Global business simulation competition 2024 results
Discover the results of our global business simulation competition, Evolve! 2024.
Evolve! 2024, a global business simulation competition sponsored by Glean, challenged students worldwide to test their entrepreneurial skills. Organised for further and higher education institutions, the competition used our advanced business simulation, Evolution. Through this interactive experience, participants managed the full life-cycle of a virtual bicycle company. They designed, operated, and scaled their businesses while making critical decisions in real-time. The competition helped students build foundational skills in strategy, finance, marketing, and operations, providing them with practical experience in the business world.
Ben Guthrie, lead judge for Evolve! 2024 and an industry veteran, witnessed the creativity on display. In his feedback, he highlights standout moments and praises the ingenuity shown by student teams. His insights offer valuable takeaways for participants and future competitors eager to excel in similar global business simulation challenges.
Insights from the competition judge
Firstly, thanks so much to everybody that took part in our Evolve! 2024 Competition, sponsored by Glean, this year. I hope that you enjoyed the experience while developing your business skills at the same time. Perhaps the slight majority of teams hailed from here in the UK, but it was great to see teams representing Colombia, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and UAE as well.
I’m Ben Guthrie, Learning Development Manager here at SimVenture. Before I came to work here I greatly enjoyed using Evolution with my students while I was working as a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University. The nature of my job means that I have run thousands of quarters within the simulation, and yet I most definitely still learned a lot from reviewing the 44 companies that contested the Competition scenario earlier this month.
Evolve! 2024 tasked teams with growing their companies over the course of 4 simulated years, while embracing sustainable policies, and releasing a newly-designed product into the virtual marketplace. When setting the task, I tried to ensure that teams engaged with as many areas of the simulation as possible, while leaving room for diverse strategies and creative decision-making. I expected it to be challenging, and certainly didn’t expect that our winners (Team King of Glory from University of Nottingham) would manage to build an empire worth over £30 million!
So let’s address the question – how did they…? Well, there was no magic isolated decision. The success was largely down to the optimal utilisation of the full 4 years; investing in technology, an iterative approach to product design, and finally leveraging the sales successes to secure investment through the sale of equity. The latter of these elements resulted in a jump of almost 100% in company value in the very last quarter of the activity!
Our second-place team (Atlas Cycles from the University of Limerick) could perhaps have gotten very close to first place if they had also chosen to use the equity investment option in the same way. However, their considerable success was built upon a very different foundation – diversity of product offering, backed up by very effective marketing. They ended year 5 with three products selling strongly, which is reflected by the fact that their final sales figures outstripped even King of Glory.
Tattus (from La Salle Ramon Llull University) reached a peak value in Year 4 on their way to finishing in 3rd place, with a strategy built around the release of a budget bicycle. The drop in value only occurred as a result of the expensive undertaking to upgrade their production facilities, and given extra time they may well have reaped considerable benefits from this.
At this point, I feel it would be remiss of me not to mention a team that took advantage of the liquidation option within the simulation being disabled to rack up a final company value of negative £125 million! While the team shall remain nameless here, I feel that this was very nearly as impressive an outcome as our winners and was built upon the colossal stock of almost a quarter of a million unsold bicycles by the end of year 5.
I’d also like to give out a few entirely unasked for honourable mentions to the following teams:
- Uniatlantico – for making more than twice as many individual decisions/changes within the simulation than any other team.
- Bradford Bikes and LBORO ECO – for jointly having the best logos (in my irrelevant opinion).
- Butterfly Bikes – for triggering my crippling Lepidopterophobia.
Finally, an honourable mention to Blazing Saddles from National College of Ireland. After securing a very respectable 6th place in the competition scenario, this team pulled out all the stops to ensure that they finished atop the leaderboard for every single category in the Team Practice scenario. Very well played indeed.
If anyone would like me to look at their simulated company within Evolution and provide a little feedback, then please do get in touch. But once again thanks so much for taking part and we would very much like to hear your feedback.
The Evolve! 2024 global business simulation competition provided students a unique chance to build real-world skills in a virtual setting. Supported by Glean and powered by the Evolution business simulation platform, the event sparked creativity, strategic thinking, and teamwork among future business leaders. The organisers extend heartfelt thanks to each institution and student who dedicated time and talent to this global competition. The Evolve! 2024 team looks forward to seeing these participants apply their new skills beyond the competition. Here’s to more innovation, collaboration, and success in the years ahead!
