Global Vision Reaches Into Fiji

Fifteen MBA students from the University of the South Pacific’s Graduate School of Business participated in a unique event on Friday Oct. 14. They met with Mr. Terry Clifford from Canada for an interactive training session via Skype.

Mr. Clifford is a life-long educator, a twice member of Canadian parliament, the president of a national non-profit organization, and a Member of the Order of Canada – one of Canada’s highest civilian honours. He spoke to the “Fiji Fifteen” about the global economy, personal and team branding, relationship networking, and finally – he issued a challenge.

When speaking about the global economy and highlighting the protests in Wall Street and the European debt crises, Mr. Clifford asked the students, “Now that you’re entering the world of business, what are you going to do that’s different?” The common theme among the responses had to do with ethics, which is no doubt inspired not only by their observances of international events but also by the Graduate School of Business’ new course “Corporate Governance and Ethics”.

Following their discussion on ethics, the students completed an exercise on personal and team branding. Mr. Clifford demonstrated the key lesson: “Only I know what’s in here,” he said while pointing to his head. “The key is to help everyone else understand what that is.” The exercise was more difficult than it seemed as students grappled with defining what made them unique. Once they determined their skills, however, Mr. Clifford talked about the importance of them contributing their individual attributes for the betterment of the team. “All of us are better than any one of us,” he declared.

In the last section of his presentation Mr. Clifford issued a challenge. He noted, “We have connected and now there is an opportunity to form a relationship. The door is open.” On the topic of ‘Taking Fiji Forward’ Mr. Clifford made an offer: “Take a topic that’s significant and develop a three minute presentation or video on how to take Fiji forward.” Once the “Fiji Fifteen” complete the task, Mr. Clifford has offered to take the presentation to Canada’s capital city of Ottawa and bring it to the Canadian government.

Indeed, the relationship between the “Fiji Fifteen” and Mr. Terry Clifford is budding, and so too may be the relationship between Fiji and Canada.

For more information on the “Fiji Fifteen” please contact fiji.fifteen@gmail.com

For more information on Terry Clifford please visit www.globalvision.ca