SAGE Manual
of Business Ideas and
Best Practices
Edition for the
2006 – 2007 School Year
“Creating Better Futures through SociallyResponsible Entrepreneurship”
Contact Information
Curt DeBerg, Ph.D.
SAGE Executive Director
College of Business
California State University
Chico, CA 95929-0011
(530) 898-4824
Fax: (530) 898-4584
E-Mail: cdeberg@csuchico.edu
http://www.csuchico.edu/sage
Van Ajemian, J.D.
SAGE Manual Co-Editor
2112 West Whittier Blvd., #203
Montebello, CA 90640
(323) 720-1022
E-Mail: vanajemian@hotmail.com
http://www.csuchico.edu/sage
Table of Contents
Introduction .
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Page 2
National SAGE Champions from 2006
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Page 5
Scoring Points: Commerce, Community, Competition,
and College .
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Page 12
The Right Stuff: What Your Business
Does for You Personally .
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Page 13
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1
Introduction
Ready for a year of commerce, community, and competition?
Have you been in a SAGE competition? Competition is not just fun,
but, also, you get a sense of accomplishment when you look at your team’s
PowerPoint presentation, annual report, and news clippings. These add
polish to your college, job, and scholarship applications. And think of all
the peers whom you meet who think like you. What a great feeling!
Imagine, now, if two hundred students from your school did what you
did. And the nearest high school did the same. Sounds like too much?
The answer is, “’Too much’ is not in the SAGE dictionary”. Why?
The answer lies outside the classroom, in the real world. The real
world needs you and what you are doing a hundred times over. An
exaggeration? Not at all:
1. August 16, 2006 — By Reuters
GENEVA — Rich countries have to make drastic changes to policies if
they are to avoid the water crisis that is facing poorer nations, the WWF
environmental organisation said on Wednesday. ...
2. Warming to the Inconvenient Facts
By Michael Grunwald
Washington Post, Sunday, July 23, 2006; Page B01
Global warming is having its moment in the sun. The climate crisis is on
"60 Minutes" and in Tom Brokaw's new documentary, on the cover of
Time and Newsweek, and in Al Gore's new movie and best-selling book.
But while polls show that most Americans now believe that global warming
is real and significantly manmade – in 100-degree Washington last week,
it felt more real than ever -- they are much less concerned about the
issue than non-Americans, and much less willing to support dramatic
action to address it.
The problem is, most scientists now believe dramatic action is necessary
to prevent a climate catastrophe.
They warn that unless humans can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
70 percent, global warming could threaten the habitability of the earth.
That's the inconvenient part of "An Inconvenient Truth." And when Gore's
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critics complain that such drastic reductions would require an assault on
our way of life, they're telling the truth, too.
3. Abstract of an article in the Bulletin of the American Scientists, July /
August, 2006.
Nuclear weapon states have reduced the global stockpile to its lowest
level in 45 years. Yet, all five original nuclear weapon states continue to
insist that nuclear weapons are essential to their national security, which
translates into the possibility that more nations will want the Bomb,
according to Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen.
The list is much longer than this. Suffice it to say that it is not an
exaggeration for us to say that we need you and what you are doing a
hundred times over. So, how do we get from here (you) to there (you a
hundred times over)?
First, you must believe that what you are doing is more than a way to
increase your chances of entering your favorite college, getting a desired job
or being selected for a scholarship. You are a pioneer, a trailblazer, a leader,
a visionary. You are a change agent. We believe that “change agent” would
be the most important job of the twenty-first century, not because it would
pay the most, but, rather, because it would do the most good for the most
people. You, as a change agent, are indispensable to the creation of a better
world. So do not make any plans for long vacations.
Second, you must believe that what you are doing is so important that
others, like your classmates and younger siblings, should become involved.
It would be great if they, too, competed in SAGE, either on your team or
another, but the competition is not the main reason why you are doing what
you are doing. The key question: what could your SAGE team be doing
this school year to get others interested in becoming change agents?
Third, you must believe that you have something very valuable to
teach and show others, including adults. You must believe that, while adults
teach, mentor, and coach, your team can become a valuable example to the
entire community, including adults. How? If you look at last year’s
manual, downloadable from www.csuchico.edu/sage, you will find a list of
best practices under “How Your Business Might Succeed and Win in
Competition”. When using these best practices—and encouraging others to
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do the same, your team becomes a valuable example. The key question: is
your team ready, willing, and able to become a valuable example?
Finally, you must adopt a different way of seeing the world.
Example: instead of saying, “Let us volunteer to help feed the homeless”,
you ask, “Why are they homeless? What can we do so that they take care of
themselves and we do not have to volunteer next year to feed them? And
can we create a business through which we make money as we get the
homeless to stand on their feet?” Impossible? No. But answering these
questions takes more research and creative thinking than is normally taught
in school or experienced in the community. SAGE wants you to become a
pioneer, trailblazer, leader, and visionary—in short, a change agent—
because that is what the world needs desperately in the twenty-first century.
A real example. This came from an online newsletter of the United
Nations Foundation, August 21, 2006:
We’re excited to let you know about the launch of a website for our
Nothing But Nets campaign against malaria! Already, more than 17,000 of
you have joined us to get bednets to families in Africa—and so have the
NBA, the United Methodist Church, and other exciting organizations. …
What would you, as a change agent, ask? “Are there materials in Africa
which could be used to make those bednets?” “What would it take for those
bednets to be manufactured in Africa?” “How could the manufacture of
bednets be integrated into the African economy?” “Could our SAGE team
create a business which would enable Africans vulnerable to malaria to
establish and accelerate the manufacture and use of bednets?”
"Let history not say about our age that we were those who were rich in means but poor in will."
--Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General
"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were
done." --Louis D. Brandeis, activist, lawyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
“A Millennium Goal to halve poverty rates over the next 10
years will be impossible to attain unless more attention is
focused on the environment, a United Nations-endorsed World
Resources 2005 document says. Because 75% of the world's
poor depend on nature for their income, WRI President
Jonathan Lash says a linkage must be acknowledged between
poverty and the environment.” UN Wire, September 2, 2005.
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National SAGE Champions from 2006
1. Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, California, USA. This team
took first place in the world competition, also. From The LookOut:
…“I am incredibly proud of these students,” [high-school principal
Ilene] Strauss said. “They represent us well. It really shows us what
a strong connection between businesses and the schools can do.”
Local businesses, organizations and individuals like the Doubletree
Hotel, Santa Monica franchises of McDonalds and Pizza Hut, the
American Red Cross and local businessman Dave Heller support and
mentor the students…
And tutors from UCLA, Cal State Dominguez Hills and Santa Monica
College pitch in to fine tune the teens’ business plans and help train
workers at the real-time ventures the teens run, added senior Anthony
Campbell.
The teens thrive on the atmosphere of mutual support.
“We get along. We’re like a mini-family,” senior Carlton
Fortenberry said. “If somebody’s struggling, they don’t feel
embarrassed to ask for help.”
And their teamwork pays off.
In the last eight years, student management has increased revenues by
150 percent at the Vike’s Café and Vike’s Inn, where youngsters can
get lunch, snacks and hip supplies picked out by buyers their own age.
Just last April, sales went up five percent, Coker said enthusiastically,
and the enterprises bring in from $450 to $500 a day, or more than
$70,000 a year.
But the students aren’t resting on their laurels.
Next year, they plan to open a new healthy soup and sandwich eatery
with a tropical theme at the high school. …
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2. The Economic Lyceum, Odessa, Ukraine. Also, this team was the first
runner-up in the world competition. From the team’s 2005 – 2006 annual
report:
Project “Bright Kids” was carried out exactly for clever children, for
our future entrepreneurs and businessmen. The main purpose of this
project was to show the basis of economics in a simple and interesting
way. The project had a form of business games, such as
“Advertising”, “Brain Attack”, Flight to the Moon”, “Tower”,
“Money”.
[Project “Village Development”] we conducted together with Odessa
SIFE-team and State Centre of Village Development.
This year we visited village schools in the Odessa region several
times. We conducted a series of economic games, the main aim was
to increase the level of knowledge in economics. Within the frames of
this project we cooperated with the members of the school agro
center. Our team carried out a complex of seminars and trainings
which gave a possibility to reorganize the work of the agro center of
the school.
Nowadays Internet has become the most useful source of information.
That is why our team has created a site that contains information
about the activity of the team “Business Grade”. The main purpose
of this site was to draw people’s interest to our projects. Besides, the
site contains the most required information for pupils; these are
economic notions, hot news, school reports and reference books. …
3. The Songjiang No. 2 High School, Shanghai, China. This team was the
second runner-up in the world competition. From the team’s 2006 annual
report:
Our team believes that every student has marvelous potential. When
we apply our knowledge to help others, such potential can be greatly
tapped through all our social involvement.
Globalization offers us the delicacies from across the world.
However, it has gradually taken the traditional culture away from us.
Some traditional artists face great challenges.
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Applying the knowledge studied above, we applied the global views
and creative interpretation to design some ads of the traditional
Chinese culture. Feedback: 80% favored and attended our related
cultural activities. …
A cultural fair at Yue Yang Plaza. Artistes performed on-spot shows.
Visitors got closer to our traditional culture. On-spot sales: 468
RMB. Number of visitors: about 1,500. …
On June 30, we held a cultural exchange event with American
students. They learnt to make Chinese knots. We talked and
understood how to deal with the culture differences between different
countries. An 80-year-old artiste was invited by us to show them
paper-cutting. …
4. Gray’s International College, Kaduna, Nigeria. This team was the third
runner-up in the world competition. From the 2006 annual report:
Gray’s Sage team embarked on this program, in 2005, taking
advantage of the Villagers’ produce in order to empower them and
create wealth for themselves. This year, the team were motivated to
reach out to other communities. The communities reached were
taught how to make and market basic household products like yoghurt
and the ethical concepts involved in it. Result: a woman started a
small business earning an average of #7000.00.
[Post Centre] is designed by the SAGE Team in order to effectively
bridge the communication gap between the students, the villagers and
the outside world. The Team positioned a centralized kiosk where the
students help the villagers in writing of letters, selling of stamps and
envelopes, collecting parcels. Letters were dropped and sent to the
office of NIPOST. Four communities were reached.
Our quarterly road trips to Mando Prison Camp Kaduna in the
northern part of Nigeria is one of then Team’s favourite impacts
because of the team’s bounding experience, but more importantly,
because of the impact in the lives of the inmates and the students. Our
lesson is to show them love, give them hope for a better life; creating
a brotherly atmosphere and sharing essential commodities, with
special session on careers and business ethics. …
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5. The PRESEC SAGE team, Ghana. This team participated in the world
competition. From the team’s 2006 annual report:
“A Little Goes a Long Way”. This project aims at beautification of
PRESEC-LEGON. PRESEC lacks proper landscaping, floral and
horticultural packages which will give it aesthetic beauty and enhance
its looks in general, making it attractive to all who visit the school.
The poor appearance of the school tends to encourage littering of the
compound with unwanted materials such as pure water sachets,
wrappers and empty containers of all kinds. …
The Team started by collecting the used pure water sachets and other
plastic containers around, washing them, cutting the top open and
filling them [with] fertile soil. Stems of fast growing plants were cut
and planted in the sachets filled with soil. …After a month of nursing
the seedlings for sale between $1 an d$5 to the various students’
dormitories and masters’ bungalows. The SAGE Team also taught
the customers how to cater for the young plants. …
6. Belleville South high School, Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa. The
team took part in the world competition. From the 2006 annual report:
The school embarked on what we call “mission cycling”. The whole
school is currently involve din this entrepreneurship venture, which
was started by six learners and three teachers. It has now grown to
over 70 learners and 12 teachers. Through SAGE our learners were
afforded the opportunity to serve their school and community and at
the same time acquire valuable business skills and become socially
responsible citizens.
Our project started after a need was identified to clean our immediate
environment. We collected plastic bottles, cans, plastic plant holders,
newspapers, wires, tissue boxes, etc., and turned them into marketable
goods like lamps, jewellery boxes, candle holders and bookmarks.
Through this venture we sell these products and service the
environment and community.
We then expanded our production-line by producing placemats, trays,
beadwork on wood boxers / cases, decoupage products and craft
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paintings. We are currently in the process of establishing an article
21 company by means of which we will train and employ the
unemployed in our poverty-stricken community. All profits shown are
deposited into the school’s banking account and donated to various
forms of charities we have adopted. …
7. Eunice High School, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. This team
competed in the world competition. From the 2005-2006 annual report:
South Africa is an African country with a huge ability for the
transformation and the development of human potential. … Our allgirls school … has a well-known annual tradition in which students
participate in community-based projects called Leadership Projects.
Our group decided to target a disadvantaged community, Heidedal.
We identified the need and soon realized this project had the potential
to be a successful business. We thus re-strategized and aligned our
project plan to a formal business plan. We were willing to take the
risk and seized the opportunity generate profit and create a business
unit. …
Substance abuse is increasingly becoming not only a problem locally,
but globally. Heidedal is a community, like many others in South
Africa, in which the youth are victims of alcohol and drug abuse. The
problem stems not only from a lack of education, but also as a result
of a lack of entertainment, a lack of opportunities, feelings of neglect,
the aftermath of apartheid, and the challenges of democracy. The
need identified was to generate an income as musical agents and
events managers while simultaneously creating healthy entertainment,
which would engage the youth of Heidedal. …
8. Polytechnic College “Progress”, Almaty, Kazakhstan. This team
participated in the world competition. From its competition report:
In possession of our college we have some equipment, plants and
territory for growing mushrooms. The idea of mushrooms business
is to grow mushrooms in ecological environment and to sell them as
half ready goods. Mushrooms that were planted in such environment
have a long period of life. The growing of mushrooms is business
without waste. Used soil is the perfect material for production of
ecologically clean drugs for fruits, vegetables and flowers. …
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In Kazakhstan the problems of the poor rose together with
implementation of market relationships. People were not ready for
economical relationships, which result in an increase of poor people.
The results of transformation of the socialistic society were increases
in economy and unemployment. At present situation in Kazakhstan
changed. Economy start to grow very rapidly but in rural areas the
level of unemployment remained the same. Together with changes
many enterprises were terminated especially in villages and rural
area. People were forced to look for income. The start to open their
own small businesses. …
9. Lyceum No. 3, Tula, Russia. The team took part in the world
competition. From the team’s competition report:
“The Green Planet”. The purposes of the project: to involve children
in [solving] environmental problems of Tula region; to bring up the
skill to use resources economically and correctly; to form ecological
thinking, ecological culture.
The direction of activity: ecologo-economic mission “The City-sworn
brother” in Mogilyov repub;oc Byelorus; without waste process of
manufacture of products of arts and crafts is organized; the plan of
joint actions under the decision … from Bulatova T.V. is developed by
the director of the Center of protection of wood of Tula area.
The corporation has allocated 10% of the profit from sales at the fair
of education “The Profile 2006” to buy the young trees. …
“The Grandmother’s firm”. The purposes of the project: to promote
increase in the level and quality of a life of pensioners in the Russian
society; to familiarize pensioners with creative and cultural values of
the society; to organize the process of training of pensioners and
their communication with youth; to bring up the feeling of respect for
grown ups among youth . …
The main achievements: … the family budget of pensioners,
participants in the project, has increased by 10%. …
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Scoring Points: Commerce, Community, Competition, and College
We have listed questions here which we encourage your SAGE team
to answer for itself. The answers will tell you how successful your team will
be in commerce (profit), community (public service, job applications, and
self-reliance), competition (SAGE), and college (stronger college and
scholarship applications). To get an idea of what would be strong answers,
read the introduction to this manual and the section on best practices in last
year’s manual, as well as fill the chart in last year’s manual.
Note that SAGE judges might ask your team these questions.
Profit
1. Will your team’s business make a profit?
2. What will your team do with the profit?
3. Will the profit be continual, that is, not based on a fleeting fad?
Continuity and Competence
4. Is your team’s business a real business or just a project?
5. Are there enough members of your team who are freshmen, sophomores,
and juniors that the business would continue after the seniors on your team
graduate?
6. Does your business enable all team members to acquire knowledge and
learn skills not normally taught in class, but useful for college and careers?
Reach
7. Does your team’s business do something which benefits the customer, that
is, the business does something other than satisfy a craving of the customer?
8. Does the business provide something which a large number of people can
use and can afford?
9. Does the business do something which can be copied by young people in
other communities and is your team in touch with other communities?
Education and Environment
10. Is your team’s business environmentally friendly? For example, is your
product recycled or, even better, do you recycle waste into a new product?
11. Does the business use best practices and encourage adults and youth in
your community to do the same? Are your best practices displayed and
discussed at your business’ Web site?
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12. Is your business based on creative thinking, that is, is the business
innovative? Importantly, does the business fulfill several goals at one time,
like combining profit-making, civic participation, and community outreach,
in order to save time and money?
The Right Stuff:
What Your Business Does for You Personally
College and Career
Relatively few people your age have been a business partner in an
extraordinary business or have shown initiative and have worked under a
contract to provide products or services. Because of your extraordinary
experience, your college, scholarship, and job applications will stand out.
Earning
Your earning from your business probably would be modest, as
nobody would expect you to work in the business full-time. Also, funders
and volume buyers might want to see how well your business did before a
large commitment of funding were made or a large order were placed. Yet,
depending on your personal plans and your business’ performance, your
part-time work could become full-time, with a concomitant increase in your
earning.
Course Credit
Your participation in a business could give you opportunities to
exercise skills or to fulfill requirements for which course credit might be
possible: (a) writing a business plan, (b) presenting a business plan, (c)
public speaking, (d) organizing, (e) managing a business, (f) bookkeeping,
(g) sponsor relations, (h) community relations, (i) translating, (j) using a
computer, (k) service-learning, (l) experiential learning, (m) community
service, etc.
There are other personal benefits. First, you meet people and leaders
in the community. This probably would lead to a more effective business
and better incorporation of the best practices, as well as prepare you, if you
were interested, to become a leader in your community. Second, you receive
satisfaction from participation in a pioneering business which enables you to
leave a proud legacy and make praiseworthy history at a young age. Also,
many people locally benefit from what your team and you do through the
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business; across America and abroad, many people look to your business as
a model, as an inspiration.
Of course, you learn and practice self-reliance, the most important
attribute for success in a competitive and uncertain world.
The Importance of Self-Reliance
Why is self-reliance at the heart of this manual and SAGE? Selfreliance is the best way for you and your teammates to succeed in school
and in life. You learn some self-reliance by finishing high school and
college, but there is much more to learn than what is learned in the
classroom. Running an extraordinary business, as we have outlined in this
manual, helps you learn self-reliance which you do not learn in a classroom:
 planning well,
 learning the strengths and weaknesses of your teammates so that the
business benefit from the strengths and backup be provided where
there are weaknesses,
 knowing when to trust and when to risk, being sensitive to the dreams
and desires of the community,
 knowing how to present by yourself,
 identifying problems or inefficiencies and looking for solutions,
 showing initiative instead of waiting for somebody else to take action,
 setting such an example of integrity that others seek your advice and
ask you to help maintain the welfare of the community,
 using best practices and encouraging others to do so.
When we speak of self-reliance in this manual, we mean individual
self-reliance practiced within a group. We believe that humans function best
in small groups, so self-reliance in small groups would be the best: each
individual could stand on her own, but would be backed up by every other
individual in the group.
Note that many small, self-reliant groups in a community, if pledged
to cooperation with one another, make that community self-sustaining, that
is, self-reliant on a large scale. That is the best situation not only for
success, but, also, to handle any adversity. We put ourselves and our
community at risk when we become reliant on people far away whom we do
not know, no matter how well meaning they might be.
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