Washburn University business majors Bryce Simons, Topeka, and Joshua Patterson, Herington, placed among the top 20 teams in the recent global business competition hosted by Capsim Management Simulations, Inc. Simons placed ninth and Patterson placed 18th in a field of more than 600 teams from around the world. Capsim Management Simulations, Inc., is a provider of business simulations to universities, corporations, and government institutions. The competition is held every year in fall and spring.
During the online competition students are assigned to an ailing simulated company. They are required to turn around the company and make it as profitable as possible within an allotted time frame, usually one week. Participants can either be part of a top-level management team or act alone as CEO; Simons and Patterson chose to work alone as CEOs.
Simons and Patterson prepared for the competition in Washburn’s Strategic Management class where they learned how to save ailing companies. The class is taught by Professor Norma Juma, who appreciates the global aspect of the competition. She said, “The exciting part of these competitions is our students get an opportunity to compete against some of the finest schools around the world. During the most recent competition some of the top performers were from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT) in Australia and the University of Massachusetts.”
Simons and Patterson will graduate in December 2015 with bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration. Simons has a double major in accounting and economics; Patterson’s major is accounting.
Capsim works with more than 550 universities, including Harvard, Wharton, University of California/Berkeley, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt, as well as leading businesses, such as Microsoft, Alcoa, BP, Allstate, Samsung, General Electric, and Goldman Sachs.
