News

Two teams of Baker College of Muskegon students from the Strategic Management class garnered first and fifth place in the Global Business (Glo-Bus) Strategy Game Competition Simulation Exercise. The Business Strategy Game (BSG) is an online business simulation where teams of higher education students from around the world co-manage a company and compete in various international markets, including North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Europe-Africa. Competing through wholesale, Internet and private-label marketing channels, the students made approximately 150 different business decisions each week and throughout the competition.

The first-place team, named TJK Camera Shop, included:

• Terrance Demyers, of Muskegon Heights
• Jeanette Laarman, of Fruitport
• Katy Rasic, of Twin Lake

The fifth-place team, named Bit Chen Camera Co., included:

• Chad Lake, of Grand Rapids
• Jeff Smith, of Holton
• Stephanie Wahr, of Spring Lake

“We are extremely proud of these students and their performance,” said Tim Stein, Baker College of Muskegon Business Programs Department Chair. “They competed as undergraduates against tens of thousands of students from across the globe, many of whom were in graduate programs.”

Competition included teams from the University of Massachusetts, Florida A&M, Northwestern, Adams State College, University of Baltimore, University of Houston, Franklin University, University of Cincinnati, University of North Carolina, University of New Mexico, Texas A&M, Penn State, University of West Virginia, Clemson University, University of Wisconsin, University of Hong Kong, Burapha University and the University of Greenwich.

The object of the game was to make management decisions that promoted the firm relative to two factors: investor expectations and best-in-industry. Both categories measured earnings per share, return on equity, stock price, credit rating and image rating. Investor expectations were known in advance and the management teams competed for the favor of the investors and against each other.

The members of the first-place team are eligible to compete in the Best-Strategy Invitational (BSI), a global competition among high-performing Glo-Bus companies from around the world. The BSI competition, consisting of 10 decision-making rounds, is held over a two-week period in December. The winning team in each BSI industry is declared Grand Champion, awarded a BSI Grand Champion Certificate and is inducted into the Glo-Bus Hall of Fame.