Foundation for Enterprise Development Selects National Essay Contest Winners

Creating Wealth by Sharing Wealth

SAN DIEGO, March 30, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Foundation for Enterprise Development (FED) today announced judges have selected winners for its national essay contest – Creating Wealth by Sharing Wealth™. The FED sponsored the first-ever multi-university essay contest to catalyze college students' thinking on business principles and strategies required for future economic success.

More than 430 graduate and undergraduate students participated from across the country. Students were asked to describe their strategies for increasing employee motivation, creating innovative and productive firms, and establishing more sustainable economies in the 21st century through broad-based employee ownership and profit sharing within the corporation.

Mary Ann Beyster, president of the FED, states, "Students will lead the way in establishing new cooperative and innovative models of the modern corporation based on more people winning, rather than a few."

Complete essays from the four national winners and a listing of students are available at: www.fed.org/education-essay-contest.

Essays convey insights on effective corporate leadership:

"The difference will not be in the quality or novelty of the product I sell, or the service my company offers, but in the commitment, motivation, and empowerment of the people who do not work 'for' but who work 'with' me."

Terry Williamson, MBA Candidate, University of California, San Diego, Calif.

1st place

"People want to be a part of something great. Great ideas come from people with the incentive and freedom to explore; and in that respect business is no different than any other discipline."

Scotty McWilliams, BBA Candidate, Finance and Economics, LaMar University, Texas

4th place

They articulate their assessments of corporate shortcomings:

"In the midst of our own Great Recession, what idea could be more powerful than a country in which we all own the future?...Employees are not commodities to be fired when the business does poorly and provided with disproportionally low compensation when the business does well, but are vested stakeholders who have a legitimate right to share power and responsibility."

Tejdev Sandhu, MS Candidate, Accounting and Information Systems, Virginia Tech

Best in class

They argue for government economic policies and programs consistent with America's constitution:

"For the proponents of greater social equality it [employee ownership] enables the workers to own the enterprise and means of production, and for the adherents of Adam Smith's principles of economics, it operates within the boundaries of the free market under the premise of self-interested competition, increasing productivity and the effectiveness of the workforce."

Alexandr Bolgari, BA Candidate, International Relations, Kent State University, Ohio

3rd place

The Foundation for Enterprise Development (FED) was established in 1986 by Dr. J. Robert Beyster to promote the concept of broad-based, participative employee ownership and entrepreneurism. The FED funds inter-disciplinary research and curriculum development at business, engineering, and liberal arts schools. The FED also creates and engages in research and training programs that inspire innovation and entrepreneurship for solving problems of national and global importance.  For more information, visit www.fed.org

SOURCE Foundation for Enterprise Development