By Rachel Rundengan | Opinions Editor |
CSUSB students celebrated in victory after competing against 10 other university teams in the International Collegiate Business Strategy competition (ICBSC) in Anaheim on April 23.
They were awarded “First Place Outstanding Performance” in the competition, which lasted a period of over 12 weeks.
In the competition, each university team takes over the management of a simulated or virtual manufacturing company competing directly against four to five other firms run by competitor teams in its simulated world.
Each team was responsible for a strategic business plan, an annual report and a formal oral presentation to judges.
The team featured Kapil Jain (CEO), Musab Alrakhis (COO), Mohammed Alsubaie (CFO) and Bella Han (CMO), along with their adviser Bill Donohoo.
They all had the experience of managing their own company.
“We were a really strong team,” said student Kapil Jain.
“At one point, I made a big mistake in one of the ‘decisions,’ but we took it as an opportunity to grow,” added Jain.
Each spring, universities from all over the world participate in the ICBSC, which is the world’s longest running, most comprehensive business competition.
All the teams manage their companies by making quarterly decisions for five simulated years—a total of 20 rounds of quarterly decisions.
These decisions are transmitted to the host computer utilizing the internet, the performance of the team’s company and that of its competitors determines the situation the company faces for the next set of decisions.
The win was led by a two to three month preparation.
The members were already acquainted and they have then familiarized themselves with the competition, as it was a part of their Master of Business Administration (MBA) class.
In January, the team received a start-up information and began position files for the competition.
The competition began at the beginning of February with the remote phase and culminated with the “intensive” phase from April 21 to 23.
Other Universities competing in the competition included CSU Long Beach, Idaho State University, Regent’s University London, University of California Riverside, University of Calgary, San Jose State University, St. Thomas University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
“We did everything we were supposed to do,” said Jain.
“Before the last three to four quarterly decisions, we knew we got it,” concluded Jain.
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