A team of three of international students in the Global Master of Business Administration program at the University of Houston-Victoria was ranked among the top 100 players in an international business game.

UHV international business students Jian Zhang, left, Tina Wang and Peng Yu teamed up for an worldwide business contest and were ranked among the top 100 players.

Jian Zhang, Peng Yu and Tina Wang, all originally from China, earned the Global Top 100 Ranking of Overall Game Score in the Business Strategy Game, an online game where 4,370 teams from 276 colleges and universities around the world run competing simulated international businesses.

“The excellent performance shows how well our GMBA students have done in strategy crafting and achieving the established objectives in strategy implementation in the simulated global market,” said Jifu Wang, interim dean of the UHV School of Business Administration. “These are hands-on working experiences that will help build critical capabilities in our students for their managerial careers. These students will stand out amongst their peers.”

In the game, teams manage a global company in the athletic footwear industry. The students run their company in head-to-head competition with other teams. They must craft and implement operational strategies for four regions: Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

Students are challenged to establish a quality market brand, obtain a leadership position in the industry, and achieve good financial performance. The BSG challenges students to apply what they have learned in class to a real-world environment.

“We treated our group as a real company that wanted to earn a profit and survive competition,” Yu said. “We took it seriously and did a lot of work and research. That’s why I think we did well.”

His studies at UHV prepared him for the challenge.

“This simulation actually combines all the courses, information and knowledge I have learned, including finance, management and even marketing,” Yu said.

Teamwork played a key role in the team’s success, too.

“We work very well together,” Wang said. “We communicate, and we talk about strategy and about everything else together.”

It took a lot of effort to accomplish, Zhang said.

“We spent a lot of time on it,” he said. “Every week, we met for around five to eight hours to get our strategy.”

The trio also took time to get advice from professors when needed, he said.

All three students will graduate this summer. Yu plans to pursue his doctorate in business at the University of Houston. Wang plans to work for an American firm for a few years and then return to China to apply what she has learned. Zhang hopes to get a job in the finance sector and work in the U.S.