At the University of San Francisco International Business Plan Competition, business plans submitted by students from around the world compete for $25,000 in cash prizes—and the attention of venture capitalists, and an interested media.
In 2009, the internationally recognized event drew a record 92 entrants, out of which 20 teams were invited to compete. Judges at the event represented some of the top firms in the venture capital space including Hummer Windblad Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital, Onset Ventures, Wilson Sonsini, Fish & Richardson, Samsung Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, and others. The Competition will take place March 25-26, 2010 at Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco, California.
The characteristics and the atmosphere of this competition are best described by the following comment made by one of the participants: “It is a must for competitors. It is the only competition that really feels like you are in Silicon Valley. The aroma of Silicon Valley is literally sprayed into every corner of the competition. Everyone had a pro-company attitude – everyone was there to help.” One of its 2008 competition winners, Dynamics, Inc. recently raised $5.7 million in Series A funding after the presentation at the competition.
The Business Simulation Game (BSG) is a completely online exercise where teams of students run an athletic footwear company in head-to-head competition against companies run by other class members. Company operations parallel those of actual athletic footwear companies. Just as in the real-world, companies compete in a global market arena, selling branded and private-label athletic footwear in four geographic regions – Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.
Company co-managers must make decisions relating to plant operations, distribution and warehouse operations, work force compensation, online sales at the company’s website, sales and marketing, and finance. The challenge is to craft and execute a competitive strategy that results in a respected brand image, keeps your company in contention for global market leadership, and produces good financial performances as measured by earnings per share, return on investment, stock price appreciation, and credit rating.
Description of the Competition
|
Name
|
Business Simulation Game (BSG)
|
|
Location
|
Throughout the world
|
|
Host
|
McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Inc.
|
|
Host’s purpose
|
To provide business students in universities and colleges with a "live" simulation that captures the dynamic nature of competition in the real world
|
|
IPFW/Dept. Purpose
|
To assess the competency of our senior level under-graduate students vis a vis business students at other colleges and universities around the world
|
|
Participating colleges and universities
|
Any university can register students for the competition. Each semester there are over 9,000 teams representing approximately 31,500 students from universities all over the world
|
|
Participating students
|
All sections of undergraduate J401 Policy course that is intended to be the capstone course for the BSB. It is required of all business students in their last semester of study.
|
|
Participating faculty
|
Dr. William Todorovic
|
|
Local sponsor
|
Department of Management and Marketing
|
All aspects of the Business Simulation Game parallel the functioning of the real-world athletic footwear market, thus allowing you and your co-managers to (1) think rationally and logically in deciding what to do and (2) get valuable practice in making a variety of different business decisions under circumstances that mirror real-world competitive conditions.
Simulated company has a worldwide marketing scope with production and sales activities in North America, Latin America, Europe-Asia, and Asia Pacific. Each may have three market segments (sales to retailers, online sales directly to consumers, private label sales to chain store retailers). Decision making involves the following:
- Production operations - up to as many as ten decisions for each plant
- Plant capacity - up to six decisions per plant
- Worker compensation - three decisions per plant
- Shipping/distribution - up to eight decisions per plant
- Pricing and marketing - up to ten decisions in the four geographic regions
- Bids to celebrities - up to four decisions per bid
- Financing operations - up to eight decisions.
In addition, decisions are made relative to pricing, number of models/styles of product, quality rating, advertising, size of retail network, celebrity endorsements, delivery time, retailer support, mail-in rebates, shipping charges for internet sales. Performance measures include market share, earnings per share, return on investment, stock price appreciation, and credit rating.
The Fed Challenge is a national competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board. In this competition, teams of three to five students assume the role of advisors to the Federal Open Market Committee in the conduct of monetary policy. Teams make a twenty-minute presentation and are then questioned by a panel of Federal Reserve in Washington for the final competition. IPFW competes in the regional competition held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
The competition encourages students to apply theoretical topics in macroeconomics and monetary policy to the actual, current economic situation. The competition requires students to assemble and process current macroeconomic information and data. It also requires students to move beyond a theoretical understanding of monetary policy into a detailed understanding of the implementation of monetary policy. Participants are expected to develop a very professional presentation style.
IPFW first started competing at the Fed Reserve Bank in Chicago in 2006.
2101 E. Coliseum Blvd.
