In the 53rd ICBSC held by California State University Long Beach College in April 2017, four students from Shantou University Business School won two championship trophies including First Place Outstanding Performance and First Place Outstanding Reports, breaking the award records of Business School.
ICBSC (International Collegiate Business Strategic Competition) is a global and influential business competition in the United States of America. It is special for introducing a simulation software where participants from U.S, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong and other areas are challenged to apply business knowledge in the complicated and ever-changing business environment. This competition is also a severe test as it includes quarterly decision for five years, a detailed Business Strategic Plan, an Annual Report and a Goal Attainment Report, challenging multiple aspects of the participants. STU team was formed with four undergraduate Business School students, Guo Shumei (13 Finance), Liang Zhiying (14 Accounting), Yan Huishi (14 Marketing) and Ning Jiaxin (14 International Economics & Trade), who served as four executives officers respectively to operate a company facing intense competition in the industry.
The competition lasted for two months and a half requires great efforts and patience devoted by the participants. In the remote quarterly decision phase from the end of January to the beginning of April, STU team (Team Linker) maintained at an overall leading position among competitors after the preparation for two weeks. In this period, participants were given two weeks to complete a Business Strategic Plan for the following several years, where students should include the forecasted economic situation, operation statistics, strategies for the upcoming years, etc.
When the competition went close to the final phase, Team Linker kept its competitive advantages and performed stably, with stock price, ROI, market share, net income and other critical criteria remaining the first place in the industry. Below are the two pages indicating the excellent operation results of Team Linker from the Annual Report that was later chosen as the First-Place Outstanding Report.
During the final on-site simulation phase, Linker experienced several ups and downs due to the fluctuation of market demand and effects from competitors’ activities. Fortunately, we stayed calm facing these challenges and kept on our strategies, which was essential in our final success.
With the continued working for the presentation the night before board meeting, Linker was even praised by the quality of oral presentation and excellent questions handling by all three judges as a team whose first language isn’t English. Given the undoubtedly best overall performance during the whole competition, Team Linker was granted the First-Place Outstanding Performance.
From this amazing experience, Linker team gained not only practical skills and knowledge on how to operate a company in the changing business environment, but also the confidence in competing with international students. The double trophies that were generously granted to a foreign team will also be the most precious memento during this trip in U.S.
