Two AUK Teams Qualify for Advanced Stages of the Global Management Challenge

Two teams from AUK participated in the Global Management Challenge (GMC) Kuwait finals and won titles for their performances. One of the teams representing AUK managed to achieve first place in the initial cycle within their group, while the second team managed to reach fourth place.

By acquiring these positions, both teams have a chance to advance to the semifinal round taking place after 2 weeks. The semifinals will last for 5 more weeks, after which the top 4 winners will compete in the final 8-hour round in January, 2018. The national winner will earn the chance to represent Kuwait in the international GMC competition, which will take place in Dubai in April, 2018.

The Global Management Challenge Kickoff (GMC) is an international competition organized by the ADNAR Group that invites teams of students from universities and companies around the Arab World to participate in a simulated market and attempt to increase the values of shares of designated companies. The winners are determined based on the performance of their assigned companies with respect to the values of their market shares and investments.

The American University of Kuwait has been participating in the competition since its inception in 2013. This year, AUK was represented by two teams selected from the College of Business & Economics. Members of the teams were selected to participate based on their performances in Business-related courses. They were accompanied by the Dean of the College of Business Administration, Dr. Ralph Palliam, and 4 members from the CBE faculty- Dr. Aly Mansour, Dr. Ahmed Kholeif, Dr. Riyad Abubaker, and Dr. Hanas Cader.

"It [the competition] serves as good training to students of the real world business environment," said Dr. Mansour, explaining that students' participation in such competitions helps enhance students employability after graduation, as employers take such activities into consideration when screening candidates. "Whether they win or not, the experience they gain will benefit them for the rest of their business careers," he added.

The competition presents the students with an opportunity to apply the different components required of running businesses that they have been taught in the classroom, in a safe and simulated environment. "Students start to understand that the sustainability of a business is not based on marketing or economics or management or other things on their own, but rather on their combination and integration of all of these disciplines every day," Dr. Mansour concluded.

The Global Management Challenge is the largest Strategy and Management Competition in the world. It's the largest international event based on business simulations, in which more than 500 000 university students and company managers throughout the world participate in this event.

The concept of the competition emerged in 1980 in Portugal by SDG - Simuladores e Modelos de Gestão - in partnership with the weekly newspaper EXPRESSO. EXPRESSO has not only given a great amount of national coverage on the competition, but has also contributed immensely to the internationalization process.

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