Costco Connection - March 2008

NEWS&links
The business
of tomorrow

HAVE YOU EVER wondered where the business leaders of tomorrow will come from? So do the business leaders of today. To ensure the future of free enterprise, as well as inspire and motivate the next generation of adults, programs are springing up to introduce high school students to the business world. For information on programs in your state, visit www.bizkids.biz.

One such program is Washington Business Week (WBW; www.wbw.org), which was started more than 30 years ago by Washington state education and business leaders who recognized that students were graduating from high school “without the critical skills that employers were looking for in employees.”

According to Steve Hyer, the current executive director of WBW, “Our goal is to bring relevance to what kids get in high school.”

The week-long Business Week program creates a virtual corporation, allowing students to experience various business functions, including customer service, marketing, financial practices, research and development, strategy, leadership, conflict, team issues and

Business Week participants are
taught the skills that can help
them achieve success in the
world of today, and tomorrow.

WASHINGTON BUSINESS WEEK

many other skills relevant to today’s complex work world.

WBW offers four annual sessions at college campuses around the state, as well as in-school programs, and many of the participating volunteer mentors are graduates of the program.

One of those mentors is Costco member Brenda Morris. In high school, Morris dreamed of becoming a flight attendant. Today, she is the chief operating officer and chief finanicial offi-

cer of iFloor ( www.ifloor.com), a flooring company based in Tukwila, Washington. “Business Week can be a life-changing event for a teenager,” says Morris. “It was for me. In high school many students are struggling with their direction in life or unsure of what they might be interested in or good at.

“I know many students who left the program with a clear direction of what they wanted to pursue in their career, when they had started the week totally unsure.”

The program has the support of many of the state’s key businesses, Costco being one. Costco’s vice president of administration, Art Jackson, serves on the leadership council of WBW. “Business Week focuses on the opportunity for students to run a business, with its many challenges,” says Art. “However, its real value lies in the opportunity for students to work within a diverse team to accomplish realistic goals, while further developing leadership skills. This experience aids these young people in recognizing their potential to be contributing members of our complex society.”

—Steve Fisher

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