Classes maintain footing in challenging global competition.

At 9:00 p.m. on Friday nights last semester, you could find students enrolled in Strategic Management for Multinational Corporations:

Linda Clarke and students in the BBA+ Weekend Strategic Management for Multinational Corporations course.

1. celebrating the end of a busy week by kicking back with friends over an evening snack and beverage
2. catching up with their families as well as on non-work and non-school responsibilities
3. riveted to their computers to see how they did in a class project

The answer: C. Members of the class hovered at their computers, waiting to see how they scored on an international web-based simulation called Business Strategy Game (BSG).

The game—in which the students make all the decisions that top managers would make over a multi-year period as they guide an athletic footwear company with global reach—formed part of the international business strategy course for senior international business majors. Linda Clarke (PhD ’98), instructor, Department of Management and International Business, taught the course to 51 students in the College of Business Administration’s BBA+ Weekend program.

Game creates spirit of competition and fun while driving home practical realities.

“After we’d complete the work, we couldn’t wait until Friday night,” said René Bodden (BBA ’06), who runs the operational side of an IT company and who was a member of Footy. “It was very exciting, and we were always checking to see how we did.”

In his team’s case, excellent results occurred. One week, they scored 11th worldwide on return on average equity (ROE), one of four factors on which the teams were scored, along with overall score (current year), earnings per share, and stock price.

“At the start, we spent a solid five to six hours calculating finance, marketing, advertising, distribution, human resources, logistics, and every other aspect of the business strategy,” said Footy team member Jorge Andrade (BBA ’06), who has worked in the apparel industry. “We worried about issues that included whether we’d meet investor expectations and whether our competitors would drop their prices.”

Students try to remain agile as decisions and external factors cause fortunes to rise and fall.

“During the second year, which was year twelve of the company, we decided to invest in plant capacity,” Bodden said. “We knew that we’d take a hit, and we fell to fourth place within the class. But it was in year thirteen that we placed 11th in the world on ROE. Our stock went up; we had a lot of capacity; we got into private labels, and we sold cheap. From then on, we always finished first in the class. We acquired a lot of celebrities, sold on the Internet, and did well because of our image and the way we supported retailers.”

Jaime Gonzalez (BBA ’06), part of the outside sales force for a company that represents sixty lines of lighting and a member of Emelda’s Fantasy, described himself as “obsessed” with the game for the first two weeks, but later found some of the experience painful.

“We set ourselves apart from other groups and did well in the first session,” he said. “They congratulated us and then mimicked our strategy. By the time we could adjust, it was too late, and we finished last the next week. The game is unforgiving. Initially, I was upset, but it was all in good fun, and we remained friends with members of other teams.”

The experience also had many benefits, including the fact that his team was one of three in the class to score in the Top 20 worldwide one week, reaching number two on ROE at 57.5 percent.

“The professor controls a number of the parameters, such as labor and the cost to ship across the ocean,” said Greg Stappenbeck, one of BSG’s authors. “Other variables come from the real world, in real time, such as exchange rates—which change daily—and interest rates.”

These changes often threw the hardworking teams’ plans into confusion.

“We met at school, sometimes staying till 1:30 a.m.,” Gonzalez said. “One day, you think you have your plan worked out, and then a new factor comes in and messes it up. That makes it very challenging and creates lots of struggle as you have to make new decisions.”

Course instructor lauds the recent achievements of the students.

“Students in this BBA+ Weekend group distinguished themselves several times with their high rankings,” Clarke said. “Also, students in the fully online version of the course don’t even meet face to face, which makes their teamwork extremely impressive. Among recent online students, Cool Air Sports scored 15th worldwide on ROE one week and the 35.4 percent ROE of Footworks was the 10th best ROE performance of the week worldwide.”

Simulation reflects growth of technology, leading to an expanded audience.