By Katherine Haines ’21, ’22

Arcadia University’s International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition (ICBSC) team of School of Global Business students competed in the annual Business Simulation throughout the spring semester, with some members earning the highest marks in multiple categories. 

Accounting major Victoria Arabio ’21, Business Administration and Management major Daniel Dellinger ’21, Accounting major Olivia Lutz ’21, International Business major RaeAnn Topa ’21, and Accounting major Daphne Yurchak ’21 received the top marks in three categories: first in performance, first in presentation, and first in reports. This is the second year the Arcadia ICBSC team received top marks.

Their team, B-Hive, competed against universities from around the world, including California State University, McMaster University, and Willamette University. The ICBSC is the world’s longest running and most comprehensive business competition, with 2021 being its 57th year. 

The competition spans for 12 weeks beginning in January. Each university team takes over the simulated management of a company and competes directly with up to five other university teams, trying to outperform both financially and strategically. Each team creates a strategic business plan and then executes the plan through various operational and business decisions simulated over a five-year period. The performance of the company after each decision determines the company’s situation for the next set of decisions. The students go through a total of twenty rounds of quarterly decisions.

The final part of the competition is four days of intense competition in April where each team presents a business plan, an annual report, and a formal oral presentation to judges who act as the simulated Board of Directors. Through the competition, students get the opportunity to learn about running their own company and the results and challenges of group efforts.

“We were very grateful to get a chance like this to utilize the skills we have acquired throughout our time at Arcadia and to bring home first place in all three of the competition’s categories,” said Yurchak, who performed as the CEO for the team. “It was an absolute pleasure and honor to lead this team to victory and it would not have been possible without the tireless work of every member.”