PNC MBA Students Place in Global Top 50 in Competition

Two student teams representing the Purdue University North Central MBA program have placed in the Global Top 50 in the Business Strategy Game (BSG) simulation, a competition sponsored by McGraw-Hill Irwin publishing company. PNC

The competition included 598 student teams from 66 universities around the world. Two of the PNC teams placed in the top 50. The competition is part of the Strategic Management course that MBA students must take near the end of their program. The students are among many international teams that are assigned to run an athletic footwear company. The teams operated as companies competing in the global market selling branded and private-label athletic footwear in four geographic regions - Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Company operations parallel those of the athletic footwear companies Nike, Adidas-Reebok, and New Balance.

The challenge for each company's management team is to craft and execute a competitive strategy that results in a respected brand image, keeps their company in contention for global market leadership, and produces good financial performance as measured by earnings per share, return on equity investment, stock price appreciation, and credit rating.

All companies begin the exercise on the same footing - with equal sales volume, global market share, revenues, profits, costs, product quality and performance, brand recognition, and so on. Company managers, however, have wide strategic latitude in staking out a market position and improving their performance. Other parameters were also tracked such as leadership, teamwork, financial analysis and management, operations management, marketing management, human resource management and strategic analysis and planning.

Further information about the PNC MBA program may be obtained by contacting Janet Knight, MBA program coordinator: at 219.785.5200 ext. 5557 or jknight@pnc.edu, or by visiting http://www.pnc.edu/mba/.