MC junior participates in prestigious Business Today conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 5, 2008
Contact: Karen B. Eldridge, Director of News and Public Information
865.981.8207; karen.eldridge@maryvillecollege.edu

Peter Coats is now a member of one of the most prestigious clubs for college students.

The Maryville College junior, who is majoring in international business, just returned from an all-expense-paid, three-day conference in New York City. Coats was one of only 150 students invited to attend the 34th Annual Business Today International Conference, where he learned, collaborated and networked with some of the brightest students and business leaders in the world, including 60 CEOs and other executives.

“It was awesome,” said Coats of the experience. “The students I met were really impressive – real go-getters who all had a variety of different backgrounds. I met and talked with about 15 CEOs, too. All of it was quite remarkable.”

Founded by Steve Forbes in 1968 at Princeton University, Business Today is a non-profit student organization committed to encouraging debate and dialogue between college students and business leaders. The non-profit supports conference seminars, a magazine and an online journal, all of which are run by Princeton students.

More than 1,100 college and university students from 17 countries applied for this year’s international conference by sending in resumes and a 250-word essay on leadership. (The theme for the 2008 conference was “The Dynamics of Leadership: Transformation and Innovation in the 21st Century.”)

The 150 students selected spent Nov. 23-25 at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. The conference included addresses by chief executive officers, chief financial officers and presidents of some of the country’s major corporations, including Prudential Financial, Inc.; Avon Products; Universal Studios; NASA; and Starwood Hotels. Smaller sessions were led by executives from corporations such as Mitsubishi International, American Airlines, the Associated Press, Godiva Chocolatier, Morgan Stanley, Verizon and Coach Leatherworks.

Community service matters

Coats heard about the international conference while attending a Business Today regional conference held in Dallas, Texas, last March. At the regional conference, he competed in an “elevator pitch” competition designed for students to present new business models and or products. There, he finished among the top participants. He believes that presentation gave him an advantage in being selected for the prestigious international conference.

With approximately 90 percent of students at the conference majoring in finance or economics, Coats said he was a minority. His international business major may have helped him “diversify” the conference a little bit, but he learned of something else on his application that gave him a leg up.

“Amit Mukherjee, the director of the conference, told me, ‘Peter, it was your community service.’ Being a Bonner Scholar, I do a lot more service than the average student, so it was interesting to learn that it gave me an edge over a lot of other applicants. For me, that was really cool.”

(As a Bonner Scholar, Coats receives a scholarship to attend Maryville College in exchange for completing about 600 hours of volunteer work both during the school year and throughout the summer. Bonner service work has led to positions in schools, orphanages and other non-profits, including service on the boards of the Breakthrough Corporation and The Gate, both organizations that assist adults with special needs. Coats has volunteered in Mexico, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador.)

Learning through case studies

Much of students’ time at the Business Today conference was spent working on case study projects. Prior to departing for New York, Coats received a 30-page packet detailing the corporation he and six other students would analyze and then make recommendations for fiscal strength and future growth.

Coats met with his advisor, Dr. John Gallagher, associate professor of management, to get some tips. Gallagher advised him to study the corporation’s strengths and weaknesses and to also weigh the pros and cons of suggesting moderate changes versus bold business moves.

Because he hopes to someday work for a business consulting firm or venture capitalist firm, Coats described the case study exercise as “perfect.”

He was also intrigued by the dynamics of his case study team, members of which represented prestigious academic institutions from across the country: Duke, Vanderbilt, Louisiana State, Middlebury, the University of Rhode Island, Wofford.

“Each person had his or her different strengths,” Coats said of his teammates. “We all had analyzed companies and understood finance. As a student of the liberal arts, I felt like my strength was in easily seeing how the different aspects of the corporation fit together and affected each other. For instance, you can’t change products or services without changing the marketing and advertising.”

“I didn’t feel like I was lacking in any of the knowledge or skills needed to contribute to the project,” he added. “We all worked really well as a team.”

Using his photography and graphic design skills, Coats was instrumental in the development of the corporation’s new campaign, which was presented to Mike Pocalyko, founder and CEO of Monticello Capital, and other student judges from Princeton in the case study competition. He said he also believed he was able to contribute much to the discussion about how the corporation should exhibit ethical business practices because of his education at Maryville.

Coats said he’ll keep in touch with the people he met. For one reason, they are new friends; for another, they may well figure into his professional life.

“These students are some of the smartest in the country,” he said. “I have no doubt that they will be tomorrow’s business leaders and who knows, an ongoing friendship could lead to future business ventures.”

Coats is in the process of applying for an internship at several business consulting and venture capitalist firms around the country, including Bain and Company and Council Ventures.

Conference offers numerous benefits

Gallagher, Coats’ advisor, said he is not surprised at either his advisee’s invitation to the prestigious conference nor his performance there.

“Peter is insatiably curious,” said the associate professor of management. “He’s interested in all kind of things and really wants to understand. Through his travel and service work, I know he’s seen and experienced a lot of things that have helped him understand his place in the world a little better. That, I believe, has made him really committed to learning.”

Gallagher said Coats is “opportunistic” in the best sense of the word. That trait will serve the student well after he graduates, the professor said, adding that Coats’ liberal arts background will open doors, as well.

“The secret to business is not at all technical,” Gallagher said. “Success requires imagination and courage. To me, those are the fruits of a liberal arts education – to imagine things that don’t exist already and to have the courage to act from an ethical, moral center.”

In addition to the networking opportunities Coats took advantage of in New York, Gallagher said that students who participate in conferences like Business Today set themselves apart because they learn how to work effectively in teams and how to perform under pressure.

“They’re tremendously beneficial, I think,” he said.

Maryville College is ideally situated in Maryville, Tenn., between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Knoxville, the state's third largest city. Founded in 1819, it is the 12th oldest institution of higher learning in the South and maintains an affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Known for its academic rigor and its focus on the liberal arts, Maryville is where students come to stretch their minds, stretch themselves and learn how to make a difference in the world. Total enrollment for the fall 2009 semester is 1,103.