research fully analyzed. The best part? It showed. I was forwarded on to the final round that consisted of five more minutes of the same rapid fire questioning. Finally, out of the initial 100 applicants, I was awarded a position in the top five. Not too shabby considering I was the only one representing a public institution and my performance outranked many others from top tier programs.
The experience reinforced a philosophy that I’ve carried with me since my first day here at Baruch. Business is not a question of what you know, but the practical application of what you can do. It’s a subtlety that all too often gets lost in translation. Put another way, if you graduate with a 4.0 but committed yourself to nothing else, you’re limiting your knowledge to academic exercises that are sterile at best. Business is messy. Deals are complicated and relationships drive success. Get out there and get involved. The dividends will come.
Ryan O’Connor
Co-President
Sustainable Business Club
Important Links
Zicklin Sustainable Business Club: www.sustainablebusinessclub.com
Net Impact: http://www.netimpact.org/
