Capsim Challenge Professors Know: In Business, Experience Counts

Twelve professors who teach with Capsim business simulations saw their top students reach the finals of the Capsim Spring 2018 Challenge last weekend, competing for international supremacy in an intense, eight-hour struggle.

Professor Raveh Harush – with his second team in the finals – said the global competition “challenges students to do their best and test themselves against other students around the world.” Professor Harush, from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, uses Capstone Business Simulation “to bridge the gap between what students learn and how to implement it.”

Winner of the Capstone Spring Challenge, Justin Zampedro from Kennesaw State University, said the competition built his business experience and “strengthened my focus on strategy and planning.” Winner of the Foundation Spring Challenge, Enoma Osaku from King’s College (who competed with Rodolfo Valdez), said the Challenge developed his “second nature understanding of the business concepts I’ve learned.”

Professor Bruce Kraft, from Iowa State University with a student in the Foundation finals, said the simulation “helps bring to life concepts that we discuss in class each day. It also helps students recognize that you must be engaged and leverage information available to the organization to make informed decisions.”

Professor James Zeigler – with his seventh student from Bowling Green University to reach the finals – said: “Our students recognize that all elements of business must work together to achieve organizational success.  Concerning performance evaluation metrics, students realize no perfect answers exist as they consider trade-offs within the Balanced Scorecard.  Accordingly, the simulation offers a rich “real-world” dynamic experience not found in any textbook.”

Now in its seventeenth year, the Capsim Challenge has given thousands of students an opportunity to build their business experience in a high pressure environment, where sound judgment and rapid analysis are critical.

Professor Harush said his students benefited from the simulation because they: “experience, reflect and learn in iterations; they have to use complex and integrative thinking about strategy, internal integration and competition; learn to work as a team effectively; and, most importantly, they play and have fun while learning.”

“They have so much fun,” says Luke Courtright, Capsim Challenge organizer, “they want to play the simulation over again, in their own time, and on a weekend. What they get out of the Challenge it is not just additional business experience, but the finalists all earn certificates that evidence their business acumen for their resumes.”

President of Capsim, Reda Chafai, said competition honed students’ skills and locked in their interest. “Wayne Calloway – who ran Pepsico for a decade and was Chairman of Wake Forest University – said, ‘nothing focuses the mind better than the constant sight of a competitor who wants to wipe you off the map’. That’s what all our Challenge participants experience: lots of competitors who want to wipe them off the map! And that’s how it’s likely to be for them in the real world.”

Students competing in the 2018 Spring Challenge came from India to the West Indies, Canada to Turkey, and Lebanon to Australia. Winners are listed in the Capsim Hall of Fame at /events/challenge/#/hof.

Foundation results:

Capstone results: