On October 19th and 20th, I took part in my first ever Business Game. Why it was a great experience and why you should try to join one whenever possible, I will tell you in this blog post!
You might know the concept of a case study from classes you have taken. It is always a great way to connect theoretical with practical thinking. A Business Game, is a case challenge -meaning you enter a competition on case study solving. These Case Studies will have different focusses: At the UCL Business Game, we were given challenges on Strategy, Finance and Entrepreneurship. Sure, it seems you would need a lot of knowledge in different areas, however remember that you will not solve them alone!
At UCL BG we had mixed teams consisting of four people coming from different study levels, universities and study areas. This made the whole experience a great opportunity to learn from each other. The location was the UCL campus. All parts of the event took place on one floor and the atmosphere was very friendly and “student-like”: we had Sandwiches and Pizza for Lunch.
UCL BG offered three challenges that I will sum up for you, so you get an idea of the dimensions. For every challenge we had about 90 to 120 min, which was very tough and as I had previously not had much experience with business games yet, I really struggled to get things done in time. From other teams I noticed that it was very helpful to have some kind of blueprint or basic structure (also as a PowerPoint) on how to approach cases. Parallel to solving the case, we also had to prepare a slide deck, which we handed in. The best hand-ins were allowed to present (it was about 5 groups per challenge) and the best presentations got awarded in the ceremony at the end of the second day.
The Finance Challenge was created by Credit Suisse. We had to evaluate two options on how to compete in a market of Ice Cream producers and then decide on the better one. EY-Parthenon challenged us by letting us put a business plan of an online learning platform to the acid test. The last challenge was created by Amazon and was an entrepreneurship challenge: we had to come up with a start-up idea that would support amazon delivery in a broad sense. In my opinion the second challenge was the most challenging, as we were really running short on time and thus could not complete it. The most fun was the Entrepreneurship Challenge!
Of course, such an event comes with a lot of networking. We had a workshop session with Amazon and EY-Parthenon, but also a fair where we could approach the company representatives and a few local start-ups on Saturday evening.
My team and I won second place for the finance challenge! This was amazing as all of us were “only” Bachelor students competing against also Master and PhD students. In summary, it was a great learning opportunity and a great way to broaden my international network!
My advice: Try out a Business Game! Check out the AEBG webpage and find your favourite travel destination ? FS also supports groups competing at selected business games.
Frankfurt School gGmbH
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60322 Frankfurt am Main
