Every semester senior business students in the Strategic Management course at Concord University participate in a competitive on-line business simulation called Capstone, provided by Capsim. The Capstone business simulation is utilized by leading business schools in the United States and around the world. Capsim assesses the performance of participants using a balanced scorecard, and reports the percentile rankings for all participants worldwide that have participated in the simulation in the last 120 days.
The Strategic Management class at Concord University placed 17 out of 40 total students (42.5%) in the 90th percentile of all competitors worldwide. Ten of these students (25%) finished in the 95th percentile, and 5 (12.5%) finished in the 98th percentile worldwide.
Concord will be hosting a brief award ceremony for these outstanding students on Thursday, April 27, 4 p.m. to 4:30 pm, in Room 103 of the Nick Rahall Technology Center. Concord faculty, staff and students and the public are invited to attend.
The students finishing in the 90th percentile or above, in order from highest to lowest percentile are: Anna Almeida, Patrick Thompson, Steven Schiffour, Abe Bobbitt, Sydney Bryant, Mathew Lacek, Wes Myers, Bradley Jackson, Eli Flynn, Jordan Towler, Cassie McKenzie, Courtney Floyd, Sarah Shrewsbury, Kristin Lee, Brandon Fessler, Tyler Giles, and Sarah Conroy. Dr. Jack Yeager, Associate Professor of Finance, is the instructor for the class.
Capstone simulates the management decision processes in a true-to-life, competitive environment. Concord requires students that are nearing graduation to participate in the simulation as part of the business program capstone course. Each Concord student assumes the role of CEO of a simulated company. They are expected to assess the situation of a simulated business vis-à-vis other competitor firms managed by other students and then develop a sophisticated competitive strategy to position up to eight distinct products in five market segments and deliver desired results to shareholders as reflected by a balanced scorecard.
Strategies must address decisions related to product specifications, pricing, marketing spend, sales forecasts, R&D budgeting and scheduling, production scheduling, management of direct costs and contribution margins, purchase or sale of production capacity and automation, inventory management, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable management, Human Resource investments in staffing, recruiting and training, 10 distinct Total Quality Management investments, and funding of business cash flow needs through equity and debt issuance. Students execute their strategies in competition with the strategies of other students in a simulated market over a simulated eight-year period.
Some of the regional schools whose students participate in the Capstone business simulation include Marshall University, University of North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Ohio State, Penn State, University of Tennessee and Virginia Commonwealth University. Some of the more notable top 100 business programs whose students participate in the Capstone business simulation include Georgia Tech, Cornell, Notre Dame, Indiana, Michigan State, California-Berkley, Elon, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin to name a few. Many of these programs only placed a team in the 90th percentile in one or two rounds, but only a handful placed teams in the 90th percentile overall across the eight rounds.
