GSW business students finish #1 in worldwide Business Strategy Game

AMERICUS, Ga. (Feb. 6, 2025) – Graduating business students at Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) received high accolades last fall semester for their top performance in the Business Strategy Game out of more than 6,000 teams from over 300 colleges and universities around the world.

The Business Strategy Game is an online exercise where students are divided into teams of three or four and assigned the task of running an athletic footwear company for a total of 12 simulated years. Teams compete head-to-head against companies managed by other class members and thousands of teams across the world.

The comprehensive computer simulation is part of a final senior capstone Strategic Management course led by Robert Bennett, Ph.D., professor of management in the College of Business and Computing. Company performance rankings are based on factors like stock price, return on equity (ROE), earnings per share, demand generation, image and market reputation, and credit rating, requiring students to position their firms competitively to achieve overall strategic and financial success.

Dragonfly Footwear Company finished number one in the world in overall score and finished in the Top 10 worldwide in nearly every scoring category. The team – made up of seniors Grayson Cude of Leesburg, Stephen Hester of Dawson, Ronald Romero of Buena Vista, and Chris Woods of Americus – finished with an ROE of nearly 65% and a stock price approaching $800 per share. In the final simulated year of the competition, Dragonfly posted nearly $500 million of net profit on nearly $2 billion in worldwide sales. They ranked at or near the top in the world throughout the Fall 2024 semester. 

While Bennett spends time in class working with students on how to drive any business to maximize financial and strategic performance, he does not advise students directly on decisions in the simulation.

“It is quite impressive that GSW students have developed a long history of performing exceptionally well in this simulation,” said Bennett. “Just about every week, we have at least one or two teams from GSW in the Top 100 rankings.” He noted that the Dragonfly team ran an impressive operation throughout the simulation. “I was most impressed with how much attention they placed on the little details that really put them in the upper echelons of teams worldwide. Dragonfly won accolades for their corporate citizenship and support of charities and the communities in which they operated,” Bennett added.

Agility Steps Footwear, the second-place team in the class, finished in the Top 25 in the world in total score. The team – made up of seniors Kiersten Back of Leesburg, Bryce Kittrell of Leesburg, and Jared White of Atlanta – also finished in the Top 40 or 50 in the world on every scoring variable.

The margin was razor thin between Dragonfly and Agility Steps, with Agility Steps actually reporting slightly higher revenue and profit in the final simulated year.

“Agility was right there pushing Dragonfly every step of the way,” remarked Bennett. “I think the two teams motivated each other to do so well. There wasn’t a whole lot of daylight between the two teams to be honest; they were neck and neck all the way.”

These GSW students were able to gain valuable experience in managing a business by making business decisions under circumstances that mirror real-world competitive conditions. Company operations from the exercise parallel those of actual athletic footwear companies competing in a global market, selling branded and private-label athletic footwear in four geographic regions — Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

Pictured are (left to right), Agility Steps team members Jared White, Kiersten Back, Bryce Kittrell; and Dragonfly team members Chris Woods, Grayson Cude, Stephen Hester, and Ronald Romero.