January 2019 by Lazy Faire

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Alberta School of Business

January 19’ COMPETITION

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT DEAN’S COMPETITION WINNERS

E X T E R N A L R E L AT I O N S >>

T H O U G H T V S T H O U G H T >>

For and against participation awards.

M I S C E L L A N E O U S >>

Meet Adriano Marini, a Senior Technology Consultant at Ernst & Young (EY).

How to make your LinkedIn stand out.

Represent a Fortune 500 Company Hiring new grads for sales executive positions in over 70 locations across Canada. Build your career with us. CONTACT Diana.Wyley@xerox.com www.findyourxfactor.com www.xerox.ca

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Table of Contents

CONTENTS SOCIAL STUDIES Competition in Politics FASHION Competition in the Fashion Industry FYI Case Competition Schedule for 2019 LAZY CHAT Rachel Bokenfohr THOUGHT VS. THOUGHT Participation Awards - For and Against? STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Dean’s Competition Winners EXTERNAL RELATIONS Adriano Marini CLUBS CORNER JDC West GUEST ARTICLE Psychology of Competition LF REVIEWS TV Series: Holiday Baking Championship

How to Make your LinkedIn Stand Out

BSA Wellness Initiative

11 17

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Editor’s Note

elcome to 2019! We hope this new year brings great moments, personal achievements, and lots of success to all our fantastic readers. We are so excited to be ringing in the new year full of motivation to achieve our goals, and we know you are too! This month’s theme is Competition. Competition can drive advancement, increase productivity, and, let’s be honest, it can be used to make things a little more fun too (that’s right we’re talking about case competitions). As business students, we know

the concept of competition all too well, so this month we decided to explore the successes that come from activating your competitive drive. With such an applicable topic, we decided to dive into what competition means to business students, and discuss some ways that companies have successfully used competition in order to differentiate their brand. Although competition can sometimes get intense, this issue is centered around showing the benefits of competition, and how it can be balanced in order to achieve great things. Read on!

Rodvie Barnachea

RODVIE BARNACHEA Editor-in-Chief

Haya Masri HAYA MASRI Editor-in-Chief

CONTRIBUTORS

VALERIE LEOW VP Editorial

DYLAN WEE Photographer

DENISE NGUYEN Writer

JOANNA FADDOUL VP Art & Design

KATIE FITZGERALD VP Editorial

AUSTIN YEE Photographer

TYLER KEFFER Writer

MELANIA ANTOSZKO Designer

ELIZABETH JUN VP Marketing

DIANE JEON Photographer & Writer

CLEO WILLIAMS Writer

LEIRE DOMENECH Designer

ERICA WEE Social Media Director

ERICA HU Photographer

RACHITA CHUGH Writer

ALYSSA RICIOPPO Designer

ALEX HO Suits LF Director & Photographer

WYATT LYNDS Writer

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LEIRE DOMENECH Designer

1. Detail-oriented, creative, passionate, versatile and analytical. 2. My favourite hobby is to read, play piano and watch movies. 3. Rutherford South (Harry Potter Room) 4. “Ohana means family; family means nobody is left behind or forgotten” - Lilo & Stitch 5. To expand my boundaries and apply my creativity.

RACHITA CHUGH Writer

1. Desribe yourself in five words. Driven, talkative, inherently curious, and organized. 2. What’s your favorite hobby? One of my favorite hobbies has always been reading. I have been an avid reader ever since I was only a few years old. Through reading sprung my love for writing and public speaking. I also enjoy singing and actually have been taking lessons for the last 2 years! 3. Best study spot on campus? When I need absolute peace and quiet, I head to the Harry Potter Room. Otherwise, I’m one of the few people who actually prefers studying in BUS basement cubicles (the only drawback is that there’s no plug-ins, but otherwise it’s a prime studying spot). 4. What’s your favorite movie quote? “It’s Wingardium LeviOsa, not LeviosAH.” - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 5. Why did you join Lazy Faire? I’ve always used writing as a medium to express my thoughts and feelings. I once held dreams of becoming a journalist and writing for the New York Times. The NYT dream is still alive and well, but along the way writing took a back seat. I’m hoping to rediscover my love for writing through Lazy Faire. Plus, the concept of a student-run magazine specifically catered to Business students is exceptional to me.

Meet the Team

MELANIA ANTOSZKO Designer

Hello! My name is Melania Antoszko and I’m an energetic, positive, easygoing, motivated finance student. I joined Lazy Faire because I wanted to be a part of a student run magazine and to work on my graphic design skills. When I’m not busy studying at Rutherford (my favorite library) you can find me trying out the newest and best restaurants in Edmonton. I don’t have a favorite movie quote, but I would say anything from Mama Mia is golden.

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Political Competition With every step we take, we can see competition happening all around us. From billboards to television, there is no shortage of marketing campaigns trying to outdo one another. Competition can come in many other forms though, such as competition-based events, or even... political competition! Specifically, federal competition among the various political parties in Canada who are trying to hold power at the highest level of government. Competition can be — and usually is — fierce among these political parties, as they strive to gain more power to implement their ideologies into the modern life of every citizen. Control does not come easy though; it requires winning over the votes of the people. People that want those specific ideologies in place… or at least a representative majority of them.

At the heart of Canada’s political system are a few main parties. We have the Liberals, who currently hold power, the Conservatives, who previously held power, the Green party, and the NDP. While the full list of parties is longer, it would take up more space than I have in this paper to include all of them. Without a doubt, the competition among even these parties is considerably strong, as they each have their own ideals about how the country should be run, and they really want to make it clear that their way is the only way.

Competition between these groups have covered many media forms. Specifically, there have been television ads that, one could say, “attack” another party. If we look back to 2015, when the Harper government was in power: they launched a set of ads to attack the current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, by illustrating a scene that displayed his potential lack of skill in politics and balancing budgets, even making sure to note that being Prime Minister was no entry-level position. Many could argue that these ads came across extremely strong, but it is clear (because he just so happened to win that election) that the majority of people felt otherwise.

How can there possibly be so much political competition? We all, as people, have ideas about what we expect from the government, and we base our votes on those running for election from our viewpoints of how we believe society should be running. From implementing or changing legislation, legalizing marijuana, lowering tax rates, or whatever it is you want out of a party — that’s probably the reason you are voting for who you are. And the parties know it. They will make promise after promise… after promise. Eventually, there are so many promises that they don’t even remember what’s been promised. That’s a lot of promises! Eager to win seats, they’ll say what you want to hear, and you have to justify whether or not they will live up to your expectations. This is why we see ads that bring other parties down, while uplifting their own — all to gain power, regardless of whether or not they maintain their promises. Because once they’ve won the power, who’s to tell them what to do? That is, until next election, when the brawls start all over again. Written by Tyler Keffer

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Fashion

Competition in the Fashion Industry

I like choices, and most people do too. Eating the same meal, or listening to the same song, over and over again would be painfully boring. This tendency, with the exception of Steve Jobs, extends to fashion choices as well. But how many choices are too many? In addition to monster shopping malls, there are so many online retailers that it’s honestly becoming overwhelming for people to shop. And, along with this influx of options, comes an influx of competition. These days, fashion moves fast. The industry has come a long way from being centered on tailoring and customization, and has come to value convenience above everything. With fast fashion retailers like Zara and H&M sending new and on-trend items to their stores every few weeks, it’s easy to see that consumer habits have changed from thinking of shopping for clothing as a special event, to wanting to consume as much as possible in a short time, and often for the lowest price. The truth is, fashion is more accessible for people now than it ever has been, and it’s possible for anyone to easily start screen-printing T-shirts to sell online. However, with the dangerously fast turnover seen in most stores, it’s hard for new retailers to keep up unless they’re sufficiently differentiated. Even high fashion has had to change its structure to compete.

Moving from the standard two Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer collections to include resort/cruise/pre-spring and pre-fall collections throughout the year, fashion houses have become aware that it takes more than being a well-known brand name to stay relevant. While it’s nice for us to have an endless stream of trends to admire, this has put a drastic amount of pressure on those in the industry, and has been the cause of numerous creative directors stepping down from prestigious positions. In 2017, Riccardo Tisci left his 12-year position at Givenchy, identifying exhaustion as one of his reasons. Years earlier, in 2009, Olivier Theyskens left Nina Ricci, and advised current fashion students to stay away from the industry because it was already too saturated. The introduction of e-commerce and social media can greatly be blamed for this shift. Instead of paying attention to collections in the pages of magazines, most people turn to Instagram, or other social media platforms, to find fashion inspiration. In this way, being popular online is an important part of staying relevant; and nothing stays viral for long. Continuously creating content to catch people’s attention is necessary to stay in the public eye. Scrolling through any Insta-famous person’s feed will present you with a series of tagged brands that probably paid to be there. E-commerce has created hundreds of outlets for people to shop, and has added to the importance of social media in marketing, which can act as a direct link to a company’s website. The industry has had to adapt to a generation that has a very short attention span and a lot of options to choose from. This has made competition in the industry increasingly fierce over the years, not only for everyday fashion brands, but also for established high fashion houses. In what seems to be an accelerated desire to consume, it’s hard to imagine the industry calming down any time soon. Written by Cleo Williams

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FYI

Case Competitions of Winter 2019 Got FOMO hearing about case competitions earlier this semester? Interested in challenging yourself for the new year? It’s not too late — check out some of the opportunities below!

What is a case competition like?

Throughout the year, students have the chance to work with established companies in creating business solutions. For a fee, students are able to sign-up for these events and form their own teams. During the days of the competition, participants are expected to arrive in business formal attire to receive their case. Participants are then given a limited amount of time to brainstorm a business solution, and prepare a presentation that judges will watch. The panel of judges may include company executives and professors. Case competitions typically span a range of a few hours to 48 hours.

What’s the big deal about case competitions?

Case competitions are a great way to practice surviving under pressure. Whether it’s about learning to speak confidently in front of a crowded room or finishing that PowerPoint presentation under a time crunch, there is always something to take away from the experience. Additionally, case competitions often offer awards for teams that place, including monetary prizes or a one-on-one opportunity to network with executives. For more information, check out: https://www.ualberta.ca/business/programs/bachelor-of-commerce/current-students/competitions

January 25-27 : EDGE External

Cheer on University of Alberta as they advance to the external round of EDGE! Interested? Keep an eye out for EDGE Internal, held every November. Winners of the Internal round will be invited to the External competition.

January 26: Business Exchange Association (BEA) Case Competition BEA’s annual case competition will bring you an awesome opportunity to work with international and domestic students as a team.

January 26: Alberta Not-For-Profit Association (ANPA) Local Case Competition

ANPA’s local case competition will be a meeting of local minds, with cash prizes donated to charities of choice.

February 8-9: University of Alberta Marketing Association (UAMA) Case Competition

Hosted annually, the UAMA case competition will let you show off your marketing skills. Expect to get creative.

March 2: Business Finance Association (BFA) Case Competition

The BFA’s first-ever case competition will bring a new twist to the ASOB scene!

March 6-9: ANPA International Case Competition

ANPA’s second event of the semester will feature international guests and a non-profit organization.

March 29-30: Interdisciplinary Consulting Association (ICA) and Management Information Systems Club (MIS Club) Case Competition Join the ICA-MIS collaboration as they hold this interdisciplinary event.

March 20-31: MBA Association Winter Internal Case Competition

The MBA’s second annual case competition brings you valuable experience in a senior-level setting, and will get you a headstart to external case competitions. Interested? This event is open to MBA students selected by an application process.

TBA:

OM Club Case Competition Business Leadership Association (BLA) & Peter Lougheed Leadership College (PLLC) Case Competition

Written by Denise Nguyen

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Rachel Bokenfohr

Lazy Chat

After a busy undergraduate degree at the Alberta School of Business, with accomplishments such as placing 5th in the EY challenge finals in Toronto and being a member of the BSA, Rachel Bokenfohr is a student who made a competitive edge for herself. This month, Lazy Faire caught up with her to discuss her experiences in the working world and her plans for the future. So, you’ve recently started working at EY. Could you expand a little bit on that hiring process and how you created a competitive edge for

yourself in the job market after graduation? I mean I guess there was a few things, and to preface this, I don’t think I was ever intentionally like “I need to be competitive.” That’s not really how things happened, they just sort of happened. I was involved with a few things at school. I was involved in the roteract club and then I got involved in business and I got in the leadership certificate program and I was in that for a year before I found out about things that I was really passionate about. So, everything I was involved in, I felt like I had a purpose for it. I got involved with the BSA and ran for elections because I noticed that the BSA had a culture that, at times, didn’t seem approachable and I thought for the faculty’s association, that should change. I felt compelled to run and be involved so that I could hopefully change that. Then I got involved with AIBC, I worked on writing the cases and that was just something I was really interested in. A friend of mine was the VP and I really wanted to work with her, so through that, I met some other people at the competition who came to judge who were also from EY. So, it just kind of all worked out. Then I was involved with JDC West because I love doing cases. I really wanted to be constantly learning, I’m still that way. My connections with EY began when I did some cases in my second year of business. I did the EY challenge where my team was fantastic and we were able to make it to the finals. We went to Toronto and competed where we came 5th out of 10 teams. I was able to make some connections there that I think really helped during the recruitment process as well. What advice would you give to current students for them to have more value in the job market than just their degree? I think it starts with your passion and your purpose really. For me, I really saw some things change in the BSA and that’s why I wanted to be involved with it and I saw an opportunity to learn so much about marketing and other things through cases. I got involved with things that I really was interested in and that’s really my advice to anybody who is looking for a competitive advantage is that you need to find things that interest you. For example, you’re a part of the finance club just because you want a job in finance. I don’t work in finance myself and I’m not exactly sure of their hiring process, but I think that they would be more compelled to hire somebody who has a growth mindset and has a passion for what they’re doing versus involvement just to say involvement. I think it’s important to be involved with things you really, really care about. I was involved a little bit with some campus recruitment initiatives this year at EY. We obviously want people who have the knowledge baseline to fill the positions, but we also look for people who will fit in among us. An important part is that you’re a team-player and that goes beyond academics. I never had stellar grades, I’ll be the first to admit it, but what I did have was a few connections because I was involved with things I really cared about and that fed in to me really being able to fill those positions. Where would you ideally see your career going from here? I have no idea (laughs). You know, I’m really enjoying this stage. It’s tricky, but I’m learning so, so much about consultDesigned by Alyssa Ricioppo Photo by Erica Hu Written by Cleo Williams Written by Cleo Williams Designed by Alyssa Ricioppo

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6 TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE YOUR STAND OUT

Written by Katie Fitzgerald Designed by Joanna Faddoul

1. Add a Headshot to Your Profile

Adding an eye-catching headshot is one of the best ways to give a great first impression, and it also portrays sense of who you are. There are tons of opportunities on campus to get free high quality headshots done throughout the year! This will give your profile a professional look, and it will make it seem like you put effort into your profile. LinkedIn profiles without a photo usually get overlooked, so be sure to add one.

2. Create an Interesting Summary

Write your profile summary as if it is the “Hook Sentence” within an essay. You want this to be a captivating paragraph that dives a bit deeper into the experiences you have stated within your profile. In addition, you can elaborate a bit about your various passions and hobbies — anything that relates to who you are and why you are interested in what you do.

3. Ask Past Employers To Submit Recommendations for Your Profile

This tool is a great way to give you credibility. There is a feature on LinkedIn where past or present employers can submit recommendations and compliment you on the exceptional work you completed for them. This will not only make your profile more interesting, but it will let viewers know that you are a dedicated and hard worker.

4. Inject Personality

One of the biggest misconceptions on LinkedIn is that you have to maintain overall professionality, and that you can’t show your true colors on the platform. When, really, that is exactly what employers are looking for! Company culture is a huge component of a workplace, and employers want to know if your personality will fit in with their team. In addition, it makes your profile more entertaining and personable to view.

5. Engage on the Platform

The best way to give your profile more exposure on LinkedIn is to like, comment, and post on the platform. When someone likes your post, it gets shown to all of their connections. So when you start posting content, you never know who your post could actually reach. Maybe it will be your next employer!

6. Make Sure It Is Complete, Filled Out, and Up To Date

Try to complete as much of your LinkedIn profile as possible. Add details to your job experiences, ask people to endorse you in the skills section, include any accomplishments or awards, along with any interesting projects you may be working on. You can add much more to a LinkedIn profile than you can to a traditional cover letter and resume, so take advantage of the extra bragging rights.

Participation Awards. For. Designed by Joanna Faddoul

The 21st century has emerged as a century filled with insecure children who lack self-confidence. It seems that, every year, children are progressively under increasing pressure. Regardless of whether this pressure is created by the parents or the child, the result is constant in that the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mental health becomes damaged. In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s society, this pressure is most evident in academics and athletics. This increasing pressure can be eliminated, or at least lessened, through the use of participation awards. Participation awards allow young children to be more confident, have increased self-esteem in, and become more involved with their respective fields. In terms of academics, children are now pressured more than any other time in history to achieve a high standing in their courses. This pressure can be derived from the increased overall intelligence level of society, as science, math, and other disciples reach new heights

in their respective fields. As each field progresses, the amount of stress progresses at a similar rate. In turn, participation awards in education would allow students to feel more accomplished and increase their self-esteem. These participation awards could come from sciences fairs, math competitions, and the like. In terms of athletics, children who do not place in the top three are often discouraged, and sometimes even consider stopping that activity. Sports will fail to rise to a higher level if the young athletes of today lose incentive to compete. This loss of incentive leads to a loss of participation and, consequently, a failure for the sport to progress. Although, if participation awards were distributed, then young athletes would feel a sense of accomplishment and would be encouraged to work harder, improve, and further the sport. Participation awards would offer athletes the ability to both improve

their mental health and grow their respective field. Some individuals may argue that awarding participation awards will create a sense of disappointment and discouragement in the recipients. This is true for most adults, because their self-image and self-pride are already established. However, awarding participation awards to children will allow them to establish confidence and a positive self-image. Additionally, participation awards will install excitement and accomplishment, which will carry over to practice and success in the next test, game, or competition. In conclusion, the establishment of participation awards will effectively benefit society and grow stronger individuals through an increase in confidence, work ethic, and a furthering of the field. Written by Wyatt Lynds

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Thought Vs. Thought

Against. Participation awards are becoming more commonplace at numerous competitions nowadays. I, myself, have received my fair share of them for simply showing up to something otherwise meant to be a “competitive” event and “trying my best.” However, one would be hard pressed to find inherent value in an award that read something like ‘Certificate of Participation’ five or ten years down the line. Chances are: your own heap of participation awards are sitting in a corner of your room collecting dust, or even completely discarded altogether. While supporters of these awards claim that they’re meant to reward effort and contribution, especially in younger children who may need the positive reinforcement, it sends the message that even the bare minimum of work is deserving of an appropriate accolade. The implication that “we are all winners” is a dangerous one to convey to people, as we naturally begin to expect praise for mediocrity; we start to feel as though we deserve recognition for merely showing up to a competition – be it a sports tournament, a spelling bee, an art contest, or the like. This assumption is often maintained, at least into the early stages of adulthood,

thus creating individuals who believe that showing up to class or work, or completing their assignments on time, are worthy of merit, rather than being expected of them.

their lives. But what separates successful people from the rest of us is how they deal with their losses. The humility to be able to accept and desire to learn from past failures are both vital to eventually overcoming them in If you want an award, you have the future. Being afraid of failure to earn it – you have to win. – or even the slightest possibility Aside from creating a generation of “losing”, while those around of individuals who feel entitled you “win” – will only cause you to a reward regardless of to avoid most new challenges the competition’s outcome, that may arise, and impede any handing out participation real chance of true success. awards to everyone in the “competition” also negatively The cruel truth is that life impacts individuals who have is unfair. Even when you’ve supposedly “won”. It devalues followed the tried-and-true the sheer time and effort they method step-by-step, listened to invested into achieving their every possible avenue of council respective 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. or advice, and given an attempt If everyone else is also receiving your best effort, things may not a similar award just for showing work out. Life doesn’t offer equal up, then what is the point in opportunity to all – some people trying harder? If everyone have to work much harder receives equal acknowledgement just to attain the same benefits of their contributions, as others – and life certainly irrespective of superior skills isn’t one to offer handouts or individual effort, does solely based on “participation” the underlying challenge to alone. If you want to achieve better yourself, or to excel in something, you have to work for comparison to your peers in a it. While participation should competitive setting still exist? still be rewarded, albeit with encouraging words and a pat on Although receiving a the back instead, it is the ones participation award doesn’t who have consistently put in teach you anything applicable the effort above and beyond the to life, the same cannot be said bare minimum who ultimately of receiving a blunt and explicit deserve a spot on the winners’ ‘loss’. Loss is inevitable, as podium. everyone is bound to encounter it at least at some point in Written by Valerie Leow

BUS 201 DEANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S COMPETITION SoClo From left to right; Britney Trieu, Erika Hudon-Kaide, Mahek Kaul, Emma Siegle

Timeless Care Inc. From left to right; Michael DregerSmylie, Kulshan Mahal, Bilal Farah, Chris Hajek

Written by Rodvie Barnachea

Photographs by Austin Yee

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Student Spotlight

At BUS 201’s Dean’s Competition 2018, history was made. For the first time ever, two teams were awarded a first-place tie. After the winners were selected, Lazy Faire had the opportunity to interview both teams. SoClo: “Created the ‘Cosmetic Cover,’ a compostable product that users would place over their faces as they try on clothing in fitting rooms, preventing any makeup from transferring and damaging clothing.” What’s something that you all learned as a team? Mahek Kaul: We all have our strengths and weaknesses. But, honestly, if you have a good team, it was very easy. Emma Siegle: I feel like we got super lucky with our team. We all get along super well and we’re all friends, which, sometimes, was a bad thing, because we’d just have fun instead of work. But it’s been awesome working with each other. Erika Hudon-Kaide: I learned that we can really push one another. ES: I think we can really feed off of each other. Especially with this group of girls, we all want to do our best, always. We want to do our best for them and push each other that way. We also learned that less is more. For our overall business idea, we came up with it by sitting down and saying, “what’s a need that we have?” So, touching on that, was this your first idea? And what were the other ideas? All: This was our fourth or fifth idea! ES: We had portable charging packs. A portable coffee thing. MK: We had customizable food for airplanes. ES: We were all just really frustrated one night and did a video chat and said, “What are simple things that are affecting us?” Erika brought up the face covers that she saw in Japan, and it worked out super well. What made you all settle and say, “Okay this is what we’re going to do?” Britney Trieu: It was a project that made us all say, “Wow. We really want to do this.” ES: Throughout the process, I had a brand new shirt that I just bought that had makeup stains on it. It’s just something that we see all the time. How is it different doing Entre compared to this? EHK: For BUS 201, they really wanted us to talk about the details of our operations and see how far we went with all these little details. Whereas, with Dean’s Comp, it’s more about selling your product to investors and really showing them, “You can make profit, and this has strong demand.” They just really want to know what your product is and how it’s going to give them profits.

ES: For us, we knew that our judges (for Dean’s Comp) wouldn’t necessarily identify with the product, so it was important for us to use our research, use our numbers and stats. We know that they would never need to use it, so our research component was crucial. BT: We had to base our presentation on our judges a little bit. For Entre, it was really pink, but we had to change it here. You finish Entre, and you think you’re done. But when you get that email saying that you’re invited to Dean’s Comp, how does that feel? ES: Mine and Erika’s texts are hilarious. We couldn’t decide whether we were happy or sad. It was definitely a mixed feeling. It was exciting, and obviously an honour to be selected for Dean’s Comp, but at the same time, finals are next week. But I definitely think it was worth it. I feel like we learned so much from it. MK: Huge shout out to Emma who did so much work! EHK: She had to lose so much sleep for the PowerPoint! ES: Thank you, girls. What’s one thing you want readers to know about this whole process? EHK: You might find your bestest friends in something as hard as this — because it’s so hard, and you have to spend so much time, and you might lose your mind. But in the end, you all become so close. ES: Everyone basically lived at my house. EHK: When I think of Emma at the beginning of the semester, it’s a completely different girl in my mind. It’s like, “How?” ES: I was intimidated by Erika at first, but now she’s one of my best friends. What we all learned, too, is that sometimes, it’s okay to point out your flaws and other people’s flaws. For the case, we were very nervous about telling people where we disagreed with them, just to be a nice person. It’s not being rude to disagree with someone. BT: At the beginning, we didn’t want to step on each other’s toes, and just agreed with each other. We just wanted to maintain those relationships because we were so worried in the beginning. ES: If Mahek didn’t put the foot down and say, “I don’t like this idea,” we wouldn’t have ended up with the idea that we did, which was so successful.

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Timeless Care Inc.: “Provides childcare services with unparalleled nurturing and development of children through interactions with the elderly to feel more like a home.” How does it feel? Chris Hajek: Amazing, and totally unexpected. Bilal Farah: Surreal. I don’t know if we actually did this. Michael Dreger-Smylie: It just feels amazing for how much work we put in, and how much we’ve bonded over this experience. Kulshan Mahal: It feels so good; we worked so hard to get here. What’s the biggest thing you learned from this experience? MDS: There were times that we weren’t always on the same page, but we managed to find a way to get through that. We came out stronger on the other end. CH: Just not to self-doubt yourself. I didn’t expect this to happen at any point, and each time, we surprised ourselves with the performance of our presentations. So you just have to be more confident moving forward and use this as a cushion for that. BF: Since we were on a team, it just reminded ourselves that we can rely on each other. Being together as one means we can do great things. KM: Just really believe in yourself. We didn’t think that we’d get to this point, but, with all that hard work, you can do anything you want. What did you learn about yourself? CH: I’m just trying to build up my confidence, but this shows I can accomplish things. Just because something seems daunting, you can still accomplish it. BF: I’ve never even spoken in front of more than 50 people. I learned that I’m capable of doing something like this and not crumbling under pressure. MDS: There’s so much room for self-improvement that I didn’t even realize. Looking back at our first case, I wasn’t particularly impressed with my personal performance on it. But just looking at where we started to where we are now, the amount of growth that we’ve all had shows that there’s room for growth that you don’t always realize. KM: I was incredibly nervous to present in front of the whole lecture hall, and I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. I thought I would be stuttering and completely nervous, but with practicing with my group members and putting in those repetitions, it really shows you can do anything.

Student Spotlight

How was the process? Was this your first idea? How was it when everyone agreed? MDS: We heard about something similar to this in Europe, and I pitched it to our group. It seemed like everyone loved it right away, so it was our first idea and we just rolled with it. CH: We agreed because it was just really good. Everything about it sounded amazing. MDS: I think it was just personal to all of us. It benefits seniors so much; it benefits children. So it was something that we were all personally involved in. How was the preparation in terms of doing the Entrepreneurship Challenge compared to Dean’s Competition? CH: Our preparation for this one was much better, in terms of our timing. Entre became a bit of a grind, but we learned from that. We couldn’t have done it without our coaches, that’s for sure. MDS: They’re very different presentations. One of them, you’re presenting in front of BUS 201 judges, and one you’re presenting in front of potential investors. So you change the key information you’re trying to convey to them. I found the nerves came down a lot for the actual Dean’s Comp compared to Entre. Once we actually got in there, everyone was just calm and collected. CH: Entre seemed scarier; it was something that we were being graded for. But for this, it was, “hey, this is something that’s proven and chosen.” Clearly, it has merit and we know what we’re talking about. So we just have to go out there, do what we’ve already practiced, and go with it. What’s one thing you want readers to know from this? CH: Just know that nothing bad is going to come from this. You will present, and nobody will notice if you fumble over one or two words. BF: Initially, we were just joking around about making it to Dean’s Comp. Don’t underestimate yourself. You’re capable of doing great things, and just keep grinding.

FOR BUSINESS STUDENTS, BY BUSINESS STUDENTS™

BSA Wellness Initiative

Written by Kimberly Chan Designed by Joanna Faddoul

January 2019 book releases Another year gone by, another year of committing to your New Year’s Resolutions failed. This year, why not commit to reading some of the most anticipated January 2019 book releases? Take a break from the textbooks and try some reading for leisure. Reading has been shown to release stress, boost brain power and regular reading can even make you smarter. Many successful business people who thrive in competition, such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, are shown to read quite a bit making them huge competitors in their industries. Looking for success, interested in news or just looking to better yourself? Here are three of the various book releases of 2019 that might pique your interest. Book Releases in 2019 Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson (January 22, 2019) Written by former New York Times editor, Merchants of Truth delves deep into the world of news by focussing on four extremely well known publications: Buzzfeed, Vice, the New York Times and the Washington Post. The book explores the behind the scenes actions of the four media titans during the most volatile years in news history. Interested in fake news, thrusting reporters and deal-making tycoons? This book might spark your interest! An Edited Life by Anna Newton (February 5, 2019).

Is your life a mess? From an overflowing closet to budgeting for food and leisure, An Edited Life is a realistic guide in getting tidy and keeping things organized. The book starts with addressing life organization, tackling work and home schedules before moving on to streamlining one’s belongings. Do you want to know how to keep things more neat and learn how to declutter your desk? Give this book a read! How to Fail by Elizabeth Day (March 18, 2019) This book is for those in need of a little laugh at how badly things can go wrong, and at least it wasn’t you. How to Fail addresses pivotal moments in crisis and failure that the author experienced and how she learned to survive these shortcomings. No matter how ill equipped she was to deal with these issues, Elizabeth did. This book is about how she came to terms with all her past failures and how she learned from them. This was 2019’s book releases. Reading may be a little daunting to those who would normally turn the television on, but it’s well worth its benefits. University students do not prioritize reading as leisure and we hope that this book list encourages anyone to start reading. A few chapters a night over a couple episodes of a mindless show can help individuals grow in mind and knowledge and make them into a strong competitor.

EXTERNAL RELATIONS ADRIANO MARINI

Hello! My name is Adriano Marini, and I have been with Ernst & Young (EY) for almost two years now as a Senior Technology Consultant. I graduated from the University of Alberta in 2017, with a Bachelor of Science with a specialization in Computing Science, and a minor in Business. While I was at the U of A, I worked and volunteered a bunch for the Students’ Union, specifically with Week of Welcome. Is consulting what you've wanted to do since your first year of university? In my fourth year, I really started to consider consulting, as I wanted to do something different with my degree. I was attracted to the idea of dynamic work that challenged me in new ways every day. I loved the idea of having to learn more and more as I went. And, frankly, I liked the idea of being able to help a bunch of different organizations excel. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I started university. My successes, failures, and experiences during university shaped a vague idea of what I wanted my career to look like. By taking the chances that I never thought I would have, that vague idea somehow translated into where I am today – and I couldn’t have ever asked for a better opportunity. Is the consulting industry as competitive as everyone thinks it is? One competitive aspect of consulting is getting hired. Is this a thing? Absolutely. The number of highly qualified people that get in versus the number of highly qualified people that apply is usually a large difference. But, is this simply a function of consulting? No. This happens in a lot of industries, but I think consulting ends up getting a bad rep for it due to the visibility of these firms in the marketplace. Written by Elizabeth Jun

The other aspect of competitiveness in consulting is the between-firm competitiveness. There’s a lot of this type of competition, which is natural given our industry. Consulting is built on the backs of firms’ ability to compete. Without healthy rivalry, we wouldn’t innovate or grow, and we wouldn’t be compelled to focus on providing quality solutions that truly make a difference to our clients. I think that this competitive culture works to the benefit of consultants, and to the benefit of our clients. Competitiveness shouldn’t scare people. It shouldn’t turn you off of an industry or be this insurmountable aspect of your dream job. Competitiveness is a motivator to be better more than anything, and this industry is the proof that a healthy level of competitiveness drives us all to be better. What’s your favourite and least favourite thing about working in a high-pressure situation like consulting? My favourite thing is the growth I’ve experienced, both as a professional and as a person. The pressure that consulting places you under – the pressure to perform, and more importantly, the pressure to learn – forces you to continuously challenge and push yourself. I think that’s a big driving factor behind why consulting is so dynamic. You might be doing something like what you did the day before, but your experience makes it different. My least favourite thing about consulting is building PowerPoint presentations – ESPECIALLY WHEN MY DIAGRAMS REFUSE TO ALIGN PROPERLY. I’ve gotten a lot better at it, but I still have got a long way to go before I’m truly comfortable with it.

FOR BUSINESS STUDENTS, BY BUSINESS STUDENTS™

How did your undergrad years prepare you for the competition in the real world? I think the biggest thing I took away from my undergrad in terms of competitiveness is the idea of ‘selling your knowledge’ – I had a lot of opportunity to work with instructors in a variety of courses outside of traditional assessment boundaries to prove how I knew what I knew. It really opened my eyes to how a ‘sales pitch’ made a difference in the outcome of a scenario. What’s your tip for how to stay on top of the competition? In order to be effective at selling yourself, I think there are three principles that you’ll need to focus on: 1) Be confident – but not cocky. Your experience means something, so own it and figure out how it makes you better. Ultimately, this means that you need to believe in your experience. Selling a product that you don’t truly believe in is not as compelling as passionately demonstrating why that product is truly the best choice – and, in this case, you’re the product. But don’t over-play it, there’s a fine balance to be struck, and going too far can make you seem full of yourself. 2) Be creative. One of my biggest paragraphs on my resume is about my work at Home Depot, where I mixed paint. How does that apply to consulting? My biggest challenge was figuring out how it did. But it did, and it’s a unique piece of experience I used to show my abilities. 3) Put yourself out there. Like I said, competition makes us all better. The best way to get an edge? Throw yourself head-first into competitive situations you never imagined. That’s one of the best ways to really get comfortable with competition, and one of the best ways to get better at it. Designed by Joanna Faddoul

Photos Provided

External Relations

FOR BUSINESS STUDENTS, BY BUSINESS STUDENTS™

Clubs Corner

JDC WEST JDC West is Western Canada's largest case competition and University of Alberta has been a competitor for the past sixteen years. The competition includes twelve different schools that compete across thirteen different disciplines. Ten of the thirteen competition disciplines are case competitions. These ten cases include accounting, business strategy, business technology, entrepreneurship, finance, human resources, international business, NFP, marketing, and operations management. Each team consists of three members handpicked to compete in that specific area. JDC West is hosted once a year in January at one of the competing schools. The 2019 JDC West competition will be hosted by Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. In terms of joining JDC West Alberta, recruitment for the executive team happens from February to March. Some of these executive positions include VP academic, VP charity, VP external, VP internal, and VP marketing. The individuals who fill these positions are chosen by the co-captains. After the executive positions are filled, tryouts for the case teams will begin which includes a written application, a speed interview and a case interview. The social team and the athletic team are recruited in September. The social team consists of first year business students who are ineligible to join any other team because of the recruitment schedule. JDC West Alberta’s co-chairmen, Jon Purdon, states that: “JDC West Alberta exudes competition because we compete against ourselves in the sense that we all want to become a greater version of ourselves. JDC West Alberta really prides itself on our two values of growth and development.” Jon went on to talk about how JDC West helps students learn how to work together as part of the team and how the club supplies them with real life skills that will serve them in their later job endeavors. These cases are valuable for University students because JDC

Written by Wyatt Lynds

â&#x20AC;&#x153;JDC West Alberta exudes competition because we compete against ourselves in the sense that we all want to become a greater version of ourselves. JDC West Alberta really prides itself on our two values of growth and development.â&#x20AC;? West Alberta exudes competition because we compete against ourselves in the sense that we all want to become a greater version of ourselves. JDC West Alberta really prides itself on our two values of growth anddevelopment. They offer real-life scenarios that are applicable to specific degrees and careers. For example, in terms of the accounting students, the cases are geared towards CPA like scenarios. By participating in these tasks, students develop teamwork, experience, and critical thinking skills. Many members of JDC West are self-driven in the sense that they want to compete against themselves and constantly grow in their discipline. The major competition that JDC West Alberta attends is against twelve other elite business schools from across Western Canada, thus this competition is notably competitive compared to other case competitions. JDC West is probably one of the toughest case competitions in Canada due to limited amount of time you have to find a resolution and because of the amount of preparation each University does. The University of Alberta team practices for approximately five hours a week, which is on pace with most of the other competing schools. Opportunities for first year business students are limited at JDC West Alberta, but still attainable. The positions available to first year students are on two teams: social and athletic. As stated earlier, the reason behind this is that first year business students do not arrive until September. Although, JDC West Alberta does helps first year business students grow and develop by offering free feedback sessions for both the business 201 case presentation and the business 201 Entre Challenge. These feedback sessions allow these students to meet members of the team and ask them questions. These first-year students receive the advantage of feedback from these JDC West members who give weekly presentations and have strong public speaking skills. JDC West Alberta runs a boot camp in March and April on Saturdays in order to help University of Alberta business students achieve a better understanding of case competitions and how to set yourself apart in terms of presentations. This boot camp has been operating successfully for two years now. In a nutshell, the boot camp is a one-day accelerated program that assists students with public speaking and in the understanding of what a case competition is. There are four to five sessions a day which include topics such as case analysis tips, implementation tools in PowerPoint, and public speaking. When asked to sum up JDC West Alberta in one sentence, Jon (co-chairmen) stated that the club is built upon, growth and development in our students and competing on an elite platform.

Guest Article

Photo by Dylan Wee

FOR BUSINESS STUDENTS, BY BUSINESS STUDENTS™

The Psychology of Competition: A Conversation with Professor Ben Dyson

Written by Diane Jeon

Competition within the business world is no alien concept. Students compete for grades and bragging rights of functionality on the least hours of sleep and with the most amount of caffeine; the job market beyond ASoB also carries win-lose situations or rankings of the-best-and-the-rest. Curious about the psychological factors that reinforce this seemingly broken conceptualization of competition, I had the great pleasure of interviewing Dr. Ben Dyson, University of Alberta’s newest psychology professor. After teaching at Ryerson and the School of Psychology of University of Sussex, UK, Dr. Dyson now teaches cognitive psychology (PYSCO 258) and basic psychological processes (PSYCO 104) at the U of A. His research of competitive behaviour in simple games reveals alternative parameters of thinking and means of success. Dr. Dyson (DD): “One thing we were really interested in was how people dynamically play [simple] games, [and] how they continue to interact [with] these environments following the experience of certain types of outcomes, specifically negative outcomes. There is often a historical tension between the kinds of things that as a species have served us very well: things like operant conditioning principles or reinforcement learning. This is the idea that you got rid of a lot of your awful childhood habits by being punished for it or [by] being a good child and setting the table for dinner, [these good behaviours] usually get reinforced. As a species, those have been really important for our survival, but in the context of a competition, [those impulses] would make you predictable, makes you quite exploitable.” Diane (DJ): “What kind of personality traits would you say drive [this exploitation], or does it affect it at all?” DD: “Well, this is still something that we’re looking at in the lab. One personality trait that we’re interested in is empathy. In looking at empathy, we’re interested in the degree to which people take ownership of outcomes that they might not be responsible for. We record brain responses to see how the experiences of wins and losses discriminate between something for which you were responsible, relative to something for which you weren't responsible. [We look for the ability] to learn to say, ‘this was

something that I did that I was responsible for, and it was wrong’, versus, ‘that’s a bad outcome, but that wasn’t a thing to do with me’. Those kind of [recognitions] might be quite important in order for us to not overburden ourselves with that sense of responsibility [when interacting in competitive environments].” DJ: “With these negative responses, how can one control [these thoughts of ownership and responsibility?]” DD: “[A] hallmark of expertise, we believe, is the ability to recover from failure. [Take professional tennis matches, for example.] We looked at points where players would make a line call, and that line call would either be successful or unsuccessful, and we wanted to look to see whether the outcome of that line call then impacted their ability to win the next point. there is something emotional, cognitive about that “I lost, but the next point is the next point” [moment], and [how] you recover from that failure if you are a professional and have expertise in that domain. DJ: “It’s interesting because it seems like the way you’re measuring competition is different from the way I measure it. I was previously thinking [of ] competition in terms of how successful each winner is, and you’re thinking more of how fast can the ‘loser’ recover. It’s an interesting paradigm shift.” DD: “One of the reasons for approaching it from that direction is that when you learn anything, you’re more likely to experience failure than success [and] you have to make an awful amount of mistakes before you get competent at something. [But] in education, for example, it’s quite difficult to have people experience failure but enable them to recover from it. For students, there is a tension between devaluing yourself if you get a bad grade, but there is also the opportunity to incorporate the feedback you get to improve your grade. It’s looking behaviourally and looking at the brain for where those initial signals come from and [that can show] what you can do to change them.”

FOR BUSINESS STUDENTS, BY BUSINESS STUDENTS™

LF Reviews

Holiday Baking Championship

hile keeping in the spirit of this month’s theme, we reviewed a TV show aptly called, Holiday Baking Championship.

This show is exactly what it claims to be – a baking show with holiday goodies galore! Eight amateur bakers compete in timed challenges to claim the title of the greatest holiday baker. With every new episode comes a new challenge. To survive the challenges, the bakers must prove their abilities in front of three esteemed judges (Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller, and Lorraine Pascale). The show is currently on its fourth season and airs on the Food Network every Monday. I buckled down to watch an episode titled, “Plenty of Gratitude” from Season 1. I’m not one for game shows, but I’m wholeheartedly in love with all things related to food. This episode begins with Jesse Palmer, the host, arriving onto set hauling several different boxes of pie. Every episode starts with a similar gimmick that foretells the challenge to come. For the first challenge, contestants were required to make four different pies…in the same baking sheet. This may not sound like much to you and I (since my baking knowledge starts and ends with the bakery section at the grocery store), but this challenge made the contestants incredibly nervous. Different pies require different baking times and temperatures; therefore, baking four in one was in fact, tough. As a viewer, it was intriguing to see how the contestants pull this off. Picture eight contestants frantically running through the kitchen trying to find

Written by Rachita Chugh

the right ingredients and tools to bring their pies to life. After a gruesome hour, the contestants presented their pies to judges to receive critiques. The winners were then awarded with an advantage for the main and final challenge in the latter part of the episode. For the main challenge, each contestant was required to bake a stuffed cake using ingredients like blood orange, pear, and cherry to name a few. Although the contestants had a full two hours to complete this challenge, it was apparent that the pressure had also mounted. Upon the ‘ding’ of the timer, contestants once again presented their creations to the judges. Given the show’s title, I’d assumed that the judges were going to give tough critiques. The judging was rather quick and comments rather simple. The judges weren’t afraid to joke around – which almost took away from the intensity of the show. When I watch cooking shows with timed challenges, I expect to be on the edge of my seat, silently rooting for the contestants. However, this show didn’t quite take me there. Although entertaining, I wasn’t particularly amazed with Holiday Baking Championship. In the show’s defense, I did watch the first season – so perhaps the show has upped the ante in its fourth season and I missed out entirely! Either way, if you’re looking for the perfect blend of baking meets reality TV, this show might actually tickle your fancy. If anything, the baked creations looked so delightful and appetizing, that it drove me to the store to get a cake for myself!

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