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IIM, Bangalore business student runs top
simulated company in world
NORTHFIELD, Ill., November 19, 2009 Kiran V
Holla of the Indian Institute of Management,
Bangalore, has won the 2009 Fall Capstone®
Business Simulation Challenge, an
international business simulation
competition that attracted 522 competitors
from university campuses in India, Canada,
Australia, Turkey, Switzerland, Bulgaria,
Chile and the United States.
Kiran first used the Capstone® Business
Simulation under Professor Dharam Pal in the
Executive General Management Program at IIM
Bangalore. He entered the international
competition and in November reached the
finals, competing against five other virtual
CEOs. Kiran achieved 864 points out of 1000
on the Balanced Score Card to win the
competition. Professor Pal also taught the
4th Place winners in the competition,
Anubhav Bansal and Gopal Garg of the
Institute of Management Technology in Nagpur.
Kiran hopes to move into the microfinance
industry. He said using Capstone® in his
university course was “an excellent
opportunity for us to apply the principles
that we had learnt in theory.”
“For example, we had studied subjects like
sales forecasting, inventory management,
corporate financing etc and Capstone® gave
us a good opportunity to gain further
insight into the subjects.
“Most importantly, Capstone® is structured
as an oligopolistic market and hence
‘strategic behavior – decisions that take
into account possible reactions of others’,
play a major role. This was the part we
loved best. Each team needs to make
intelligent guesses on how rivals would
react when it contemplates expanding
capacity or cutting prices etc. This is
something that is best experienced
practically. No amount of theoretical
learning can beat this experience!”
Five of the six finalists in the Capstone®
Challenge were from non-American
universities. Capsim’s coordinator of the
challenge, May Zelner, described the
particular challenges for finalists from
India.
“During qualifying rounds, students make a
new set of decisions every day, whereas in
their courses they are used to making
decisions once a week and having time to
scrutinize the results and collaborate with
teammates. During the finals it is even more
intense with Round 1 on Saturday, then
Rounds 2 through 8 on Sunday.
“In India, that means Round 2 of the final
begins at 3am on Monday, with six more
rounds every hour after that! The students
who compete have jobs, family obligations
and other courses to study so their time is
precious. It is so impressive to see the
focus and effort they put into the
competition.
“I joke with students about their success in
the competition, but I honestly won’t be
surprised to see one of them on the cover of
Forbes Magazine one day.”
The Capstone® Business Simulation Challenge
is a global online competition held in the
spring and fall semester each year. The
competition is hosted by Capsim Management
Simulations, Inc® of Northfield Il, the
world’s largest provider of business
simulations to college graduate and
undergraduate students. The annual
competitions are open to all students who
have used a Capsim business simulation in
their university course.
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Finalist results from Capsim’s Fall 2009
Capstone® Challenge
(Winner’s name, University and Professor’s
name): |
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First Place: Kiran Holla. Indian Institute
of Management, Bangalore. Professor Dharam
Pal |
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Second Place : Glenn Karr, Arthur
Berdichevsky, Rob Tetrault, Dustin Springett.
University of Manitoba. Dr Parshotam Dass. |
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Third Place: Paul Provost. Sam Houston State
University. Dr Jo Ann Duffy. |
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Fourth Place: Anubhav Bansal, Gopal K Garg.
Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur.
Professor Dharam Pal |
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Fifth Place: Dmitriy Bykov. Sauder School of
Business, University of British Columbia.
Paul Cubbon. |
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Sixth Place: Tang Quoc Dinh. Curtin
University of Technology. Professor Kyle
Bowyer. |
About Capsim Management Simulations, Inc.
Founded in 1985, Capsim Management
Simulations, Inc. (Capsim) is the leading
virtual business simulation program provider
worldwide and is a sustaining partner of the
AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business). Its Capstone® Business
Simulation is the world’s premier business
simulation that teaches strategy/tactics,
accounting, marketing, finance, human
resources, teamwork, leadership, and other
topics. Capsim's Comp-XM®, used in
conjunction with Capstone®, evaluates the
business acumen of participants. Capsim
works with more than 550 universities,
including Harvard, Wharton, University of
California/Berkeley, Northwestern and
Vanderbilt, as well as leading businesses,
such as Microsoft, Alcoa, BP, Allstate,
Samsung, General Electric and Goldman Sachs.
Visit www.capsim.com for more information
and a complete list of past winners.
Contact:
Kim Hollett, Capsim Management Simulations,
Inc.
1 847 441 9042 kim@capsim.com |