Idaho State University “All Star” business team takes first in global competition

Six Idaho State University College of Business students have captured first place in their division in the 51st International Collegiate Business Simulation, the nation’s oldest and most comprehensive business simulation for college students.

The Bengal team—made up of graduate business students—took top honors for Best Written Materials and Best Overall Performance. The awards were announced at a gala dinner April 25 in Anaheim, California at the conclusion of the three-month competition, which pitted the ISU team against business students from around the world.

Teams were required to invent a manufactured product, create a detailed business plan, and make five years’ worth of quarterly decisions as they competed in a computerized business simulation with teams from other schools in their industry. The competition began with weekly decisions in January and culminated with the final presentation to judges last weekend in Anaheim. The judges were corporate and business leaders from throughout the United States.

The ISU team created a company, “BeMed,” whose purpose was to develop and market a noninvasive device to monitor blood glucose levels without having to draw blood. BeMed refers to the Bengal mascot and the university’s health care mission. Assistant professors Dawn Konicek and Alex Bolinger served as faculty advisers to the team.

“This competition is so valuable to students because it allows them to apply what they are learning in the classroom to see how the decisions they make affect all of the functional areas of a business – finance, marketing, production, and managing human resources,” Bolinger said. “This is evidence that ISU’s best and brightest can compete with anyone in the world.”

The ISU team consisted of Master of Business Administration students Andrea Vicic, Connor Pate, D.J. Mills, Anil Mandal, and Joe Dobbins, and Master of Accounting student Derek Schwabedissen.

For more information, contact Alex Bolinger at boliale2@isu.edu or 208-282-6242.