A team of Neumann University business students finished 42nd  worldwide in an international Business Strategy Game that involved 2,968 teams from 164 colleges.

The management skill of the team, based on the performance of fictitious footwear companies that they operated, placed them in the top two percent of teams that entered the global competition.  

The Business Strategy Game (BSG) casts students in the role of company managers, who are responsible for decisions regarding production, shipping and inventory, corporate social responsibility, pricing and marketing, financing, worker compensation, and other aspect of business management.

Teams from Europe, Africa, North America, Asia, and Latin America entered the competition.  

Neumann’s Rising to the Occasion team finished tied for spot #42 in overall rankings, according to results announced by BSG on Nov. 29. 

The company was managed by Amanda DeCarolis of Nottingham, PA, Joshua Hendrickson of Akron, OH, and Brandilee Boose of Glen Mills.

“We modeled our company’s values after Neumann’s RISES values, hence our name, which was a major influence on how we ran our company,” says DeCarolis. The university’s core values are reverence, integrity, service, excellence, and stewardship. 

“Having students run a company in head-to-head competition with companies managed by other students provides a truly powerful learning experience that places students in active, hands-on managerial roles,” explained Dr. Robert Till, professor of business, whose senior seminar class also produced two top-100 teams in the spring 2020 competition. 

According to the BSG website, the contest is “a competition-based strategy simulation where the outcomes are always unique to the competitive interplay among the specific decisions and strategies of each group of competing companies.” There is no secret set of strategic moves that works every time.  

Other colleges with teams ranked in the top 100 are George Washington University, the University of Massachusetts, University of New Hampshire, University of New Mexico, and Wichita State University. 

Dr. Till, a resident of Wayne, holds degrees from St. Bonaventure University (BBA), the University of Notre Dame (MBA) and the University of Massachusetts (Ph.D.).

Prior to receiving his Ph.D., he was a managing director in the Investment Banking Division of JP Morgan Chase where he was employed for more than 20 years.