A team of four SMU Master of IT in Business students have emerged as Grand Champions in the Glo-Bus Best Strategy Invitational. Team Eltag comprised Alagu Alagappan, Lim Yee Cheng, Ten Kao Yuan and captain Hendrik Gunawan and was guided by SMU Senior Lecturer of Information Systems and Director of Innovation Management Patrick Thng.

The Glo-Bus project is a business simulation game which first ran in 2008 and now involves over 300 universities in 28 countries. More than 30,000 students have participated in Glo-Bus. The Best Strategy Invitational takes place three times a year and Team Eltag were competing in the May 2018 invitational, having won the school round after competing against other teams from SMU.

In the Best Strategy Invitational, Team Eltag were competing against champion teams from 11 other schools, mostly in the US, managing virtual companies in the same competitive industry. Their company was selling wearable video cameras and sophisticated camera-equipped drones in four geographic regions: Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Based on their analysis and strategy, they made decisions as co-managers on everything from product design, pricing, marketing, finance and production operations to workforce compensations. The ultimate goal was to put the company in the very best competitive position and to gain and sustain competitive advantage over its competitors in the long term.

The team fought hard in 10 rounds held over two weeks, with each round representing a year in business. “It was a great platform to implement the concepts we learnt as part of the Strategy course in the near real-world application. The competition in the international level was tougher but working together as a team with each other’s strength helped us,” commented Alagu.

They were assessed yearly against their competitors on five scoring variables: Earnings Per Share (EPS), Return on Average Equity (ROE), Stock Price, Credit Rating, and Image Rating. Performance on the five variables was measured using the Investor Expectations (IE) standard and Best-In-Industry (BII) standard. As the team which topped the table over ten years, Team Eltag was awarded the title Grand Champions.

Hendrik, the team captain, said, “It was definitely a good learning experience. We were a good team and worked well together. The advice and lessons taught in class by our senior lecturer helped a lot too. Winning the championship was a bonus; the more important take away is to be able to grasp the ideas taught and apply them.”

Patrick Thng added, “Team Eltag have done SMU proud. They have demonstrated that they are able to internalise and apply key strategic concepts in this international competition – snagging the highest accolade. Well done Team!”