Good Company, Good Game’s Impact Continues to Grow over Five Years

Eighteen students gathered in the Rullo Classroom recently at the Herring Entrepreneurial Leadership Village and spent five hours talking about the impact of one class: Good Company, Good Game: Law, Ethics and Leadership in Sports Businesses.

The course, which is completing its fifth year, was developed by Associate Professor Leslie Garbarino and has been supported by the Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the Glavin Office of International Education.

While each of the students came to the class from a different place in their academic career and personal life, it was clear that they all left with the same lasting insight: the impact of values-based leadership knows no bounds.

Eric Hense ‘28 talked about this in his final presentation video that summed it up for the class.

“I assumed we would be talking about the business,” Hense said in the video. “I found out that core values come first. They are not just words on a wall. The associates live by them. And I saw them play out in real moments.”

He was referring to the six core values created by Arthur M. Blank ‘63, H’98: Put People First, Listen and Respond, Include Everyone, Innovate Continuously, Lead by Example, and Give Back to Others.

Core Values in Action

One of the values was being exemplified right in the classroom that afternoon. Brett Jewkes, the executive vice president and chief brand and communications officer at the Blank Family of Businesses and AMB Sports and Entertainment, had flown in specifically for this class.

“I am literally on fumes after flying in after the Thursday Night Football game,” Jewkes told the class. “So, I’m on an hour and six minutes of sleep. But this is my favorite class, and I wouldn’t have missed this.”

Jewkes recounted to the class how he flew to the Falcons-Packers game in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and how Blank called him to the back of the private plane to talk to him.

“He asked me, ‘How do we re-enforce the core values?’ ” Jewkes said as he chuckled to himself. “It wasn’t anything operational. Not about the football game. … Why does Arthur bleed so passionately about this? Because the world needs it.”

As the 18 students introduced and presented their final videos, they talked about the core values and how it affected them, as if answering the question from Blank at the back of the plane.

A Different Kind of Class

The Good Company, Good Game course gives Babson undergraduate students a unique opportunity to gain direct engagement with leaders across the Blank Family of Businesses. During a weeklong visit to Atlanta, students see the six core values of the Blank organization leap off the walls and into real-life moments at places such as the PGA Superstore, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and the Westside of the city.

For Charlotte Li ’27, one of those moments came when she was asked to moderate multiple panels, which is something she had to challenge herself to do. As she debriefed with the rest of the class toward the end of the session, she talked about the lasting impact she experienced.

“This trip has shown me the possibilities in sports,” Li said. “And it has shown me what I want to do. I still can feel really lost in what I want to be. But like I said in the video, values only matter if you live by them.”

For others, such as Dalton Fitzpatrick ’27, the values hit home and even provided him with a newfound love of baseball, which was a surprise to him given his lack of participation in sports before the class.

“People are passionate about different things and goals,” Fitzpatrick said during the debrief. “They were so philanthropic and wanting to give so much back. It was really inspiring to me.”

Toward the end, Nicolas Pacheco ’28 commented on just how special and unique the entire experience was for him and his fellow classmates.

“This is something you get to do, not something that you have to do,” he said. “In the middle of this experience, it hit me that I was super blessed that I get to do this.”

The Ripple Effect

Garbarino opened the session by talking about the theme of the class, and her hope for what comes afterward.

To illustrate this, she displayed an image on the screen of a circle that had two larger circles rippling from it. In the center was “Arthur M. Blank Sports + Entertainment.” The second ripple had “Self in Context,” and the final outer ripple read “Values in Action.”

She then recounted how at the end of each day, she asked each student on the trip to reflect and debrief, and asked the same question each time: “How did you live the values today?”

“There are a small number of students who have had this experience,” Garbarino told the class. “It’s our obligation to pay it forward, and it’s why this ripples out.”