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10 Questions

with Markéta Javorská
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By Paul Voosen
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 29th, 2007 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Junior Achievement's Markéta Javorská talks about the need to stimulate students into taking risks and starting their own companies.
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THE JAVORSKÁ FILE

Job title: Executive director, Junior Achievement ČR
Age: 29
Nationality: Czech
Previous position: Public affairs executive, Citibank

On Tuesday, Aug. 21, Prague played host to the finals of the HP Global Business Challenge, a worldwide competition for high school students. The challenge is run by Junior Achievement (JA), a nonprofit originating in the United States that seeks to improve the business acumen of students; its Czech branch opened in 1992. Markéta Javorská, its executive director, sits down with The Prague Post after the contest to talk about fostering entrepreneurs, the consumption society and the danger of loans.
➊ How did Junior Achievement get started here?
Worldwide, JA was founded in the United States in 1919. Tomáš Baťa founded the organization here. He had been involved with JA for many years and helped found its Canadian branch. Since 1992, he’s been the greatest supporter of JA in the Czech Republic. More than 200,000 students have participated in programs here in the past 15 years, including over 17,000 last year. Most are from secondary schools, but we also have courses running in elementary schools, preschools and universities.
➋ What would be an example of one of these programs?
Our most popular program is called Student Company. It’s a one-year program where students found their own companies — real companies, nothing fictive. They operate with real money and have real obligations. Through the year they go through all the processes of doing business: They start the company, they find capital, they write a business plan. They do sales, promotion and marketing, along with bookkeeping and accounting. And it’s all in accordance with current regulations.
At year’s end, they liquidate the company and, if they’re successful, they invest the money they’ve made back into the company or the school. They can’t keep it as cash.
Most importantly, the students usually cooperate with a volunteer consultant, someone from the business world, an entrepreneur or manager, who advises them on how to run the business. This is what we try to capture in all our programs: contact with the real world and economy.
➌ Surely elementary school students can’t start businesses?
No, for these schools our most popular program is called Professional Orientation. It’s focused on career selection. We tell children how important it is to get proper education. They have to evaluate themselves in a sensible way to find their potential. These courses are in some cases run also by volunteer consultants, sometimes parents or people from the local employment office.
➍ You came to JA from your work in corporate social responsibility at Citibank. How well are businesses doing in sponsoring programs like yours?
I’m seeing a big move toward corporate social responsibility. I’d say now it’s a trend for companies to invest in it. At the same time, they don’t want to put their money into just any project. They want focused projects close to their business, so there’s a connection between what the company does and what the project does. That creates a lot of opportunities for us. We can include new projects and new aspects into our programs depending on the company.
➎ Like HP’s sponsorship of the Global Business Challenge?
Yes, Hewlett-Packard has been sponsoring the project since it started 12 years ago. The competition brings together students from all over the world — virtually during the initial rounds and then physically during the finals. We hosted 16 students from six countries: China, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Canada, Argentina and Russia. They were chosen from over 1,400 students worldwide. The eventual winners were from Azerbaijan.
The students compete using a program called JA Titan, a PC simulation that allows you to run your own company. It simulates the global marketplace and lets teams manage their companies against one another. They decide key parameters like product price, volume of production or investment in marketing and R&D. And the program simulates changes to the environment caused by earthquakes, global economic changes or labor problems.
➏ The Finance Ministry has recently announced that it wants to improve financial education in schools. Are you part of this?
Yes. We were involved in a working group that’s preparing the national strategy. We represented one of the NGOs working in the area. We told the group what we knew and said they should tell the schools that JA has a special program focused on personal finance management. It’s an e-learning program called Get to Know Your Money that tells students about savings, spending money, creating budgets, planning expenses — how to be responsible with your own money. Last year we had approximately 80 classes use the program.
➐ So you’d like to see schools more involved in educating children about finances?
Definitely. There are so many factors that make it more and more dangerous for young people. The marketing of companies is so aggressive. I understand that young people want to buy things because they see ads everywhere. It’s a consumption society nowadays.
But students have to know that if they want to buy something, they have to have the money for it. Taking loans is not a way of surviving. It can lead to life disasters. I know the amount of loans in the country is increasing enormously. This is crucial. We should start in elementary schools, when children first start to get their pocket money.
➑ How well is the country doing in fostering entrepreneurs?
It’s not easy. Young people need stimulation. They’re not eager to start their own business. Most don’t know what they’re going to do in the future and wait for opportunities to come. We have to provide new impulses for them. They cannot wait for someone else to do it for them.
That’s the entrepreneurial spirit we want to create and maintain: Be active not only in business but also toward education and free-time activities. Take risks. It’s not easy to start a business but it’s worth trying. They have to do something. We need entrepreneurs to make our economy sustainable and competitive.
➒ Have schools become more open to working with JA?
In the past our program was quite limited by the schools’ curriculums, which were mandatory. There was not much space for new projects. Now, the Education Ministry is making it so that schools can create programs by themselves. They only have certain competencies children leaving the schools should have — but how they get these is up to the schools and teachers. Our programs are ready to be included in schools without any modification. The teachers can take the package and use it. So we see opportunity there.
Right now, when we offer our programs to schools, it’s often a hard sell. It’s not the teachers knocking on our door to ask for the program. We have to attract their attention and excite them. We need enthusiastic teachers who can pass that enthusiasm to their students.
➓ Is it difficult for JA to break into any countries?
There are some countries that aren’t in a situation where JA can operate. The latest in Europe was Albania. It really depends on local companies and government. But countries aren’t resistant. For example, in Russia, JA is very active. There are 800,000 students involved in the program each year. They see the opportunities that come with its connection to the West.
Want your top manager to answer our 10 Questions? Send a message to Paul Voosen at pvoosen@praguepost.com

Paul Voosen can be reached at pvoosen@praguepost.com


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