A&M-Victoria business students earn national recognition in business simulation
A team of Texas A&M University-Victoria business students earned national recognition after ranking in the top 10 percent nationwide in a rigorous capstone business simulation competition.
The simulation, known as CAPSIM, or capstone simulation, is embedded in a senior-level capstone course taught by Tong Kang, A&M-Victoria associate professor of management. The semester-long exercise tests students’ ability to manage a virtual company across multiple business functions.
Over the course of eight rounds from March 23 to April 13, students made real-time decisions in areas such as finance, operations, marketing, research and development, human resources and total quality management.
“It is a very complex simulation,” Kang said. "Students had to make many decisions across various departments, and their company’s performance was evaluated using a Balanced Scorecard and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that show how their company grew over time."
Although the competition itself is internal to the class, student performance is benchmarked against teams from universities around the world using CapSim’s leadership dashboard.
For the most recent competition, Kang oversaw seven student teams, each consisting of three to four members with a smaller two-person team, he said. The class was delivered in a hybrid model, with some students attending in person while the majority joined via Microsoft Teams.
“I am very proud of the top team, they put extra efforts into this simulation,” Kang said. “In every team meeting when I joined, they had very good constructive discussions throughout the semester, and we discussed many ways to improve their company’s performance.”
Adenike Adesokan was one of the students from the winning group. An international student from Canada, she turned a classroom assignment into a global achievement, leading her team, Team Digby, to a top-10 finish in the business simulation. The other team members in the group were Richard Streeter and Disha Jain.
With a projected graduation date of this coming December, Adesokan is set to receive her Master of Business Administration with a concentration in artificial intelligence at the end of the upcoming fall semester.
“We were elated,” Adesokan said. “We did not expect it at all. We got an email from our professor indicating that we earned a place on the capstone top 10 leaderboard, and we all wondered how that happened.”
As one of seven A&M-Victoria teams competing, Team Digby operated under a fictional company responsible for manufacturing sensors used in products such as cell phones and elevators. Together, the team adopted a deliberate and structured approach to the project before the simulation ever began, Adesokan said.
The team carefully studied the capstone team member guide and the industry conditions report, using those materials to map out a strategic direction, she said. From there, they committed to working closely and consistently through team meetings. The team met about three times per week, often spending several hours in each session reviewing results, analyzing competitors’ moves and planning decisions for the next round.
“Each one of our team members contributed valuable ideas and opinions,” Adesokan said. “Together, it strengthened our decision making and long-term strategy.”
Their main goal was to dominate the sensor industry by making sound strategic choices and performing well on a balanced scorecard that evaluated financial results, customer satisfaction, internal processes, learning and growth. From the first round, their strategy began to pay off, Adesokan said, and the team quickly established a position of market leadership while maintaining strong financial and operational results.
Along the way, Adesokan said the experience reshaped her understanding of what it took it thrive in a competitive business environment.
“It helped us understand what it means to succeed in a strong, competitive environment,” Adesokan said. “Participating in this simulation felt like being part of executive-level decision-making in a boardroom. It didn’t feel like we were just doing a simulation, it felt like real life.”
Texas A&M University-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 50 academic programs in the colleges of Business, Education & Health Professions, Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, and Natural & Applied Science. A&M-Victoria provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as online classes that students can take from anywhere. The university supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.