GLOBAL MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE – The World’s Largest Strategy and Management Competition – started 40 years ago in Portugal and now runs in 30+ countries!
The Australian 2022 Winning Team Alvarium from AGSM (Australian Graduate School of Management) with (from left) Julian Day Founder & CEO Consensus, Petra Stark and Dean Nick Wailes AGSM, and (right) Len Norman GMC Program Manager Consensus.
2020 AUSTRALIAN WINNERS ANNOUNCED – Team Koala from AGSM (Australian Graduate School of Management).
WINNERS 2020: Team Koala (L-R) Gaurav Singh, Min Hamid, Ann Zachariah, Habib Ullah (Team Leader), Hamesh Jina.
Team Koala (Full-Time MBA students) won overall honours with Team Banksia from AGSM (Part-Time MBA students) placing second. This follows an AGSM win in 2019 by a team of Part-Time MBA students – the inaugural year the competition was brought to the ANZ region. A team from the Australian Institute of Higher Education placed third.
Starting in Portugal 40 years ago and now running in 36 Countries, the GMC is the world’s largest strategy and management competition and simulates running a multi-national fictitious corporation in an online competition format over five quarters. The teams collectively make 185 business decisions over a five-week period.
Member of Team Koala and AGSM Student Society Co-President, Ann Zachariah said, “The GMC is the perfect platform to bring together previous work experience, learnings from the MBA and pre-MBA interests. Each team member was the owner of a business function with P&L responsibility and it was important for each of us to intricately understand and model each decision, whether it was around wages, advertising spend or product development initiatives. The experience has definitely enhanced my skills in corporate strategy, consistent decision making, and effective communication.”
AGSM’s Team Banksia placed 2nd: (Clockwise from Left) Jayson Chaplin, Jeremy Au, Irena Duda, Steph Van Loon (Team Leader).
Irena Duda is based in Perth and was a member of Team Banksia. The GMC was an excellent addition to her student experience and an opportunity for interaction outside of the online classroom. “I took an active role in the team and appreciated the process of arriving at mutually agreed decisions,” she said. “The unexpected was how comprehensive the simulation was and a level of anticipation for results of our decisions each week. I strongly encourage students next year to take part and test their skills in assessing business performance and decision making – it’s a good test of your skills, without the assistance of commonly used business intelligence software solutions.”
Julian Day, CEO of Consensus that runs the GMC in Australia and New Zealand said, “The GMC challenges teams to build the value of the corporation in terms of turnover, market share and share value. In a safe environment, students can take risks and see the outcome of their decisions. We congratulate both AGSM teams, especially Team Koala.”
Australian Institute of Higher Education’s team AIHE1 came a close third, with students Anjana Dhungana (Team Leader), Sophie Marie Cart, Charlene Christine Servandil and Arafta Anik.
Team Koala will now progress to the global challenge against 35 other country winners in Q2 2021. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 this may be a virtual competition rather than face-to-face as it has historically been held in Europe. Even so, the students are looking forward to the next challenge. The leader of Team Koala, Habib Ullah, stated, “The stellar teamwork was the highlight of the GMC challenge for me. I feel privileged to be a part of the team to represent Australia in the final round of the GMC next year.”
University students are encouraged to apply for the GMC in 2021. Trying different management methods as a learning experience that relies upon excellent communication and teamwork between team members is the core of the GMC. Gaurav Singh, a member of Team Koala, highlighted the importance of teamwork, “I cannot highlight enough the importance of teamwork and critical thinking. The ability to bring and appreciate alternate views supported by facts is critical to succeeding in the challenge. My advice to the incoming participants would be to commit 3-4 hours per week. In return, the participants are rewarded with an opportunity to practice hypothesis-led problem-solving and utilise their excel modelling and data analytics skills.”
In addition to a wide range of skills, students gain by participating in the challenge, they also have fun. Team Leader of Banksia, Steph Van Loon, (also based in Perth) emphasised, “The friendships gained are lovely. Don’t forget to be open-minded and enjoy the experience. Sometimes the left-field suggestions are the best ones. Use everyone’s backgrounds to your advantage.”
For further details on the GMC visit http://globalmanagementchallenge.pt/worldgmc/ and keep your eye out for details on how to apply starting in 2021.
Finalists of the Global Management Challenge ready to compete for World Champion!
The consensus group was started in 1999 with our “Passion for Excellence” which is part of our DNA, and we are very excited to bring the GMC down-under.
Originally developed by a group of management researchers from the University of Strathclyde, in Scotland, the Global Management Challenge is the most popular management simulator in the whole world. Many countries organize the competition locally, and the International Final brings together competitors from such diverse origins such as Canada, Brazil, Kuwait, Poland, Spain, and China. See all the Countries here.