Ten Iona College Student Teams Rank in Global Top 100 of Business Competition
GLO-BUS virtual simulation gives students an opportunity to Learn Outside the Lines of a traditional classroom.
Iona College students Kritsarin Oukosavanna ’21 and Spencer Moran ’21 compete in the GLO-BUS simulation.
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — Putting their business acumen to the test on a global stage, 10 Iona College business student teams have earned top placement in the GLO-BUS business competition, an online simulation run by McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Making the “Global Top 100” was especially notable as nearly 2,500 teams from 128 colleges and universities competed. The challenge? Running an international company that produces wearable video cameras and camera-equipped drones.
“Having to work on GLO-BUS every week gives me a deep insight into how I should run a company in the future,” said Kritsarin Oukosavanna ’21. “My teammate, Spencer, and I are very competitive since we come from a sports background. All in all, I enjoy playing this real-life game, where I can refine my business performance skills.”
Students in Iona’s capstone Business Policy and Strategy course, taught by Jeffrey Alstete, Ed.D., professor of Management in the LaPenta School of Business, participate each year as a way to experience the challenges and thrills of running a real business. Alstete added the simulation as an active learning experience in 2005, and today the competition continues to push students to Learn Outside the Lines of the traditional classroom experience. Iona student teams have consistently ranked in the “Global Top 100” over the past 15 years.
Just as in the real world, companies compete in a global market, selling their cameras and drones in four geographic regions — Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Company operations parallel those of actual technology companies, and each week, the best-performing companies are measured on four performance variables (Overall Score, EPS, ROE, and Stock Price).
“I found GLO-BUS to be like a puzzle, you have to make sure that every piece is just right in order to finish and submit it,” said Ciara Serpa ’21. “The simulation placed just the right amount of pressure on my partner and I, and let us see what it would be like to be in a C-Suite. We were able to combine our knowledge of business and refresh our memory on certain topics. I found that my own majors played a large part in figuring out how to maximize our power.”
Alstete explained that the semester-long business simulation requires students to make weekly company decisions, with each week simulating one year of company operations. There are also individual quizzes for students and strategic plans that student teams must complete, in addition to an end-of-semester team presentation focused on their company, team performance and lessons learned.
Elizabeth Quezada O’Rourke ’21 said: "The GLO-BUS experience has allowed me to experience the intricacies of the ever-changing business world. GLO-BUS may change the numbers for you when you adjust your decisions, but it is our job to figure out which strategy is best and how to best achieve it.”
Spencer Moran ’21 said: "This simulation has taught me a lot about what I imagine real-world business operations will be like. By learning as much as possible about the game’s grading system, we have been able to decide what to focus on in each ‘year’ as we would in the business world when given a set of goals or tasks. I have really enjoyed the experience.”
ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 students and an alumni base of more than 50,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona is widely recognized in prestigious rankings, including The Princeton Review’s 2024 national list of “The Best 389 Colleges” and The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse’s “2024 Best Colleges in America,” which ranked Iona at #66 in the nation overall and #8 in the nation among Catholic schools. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just six percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review recognized Iona’s on-campus MBA program as a “Best Business School for 2023.” Iona also offers a fully online MBA program for even greater flexibility. In July 2021, Iona announced the establishment of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences, which is now principally located on Iona’s Bronxville campus in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian. Connecting to its Irish heritage, the University also recently announced it is expanding abroad with a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.