Business students have winning edge in competition

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Two Rochester Institute of Technology student teams from Saunders College of Business were named Global Top 100 Performers in a head-to-head competition against 2,084 teams from 122 worldwide colleges and universities.

The MBA graduate students competed in the Glo-Bus simulation strategy game, an online exercise where students’ strategy and decision-making skills are put to the test as they develop business plans and compete against each other for the market share. Each week, Glo-Bus lists the top 100 Global Performers in four categories: overall score, earnings per share, return on equity and stock price.

Tied at 59^th place for overall scoring in the Global Top 100 ranking were team co-managers: Michael Gibbs, MBA in accounting from Pittsford, N.Y.; Mollie Hamilton, MBA in supply chain and management information systems from Victor, N.Y., and David Nitsch, MBA in marketing from Penfield, N.Y.

Tied at 72^nd place for return on equity in the Global Top 100 ranking were team co-managers: Peter Downing, MBA in accounting from Blacklick, Ohio, Nicholas Guerin, MBA in accounting from Fairport, N.Y., and Taurance Robnett, MBA in business administration from Shelburne, Vt.

According to Professor dt ogilvie, distinguished professor of urban entrepreneurship and former dean and professor of business strategy at Saunders College, strategic management is the process of formulating, implementing and evaluating the actions necessary for an organization to develop and maintain a competitive advantage over its rivals.

“Students achieve course objectives through hands-on experience in running a company using the concepts and themes from the course,” said ogilvie. “Simulations give them the opportunity to learn, examine and practice strategy in a ‘real-world’ context by making decisions for their own simulated firm.”

RIT’s Competitive Strategy Glo-Bus students also outperformed the worldwide averages of all graduate classes on their mid-term exam for each chapter and each learning objective as reported in the Glo-Bus Learning Assurance Report for Multi-Chapter Test 1.

“Their overall percent of correct answers was 92.2 vs. the 83.2 worldwide percent of correct answers,” said ogilvie.