A team of five talented business students from Bond University will travel to Russia to represent Australia in the world’s largest and most prestigious strategic management competition.
The students: Samuel Cochrane, Jack Stevens, Pieter Joubert, Chris Taylor and Jevan Hayward, will contest the Global Management Challenge (GMC) International Final in Russia in May 2010 after winning the National Final in Sydney on the weekend.
They formed one of two Bond University teams that were among the top eight qualifying teams to contest the final from a field of 64 student, corporate and mixed teams Australia-wide.
The win served to strengthen Bond’s reputation as the most successful Australian university in the GMC competition since it commenced here in 2007; having qualified for all three national finals and contesting the international final last year as Inaugural National Champions.
Sam Cochrane was part of the young team of undergraduate students that travelled to Bucharest last year to compete in the international final, and he has found himself standing on the winner’s podium once again this year.
“Our aim is to go one better this year, and hopefully improve our international placing from fourteenth in the world, to the best in the world!” Sam said.
“I think the main ingredient that we were missing in Bucharest last year was experience. Now that we’ve done it for a few years, I think that we have the know-how to step up and compete with those international teams who’ve had the experience, and hopefully come out on top.
“We’ve all been working really hard to prepare ourselves for the pressure and time constraints imposed in the Grand Final. In the next few months we’ll be looking to fine tune our business models, touch up on our Russian and buy the biggest, warmest overcoats we can!” he said.
Team mentor Baden U’Ren, an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Bond University, said the students' success lays testament to the emphasis placed on Global Strategy within the subject offerings at Bond.
“We strive to deliver a cutting edge education with a global context, and we are very proud of the efforts of our students. Competitions such as the GMC provide students an outstanding forum in which to apply the skills learned in lectures to real-world scenarios," he said.
With participants from 31 countries, the Global Management Challenge places teams in a simulated trading environment designed to provide students with a realistic experience in strategic management.
Each team is provided with a virtual company profile which they must use to outline and implement a corporate strategy, with the objective being to secure the highest company share price on the simulated stock exchange. Competitors are expected to make decisions regarding their companies marketing, sales, production and research and development.
The Global Management Challenge will celebrate its 30th year this year. Since 1980, over 400,000 students and business executives have participated and companies involved globally include Accenture, Allianz, Cadbury, Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, IBM, Procter & Gamble and more.Â