The business TRUST challenge at The Dannon Co. in White Plains was like a scene from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange ”“ sans the bright-coated commodity traders and closing bell.
To date, more than 12,000 students have participated in the international Groupe Danone business competition, and on March 4, the competition came to the U.S. for the first time.
“It”™s a business game that engages students earning their master”™s degree in business to come to Dannon and develop a real business plan in a competitive setting,” said Michael Neuwirth, spokesman for Dannon. “The teams have all presented to representatives of our executive committee at Dannon Co. We have real business leaders evaluating real business proposals.”
Sixteen teams were narrowed down to six, which were given the opportunity to showcase their marketing campaigns for Dannon that day.
All students who participate in TRUST are eligible for hire by the company and since the program”™s inception eight years ago, 330 students have been recruited.
“There are a lot of people who have functional skills and you look at their resume and they”™ve done everything they were supposed to, but we”™re looking for people with passion,” said Bülent Bayram, talent acquisition director for Dannon. “If they don”™t have passion, it doesn”™t really matter if they have 10 degrees. Passion is what really drives their performance.”
Bayram said that although publicity is naturally a part of sharing the company culture with the students and their networks, it”™s also about fostering fresh, creative ideas for the company.
“My objective is to get the junior talent and to send them abroad so they learn, grow and implement what they learned in the United States,” he said.
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Student teams from Columbia University, Penn State University, New York University and Southwest Baptist University participated in the first U.S. competition.
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Select Dannon employees acted as “campus managers” and essentially coached the competitors through the TRUST process.
“They were excited to work with us and I was excited to work with them,” said Geoff Dziuda, a Dannon employee and campus manager. “It was exciting to be an ambassador for the company and get our name out there and give them a peek into what Dannon is as a company.”
The students were really interested in job opportunities, Dziuda said, and “they also wanted to know what makes Dannon successful in such a hard economic time when other companies are struggling.”
Taimur Malik, a junior at Columbia University and event participant, said one part of the competition was about “awareness and why new social media and viral marketing is so important.”
Malik”™s team and others were presented with real life business issues and were asked to find creative solutions to specific case studies.
He said the competition fosters a dual benefit for Dannon itself.
“First, they get access to very smart people and secondly, they get their finger on the pulse of Generation Y and what the things are that attract students in this day and age,” Malik said.
The Penn State University Sapphire Solutions team was named the national winner at the end of the day and will compete in the global competition in Paris this April.
“They”™re competing for an opportunity,” Neuwirth said. “They win the recognition of a global food and beverage company acknowledging that they were the best.”
Teams from Belgium, China, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Turkey will also take part in the TRUST World Final.
Groupe Danone Chairman and CEO Franck Riboud is scheduled to attend the world final.
