Three of College's Teams Excel in Global Business Strategy Game

In an unprecedented measure of the institution's success in an international business-simulation competition, three teams of Pennsylvania College of Technology students recently finished in the Top 100.

"There are 4,155 teams competing on a worldwide basis, (and) we had three teams in the top 100!" said Gerald D. "Chip" Baumgardner, associate professor of business administration. "Quite a feat, given the level of competition."

Baumgardner is the students' instructor in the Business Policy and Management capstone course required of all business administration, accounting and technology management students during their final year of study in the School of Business and Computer Technologies.

His teams' performance in the Business Strategy Game was outlined in a letter from the game's three co-authors: "You should be quite proud of your students for such an excellent performance − a performance that reflects quite well on you and the caliber of instruction that students are receiving in your course."

This simulation puts students at the head of international footwear companies, not unlike Nike or Reebok, and requires them to assess the real-life factors (sales, production, distribution, marketing, etc.) that affect their businesses' performance in the global marketplace.

Each Monday, BSG-Online compiles lists of the prior week's best-performing companies worldwide based on each of four measures: overall score for the current year, earnings per share, return on average equity and stock price.

The co-managers of two of the teams tied for the 68th best performance for the period ending April 4, tallying 108.5 points to achieve a Global Top 100 ranking in the overall Game-to-Date score.

Teammates in Industry 1 were Melissa L. Baylor, Watsontown, accounting; Jerry R. Caulkins, Roulette, technology management; Drew M. Hodgson, Pine Grove Mills, technology management; Sarah R. Redmond, Coopersburg, business administration: marketing concentration.

Industry 3's roster was Peggy A. Flook, Williamsport, accounting; Michael V. O'Brien, State College, technology management; Michael P. Spirko, Watsontown, business administration: banking and finance concentration; and Nicholas J. Tremmel-Block, Boise, Idaho, technology management.

A third team representing Industry 2 was ranked close behind, with an overall score of 108.0 that tied for the 96th best performance of that week. Its members were Nicholas C. Lessard-Chaudoin, Lancaster, technology management; Aurora M. LeBlanc, Williamsport, business administration: management concentration; and Joseph R. Raup, Trout Run, business administration: marketing concentration.

Tremmel-Block attributed the teams' success to the students' "stellar education" at Penn College and to the spectrum of knowledge inherent in drawing members from majors as diverse as accounting, banking and finance, and technology management.

"We are a small school in Central Pennsylvania that is competing and surpassing many large and nationally known campuses," he said. "This leads me to commend the instructors here at Penn College for their knowledge and dedication. They have truly allowed this school to be a contender among the country's best business institutions."

Tremmel-Block said his company, dubbed "Dr. Goodfoot," strategized to concentrate on the opposition, basing its decisions on the competition's financial reports and trends.

"Instead of focusing on low price, low quality and high volume, we focused on high quality, ethical practices, higher prices and lower volume of sales," he said. "This strategy took several weeks to really bloom into a successful operation, but once the ball got rolling, we were definitely on top of the game." As a result, he said, the company ended the competition in a tie for 47th place.

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