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Dec. 8, 2005
Team of Business Administration Students at Trinity University Ranks 4th in Worldwide Online Competition
SAN ANTONIO -- Three students in a Business Policy and Strategy class at Trinity University have placed fourth overall among 500 teams from colleges throughout the world in a competition known as Business Strategy Game Online (BSG Online,) affiliated with McGraw Hill. The class was taught this fall by Rita Drieghe Kosnik, professor of management in the business administration department at Trinity.
Members of the successful team at Trinity are seniors Josh Adelstein, Hyun Kyung "Tony" Lee, and Keller Smith. Mr. Adelstein is a Dallas native who is majoring in international business and finance, while Mr. Lee is originally from South Korea and moved to Argentina at age 10. Mr. Smith of Arlington, Texas, is a double major in computer science and business administration. Professor Kosnik described the team members as being "extremely bright."
The team formed a mythical company called Aladdin, whose product was athletic shoes and whose task was management simulation. Teams developed strategies that could be measured in stock parlance, including earnings per share, return on average equity, and stock price. The Aladdin team from Trinity placed as high as third in the earnings per share category and won a fourth ranking in the overall competition. The rankings were determined among teams registering for the competition from August through November 2005.
"Over 500 schools use the simulation. To be in the Top 20 is a really big deal," said Dan Walz, professor and chair of business administration at Trinity.
Mr. Smith said the BSG Online game is a "great way" for students to learn the financial nuances of running a company in an applied, "hands on" manner. "If you take the time to learn the game, it can really teach you quite a lot, and the competition inherent to the BSG market provides an added element of appeal," he said. Each team must find a strategy that differentiates its company from fellow classmates' companies, but an element of the unknown came into play because students did not know how their strategy worked until the results were compiled twice a week at midnight. "I have spent more than one night waiting up at midnight to see how my company did, and which aspects of my strategy worked and which didn't," he said.
Because of their high ranking, the Trinity team members were invited to take part in a two-week "Best Strategy Invitational," but Professor Kosnik said the additional competition conflicted with Trinity's schedule for finals. Thus, the Aladdin team chose not to participate but considered it an honor to be invited.
A total of 12 teams from Trinity participated in this fall's competition, Professor Kosnik said, adding that the Aladdin team competed not only against fellow students from Trinity but more than 500 teams from throughout the world, including international students in Australia, Canada, France, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and Thailand.
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