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>> "The Associate" is our version of
"The Apprentice." Like "The Apprentice," our candidates
will be provided with real-life cases submitted by
local businesses.
The team that loses a task will be asked to return to
the boardroom and someone will be fired.
>> So tell me how the Associate Program got
started.
>> When I would go into my classes I would use cases
from Harvard Business Review and things like that and
students never found it interesting.
So one day I asked them if they had been watching "The
Apprentice" show, and they said yes and they got
excited.
They loved marketing and then the discussions just
went on and on and on.
So I went to Shohreh and we made a deal.
If I could get Ed Hale to be the Donald for this first
competition then the answer would be yes.
>> He had the personality, he cares about students and
he's from Baltimore.
It's Baltimore written all over him.
And the question was how do we get to Ed Hale?
>> They came to me and talked to me about this new
program that you were going to have.
Shohreh's very enthusiastic and you can't turn her down
so I was happy to go ahead and do it.
>> Okay, so now you've got the main figure of the
program.
What you refer to for years as "the Donald." How did you
decide, you know, that it was going to be a case
competition?
>> So what we decided to do is to format it the same way
as the competition by bringing cases from actual
companies and letting students go through it.
>> The representative from the company would present
the case to us and, from that point, we would get
together every week and discuss what we could
contribute to that case.
>> We'll explore the role of management and board members
and corporate governance from the perspective of - I
might just say from the perspective of management as
well as accounting and legal professions.
>> We knew we were competing for a job with Ed and then,
on top of that it's the final case, and on top of
that we had to pick our team and then we really had to,
kind of, pull out all the stops.
>> Week to week you could just see each student was
totally engaged and really working hard at it.
That really, really impressed me.
>> This, you know, is a decision that was tough get
to.
But I'm not going to stick to what has been done in the
past, so instead of firing you, I'm going to hire both
of you.
(APPLAUSE) >> A couple years go by, you've gotten
presenting companies, and you've gotten by-in from the
students and faculty, and then 2009 rolls around.
We decided because of the recession, we did not want
to put a company in the position of agreeing to
participate in the competition and not being
able to provide a job at the end.
We realized that because of the recession, a lot of our
students were possibly looking at an MBA program.
Why not help them out by giving them the prize of
having a semester at the UB/Towson MBA.
>> What made it different without having a particular
Donald was that every week a company would come in and
present a case to you.
One week, we're working with a wine company, the next
week we're working with Hershey, the next week we're
working with G. 1440.
So it prevented you from getting stagnant or, kind
of, used to who you're working with.
You really had to rely on your team that year.
>> Even through that challenge students were
still interested in the program.
Student still saw the value of the program, saw what
they would be able to take when they graduated and be
able to use as part of selling themselves in a
position.
>> "The Associate" gave me credible, real-world
experience because it wasn't like a classroom
hypothetical, but it was actually companies who were
concerned about their bottom line looking toward for
solutions.
>> Coming out of 2009 there had to be some skepticism as
to what's next.
Was there ever a point in time, where you said, you
know, five years is a good run for program like this,
you know, maybe we change it?
>> I think 2009 was the first time I thought about
that.
But whenever you made it to the end of the competition
you realize, you know what, there is another hope.
>> You know, it really comes down to the kids that are in
it.
What just blew me away is the amount of effort they
put into this and they don't even get course credit.
>> Behind-the-scenes was a whirlwind because everybody
was so busy with their schedules.
Whenever the time allowed, we were there working.
>> We would usually meet at 8 or 9 o'clock at night.
>> If I could define it in three words it would be
sweatpants, coffee and long hours.
>> There was a lot of pressure and you want to
win.
You want to win every week.
>> They are putting themselves out there for
what could be a big opportunity.
And I think in the era that I did this, knowing that
you're going into a competition that, if you
win, you get a job, that's a pretty nice reward.
>> And that's what makes Towson's experience for
students very unique.
>> And it really does align with the mission of the
college.
The experiential learning, the, you know, learning
outside the classroom.
>> We have 10 priorities in the university and this
particular program touches on a number of them.
We want to develop leadership capabilities in
our students.
Entrepreneurship is the second one.
Interacting with the community.
And building partnerships.
So at least four, maybe five or six, of our major ten
goals this program, in one way or another touches.
>> I tell people I made two really smart decisions as a
young person.
Number one, I went to Towson University and number two, I
participated in The Associate competition.
>> You will learn so many valuable skills, meet so
many great people from the program that it will
continue to benefit you for years to come.
It's eight weeks of your life and it will be well
worth it.
>> I had had multiple internships working in
corporate and I thought that I was prepared, but this was
on a whole 'nother level.
>> I have learned so much from my experience in these
cases.
Every one of them taught me something new about myself.
And it was the best decision I've ever made thus far in
my business career.