The Global Management Challenge is the largest Strategy and Management Competition in the world. It’s the largest international event based on business simulations, with more than 500 000 university students and company managers participating in this event 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. EXPRESSO has not only given a great amount of national coverage on the competition, but has also contributed immensely to the internationalization process.
At current the Global Management Challenge is present in the following countries: Angola, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cameroon, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong SAR (China), India, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Macao SAR (China), Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, People’s Republic of China, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates.
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
The Global Management Challenge normally consists of 4 stages:
1st Round
2nd Round
National Final
International Final: in March/April of the following year, that brings together the winners from each country
Each stage consists of Five Developing Decision Periods during the competition. The Group Winner is the team that finishes with the best investment performance.
The Simulator
SDG and EDIT 515 U.K. are partners in developing and improving this Simulator. Their aim is to ensure that it is up-to-date, relevant and challenging in order to meet the participating company’s current needs, and to keep up with the latest technology.
The Simulator was designed and developed by Partners of EDIT 515 U.K., Professors of the Operational Research Department of the University of Strathclyde in Scotland (Key subject for a Master’s in Business Administration of the Graduate Business School of this University).