Parkersburg, W.Va. (April 2, 2020) – WVU Parkersburg Business Policy Capstone students are in a neck-and-neck race for global market leadership competing in the international market simulator GLO-BUS. All five student teams in the class finished in the top 100 recently.

The competition promotes students to co-managers of a company – selling either wearable video cameras or sophisticated camera-equipped copter drones – where they must make major decisions in areas such as product design and performance, financing company operations, pricing and marketing.

A computer provides insight into how each decision will impact the company’s performance by calculating the potential sales, profits, and other key information. The companies are judged on five criteria, including how much they earn per share, return on equity investment, stock prices, credit rating and brand image.

“Seeing it from week to week, you see how important it all is,” said Tom Mullenix, WVU Parkersburg student and team member of Prestige Worldwide. “Our team didn’t consider the importance of some aspects of the process, but we now see how crucial each element is.”

This marks the first time all of the student teams in the capstone class have earned a top 100 ranking during the competition. The top performer, A PORC, tied for 25th in the overall game, and their performance in stock price ranked 8th globally for the same week of February 24 to March 1.

“It’s quite amazing to see five teams all in one location in a global competition,” said Jeff Holland, professor and chairperson of the Business, Accounting and Public Service Division. “It’s almost statistically impossible.”

GLO-BUS combines all of the student’s previously learned concepts and lets them create their own strategies for success.

Supported by classmate and teammate, Nick Roedersheimer, Mullenix added, “We took some loans early, and we’ve paid them off. We’re looking forward to doing well in the long run.”

The competition is ongoing and the teams are planning for continued success.

The Business Policy Capstone students are joined by more than 31,000 students from 297 schools in nearly 30 countries.