We recently spoke with Mikola, an International Business student from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, Finland. In the video below, he shares his experience with, why he enjoyed and what he learned by playing Cesim Global Challenge, our Strategy & International Business Simulation, as part of his Bachelor's degree.
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Interview transcription
My name is Mikola. I study in Haaga-Helia, a university here in Finland. I'm doing a bachelor's in international business with a specialization in marketing and communications We use the Cesim platform as part of our Corporate Strategy class. Throughout the course on a weekly basis you compete in the Cesim simulation. Doing better in the game is part of your grade component for the course.
How was the integration of a Cesim simulation in your course?
I would say it was really easy to integrate and also it gave the course a bit more structure in some way because every week you're looking back at the same thing and understanding where a team ends up and why. So why did they do well why did they do badly. It kind of gives you continuous work and an opportunity to learn from it as well. I'd say it was integrated well because we had different projects that were actually related to Cesim, like doing a competitor analyses, understanding what people are doing and then presenting that in front of the class.
How did you like using a Cesim simulation?
I like the simulation a lot, I'm probably the person who played the most in the course. It was really a lot of fun because I have an analytical mind. I worked in analytics before. You look at what effects what and why, trying to see the cause and effect in the correlations. It's a lot of fun. I know a lot of my classmates that I studied with throughout my whole studies, they said that was probably their favorite course in the school. Of course the course itself was really good, but it was also the best because of the Cesim simulation.
What business skills did you practice with the Cesim simulation?
It definitely helps teamwork in some way but I'd say it leans a bit more towards applying analytical skills and overall strategy, so it's a bit more on that side. And then in terms of teamwork, I don't feel like teamwork is about coming to a decision that everybody agrees on, but it's about coming up with the best decision. It's like anything else where you need to work in a team, you need to argue for what's right and find out the right way forward.
How do you feel that using a Cesim simulation has influenced your professional development?
Even though I worked in analytics before I'd say I'm even more confident now about being able to review different things like pricing strategy. And also, I know doing competitor analysis is like a really normal thing. I personally worked in Procter & Gamble and there I was doing a lot of competitor analyses and the simulation was actually quite similar to that in many ways. You look at what are they selling, what's their pricing and why are people buying it, so what features do they have that somebody else might not have. I'd say they're quite applicable skills and it helps you develop the basics and the principles of it.
What do you feel are the outcomes of using a Cesim simulation?
I enjoyed it a lot. I do feel it let me apply my skills as well as develop new ones. It's quite good and because you can actually get to see what people are capable of analytically. So that's the cool thing: you get to see which classmates are good at what and how does this strategy thing work. I mean, it's probably the best course I've taken for a reason and a lot of people think so also for a reason, and it's because it lets you apply, among other things, creativity and then especially analytical skills. I think it's quite important to know how to do a proper competitor analysis. And of course in the game the information is quite readily available for you but even in real-life, even if the information is not readily available, it's still a similar thing.