1. Lifes Business Plan: Jesuit Business Educations Secret Weapon

2. Discussion Outline Jesuit business educations competitive advantages Corporate Americas predicament The Jesuit secret weapon that fits Americas predicament

3. Competitive advantage is fundamental to strategy Strategy is the deliberate search for a plan of action that will develop a businesss competitive advantage and compound it. (Porter, Strategy) …Ramons corollary: focus on clients not competitors

4. Some competitive advantages dont involve the Jesuit thing Location Reputation Quality of faculty Cost?

5. Other potential competitive advantages are distinctly Jesuit National network of Jesuit universities International network of Jesuit ministries The Jesuit brand Approach to intellectual and human formation National alumni network Spiritual Tradition

6. How well do Jesuit institutions leverage each advantage?

7. Jesuit spiritual tradition, aka Spiritual Exercises A lost opportunity for Jesuit business education…or not leveraged because its irrelevant?

8. What are the Spiritual Exercises, core to the spiritual tradition Loyolas systematized spiritual journey Four weeks of meditations on ones own life, Jesus life, and ones path in life Lots of stuff about hell Specifically Catholic Arcane language that Jesuits wont change Idiosyncratic: one week has 12 days?

9. Some obvious problems with Exercises on modern campus: Lots of stuff about hell Specifically Catholic Arcane language that Jesuits wont change Idiosyncratic: one week has 12 days? Soft stuff: business teaches hard stuff

10. Rubric of Strategic Plan might showcase Exercises relevance? Vision Mission Values = Our enduring core Strategic Decision- making Execution or Implementation = Our ability to adapt by navigating change

11. Corporate predicament, #1: No one believes in enduring core! Vision is just a word, show me the growth 76% of financial executives say they would sacrifice economic value to keep earnings rising smoothly

12. Corporate Predicament #2: Problems making strategic choices Up to 40% of public mergers dont add significant value for shareholders 45% of executives rely on intuition rather than on facts in running their businesses

13. Predicament #3: Corporations dont implement strategies well Execution is a systematic process of…tenaciously following through, and ensuring accountability..[its] the great unaddressed issue in the business world today. [Charan/Bossidy, Execution]

14. Predicament #4: Employees dont care about the mission either 67% of us now equate the good life with good for us 80+% of college students aspire to be well- off financially; only 30+% interested in developing a meaningful philosophy of life

15. Jesuit business educations secret weapon: the spiritual tradition Reframe the Exercises as a personal strategic plan addressing corporate Americas challenges: good for companies, good for students, and good for your schools competitive advantage

16. Re-framing the Exercises as a personal strategic plan: Mission Vision Values = Lots of reflection on lifes enduring core = To praise, reverence and serve = the Kingdom? = Humility, love, self-awareness

17. Exercises also imbed strategic choice and execution skills Making sound strategic choices Executing accountably Practice of discernment Detachment Ends before means Daily examen

18. Companies win by getting better- equipped recruits who: Can navigate complicated decisions Can monitor their daily effectiveness Know their values Understand the concept of mission: goals larger than self

19. Students win: acquire critical, modern-world relevant skills The challenge Lots of job changes Chaotic lifestyles Collapse of organized religion Few acknowledged community values The antidote Decision-making technology Daily Updating tool Establish your mission Articulate your values

20. Jesuit Business Education wins by leveraging a unique competitive advantage Students draw on the Jesuit spiritual tradition to craft their personal strategic plan as capstone of their business education

21. The last word, from the patron saint of Jesuit business education: There are in this city 6,500 beggars…and many of these have been reduced to begging the necessities of life….Perhaps if we had a flair for business…we could concern ourselves more with this problem. (P. Favre)