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A team of six California
State University, Fresno MBA students won in three categories at the
44th annual International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition,
April 17-19 in San Diego. The competition tests students’ abilities to
manage a simulated company against other collegiate teams.
On the Fresno State team were Ryan Finfrock, Kyle Goodman and Nevin
Hindiyeh, all of Clovis; Alyson Udell of Paso Robles; Clint Stitser of
Reno, Nev.; and Kirsten Years of Fresno. Their advisers were lecturer
Charlene Coe of the Department of Management and Dr. Manuchehr Shahrokhi,
the Craig Fellow Professor of Global Business-Finance.
The Craig School of Business team won first place in Stock Market
Investment, Overall Performance of the Company and Report Writing
categories, defeating teams from California State University, Long
Beach, Mount Vernon Nazarene University of Ohio, and Willamette
University of Oregon. The competition also included teams from Canada,
Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
“The most valuable thing about this competition is the reality of how it
works,” Finfrock said. “Each competing university was a business within
an industry and decisions made the industry react like real businesses
would. When we would increase advertising higher than other businesses,
we might see our market share go up and theirs go down. Or when we would
terminate an employee to cut costs, our other employees may become more
fearful of their job security and possibly resign. This real-life
interaction between decision making and accurate, realistic results was
what was most educational.”
The competition “enabled our team of MBA students to utilize the
knowledge gained through the Craig School of Business MBA program and
directly apply it to real-world scenarios,” Hindiyeh said.
Added Years, “Teamwork was the key element to our success. Each of us
brought a different skill set and perspective that together made for a
winning competition. I learned just how well a disparate group of
individuals can come together for a common purpose.”
The competition starts in February each year and lasts about 10 weeks,
conducted online as teams prepare a comprehensive strategic business
plan.
“The competition provides an excellent opportunity for the team to work
closely around the clock, fiercely debate issues, disagree, build
consensus make decisions and wait for the result of such decisions”
Shahrokhi said. “It is so sweet to see their faces when the decisions
they made turn out to be the right ones.”
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