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Students shine in global business contest
Three University of the Sunshine Coast students have demonstrated their CEO potential by finishing third in a global online competition which required them to transform a struggling business into a profitable enterprise.
International Business students Jan Niemeyer 26, Josua Bayerlein 25, and Khaled Amir 26, beat 900 students from 280 universities world-wide to win a place in the 2011 Fall Capstone Business Simulation Challenge.
The trio were faced with a virtual scenario in which they had 48 hours and $1,000,000 to change the future of an electronics component company, which had sacked its CEO and was in a dire market position.
The 48-hour finals began at 1am AEST on 12 November and involved competitors from around the world playing online at the same time.
Josua said the team was under immense pressure to make the right decisions within a tight timeframe.
“The hardest thing was interpreting our competitor’s strategies and making the right decision for the company to gain the competitive advantage,” he said.
“Through the business simulation, I learnt about the importance of figures and reports, and how these influence your decisions.”
Khaled said quick thinking contributed to the team’s success.
“Our strengths were fast decision-making and a fast adaption of our strategy to the dynamics of the markets,” he said.
Jan said he now had a greater respect for top-level executives.
“The simulation was a good way to learn how difficult it must be for an entrepreneur to make all the decisions every day to be successful with his business to generate growth,” he said. “It was way harder than I thought.”
USC Senior Lecturer in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Dr Rodney Farr-Wharton said it was amazing to see how deeply involved the students became in beating off their international competitors.
“The skills really boil down to a management thinking change from two-dimensional, simple solution thinking, devoid of competitor activity, to multiple-dimension, complex problem-solving solutions within a multi-competitor business environment,” he said.
“This virtual world was a pressure cooker environment requiring considerable dedication to success.”
— Michelle Widdicombe