A group in the strategic management class, taught by Professor Robert Murphy, ranked 14th out of 2,441 other teams within 129 colleges for a global project during the week of February 10-16.
The group is made up of seniors Aaron Hebert, Viviana Coix, Melody Sagastume, and Freddy Caldwell. The class’s project is participation within Glo-Bus, which according to their website is, “… a completely online exercise where teams of students run companies that are in a neck-and-neck race for global market leadership in two product categories: (1) wearable video cameras and (2) sophisticated camera-equipped copter drones. The companies compete in a global market arena, selling to buyers in four geographic regions—Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.”
The overall goal of the project is to simulate what it would be like to run a company. The groups make product designs, discounts, run marketing, and decide what they do with their money and how they treat their employees, on top of other duties.
The groups make decisions every week that will carry their “company” throughout the year; one week represents a year. Each group is competing within the same industry that contains similar products. The rankings are based on a point system. Every week, on Saturday, the score is calculated, and the teams get points based on earnings per share, return on equity, stock price and image reading.
Aaron Hebert, a double major in business management and finance, equates the success of the group to their unique dynamic, as they all represent different majors within the business department: Coix is a marketing major, Sagastume an accounting major, and Caldwell a management major.
“It’s been amazing to work collaboratively,” said Herbert in regards to his team. “We are all dedicated to the project, so we will put in the time to making the decisions. And we see every aspect of the company, so it gives us the best possible outcomes within decision making, on top of a competitive advantage.”
While they have been ranked first in their strategic management class, they ranked 22nd overall the week of February 3-9, and 46th in the prior week.
Hebert is grateful for the opportunity this project has given him. He states, “It’s been very beneficial as I have been able to connect what I have learned within my business degree to real-world implications because this is something I realistically could be doing.”