World Wide Technology provides $100K prize
The team of Mark Hu and Daniel Hu, unrelated MBA graduates of the Shanghai, China campus of Webster University’s School of Business and Technology, have won the inaugural Webster Global Business Management Competition.
The virtual business simulation contest began in early February and ended on April 15. It engaged 113 teams from 16 U.S. states and 10 foreign countries, including Canada, China, Austria, Hungary, India, Nepal, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey.
The winning team received a $10,000 cash prize provided by World Wide Technology, Inc., the St. Louis-based information technology firm that sponsored the competition. The winners, who work for multinational mobile communications company MNC, plan to use part of their prize money to tour and invest the remainder.
Second place in the competition went to Yasen Li, who is also a graduate from Webster’s Shanghai campus. Third place went to Kellye E. Mitchell and Tanya Copeland, who received their MBA degrees from Webster’s campus in Jacksonville, Florida.
“We are extremely proud of these champions and all of the teams that participated in this competition,” said Dr. Benjamin Akande, dean of Webster University’s School of Business and Technology.
“They have demonstrated a mastery of the management concepts we teach and the ability to translate those concepts into successful business strategies.”
Akande made this statement at the award ceremony in Shanghai China on April 26 in a special reception held in honor of the winning pair. Also in attendance was second place winner Yasen Li.
“These Webster teams have shown tremendous skill and innovative thinking,” added David Steward, chairman of World Wide Technology, Inc. “We are pleased to have been a part of this learning opportunity.”
One hundred and thirteen teams began the competition charged to run a virtual $100 million business. Over the course of 8 weeks, they had to respond to sixteen different challenges that tested how well they could make business decisions.
Simulated business activities include strategy, R&D, marketing, production, human resources, finance, and process management. The winners ultimately managed to convert their initial stake into sales of $343 million and a profit of $167 million.
The Capstone Business Simulation software program used for the competition is the leading online business management simulation software. “This competition is an outstanding way for business school students and graduates to test their skills against global competition, just as they will have to do in the real world of the 21st century,” said Dan Smith, president of Management Simulations, Inc.
The School of Business and Technology at Webster has an enrollment of 15,000 students, supported by 2,300 faculty worldwide. It awards more masters degrees to minority candidates worldwide than any other university, more MBA degrees than any other university and offers university education at 45 U.S. military bases, more than anyone else in the world. For information, contact Polly Burtch at (314) 968-6954 or e-mail burtch@webster.edu.
