Smith MBAs Go Under Fire

Leadership under Fire winning team members, from left, Semret Lemma, Suzanne L'Amoureux and Adarsh Namala

A blaze kills several workers at the Indonesia subsidiary of a multinational food company already facing a developing attack from a rainforest protection network.

The fictitious scenario (another involved a pharmaceutical company linked to mercury contamination in India) framed part of a Feb. 22 "Leadership under Fire 2013" competition at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Eight Smith-MBA student teams, each as a trio of company executives, devised a course of action to preserve credibility with stakeholders, to its brand and with the global community. They presented and defended their plans in a press briefing scrutinized by a judging panel of communication industry pros.

Seasoned reporters from the likes of Barron's, the Washington Post and Washington Business Journal challenged the students. Those tasked with the Indonesia case were pressed to explain their accounting to the fire-victim families, employees, local partners and government officials, and in regard to the broader environmental criticism.

"Great leaders think on their feet, have presence and handle stress under fire. They're flexible, adaptable and resilient. We saw a lot of that today," said Jeff Kudisch, managing director of Smith's Office of Career Services (OCS) and a faculty expert in leadership, negotiations and human capital management. He also advises the school's Professional Communication's Club – the competition's co-organizer, along with the Smith chapter of Net Impact. The groups were supported by OCS and Smith’s Center for Social Value Creation.

Kudisch's remarks punctuated a post-competition ceremony recognizing the winning team of Semret Lemma, Adarsh Namala and Suzanne L'Amoureux (also recognized for top individual performance).

"I immediately jumped at this opportunity, and I’m grateful." said Namala. "I wanted to get out of my comfort zone – especially to exercise my public speaking skills. Communicating clearly and concisely is crucial to effective leadership in any setting.”

Ken White, Smith’s associate dean for MBA and MS programs, said the competition perfectly complements the school’s initiatives in experiential learning and effective communication. “What excites me is the fact that the event is student-driven. The students chose to put themselves in a high pressure event that will ultimately improve their communication skills."

Winning Keys

The judges scrutinized delivery content from written (prepared press releases) and spoken to nonverbal. "We looked for a clear and rational action plan, plus clear subject knowledge and non-wavering consistency among the teammates in the line of reporter fire, which can get vicious," said judge Kelly Dieter (MBA '12), director of media and marketing for Worldwide Speakers Group. "The winning team displayed very strong presentation skills, kept cool in answering the hard questions and came up with a well-branded action plan they named 'Elevate.'"

Lemma said his team prepared with a multi-faceted approach. "We researched and took lessons from actual crisis management cases. But we focused greatly on the strengths and weaknesses of our hypothetical position as a company," he said.

"While careful to not over-practice, we wanted make sure we had a solid grasp of our core message and were prepared to channel it to any and all of our responses to the reporters,” said Lemma. “So if we ever hit a wall, we knew the path back to our core message.”

Leveraging the Experience

White said research conducted by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) “tells us that corporate leaders, the people who hire our students, want and expect their new hires to possess high quality communication skills.”

“Leadership under Fire provided our students the perfect experiential learning opportunity to improve their soft skills,” he said. “The students seized the opportunity in one of the best examples of experiential learning I have ever seen.”

Competition judge Julie Gowin, outreach coordinator for UMD’s Department of Communication, concurred: "A real advantage to this exercise is that it forced these students to take a risk, and for the first time really put themselves 'out there' to get feedback about their presentational skills and their ability to put together a message and present it to the public – something that's not as easy as it sounds.”

"These students came across as ambitious and very professional in their approach,” she added.

Kudisch said the students got a taste of "how great leaders distinguish themselves by their willingness to step out of their comfort zones and take risks and learn about themselves."

This signature event also captures the Smith School brand as an excellent example of innovative and experiential learning, he said. "It brought together our MBA and Executive MBA communities for some true 'learning in the moment.'"

Greg Muraski, Office of Marketing Communications

About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and part-time MBA, executive MBA, MS in business, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.