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Announcing the winners of the 10th Anniversary of the Global Student Challenge 2024!
A week of thrilling competition wraps up with a new Champion team of 2024
Global Student Challenge 2024: A Recap
The Global Student Challenge (GSC) 2024 has come to an end, and what a week! With 50 teams consisting of 211 students from 43 universities from all over the world battling for the champion title and cash prizes. These best supply chain students competed with the world’s leading supply chain business game, The Fresh Connection.
This year’s theme: Managing Growth Amidst Supply Chain Turbulence
Real-World Supply Chain Challenges
This year, the students faced a challenging set-up with The Fresh Connection, focused on the challenges and disruptions, that are being presented to the supply chain professionals every day—yet another example of the VUCA world.
The competition began on May 6th with a kick-off where all the students were welcomed and introduced to the theme of the Global Final Week. Apart from that, this is the first year we introduced an additional assignment where the teams needed to present in a video their chosen supply chain strategy and cross-functional collaboration to the Board of Directors.
By introducing a real-world challenge to the students and this assignment in the Global Final week, GSC 2024 has provided a platform for the participants to face and tackle supply chain problems, fostering a new generation of highly skilled professionals.
Round 1: New Product Introduction
Participants were introduced to a new product making Sales & Operations Planning vital for this round.
The Finalists showed great efforts and knowledge straight in the first round as can be seen from the statistics derived after Round 1 close.
Here are some stats from Round 1:
- 78% of all teams have a double-digit ROI
- 80% of all teams improved upon the starting ROI of –12.98
- 66% of all teams have a positive ROI
- The average ROI increased from –12.98% to 5.532%
Here are the top 20 teams from Round 1, who set the stage for an intense competition:
These impressive results demonstrate the participants’ ability to learn quickly. They adapted to new challenges and applied their knowledge to real-world situations. This set the stage for the fierce competition ahead.
Round 2: More complexity and constraints
The second round intensified as it put the world’s top students to the test, challenging their supply chain management skills in a high-pressure environment. As the competition grew tougher, the students had to adapt quickly. Some new names emerged among the top scores of the round. A special mention goes out to the team of Avans Hogeschool, Flying Dutchmans who rose from the fifteenth to seventh place based solely on the score of this round.
Some impressive Round 2 stats emerged:
- 54% of teams have a positive ROI
- 44% of teams improved upon the previous round’s ROI, with the highest positive change being + 26.28%
- The average ROI decreased from 5.532% to 2.836%
- A new weighted high score of 37.61%
- 30% of teams have a double-digit negative ROI
- 42% of teams have a double-digit positive ROI
After two rounds, the leaderboard based on weighted ROI stands as follows:
With the competition heating up, we couldn’t wait to see what strategies and solutions these top teams would bring to the final round!
Round 3: The Final Stretch – Dual Sourcing and Operations
The third round further ramped up the pressure. As the competition reached its climax, the teams faced new challenges in dual sourcing and operations. The students’ resilience and determination were really put to the test. In the end, there can only be one champion.
The Round 3 stats are yet to be revealed:
- 74% of all teams have a double-digit ROI
- 62% of all teams improved upon their previous ROI, with the highest improvement being + 18.99 % from the last round
- 54% of all teams have a positive ROI
- Highest Weighted ROI: 39.03%
- The average ROI increased from 2.836% to 3.636%
And the Winner Is …
The Global Final Week saw the best of the best face off in a fierce battle to claim the championship title and cash prizes.
The team with the highest weighted ROI score has emerged victorious.
The Dream Team from North China University of Science and Technology rose above the rest, clinching the GSC 2024 champion title with an awe-inspiring performance. Their hard work and dedication truly paid off!
The top 5 teams showcased their remarkable skills, earning their spots among the supply chain management elite.
These teams include:
Second place: Team Blue Dragon from ChungAng University in South Korea
Third place: team MILANESA CORPORATIVA from UNIVERSIDAD DEL PACIFICO in Peru
Fourth place: team Digit 1 from Tsinghua University in China
Fifth place: team ORANGE VIVO from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University in Russia
After three rounds, the leaderboard based on weighted ROI and Assignment (70/30) stands as follows:
Presentation Video Assignment for Board of Directors
Throughout our competition, students faced an additional challenge beyond mastering The Fresh Connection business simulation game: they were tasked with navigating extraordinary circumstances as a team. As the competition drew to a close, each team was required to formally present its Executive Team Strategy to the Board of Directors to defend its final team results. This multifaceted challenge was created to test students’ ability to defend their role-specific decisions to stakeholders and their communication skills.
Special thanks to our board of directors:
The Future is Bright: Supply Chain Management’s Next Generation
As the Global Final 2024 wraps up, it leaves an inspiring legacy for participants and the supply chain community. This competition didn’t just highlight the incredible talent of these students; it also emphasized the importance of alignment and innovation in the industry.
With the success of GSC 2024, it’s clear that the future of supply chain management is in good hands. As a new generation of professionals steps up, the industry can look forward to exciting growth and advancements in the years ahead.
A massive congratulations to the GSC 2024 champion, The Dream Team from North China University of Science and Technology, and a big round of applause for all the participants who poured their hearts into this unforgettable competition!
About the Global Student Challenge
The Global Student Challenge is the #1 SCM Student Competition in the world, which allows students to gain valuable knowledge, further develop their skills, expand their professional network, and much more. The Challenge pits teams from top business schools and universities from across the globe against each other in the search for the world’s Top Talent in Value Chain Management. By participating in this Challenge, students experience the life of a Corporate Executive by running their own virtual company together with their team.
Only the top 10% of the teams from curriculum courses get invited to one of the three Global Qualification Rounds (GQR). During these GQRs, teams from around the globe compete against each other for a guaranteed spot in the Global Final.
Learn more about the Global Student Challenge here.
Organized by Windesheim University of Applied Sciences and Inchainge
For the past 10 years, the Global Final Week of the Global Student Challenge has been hosted by Windesheim University of Applied Sciences and organized in partnership with Inchainge. In previous years the Global Final Week would take place at the Windesheim campus in Zwolle, The Netherlands.
This year for the third time, we hosted the event fully online. We were joined by students from across the globe on Zoom and Inchainge is proud to present this year’s Global Finalists. A big thank you to Windesheim for many years of partnership and once again being a gracious host!
Are you an educator interested in letting your students take part in the Global Student Challenge?
The competition is exclusively open to students who have experienced The Fresh Connection, The Cool Connection, The Blue Connection, or The Triple Connection in a course, hosted by an educator, who has been certified by Inchainge.
Would you be interested in learning more about our game-based learning solutions? Schedule a call or request a demo so you can learn how we can help you equip your students with the critical skills needed to succeed in this complex field.