Recap - North Sea Business Games, 2022

Published on 4 March 2022

108 students, 24 teams, 3 days, 2 universities, 1 winner!

On Tuesday 22nd, Wednesday 23rd, and Thursday 24th February, students from Universitat de Girona, Catalonia, Spain and Han University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands competed in our annual North Sea Student Competition. This year it was held in the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands.

What Are the North Sea Business Games?

This is a competition involving teams of students who compete in several rounds of a business simulation game, as well as complete two group assignments. The aim of which is to put theory and concepts into practice, out-smart the competition, and earn points on the simulation's 'Balance Scorecard' to become the annual North Sea champion!

How does it work?

Using Edumundo’s business simulations, teams of four to five students from both universities work together to manage their own company. Here they must determine a clear strategy and during each round make informed business decisions to increase revenue and profit and overall market share.

They do this whilst competing with fellow student teams to earn points. At the end of each simulation round (equivalent to one year of trading) these points are tallied up.

This year students took part in our international business simulation, Phone Ventures where they manage a multi-national smart-phone company and play the simulation game over seven rounds.

The games all started on...

Day One – Tuesday 22nd February

"Keep an eye on your market share, your markets, your costs, and what countries you decide to enter."

After a brief introduction and welcome, students heard from guest key-note speaker, Michiel van Deursen, Director of The Netherlands-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC). Here, Michiel presented on the commercial relationship between the UK and Netherlands, including the impact of Brexit on Anglo-Dutch trade relations and requirements.

This was a great opportunity for students to understand the wider commercial context and interests between neighbouring countries in Europe.

Then it was over to Edumundo's own Operations Maverick, Jack Monaghan to provide students with an introduction to Phone Ventures along with some top tips for those with first place in their sights.

Check out the video to the left to hear from the man himself!

He also introduced students to the first task: deciding their company's name and logo whilst learning the importance of brand awareness and brand management.

After lunch, students then began rounds 1 and 2 of the game, starting with the tricky task of deciding their company's growth strategy before making informed decisions to increase profit and market share in round 2. By the end of round 2 many students were beginning to get the hang of their management responsibilities within their teams with many companies earning some valuable points to put them in strong positions in the Balanced Scorecard.

Later in the afternoon session, Jack introduced the first assignment for students: create a video advertisement based on their company's smart-phone. The best adverts would be awarded weighted points towards their company's score.

While it was way too early to show the rankings on the balance scorecard, at the end of day one it was ELM CIM who was top. But there was all to play for on…

Day TWO – Wednesday 23rd February

Day two opened with the now popular student-favourite/Edumundo celebrity, Jack Monaghan to provide a recap of the competition so far as well as an update on the video assignments and the plan for the day ahead (see below, Jack performing to a sell-out crowd of fans i.e. engaged university students).

The next assignment was also introduced in the morning session: the dreaded 'Investors' Pitch'. Students in their teams began drafting compelling pitches for investment from a panel of 'entrepreneurial investors' i.e. two Lecturers from both universities, seeking to earn a valuable cash injection to further grow their company.

Students then carried on with round 3 and 4 of the simulation. Although, it's fair to say many were looking at the assignments ahead of them - and who can blame them, featuring in their own video advertisements and preparing investor pitches, not easy tasks but great opportunities for earning some key points and ultimately developing key employability skills.

After lunch and the completion of round 4 it was time to meet the Dragons - sorry, 'investors'. The investment pitches were split into four investor groups (one for each market segment). Students here needed to provide a detailed analysis of how their company has been performing, what percentage of profit they're turning before delivering their rationale for investment to the panel.

Below was an investment pitch to one of our ambitious entrepreneurs from the USA!

At the end of day two it was Party Phone leading the charge with a huge 9,050,558 points with day one leader, ELM CIM nowhere to be found. Check out balance scorecard below.

Day Three - Thursday 24th February

The final day began with rounds 6 and 7 while points were tallied based on the investor proposal and video advert assignments.

An incredible amount of “almost £3 billion of capital" was raised providing a huge boost for teams for the final rounds. Clearly, investors were extremely happy with the quality of the proposals submitted as demonstrated by the total figure raised.

We then showed a few examples of some of the best video adverts. Below was the winning advert. An excellent, creative piece by Mango Movil - gracies, amics!

Mango Movile from Suzanne Klerk on Vimeo.

The Winner's Ceremony

After three days, seven rounds of the simulation game, published video adverts, and intense investment proposals, it was time to tally-up those points and announce the winners.

Drum-roll, please...

Without further ado, the winner of the 2022 North Sea Business Games...

PARTY PHONE

Here they are below collecting their trophy!

Welcome to Edumundo's Hall of Fame! Incredible performance to lead on day two and maintain that in day three. They scored a hugely impressive: 12,335,558 points but with stiff competition from MANGO MOVIL, PHONETASTIC, PHONE4YOU, and day one leader, EL CIM.

Ultimately, there are no winners and losers. Students gained a great deal from the competition, applying theories into context and practice and learning more about their personality traits, are they more creative, marketing types (like this author), analytical, financial-minded or simply, born leaders?

We thank all of our student participants and fellow partners at Han University of Applied Sciences and Universitat de Girona for their excellent enthusiasm and organisation throughout the three days.

Interested in Business simulations?

The students played our Phone Ventures, international business simulation. We offer a wide range of business simulations for all business and management-related disciplines such as Marketing, Business Consultancy, Strategy and Management, Tourism Management, Accountancy and Financial Management. Find out more about them via the button below.

Want to run a similar competition at your University?

We run business simulation competitions like this at a variety of different universities across the globe, get in touch if you want to run one at yours.