5th Annual MEMPC PriSim Business War Games Competition Kicks Off

The 5th Annual MEMPC PriSim Business War Games Competition kicks off the first week of February, 2017. During the five-week, online competition, cross-university teams from 8 top engineering schools, including Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Northwestern, Tufts, and USC will participate in a business simulation where they will function as a management team running an auto manufacturing company.

The Competition is part of an overall initiative of the Master of Engineering Management Programs Consortium (MEMPC) to raise awareness for the Master of Engineering Management (MEM) degree, expand its value-added opportunities, and forge business partnerships with employers, potential job candidates, students, faculty, and to provide alumni networking.

“The MEMPC PriSim Business War Games Competition, celebrating its 5th year, continues to underscore the unique value of an MEM education. The competition provides experiential learning outside the typical classroom environment and reinforces a student’s need to utilize a combination of professional engineering practice with core business and management education to make effective business decisions,” said Stephen Tilley, Associate Director of the MEM program at Northwestern. “I also want to thank PriSim Business War Games for continuing to support the MEMPC year after year in managing this incredible business simulation event.”

Strategic thinking is critical to the decisions made in the competition. Students will conduct an analysis of the business environment and then articulate the mission of their company. Each firm will begin the simulation with three vehicles and then will decide how to improve their performance and whether they want to design and produce new vehicles to enter new market segments.

Two Dartmouth teams from the 2016 competition.

MIT System Design and Management student Terence Teo, whose team won the competition in 2013, said his group conducted a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and quickly agreed on a strategy. Choosing a niche-market approach, the team produced high-end cars at low volumes but with big margins. “We kept our focus on upgrading existing models and on introducing new vehicles quickly,” he said.

“PriSim is proud to be part of the MEMPC competition for the 5th year,” said David Semb, a partner at PriSim Business War Games Inc. and an adjunct professor in the MEM program at Northwestern University. “Teams from each university will compete in a head-to-head battle for market share and profit. Along the way, the students participating will improve their business acumen and their strategy, finance, and leadership skills. Business simulations are one of the best ways out there to learn about business and finance.”

The Competition begins the first week of February and wraps-up Thursday, March 2, 2017, when PriSim and the MEMPC will score the competition. Winners will be announced on Friday, March 3.