• Home
• /
• Education

UAE round of Global Management Challenge comes to a close

Students and young managers from top companies vied for the top spot in a test of financial and managerial intelligence at this year’s Global Management Challenge.

Abdulrahman Sami Saqr, Human Resources director, Al Futtaim Automotive Group, presenting the uae Global Management Challenge award to Rima Khoshid, Aisha Mehnaz and Sahil Dhingra in Dubai on Sunday. — KT photo by Mukesh Kamal

The world’s largest strategy and management competition completed a successful second edition of its UAE round on Monday. Students and young managers from top companies vied for the top spot in a test of financial and managerial intelligence at this year’s Global Management Challenge.

Maryam Al Mulla, a final year student from Dubai Women’s College, said, “The greatest reward we have been given is an opportunity to upgrade our business skills and challenge ourselves. The most powerful experience of being a part of such a competition was supporting the philosophy of learning by doing. We learned about forecasting, simulation and working together under pressure among a lot of other things.”

The Global Management Challenge is the world’s largest strategy and management competition based on a simulation that mirrors a typical manufacturing company. The competition is open to university students and young professionals organised as teams of three to five members managing a manufacturing company as its senior management.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Mian Muneeruddin, managing partner of the UAE Global Management Challenge, said, “The participants have to work on solving a case study to the best of their abilities. The simulations and how other teams are progressing make a big difference. The winning team now has a chance to compete on a global level with teams from China, Brazil and France.”

A total of 78 teams took part in the UAE edition this year, with about 20 universities taking part alongside corporate teams.

According to Muneeruddin, the case studies don’t have any right or wrong answers, as in any real world situation. The participants have to simply do better than the other teams to stand a chance of winning the top prize. This year, a team from Wadi.com won the contest. The winning team was represented by Aisha Mehnaz, Rima Khorshid and Sahil Dhingra.

After winning the contest, Sahil Dhingra said, “Such competitions allow you to reflect on your decision making abilities and how it can affect different teams within your company. You start looking at both internal and external factors to see ways.

“People usually focus on their own job too much and don’t look at the larger picture. Opening your mind to new ideas allows you to perform your work better.”

Five stages of the challenge

> Trial run: This online round is played over a three-week period. At the conclusion of the trial run, the competition is restarted. The aim of the trial run is to familiarise the participants with the competition without incurring penalties for sub-par decisions.

> Round one: This online round marks the formal start of the competition. The registered teams are placed in groups comprising of eight teams per group. The teams in each group compete with each other. The first round is played over a five-week period and the winning team or teams in each group proceed to the next round.

> Round two: This round is carried out over a three-week period. The winning team in each group proceeds to the UAE final.

> UAE final: The UAE final is played over a weekend. The winning team of the UAE final proceeds to the international final.

> International final: The International final is held in Prague, Czech Republic. The winning teams of each of the participating countries compete with each other. The international final for 2014/2015 edition will be held in April.

muaz@khaleejtimes.com