More than 200 MSc students on the MSc International Business, MSc Supply Chain Management & Purchasing, and the MSc Business Consulting & Information Systems Management programmes took part in a massive cross-continent, inter-campus business simulation game.
Pictured: an introductory class on the SKEMA campus at Sophia Antipolis
Students from SKEMA’s European, North American and Asian campuses were working and coordinating on this business game.
The teams worked and coordinated globally, taking into account time differences, differing economic and social contexts, and many other factors.
Students were divided into two universes. Each universe consisted of teams from Suzhou, Sophia Antipolis and Raleigh representing Chinese, European or American companies.
Each team consisted of 5-6 students of the same campus.
Beyond being a traditional simulation game, the strength of the ‘SkemaSim’ game is in the interaction between companies that must work globally, dealing with purchase contracts, outsourcing, distribution etc.
Pictured: an introductory class on the SKEMA-China campus at Suzhou
One MSc student explained: “this game was an exciting way of putting business theory to practice, seeing the consequences of our decisions develop over time, and the effects each team’s decisions had on the other teams.”
Every day represented a financial quarter and decisions were synchronised at 2pm French time.
International negotiations under pegged the game. Students were challenged by the conditions and learned intensively from the experience.
SkemaSim is a simulation in which team members run virtual companies by taking decisions in a dynamic competitive environment.
Each company belongs to a given country (USA, China or
Europe). As a consequence, the size, economic and social profiles of these companies are different even though they manufacture and sell the same type of product.
Pictured: a group on the SKEMA-USA campus at Raleigh
Depending on the country they come from, companies have differing strengths or weaknesses. They also experience different opportunities or threats. As a consequence, expected results differ from one country to another.
The specificity of SkemaSim is that it encourages cooperation, negotiation and partnership between companies, whether they belong to the same country or to different countries.