MOBILE, Ala. – Four University of Mobile business students are currently in 1st place among 4,399 teams from 241 colleges/universities worldwide.
The team from UM is led by Dr. Kathy Dunning, dean of the School of Business and associate professor of accounting. The students that make up the team are Heidi Giles, an accounting major from Canada; Gunner Hendrix, a marketing major from Spanish Fort, Alabama; Morgan Bryant, a management major from Mobile, Alabama and Lukas Burt, an accounting major from England.
The BSG-Online program, also known as the Business Strategy Game, is a computer simulation of a multinational manufacturing corporation. When using this online exercise, members of the classroom divide into teams and are then assigned the task of managing the corporation through strategic expansion, offering generic branding, hiring, borrowing money, and managing foreign currencies, among other functions.
Each Monday of the starting week, BSG-Online compiles a list of the prior week’s best-performing companies worldwide based on each of the four measures: overall score, earnings per share, return on average equity and stock price.
The UM students generate the highest total scores for each of these metrics, worldwide.
Dunning uses the BSG-Online program to prepare her students for the business world. Dunning said she accomplishes this by using all aspects of manufacturing that are based on selling athletic footwear that mirror the real-world market. Her students are engaged in controlling the cost of production, outsourcing, cost of capital, pricing and product promotion.
UM students are getting practical business experience before even graduating.
“This business simulation puts our students in real managerial decision-making roles on a global platform. Managers at this level do not have the luxury of focusing on one item at a time, but must be constantly engaged in positioning their company to take advantage of opportunities to advance their company in the midst of global competition,” says Dunning.
For more information about the School of Business at the University of Mobile, visit umobile.edu or call 251.442.2222.
About the University of Mobile
The University of Mobile is a Christ-centered liberal arts and sciences institution with a vision of higher education for a higher purpose, founded to honor God by equipping students for their future professions through rigorous academic preparation and spiritual transformation. Core values are: Christ-Centered, Academically-Focused, Student-Devoted and Distinctively-Driven. The university offers on-campus and online bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in over 75 academic programs. Founded in 1961, the University of Mobile is affiliated with the Alabama Baptist State Convention and is located 10 miles north of Mobile, Alabama on a campus of over 880 acres.
For more information about the University of Mobile, visit the website at www.umobile.edu or call Enrollment Services at 1.800.WIN.RAMS or 251.442.2222.
Amber Kelley is the marketing communications specialist for University of Mobile. Amber received her Bachelor of Science in Communication from UM. As marketing communications specialist, Amber writes press releases and other content for UM. She is passionate about serving in her youth group at Redemption Church. She enjoys spending time outside, reading a good book and watching romantic comedies on Netflix.