Students win business simulation
A team of instructors finished fourth in a business simulation game that pitted them against six student teams.
Nearly three months ago, instructors Bob Reese and Mike Sankovich finished the first portion of the business management software game in sixth place.
"We were never able to fully recover from a horrendous start," Sankovich said.
The winning student team was Bernice Thompson and Nancy Schaefer. In second place were Laurie Maynard and Sonya Werderman. All 12 of the student team members are enrolled in the MIMIC business class, and a management or marketing student was paired with an accounting student.
The game, Threshold Competitor, is a make believe business scenario in which each team operates a small manufacturing company. Teams decide how much to manufacture of two products, what to charge for them, what materials to buy, how many workers to hire, what advertising to do, how much money to borrow, anything a small business manager would have to decide.
The software, operating like an employer, evaluates each team on sales, net income after taxes, return on fixed assets and the ability to forecast sales.
Alice Steljes, who teaches the MIMIC class, ran the computer program.
"I tell the students how to play the game, to understand what it is they are doing," she said. "I don't give them advice on what they should do. I just deal with the mechanics of the game."
The winning team had a 7.6 percent return on investment. The faculty team lost 1 percent on their investment.
Defending their finish, Sankovich said, "We had increasing profits for each of the last five periods, and if the simulation had continued, would not doubt have been near the top."
Reese agreed saying, "The faculty team has a long-term strategy that will make our company a continued success in the future."
He added his congratulations to the winning team for "a great strategic plan."
Steljes, who expressed her appreciation to her colleagues for their willingness to participate, evaluated their performance by saying: "They obviously teach better than they play."