M.B.A. Recruiters Resort to Games To Spot Top Talent
Getting a good job often requires a bit of gamesmanship. But for some Master of Business Administration students, landing a new position is all about playing games.
L'Oréal, Booz Allen Hamilton, Procter & Gamble, Groupe Danone and other companies are encouraging more students to play strategy competitions that just might lead to a job offer. Some contests are open to undergraduate and graduate students, while others are limited to M.B.A.s.
As the battle for top talent intensifies, the games help companies stand out in the crowded campus-recruiting field and spot promising candidates. Through the business-simulation games, they can see students in action, demonstrating creativity, tactical thinking, teamwork and persuasion skills.
The games, which are typically played at least partly online, change from year to year. Procter & Gamble's Just-in-Case competition, for instance, has focused on its Olay and Swiffer brands and challenged players to identify the next company P&G should acquire.
With more emphasis on corporate responsibility today, Groupe Danone created an international-management game called Trust. It requires students to formulate a profitable business strategy for a new subsidiary, while taking into consideration social, environmental and ethical issues and retaining "the trust of all the company's stakeholders."
"Students see these games as more fun and engaging than the usual company information sessions and receptions," says Steve Pollock, president of WetFeet Inc., a recruiting consulting firm in San Francisco.
While companies insist that performing well in their games isn't a prerequisite for employment, students certainly could spoil their chances if they bomb out. Some students and school officials are concerned that the games require too much time and might interfere with class assignments. "But if you're really serious about working for a company," Mr. Pollock says, "there's a feeling that you'd better participate."
The games enable companies to reach out to many more campuses than recruiters could ever visit. For example, L'Oréal's e-Strat Challenge marketing game attracted almost 40,000 students from 1,000 schools in 125 countries this year.
"As L'Oréal has become more global, e-Strat has made our recruiting more international, as well," says Geoff Skingsley, executive vice president, human resources, for the beauty-products company. "With e-Strat, we're looking for students with the ability to make the right calls under pressure and with the aesthetic, intuitive sense that is needed in our industry."
L'Oréal also hoped the game would change its image with male students. "We were perceived as a little old-fashioned and as a company more for women," says Jean-Claude Le Grand, director of international corporate recruitment. "But e-Strat has helped us demonstrate that L'Oréal is not so girlie, that it's a serious, modern, world-class company."
In e-Strat, student teams run a virtual cosmetics company called Prima, whose cybercompetitors include Diva, Bella, Vista and mirror.com. They must make dozens of decisions as they manage new brands, Web sites, distribution channels, advertising budgets, and research and development. Should they sell in discount or department stores? Is their target market families or singles, the affluent or low-income?
Each team's online performance is measured with an index that reflects market share, profitability, R&D quality and customer satisfaction. In the end, finalists travel to L'Oréal's Paris headquarters to defend their business plans before a panel of judges. In addition to a possible job offer, winners receive a trip to the destination of their choice.
L'Oréal clearly has become the grandmaster of strategy games. In addition to e-Strat for both M.B.A. and undergraduate students, there is Brandstorm, in which undergraduates act as marketing managers for such brands as Lanc?me and Garnier, and Ingenius, in which engineering students take on an industrial project. The company has hired more than 350 players from Brandstorm for internships and full-time positions, almost 200 from e-Strat, and about 36 from Ingenius.
Booz Allen's CEO Challenge, a war-game simulation, is shorter and more selective than most strategy contests. The consulting firm stages the three-day competition about six times each year, picking just 30 M.B.A. students to play. Students apply by submitting their résumé and answering questions about their most innovative accomplishment and the chief executive they consider a role model.
During the CEO Challenge, student teams slip into the executive roles at an electronics company and react to news that a competitor is rolling out a hot new portable music device six months ahead of schedule.
"It's not a recruiting event per se, but people from the CEO Challenge usually do very well in job interviews," says Daniel Oriesek, head of Booz Allen's European campus recruiting. He estimates the firm hires about 10% of the players.
As more recruiters get into gaming, it will become less distinctive. But for now, companies believe their contests enhance their reputations. Booz Allen surveys participants after the CEO Challenge and finds that it increases both awareness of the firm and its appeal as an employer. "Most people who participate become very interested in Booz Allen," Mr. Oriesek says, "but there are also those students who decide that consulting is not for them."
游戏助你进名企
要得到份好工作往往需要“搏一把”。但对一些就读工商管理硕士学位(MBA)的学生来说，获得一个新职位只需参加一场游戏。
法国欧莱雅公司(L'oreal)、Booz Allen Hamilton、宝洁公司(Procter & Gamble Co., 又名:宝硷公司)和达能集团(Groupe Danone)等知名企业正鼓励更多的学生参加经营策略竞赛，参赛者有可能获得工作机会。一些参赛机会向本科生和研究所开放，但多数这类竞赛只邀请读MBA的学生参加。
随著顶级人才争夺战的加剧，这类游戏有助于企业在校园招聘大军中脱颖而出，并发现那些最有前途的候选人。通过这些商务活动模拟游戏，用人单位可以观察学生们在行动能力、创造性、战术思维、团队精神和沟通技巧方面的表现。
这类游戏通常至少有一部分要在网上进行，游戏的内容每年都不相同。以宝洁公司的Just-in-Case竞赛为例，竞赛内容只围绕该公司的玉兰油(Olay)和速易杰(Swiffer)这两个品牌展开，参赛者被要求指出谁是宝洁公司下一个应收购的公司。
在人们愈加强调企业责任的今天，达能集团设计了一个名为Trust的国际管理游戏。它要求参赛学生为公司新成立的一家子公司制定有利可图的经营策略，在此过程中要综合考虑社会、环境和道德等各种因素，并要维持住“公司所有利益相关方的信赖”。
招聘咨询公司WetFeet Inc.的总裁史蒂夫?波洛克(Steve Pollock)说：“学生们对这类游戏更感兴趣，他们的投入程度也比参加一般的企业信息发布会和情况介绍会时要高。”
虽然各家企业都坚持说在这类竞赛中表现良好并不是被企业雇佣的先决条件，但在竞赛中表现不佳的学生肯定会痛失就业良机。一些学生和学校管理人士担心，这类游戏需要学生花费太多时间并会对正常的教学安排构成干扰。但波洛克表示：“如果你真的想到一家公司去工作，你最好还是参与（它推出的竞赛游戏）。”
这类游戏使企业得以将触角延伸到招聘人员从不会涉足的众多校园中去。例如，欧莱雅公司的e-Strat Challenge营销游戏今年就吸引了125个国家1,000所学校的近40,000名学生参与。
欧莱雅公司的人力资源执行副总裁司天利(Geoff Skingsley)说：“随著欧莱雅成为更加全球化的企业，e-Strat也使我们的招聘更为国际化。凭借e-Strat，我们正在寻找能够正确面对压力，并具有我们这个行业所必需的审美能力和直觉的学生。”
欧莱雅也希望这个游戏能改变自己在男生心目中的形象。欧莱雅国际公司招聘主管让-克劳德?勒?格兰(Jean-Claude Le Grand)说：“我们被认为是有点老套和更加面向女性的公司。但e-Strat有助于我们证明欧莱雅不是一个女性化的公司，而是一个严肃、现代化的世界级企业。”
在e-Strat中，学生团队会经营一家叫做Prima的虚拟化妆品公司，它的网上竞争对手包括Diva、Bella、Vista和mirror.com。他们必须在管理新品牌、网站、分销渠道、广告预算和研发的过程中做出数十个决策。是应该在折扣店中还是在百货商店中销售？他们的目标市场是家庭，还是单身人士？是富裕人群还是低收入者？
每个团队的网上表现都通过体现市场占有率、盈利能力、研发质量和客户满意度的一个指数进行衡量。最终，参加决赛的选手将到欧莱雅的巴黎总部在一组评委面前陈述他们的商业计划。除了可能获得工作机会外，获胜者还能到他们自己选择的目的地度假。
欧莱雅显然已经成为策略类游戏的大师。除了面向MBA和本科生的e-Strat之外，还有Brandstorm和Ingenius，前者让本科生担任兰蔻(Lancome)和卡尼尔(Garnier)等品牌的营销经理，后者则让工科学生参与到工业项目中。欧莱雅已经从Brandstorm的参与者中招聘了350多名实习生和全职员工，通过e-Strat招聘了约200人，从Ingenius的参与者中招聘了36人。
Booz Allen的CEO Challenge是一个模拟战争游戏，它比大多数策略竞赛更短，也更具选择性。这家咨询企业每年举行6次为期3天的比赛，仅选择30名MBA学生参加。提出申请的学生需要提交简历，并列出他们最具创造力的成绩和回答对首席执行长角色的认识等问题。
在CEO Challenge中，学生团队会在一个电子公司中充当管理人员的角色，他们须对一家竞争对手比计划提前6个月推出一款热门便携式音乐播放器的消息做出反应。
Booz Allen负责欧洲校园招聘的主管丹尼尔?奥瑞赛克(Daniel Oriesek)说，本质上这并不是招聘活动，但参加CEO Challenge的人通常会在工作面试方面表现得非常好。他预计该公司将聘用其中10%左右的选手。
随著越来越多的招聘企业推出此类游戏，游戏的内容也将越来越雷同。但就目前而言，这些公司认为此类竞赛提高了他们的声望。Booz Allen在CEO Challenge游戏结束后对参加者进行了调查，结果显示此举增加了企业的知名度和对应聘者的吸引力。奥瑞赛克说，大多数参与者都变得对Booz Allen充满兴趣，但也有学生认为咨询业不适合他们。
Ronald Alsop
