Business Students Place Third in International Simulation Competition

Students from The King’s College business strategy course, taught by Professor Dawn Fotopulos, battled top teams to win the third place spot in the Capsim Challenge finals, an international business simulation competition. Thousands of students from around the world compete in the biannual competition.

The King’s team of thirty-one, led by Business Administration majors Jessica Mathews and Kaleb Batman, spent the ten-hour competition running a simulation of a $40 million corporation through the first eight “years” of its existence. (In the competition, each “year” passes in one hour). Their efforts and teamwork propelled the King’s College team to its all-time highest ranking, behind teams from only two schools: Thammasat University, in Thailand, and Iowa State University, which came first and second, respectively.

Professor Fotopulos explains that in the Capsim finals, “Every hour on the hour, the team has to make decisions based on over 300 variables,” including production, marketing and sales, business organization, scaling, and external influences like economic downturns. “This year, the team faced the toughest circumstances of any year we’ve seen yet,” she says. This was because for five of the eight years, the simulated market was in a recession, forcing the team to focus on capturing market share from the competing teams. “That’s a lot harder than simply growing your business in a strong economy.”

For a team to succeed in the Capsim contest, the members must first understand how value is defined by their primary customers and how to deliver that cost efficiently. Not only did the teams need to have knowledge of their area, but without a keen understanding of trade-offs, they would have failed. All 31 members of the company were members of departments responsible for a particular area of expertise. They must then work together to outline projections and adjust quickly to unexpected market changes and to competitors’ decisions. For the students who participate in the competition, the experience of working together and making decisions jointly in such a competitive environment integrates everything they’ve learned in The King’s College business coursemap. Kaleb Batman, one of the two CEOs on the King’s team, says, “I now know the vast amount of decisions that have to be made to satisfy not only business requirements, but people’s needs as well.”

“We are very proud that for the sixth time out of the last seven years the King’s Capsim team under Professor Fotopulos’s expert guidance continues its winning performance, now among the top three spots,” said Dr. Mark Hijleh, Vice President for Academic Affairs. “As we prepare our graduates to shape and eventually to lead strategic institutions in critical areas such as business development, these kinds of results speak for themselves, and we are also pleased to see them translating into real-world success among our alumni.”

This year, graduate and undergraduate students competed in the Capsim Semi-Finals from more than 20 countries including Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Kuwait, Thailand, Turkey, the West Indies, and the United States. The top six teams advanced to the finals competition held all day Saturday, April 22nd, 2017.

“It’s a rite of passage for the King’s students who’ve participated,” Professor Fotopulos says of the Capsim Challenge. “It’s where students get to see their decisions playing out, with real consequences. It’s a live case study which prepares them well for the real world after they graduate.”

The full roster of the King’s College Capsim Challenge Team 2017 is: Kaleb Batman, Anna Bennett, James Brooks, Jessica Burchman (Faculty Assistant), Emily Castelli, Constanza Rota, Brooke Crouthamel, Nigel Decoopman, Matthew Delasin, Kirstyn Eppes, Morgan Ewing, Jordan Garcia, Oliver Garrett, Joy Gebert, Dean Graham, Fabian Griffiths, Nick Gulley, Tianna Halldorson, Julia Hansen, Lauren Holmes, Tatiana Lanier, Esther Lee, Rodolfo Martinez, Jessica Mathews, Sami McClish, Ivan Olivo, Chelsea Owens, Bulgan Purev, Megan Ristine, Tendai Savage, Christian Tegge, Kyle Trivanovich.