Business team makes real corporate decisions; teamwork wins them honors in national game The well-managed Scentsations potpourri company won honors this year for its owners, Harding's business team. The use ofteamwork helped them capture first place in their five-school "world," a division of the national competition. The team also won awards for best stock price, income and sales, return on investments and income and equity. Teammember Chris Turney was excited about the victory, which was the first of its kind for Harding in more than 10 years. "My focus was to win in our competition, but I didn't do much; I just turned everything over to the members." Turney led the group to begin "playing" a simulated computer game in February, with potpourri as the product and Seen tsa tions as their company name. For two months, the team made decisions almost every day about how to run their company and entered them into the computer. The next day, the results of the judges' decision 150 School of Business would be reported to the team. Selection of five team members was the "key decision" for Turney, a senior economics and professional sales major who was the only returning member to assist Mike Emerson, the faculty sponsor. "I knew some people who had expressed interest and some who were familiar with the program." Turney had gotten his start on the business team by observing and helping the team during his junior year. "When I picked members, I looked not only for qualified people, but for members who could return the next year and help pick new members." Junior Allison Rector, a public relations major, was one of the new members. "Chris is my cousin so I learned about it through him," Rector said. "I thought Allison was a great choice because she wasn't a business major," Turney said. "Most business people focus more on just the numbers. With Allison, she focused more on writing and communi cation Outstanding business students are honored at induction ceremonies for Delta Mu Delta, conducted by Christie Bishop. The School of Business encouraged community among its students. Photo by Christie Mangrum. skills. I can't remember when a team has had a member that was not a business major, but since real corporations always have public relations aiding them, it made perfect sense." Dennis Bartley, a junior accounting major, learned the game by helping and watching the previous year's team. He was chief officer of operations. "I worked more with the computer game," Bartley said. "There were different roles that each member got to fulfill, ... but we really came together." In March, the team traveled to San Jose, Calif., to compete in the national tournament. The competition was hosted by San Jose State, who created the game. During the five-day competition, members of the team were expected to make decisions for their company every hour that, in a real business situation, would normally be made in a week. "It wasn't any one individual who won, but the whole team," Turney said. - Darcia Woodard
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