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About the Global Educator Challenge

After the two successful previous editions of the Global Educator Challenge, which gave professors across the planet an opportunity to compete against each other in teams of 4 or 5 by playing the supply chain business game, The Fresh Connection, the event was renewed for winter 2022. In the period from November 7th until December 16th, educators from 32 institutions in higher education from 12 countries have competed for the title of Global Educator Challenge World Champion!

There were both new and familiar faces this year. The event allows the returning participants to meet their international colleagues in the Inchainge community and invite their global peers unfamiliar with TFC. For the new contenders, the Global Educator Challenge provides a platform for networking and applying their supply chain knowledge. Moreover, since the event is open to educators who didn’t have previous experience playing The Fresh Connection, it means that the new participants were able to interact with an innovative business simulation game.

The Fresh Connection: 10 learning solutions

To confront various real-life Value Chain dilemmas, contenders use The Fresh Connection, a versatile business simulation game. The Fresh Connection is the core of 10 highly engaging learning solutions that challenges participants in turning around a loss-making fruit juice manufacturer that focus on different areas of value chain management to meet the learning objectives required by any higher education institution and company.

This year’s theme: Resilience

In the last couple of years, many worldwide disturbances like COVID-19, the Suez Canal, and the war in Ukraine have shown us the fragility of a global supply chain. For example, due to an obstruction at the Suez Canal that lasted just a week, there was a significant negative economic and supply chain impact since it held up nearly $60 billion of trade.

Supply Chain specialists of the future must learn how to not only minimize the impact of the risks or avoid cost and disruption. Resilient companies are looking for new opportunities to gain market share or enlarge their brand and shareholder value during these disruptions, turning this into a competitive advantage.

The winners of this year:

The scores and the ranking were calculated based on the highest weighted Return on Investment. The final round ended on the 15th of December, and the Award Ceremony took place the next day, on the 16th of December. After six weeks of the Global Educator Challenge and three rounds of playing The Fresh Connection, we are thrilled to announce the winners!

1st team: The Fresh Defenders (Weighted ROI 22,01%)

From North China University of Science and Technology:

• Hongmei Jia 贾红梅
• Yanhong Wang 王艳红
• Manzhen Duan 段满珍
• Yunjin Han 韩昀瑾

2nd team: Orange Crush Revival (Weighted ROI 21,75%)

From 4 universities:

• Scott Swenseth – University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Nicolai Rassolov – School of Continuing Studies McGill University
• Gordon Smith – University of Houston
• Chuck Nemer – Metropolitan State University
• Fran Schrage – University of Houston

3rd team: Industriales del Caribe (Weighted ROI 20,73%)

From Universidad Tecnológica de La Habana “José Antonio Echeverría” – CUJAE:

• Igor Lopes Martinez
• Lilian Noya Domínguez
• Evert Martínez Pérez
• José Vilalta Alonso

Congratulations to the winners and all the participants of the Global Educator Challenge 2022! We are looking forward to seeing you at next year’s edition.

Want to compete against educators from all over the world?

Are you now interested in participating in the next edition of The Global Educator Challenge to check your supply chain management knowledge? Read more about the next edition and check the following dates on this page!

Are you interested in becoming a certified educator or trainer of The Fresh Connection to participate in the next edition? Sign up for a free Train-the-Trainer to experience the game on our event page.