Managing a profitable business requires ensuring that all units and functions of a company are interlinked, and making strategic decisions to respond to market conditions and competitors.
A team of actuary-major students from Chinese University pulled off a sweeping victory against 24 rivals at the Hong Kong Management Game 2009.
The Management Game, introduced by the Hong Kong Management Association in 1971, is a competition based on the Simbusi computer program which simulates a competitive business environment. The competition is open to the public and is aimed at honing the general management skills and business insights by running a virtual enterprise. Six teams qualified for the final, which took place at the association's Johnson Electric Management Development Centre in Wan Chai on August 1.
The business challenge for this year's contestants was to sell laptop computers through retail and export channels. Their business objective was to outperform all other competitors by making the highest profit. This year's winning team formed a virtual enterprise called IFA-Prophet, comprising four final year undergraduate students from the insurance, financial and actuarial analysis programme at Chinese University. The team was the only one that made a profit so it took the prize.
Russell Morris, designer of the simulation game, said the winners saw how the market was developing and set their strategies to ensure the best advantage. 'They saw how the market worked, had very good business thinking in their heads and were very quick in making good decisions,' he said.
According to the rules of the game, teams have to analyse business data, respond to the moves of rivals, develop appropriate business strategies and make decisions in six rounds to outwit one another. The performance of each team was measured on the basis of the amount of profit they made.