Oklahoma Wesleyan University Chesapeake Energy School of Business students ranked number one this week in the national standings for the GLO-BUS business simulation.
OKWU seniors Caleb Smith (marketing major) and Kyle Israel (financial economics major) make up the number one team. GLO-BUS is an online simulation competition designed to mimic a real life global business economy. There are 3,652 groups participating in this year competition.
OKWU students have been participating in this competition since 2003, but this is the first time an OKWU team ranked first. Students compete in the simulation as part of the strategic management course, typically taken during senior semester.
“In GLO-BUS, one to five class members are assigned to run a digital camera company that produces and markets entry-level and upscale, multi-featured cameras in a head-to-head competition against companies run by other members of the class,” said Wendell Weaver, assistant professor of the strategic management course.
The companies compete in a global market arena, selling to camera retailers in four geographic regions–Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.
GLO-BUS is modeled to display the characteristics of many globally competitive industries—fast growth, worldwide use of the product, competition among companies from several continents, production located in low-cost locations having skilled labor supplies, and a marketplace populated with companies employing a variety of competitive approaches and business strategies.
A strategy simulation designed around a global industry setting is especially desirable because globalization of the marketplace is an ever-widening reality, and because global strategy issues are a standard part of the strategic management course.
“Caleb and Kyle have diligently applied the concepts and principles that they have been learning over the past four years,” said Weaver. “We are proud of their results in this competition.”