Students in Free Enterprise collaborated with DECA for the first time ever to host a DECA Business Ethics competition Saturday in the College of Business here at Iowa State.

According to the official DECA website, DECA is a nonprofit national organization that seeks to “prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe.”

In this competition, Students in Free Enterprise provided six DECA teams from across the state of Iowa with a real-life world ethical dilemma that has been faced by a company in the past.

The teams were given an hour and a half to analyze whatever dilemma they were presented with and the circumstances surrounding the dilemma. Once time was up, the teams were asked to deliver a 10 to 15 minute presentation in front of a panel of judges as well as a question and answer session around the course of action they chose and their reasoning behind it.

“In this event, the judges will judge both the case study reasoning and the students’ presentation style while providing constructive feedback,” said Jeff Dotzler, senior in marketing and ISU Students in Free Enterprise president. “We will also make the event fun where we will be having a Jeopardy-like game that relates to ethical situations.”

“There were six teams that presented a real-world case to a panel of 12 judges,” said Jessyca Smith, junior in supply chain management and project leader of the competition. “The case was fairly simple, and all the students did a great job. This was actually some of these students’ first time in DECA and their first time competing in an event such as this. I feel that it really helped them get a feel of what their state competition is going to be like.”

The keynote speaker for the day was Ralph Eucher, senior vice president of Human Resources and Corporate Services at the Principal Financial Group and director and chairman of the Board of Principal Funds. His speech was entitled “Business Risk vs. Reputational Risk – Applying Business Ethics in Everyday Life.”

“Ralph Eucher was our keynote speaker and gave a very knowledgeable speech over business ethics in corporate America,” Smith said. “It was really a great experience listening to him and some of his experiences.”

The teams coming to Iowa State for the competition were Ames High School, Northwood-Kensett, two Ottumwa teams, Perry and Council Bluffs.

This DECA competition is one of many being held across the state. It is meant to serve as a method of showing high school students as well as college students what it is like in the real world of business. It also serves as a step to prepare DECA teams for the next level of competition.

“The competition is not only supposed to enhance their knowledge of the business world, but to also help prepare them for their state competition that is coming up at the end of the month,” Smith said.

“This competition seeks to educate students before going off to college that ethics, especially in corporate America, is critical in modern-day society,” Dotzler said. “You really do not have to look any further than Enron, Tyco or Worldcom to notice that ethics need to be embedded —just like math or science — into students when they walk across the stage to receive their college diplomas, because these are the future leaders of tomorrow.”

This was the first year that Students in Free Enterprise had partnered with DECA for such an event.

“We hope to build strong ties with the organization and make this an annual event,” Dotzler said. “We have several members that have been in DECA in high school, and we have come to find out that both DECA and [Students in Free Enterprise] share a lot of the same beliefs. Thus, we couldn’t think of a better pool of talent to tap into.”