122 students, 26 teams, 2 days, 2 universities, 1 winner!
On Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd November, students from Han University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands and Liverpool Hope University, competed in Autumn's North Sea Student Competition. This time it was held at Liverpool Hope's Creative Campus.
Using Edumundo’s Phone Ventures business simulation, teams of students from both universities worked together to manage their own Smart Phone company. Together they attempted to devise a clear growth strategy and, during a series of seven rounds, responded to fluctuations in the market to make business decisions all with the aim of meeting or exceeding their strategic objectives.
They do this in a competitive (but friendly!) setting against fellow student teams with the objective of earning points on the simulation's 'Balanced Scorecard'. At the end of each simulation round (equivalent to one year of trading) these points are tallied up.
In the spirit of the current FIFA World Cup, the games "kicked-off" on...
Jack Monaghan, Edumundo's "Simulations Masetro", opened proceedings providing students with an introduction to Phone Ventures and how students should approach the simulation event itself.
He also introduced students to the first task: deciding their company's name and logo, providing students with a brief overview of brand awareness and brand management.
After the all important name and logo exercise, students began the competitive rounds. Starting with the challenging task of deciding their company's growth strategy.
"You are competing against one another. So, for example, the decisions and actions of Team A will have a great impact on the results of Team B."
Here student teams considered the type of Smart-Phone company they want to be forming a competitive strategy that focuses either on: Cost Leadership, Product Leadership, Customer Intimacy or a combination of all three.
Once their strategies were designed and submitted, it was over to the students to begin rounds 1 and 2 of the simulation where students had to respond to news events that provided opportunities or threats to the company's strategic approach. These ranged from US removal of Protectionist trade tariffs to the rise of populist movements in Europe slowing investment and consumer buying power and a boycotting of Chinese goods. Student teams had to evaluate their entry strategies in these overseas markets as a consequence.
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 on the Balanced Scorecard.
At the end of day one it was GETTY who were top but it was all to play for on…
"There's all to play for still on the final day. Keep an eye on the news alerts and pay special attention to the assignments we have in store as these will be key in earning your team some more valuable points."
Day two opened with Jack providing a recap of the competition so far as well as an update on the video assignment and the plan for the day ahead.
Students were asked to review due diligence concerns with the Financial, Legal, and HR statuses of their company. They had to review cash-flow statements, emails from suppliers, and feedback from their employees to determine three risks that could impact their business.
Student teams were awarded points based on both correctly identifying the risks and elaborating on why this could have such a negative impact if not addressed.
After rounds 4 and 5 of the simulation, students then had the fun task of creating their own videos for their Smart Phone companies. Below was the winning advert. A quirky, innovative piece by Day One leaders Getty - well done! GETTY SAVES LIVES!
At the end of the second day students had completed seven rounds of Phone Ventures, had designed their own video adverts and highlighted three due diligence risks within their company.
Now it was time to tally-up those points and announce the winner.
Drum-roll, please...
The winner of Autumn's North Sea Business Games Competition goes to...
Welcome to the Hall of Fame of the North Sea Business Games Competition!
They scored a very impressive: 9,367,005 points but had to fend-off close competition from day one leader's Getty, followed by REDG, and Blud in 3rd and 4th places respectively.
Regardless of the final scores and standings, the point of the competition is to enable students to put theory into practice and develop valuable employability skills such as team-working, leadership, analytical, and a bit of creativity (hence the videos!). Understanding the dynamics of business management in a realistic context will hold all participants in good stead for future, graduate-level employment regardless of the roles they take.
We thank all of our student participants and fellow partners at Han University of Applied Sciences and Liverpool Hope University as always for their energy and organisation throughout the two days. Despite the slight distraction of both England and Netherlands playing crucial World Cup fixtures!
We look forward to the same events in 2023!
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, Sustainability, Strategy and Management, Tourism Management, Accountancy and Financial Management. Find out more about them via the button below.
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.