Bryant Says “We’re #1” in Business Strategy Game

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Monday, March 28, 2011

GoLocalProv Business Team

Bryant University may not be capturing any NCAA titles in football or basketball, but look out when they get into the business arena.

A team of Bryant juniors majoring in international business is in the No. 1 spot overall for the week of March 21-27 in the Business Strategy Game, an online simulation that places 4,558 teams from 283 colleges and universities around the world in head-to-head competition running an athletic footwear company. A second team from Bryant ranked 76th overall during the same week. Bryant's International Business program currently fields a roster of 15 teams.

The simulation game is an online exercise that places 4,558 teams from 283 colleges and universities around the world in head-to-head competition running an athletic footwear company.

Realism in the Shoe World

The game is "very, very realistic," says Andres Ramirez, assistant professor of finance in Bryant's College of Business and one of the instructors of the top-ranked team.

All 4,558 teams start out on the same footing: a shoe company with equal sales volume, global market share, revenues, profits, costs, footwear quality, and so on. Each team has two manufacturing plants - one in Asia, the other in the United States. Each company has markets in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, and offers branded footwear to retailers, direct-to-consumer sales online, and private-label opportunities.

Where teams succeed or fail is in their week-to-week decisions on such topics as corporate social responsibility and citizenship, production of branded and private-label athletic footwear, plant capacity additions/sales/upgrades, worker compensation and training, shipping, pricing and marketing, celebrity endorsements, and financing of company operations. Actual current events — such as earthquakes in Japan, unstable governments in the Middle East, and foreign exchange rate variances — affect each team and its strategies. Team rankings are judged on five performance objectives: growth of earnings per share; maintaining a return on equity investment; maintaining a credit rating of B+ or better; stock price gains; and image ratings.