Global Management Challenge is the world’s largest strategy and management competition.

It’s the largest international event based on advanced business computer simulation, in which more than 500 000 students and  managers participated throughout the world.

The concept of the competition emerged in 1980 in Portugal by SDG – Simuladores e Modelos de Gestão – in partnership with the weekly newspaper EXPRESSO.

The Global Management Challenge consists of a Management Simulation in which each team runs a Company, with the objective of getting the highest Investment Performance. This criterion measures the investment ‘return’ for the original shareholders not just as the value of their shares at the end of the competition but also after allowing for any shares purchased, or sold, and also any dividends received. Managing a company, without running real-world risks, and taking top management decisions, the competitors are given the opportunity to:

  • Analyse Financial and Economic Indicators
  • Broaden their views on Corporate Strategy,
  • Interact with the different Functional Areas of a Company,
  • Understand the Market Conditions in which they compete and Customer Satisfaction,
  • Become aware of the impact of their Decisions on the Organization itself, within an environment designed to encourage and develop teamwork

How does the Competition work?

The simulation is on-line. Each edition begins with a Team Draw. The teams are organised into groups (Each Group with a maximum of 8 Teams). Each Group creates a competitive Market, in which the teams compete with one another.

  • Each team receives information(Company History) about the Company it is about to run;
  • Outlines a Corporate Strategy;
  • Launches its Strategy by making functional decisions in different areas of the Company (Marketing, Production, Human Resources and Finances).
  • Then, it submits its Management Decisions (Decision sheet) to the Simulator via the Internet.

The Simulator then analyses and compares the teams’ decisions and produces a Management Report for each team, showing the detailed results in financial and operational terms. This process is repeated over Five Developing Decision Periods during the Competition, simulating a year and a quarter of the companies activity.

GMC national editions

At this time the Global Management Challenge are present in following countries: Angola, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Ghana, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR (China), India, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Latvia, Macao SAR (China), Mexico, Mozambique, People’s Republic of China, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States of America and Venezuela.

Each country organizes a national edition of the competition on-line which is followed by the International Final, were national representations compete against each other to win the title of GMC Champions.

In Poland the competition is organized by BIGRAM since year 2000. So far, the simulation gathered over 25 000 participants representing over 250 companies and 80 universities. For one yearly edition there are over 500 teams competing. The final gala and announcement of the results is held at Warsaw Stock Exchange. National winners from Poland are well known worldwide for their outstanding achievements at the International finals, where they always stand up as finalists, taking first, second or third place in the world.

The registration for the upcoming edition in Poland is now open (learn more)

 

luis-alves-costa The challenge begins when game scenario is delivered to the teams. All participants must analyse the history of the company that they are about to manage. This is the first part difficult for the participants: during the first round, for instance, the companies can have a lot of cash to invest, the market is growing, so the job of the board of director is easier and happier when balanced with a more recessive scenario or even, in my opinion, with the most difficult scenario; a start-up company.We consider realist to have a maximum of 8 teams (companies) competing each other in each group. The company will be always the same, but their history, the numbers of the last five quarters will be always different. The competition for each team will be different. And that is the challenge that all participants have to face. They and plan their company strategy but also forecast the decisions of their market competitors. During each round they have to balance their decisions between remaining consequent in implementing their strategy and in the same time adapting to changing market situation.This is one of the most value ads of our simulator: the diversity of many scenarios, which enable us in a close joint venture with the Scottish company EDIT 515 to deliver a simulator very similar to the real world of management and strategy. – Luis Alves Costa, President and founder of GMC global.

 

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