A&M-Victoria students earn top rankings in global simulation
A group of Texas A&M University-Victoria students earned top honors during the Global Business Simulation competition, placing in top spots in the worldwide competition and demonstrating their business acumen across weeks of intense of virtual market competition.
“This simulation is not a dead case,” said Jifu Wang, professor of management in the College of Business. “It’s a live marketplace where students must analyze intelligence, make strategic decisions and understand the intricate nuances of global business operations.
The Global Business Simulation competition saw four teams representing A&M-Victoria competing in the global arena with 2,321 teams from 124 colleges and universities worldwide.
The virtual competition, held during the last fall semester, pushed student teams to make critical business decisions across five continents, simulating real-world economic challenges and strategic planning, Wang said. This approach goes far beyond traditional case studies, offering students a dynamic and interactive learning experience, he said.
The competition’s standout performers were Team A, which consisted of Corey Alban of Katy; Fritz Boedeker of Victoria and Heather Brien of Galveston County who placed three times during the competition, tying for third in the Global Top 25 in the next-to-last round. All three students graduated this past December with Master of Business Administration degrees.
“Participating in the competition for class really helped us understand business strategy in a hands-on way,” Alban said. “Rather than simply reviewing textbook concepts, we apply them directly in the simulation during real-time team meetings, making the learning process much more engaging and memorable.”
Additionally, the competition challenged the students to consider complex factors like international operations, currency conversion and market intelligence. Participants must make annual operational decisions, with each round representing a year of company operations, requiring teams to adapt to changing market conditions and competitor strategies.
“A strategy simulation based on a global industry context is particularly appropriate for the Global MBA capstone course, ‘International Business Strategy,’” Boedeker said. “The increasing globalization of markets makes global strategy an essential component of strategic management education.”
During the competition, top performances from each week were posted every Sunday, keeping track of each teams’ performance across critical business metrics which included Overall Score, Earning Per Share, Return on Equity and Stock Price.
Team A operated under the fictional company by the name of Aerial Insights, a company which looked to navigate the complex virtual marketplace selling wearable action cameras and drones.
In addition to securing top rankings in three out of the six competition rounds, the feat motivated them to secure a third-place ranking worldwide in the Overall Game-To-Date Score, surpassing the university’s previous record of fifth place and cementing the team as the best performers in the university’s history.
“We had a very diverse team,” Brien said. “We all came into this with different perspectives, and that is great because there are so many viewpoints to take into consideration to help us analyze and see things from different views.”
During the beginning of the competition, their company Aerial Insights had to quickly adapt their approach, introducing more competitively priced cameras and drones, Brien said. This flexibility allowed them to capture market share in seven out of eight global regions, she said.
When the team first convened, one of their first meetings was utilized to establish a working rhythm that emphasized listening, and clarifying roles, Brien said.
Boedeker’s engineering background gave the team an edge on product and manufacturing trade-offs, helping to better translate design choices into cost and quality implications, Brien said. Because of Alban’s financial instincts, the team tasked Alban with analyzing cash flow, credit rating and looking into the implication of stock-price. For herself, Brien led the marketing strategy and the integration of competitive intelligence into tactical decision-making, she said.
The team set times to meet regularly, often for three to four hours at a time, Brien said, to run scenarios comparing their company to others and to test alternative price and design combinations before committing to a round.
A little bit of fluctuation came early between first and second place in one of the early rounds, Brien said. Because of that, the team decided to shift from a high-end product posture to introduce more competitively priced cameras and drones.
Ultimately, the team realized the key to success was not only to have an ethical business model, but to have a sustainable one as well, Brien said.
“I just want to highlight Dr. Wang and the Global MBA program,” Brien said. “They’ve provided me with a great formal foundation to go on and continue in my professional career.”
Along with Team A, other A&M-Victoria teams also demonstrated their skill and knowledge in the competition. Team B secured a top ranking in one round, while Team C claimed top honors in three rounds in earning Global Top 25 rankings worldwide. Team B's Overall Game-To-Date Score of 99.0 tied for the 22nd best Overall Game-To-Date Score performance of the week, worldwide. Team C's Overall Game-To-Date Score of 106.0 was the 7th best Overall Game-To-Date Score performance of the week, worldwide.
“Business school is not just about knowing,” Wang said. “It’s about putting materials together to create something tangible, measurable and impactful.”
Other teams who represented A&M-Victoria consisted of:
Team B: Candida Carter of Broken Bow, Okla.; Dorianne Castillo of Humble and Crystal Drakes of Cape Coral, Fla.
Team C: Eddie Flores of Missouri City; Marianne Gonzalez of Katy and Jay Meadors of Houston.
Team D: Zakkiyya Muhammad of Katy; Roxanne Powell of Houston; Mindy Vo of Richardson and Samantha Zelaya of Houston.
To learn more about the Texas A&M University-Victoria College of Business, please visit https://www.tamuv.edu/business/.
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.