2023 ICBSC Review

This spring universities from all over the US, Canada, and the UK participated in the 59^th International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition (ICBSC), the world’s longest running and most comprehensive business competition providing an exciting and challenging experiential learning opportunity for business students.

22 teams in 3 undergraduate and 2 MBA/graduate worlds started their experiential learning journey in late January 2023 with a 10-week remote phase which extended over five simulated years, one calendar quarter at a time. Here, students, by assuming different leadership roles in their teams, gained the experience of running their own manufacturing company competing for the best performance against their rivals, companies run by other teams in their worlds, and learned first-hand how a group effort can result in synergy and enthusiasm. The competition culminated in week 12 with a three-day on-site intensive phase and an awards ceremony on April 19-21 in Anaheim, CA.

The outstanding performance of the teams in each world was recognized by the judging panels of savvy business strategy faculty and industry executives with awards in the following categories: Best Stock Market Performance, Best Presentation, 2^nd Runner up Best Documents, Runner up Best Documents, Best Documents, 2^nd Runner up Overall, Runner up Overall, and Best Overall.

The most important and valuable feature of the ICBSC is that there are no losers. Everyone is a winner here. Yes, the competition gives its participants the taste of battle with, at times, stirring success, or, at times, stunning failure–at least in the perspective of the moment. However, as one of our Evening MBA program students, Kathy Borkoski, wrote in her competition testimonials: “I’m proud to announce that I just lost a competition in my business class. I learned so much more by losing than if it was easy. I think I got back the full value of my MBA in one semester because I’m already applying so much of it to real life… You learn more when things don’t go right the first time.”

The overwhelming amount of exceptionally positive feedback we received this year from all competition participants, including students, advisors, judges, and our student-volunteers, once again confirmed that the ICBSC sets a perfect environment for the business students’ experiential learning. Every ICBSC student-participant, without any exception, stated that the ICBSC was the most invaluable and rewarding hands-on experience of their college career.