From early uncertainty to a championship finish, Edward Torres from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona proved what it takes to win on the global stage. Competing against top students from around the world, Edward demonstrated exceptional strategic thinking, resilience, and data-driven decision-making to achieve the highest shareholder value in the competition. His journey from early setbacks to a strong final-round comeback showcases the power of disciplined execution and smart risk-taking. Edward shares his MikesBikes journey, from the beginning to achieving the 2025/26 MikesBikes World Champs title.

From Startup to Champion: My MikesBikes Journey

Hello! My name is Edward Torres, winner of the 2025/26 MikesBikes World Championship. This global competition brought together students from top universities, and the leaderboard shifted constantly. While I wasn’t always sure my strategy would win, a strong final-round comeback helped me achieve the highest shareholder value.

In this summary, I’ll share how I turned a startup bike manufacturer, Pedal Pusher, into a profitable business—and the lessons I learned along the way.

Competition Journey

My journey began with a chaotic qualifier round. Due to risk and uncertainty—factors the simulation captures well—my group over-drafted millions early on. I recovered to finish 6th, which secured a place in the championship rounds against nine strong competitors. My goal wasn’t just to win, but to build a healthy, growing business.

In the finals, I focused on operational excellence. Drawing from my experience as an IT field service technician, I treated the business like a system that needed to run efficiently. I invested heavily in worker training, preventative maintenance, supplier relationships, and quality systems. This reduced waste and improved productivity.

As quality improved, I increased mountain bike prices by 15%, confident customers valued performance. This strategy paid off, as my market share steadily grew.

Overcoming Challenges

The biggest challenge was scaling from a single-product firm to a multi-segment business. I expanded into electric, road, cruiser, and kids bikes—each with different customer priorities. This required careful balance between production, pricing, marketing, and investment.

Mistakes were costly. Underproduction led to lost sales, while overproduction drained cash. At the same time, competitors could enter any segment and reduce market share.

To manage this complexity, I relied on data. I used Python and Google Colab to analyze simulation data, built models to optimize advertising spend, and conducted risk assessments in Google Sheets. Dashboards in Looker Studio helped me track performance across rounds.

This data-driven approach allowed me to forecast demand accurately, minimize waste, and maintain profitability—even under competitive pressure.

Turning Point

Early in the competition, I was in the middle of the pack due to high costs. But my investments began paying off.

I built the largest factory, trained an efficient workforce, minimized defects, and improved my products through R&D. With strong economies of scale, I was ready to shift strategies.

I lowered prices, increased advertising, and expanded across all segments—confident I could meet demand profitably. I also issued the highest dividends in the final rounds.

The results exceeded expectations: $190 million in retail sales and a shareholder value of $269.54 per share. I finished with zero lost sales and minimal inventory—proof that my operational strategy worked.

Key Lessons

This experience reshaped how I view business.

Success requires discipline, patience, and calculated risk-taking. Investing in operations and marketing often felt like gambling, but informed decisions can shift the odds in your favor.

I also learned the importance of accountability. I made mistakes—over-drafting and mismanaging inventory early on—but improving each round was key to success.

Above all, I learned that effective money management requires constant attention. Small mistakes can cost millions. By analyzing data, forecasting demand, and tracking profitability, I ensured every investment delivered value.

Looking Forward

Academically, this experience helped me apply concepts from business, IT, and data analytics in a real-world scenario. It gave me confidence in handling complex, high-stakes decisions.

Professionally, it confirmed my goal of becoming a Business Intelligence and Data professional. I plan to build on my skills by learning tools like Power BI and Tableau, deepening my knowledge of SQL, and advancing my expertise in predictive analytics.

My ultimate goal is to use data to drive strategic decisions that lead to sustainable growth.

Closing Reflections

Representing California State Polytechnic University Pomona was an honor. The school’s “Learn by Doing” philosophy was fully realized through this competition, where classroom concepts were tested in a high-stakes environment.

I’m grateful to the faculty who shaped my skills, my competitors who pushed me to improve, and my family for their constant support. This achievement reflects not just my effort, but the people and experiences that helped me grow.

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Want to dive deeper into how Edward Torres became the 2025/26 MikesBikes World Champion? Check out his full story, packed with insights and lessons learned from his journey to the top.

Check out the MikesBikes World Champs Past Winners.

In an era where traditional classroom instruction alone isn’t enough to prepare students for the workforce, business simulations are emerging as powerful tools that bridge academic learning with real‑world skills. By placing students in immersive, interactive scenarios, simulations help transform engagement into employability, giving learners a head start on the competencies employers value most.

Active, Experiential Learning

Business Simulations invite students to do rather than just listen. When students manage a virtual business, they actively experiment, make decisions, and witness the consequences of their actions in a risk‑free environment. This hands‑on involvement boosts understanding and retention while making learning more engaging and relevant.

Developing Critical Soft Skills

Beyond academic content, business simulations foster communication, collaboration, problem‑solving, and adaptability, which are skills increasingly sought after in today’s job market. Working in teams, students learn to articulate ideas, listen to others, negotiate solutions, and manage time and resources under pressure.

Real‑World Context and Career Insight

Business simulations contextualize learning by immersing students in authentic scenarios that reflect real workplace practices. For example, instructors may require a final presentation or a mock boardroom meeting in which students present their initial strategy, explain how they adapted to changing market conditions, and evaluate their results and key takeaways. This process strengthens both presentation and critical reasoning skills.

Beyond deepening subject knowledge, these experiences also help students envision themselves in potential careers and develop a clearer understanding of the pathways needed to achieve them.

Feedback and Reflective Growth

Immediate feedback is a hallmark of business simulations. Students can replay scenarios, refine strategies, and reflect on their choices. This iterative cycle builds confidence, encourages self‑directed learning, and strengthens decision‑making, which are an essential trait for career success.

Bridging School and Work

By aligning educational experiences with workplace expectations, simulations help ensure that students graduate not just with certificates, but with competencies. They make schoolwork meaningful and help learners transition smoothly into internships, further education, or employment.

Business Simulations Give Students the Leading Edge in Job Interviews & the Workplace

In the video below, Dr. Darl Kolb explains how business simulations give students confidence, which affords them a leading edge in job interviews and in the workplace.

Start bridging the gap between classroom learning and career readiness. Bring business simulations into your teaching today.

2019 MWC Competition Results

163 students from around the globe, 97 firms and two weeks of intense competition – we now have the Winner of the 2019 MikesBikes World Champs.

The 2019 MikesBikes World Champs Winner is Mila Lee from University of Auckland!

We are proud to announce that Mila Lee of PedalPals from University of Auckland is the 2019 MikesBikes World Champs Winner! Congratulations Mila for this outstanding achievement!

After the first rollover, Mila came in at third place. However, she has successfully managed to retain the top position throughout the remaining rollovers. Your determination and dedication to succeed certainly showed. We are sure that a lot of students will be inspired by your success.

In Second Place, we have Jin Fong and Luther Gray from Manukau Institute of Technology!

Congratulations Jin Fong and Luther Gray from Manukau Institute of Technology for coming in at second place!

We have seen your journey throughout the competition. There were certainly a lot of ups and downs. However, because of your drive to succeed and your impressive abilities, you were able to achieve success in this year’s competition.

Full Scoreboard

Pos	Firm	SHV	Team Members	Institution
1	PedalPals	$136.18	Mila Lee	University of Auckland
2	Montague Bikes	$118.21	Jin Fong | Luther Gray	Manukau Institute of Technology
3	One T Cycles	$95.03	Mat Millard	TAFE SA
4	Rice Inc.	$61.36	Taylor Rice	Arizona State University
5	Tindug	$50.46	Dung Nguyen	Selkirk College
6	Super Velos	$44.55	Shawn Recca	University of Oregon
7	RDU Bikes	$35.58	George Van Campen | Kaitlyn Stol	Red Deer College
8	H and A Co.	$34.86	Aaron Hirahara | Dylan Allen	Santa Clara University
9	Mikecycles	$2.23	Daniel Oldak	Duquesne University
10	Nicks Bees	$0.01	Nicolas Vallejo	Broward College

2018 MWC Competition Results

Our 2018 MikesBikes World Champs is Whatever-Go from University of Auckland! Big congratulations to Wiput Tantulaphongse, Yijing Tang, Meiyicong Lin, Zhen  Peng and Fengkai Han for this outstanding achievement! They have managed to achieve the second highest Shareholder Value from the past 9 MikesBikes World Champs!

In second place, we have Swan from De Anza College with Makysm Chernenko and in third place, we have NGUYEN Inc with Nguyen Pham from Selkirk College. Incredible work, well done!

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the competition! You have all done very well and carried your school with pride!

Pos	Firm	SHV	Team Members	School
1	Whatever – Go	$490.59	Wiput Tantulaphongse | Yijing Tang | Meiyicong Lin | Zhen Peng | Fengkai Han	University of Auckland
2	Swan	$241.53	Maksym Chernenko	De Anza College
3	NGUYEN Inc	$140.16	Nguyen Pham	Selkirk College
4	Booster Inc.	$134.60	Ahmet Yasin Kuzucu	Dokuz Eylul University
5	Momentum Bikes	$41.73	Alicia Covert | Mike Covert	Baker University
6	CyclePath	$34.04	William George Jr | Maxwell Schuler | Jonas Correa | Jared Lerner | Axel Miazga	Quinnipiac University
7	Rough Riders	$5.00	Monica Lannen | Noah Trone	Christopher Newport University
8	vakn	$0.90	Kha Phan | Ashby Creighton	Des Moines Area Community College
9	Rad Penny Farthings	$0.01	Michael McCafferty	Linn Benton Community College
10	Shiba Ninja	$0.01	Quang Nguyen | Zoe Tran	Drexel University

View the Full Scoreboard

2017 MWC Competition Results

The 2017 MikesBikes World Championship has finished with a bang! Team Exodus from The University of Auckland has secured the top position as 2017’s MikesBikes Champs and have joined the MikesBikes Wall of Champions. Team GOFAST, also from The University of Auckland, came in close second with an impressive performance! These top two teams certainly had the will to succeed and win the competition.

These two teams were neck-and-neck in the last few rounds of the competition battling for first place. Both teams constantly putting pressure on each other to adapt to their market and make growth-orientated decisions.

A huge congratulations to all the teams who have participated in the 2017 MikesBikes World Champs!

Here are the Final Round’s Rollover Results:

Position	Firm	SHV	Team Members	Institution
1	Exodus	$327.81	Siyi Tang | William Setiawan | Jiedong Chen | Jayca Y. Siddayao | Mingchang Liang | Robbi A. Harnass	University of Auckland
2	GOFAST	$313.41	Harriet Zhang | Golf Tantulaphongse | Xu Wang	University of Auckland
3	Infinity	$152.80	Sunil Ravindran | Thi Thu Vu | Manfei Cheng | Zhaonan Liu	University of Auckland
4	Pedal to the Medal	$88.06	Peter Bojsza	Drexel University
5	Scooty Puff Legends	$86.79	Jamison stewart | Zachary Khan | Nathan Jarrad	Linn Benton Community College
6	Square Tires	$2.80	Chris Mitchell | Nick Dawson | Darrell Davis	Indiana University Southeast
7	Apex Bikes Co.	$0.01	Zachary Abel	Des Moines Area Community College
8	K2K	$0.01	Kimberly Dowe	Linn Benton Community College
9	SB Corp.	$0.01	Kaushik Shah	Midwestern State University
10	Van der Zwan AJ Inc.	$0.01	AJ van der Zwan	Ithaca College

Winning at MikesBikes isn’t about luck, shortcuts, or guessing what your competitors might do next. It’s about dedication, smart decision-making, and learning from every rollover. Robinson Lu proved exactly that by earning a place on the MikesBikes Hall of Fame. In this article, we break down the key lessons behind their success and reveal the practical strategies you can use to improve your results, build confidence in your decisions, and give your team a competitive edge in the simulation.

Master the Basics: Practice Makes Progress

Top-performing students spend time early understanding how pricing, marketing, production, and distribution decisions interact. The more familiar you are with the reports and dashboards, the faster you’ll spot patterns and opportunities.

Think Strategically About Profit

Winning teams focus on shareholder value, not just short-term profit. That means balancing pricing, production volume, marketing spend, and long-term brand development.

Study the Market and Your Competitors

Markets evolve every rollover. Consumer preferences change, competitors shift strategy, and successful teams adapt using data rather than instinct.

Learn From Mistakes

Every poor decision is a data point. High-performing players reflect on what didn’t work and adjust their strategy rather than panic or overcorrect.

Use the Resources Available

Tutorial videos, manuals, and reports exist to help you succeed. Students who consistently use these resources gain a measurable advantage.

Check out the Smartsims Support Center for additional support.

Mindset Matters

Confidence, curiosity, and consistency separate top teams from average performers. Treat MikesBikes like a real business and the results will follow.

Learn more about business strategy in MikesBikes:

• How do I win MikesBikes?

• How do I develop strategy in MikesBikes?

Teaching strategy at the senior undergraduate or MBA level presents a familiar challenge: students may understand individual business concepts, but struggle to integrate them into cohesive, defensible strategic decisions. Case studies offer valuable discussion, yet they rarely allow students to experience the consequences of their choices.

This is where MikesBikes Advanced excels. As a comprehensive strategy simulation game and management simulation, it enables students to apply theory, test assumptions, and adapt strategy in a competitive, data-driven environment — making it particularly effective as a capstone simulation for higher-education business programs.

Learning Strategy Through Consequences, Not Just Concepts

A recent classroom experience illustrates the power of simulation-based learning. During a strategic management competition at NJIT, one student team entered the MikesBikes Advanced simulation confident in their planning — only to drive their company into bankruptcy in the early rounds. Rather than being penalized academically, the failure became a turning point.

Students revisited financial statements, reassessed their market positioning, and reconsidered operational trade-offs. With each subsequent decision round, they refined their strategy, responding to competitive signals and performance data. By the end of the simulation, the same team had recovered and delivered one of the strongest overall performances.

Why MikesBikes Advanced Works in Higher Education

MikesBikes Advanced is designed for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate learners who are ready to synthesize knowledge across disciplines. Students manage a virtual bicycle manufacturing firm, making integrated decisions across strategy and competitive positioning, marketing and pricing, operations and capacity planning, product development, and financial performance.

A Natural Fit for Capstone and Strategic Management Courses

Instructors often seek a capstone simulation that encourages holistic thinking rather than isolated functional optimization. MikesBikes Advanced supports this by requiring students to develop a clear competitive strategy, align functional decisions with long-term objectives, interpret complex performance data, and adapt strategies based on market and competitor feedback.

Supporting Evidence-Based Teaching and Assessment

For instructors, MikesBikes Advanced also offers strong alignment with learning assurance and assessment requirements. Performance metrics, decision logs, and comparative results provide tangible evidence of student engagement and learning progression.

MikesBikes Advanced really moves students beyond theory, enabling them to experience the complexity, ambiguity, and consequences of real-world strategic management. Request a demo, access instructor resources, or speak with an academic advisor to explore how MikesBikes Advanced can support your strategic management or capstone course.

As high schools place greater emphasis on real-world learning and career readiness, business courses face a familiar challenge: how to make foundational concepts engaging, relevant and memorable for students with little to no prior exposure to business.

One instructional approach gaining traction is the use of business simulations, which allow students to learn by doing, making decisions, seeing outcomes, and adjusting strategies in a realistic business environment.

What Research Tells Us

A 2024 study examining the Effect of Business Games on High School Students’ Learning Perception and Satisfaction found that students who participated in business games reported higher levels of perceived learning and satisfaction compared to more traditional instructional approaches. Importantly, these positive effects were observed at the high-school level, reinforcing that simulations are not just effective in higher education, but also appropriate for secondary learners.

These findings align with broader research on experiential learning, which shows that students learn more effectively when they actively apply concepts rather than passively receiving information.

Why Simulations Work for High School Business Students

High School Business courses introduce a wide range of concepts: marketing, finance, operations, management, and strategy. For many students, these topics can feel abstract when taught in isolation.

Business simulations help by:

• Placing concepts in a realistic, integrated context
• Encouraging decision-making and critical thinking
• Providing immediate feedback on decisions
• Increasing engagement and motivation through active participation

Rather than memorizing definitions, students experience how business decisions interact and affect outcomes.

A Research-Aligned Approach to Business Education

Business simulations such as MikesBikes Introduction are designed specifically for High School students. The simulation mirrors core business functions while remaining intuitive for first-time learners, allowing teachers to focus on discussion, reflection and concept reinforcement.

Key design principles include:

• Gradual introduction of new decision areas so students don’t get overwhelmed with business concepts
• Balanced complexity for high school students
• Opportunities for teamwork, reflection, and strategy adjustment

This approach reflects what current research suggests: when students are actively involved in realistic business scenarios, they are more likely to perceive the learning as meaningful and engaging.

Supporting Teachers and Students

Instructors consistently report that simulations help:

• Connect theory to real-world application
• Increase student confidence in understanding business concepts
• Spark richer classroom discussions

When used alongside traditional instruction, business simulations can serve as a powerful tool to reinforce learning and prepare students for further business education.

Research continues to highlight the value of business simulations in high school education, particularly for improving student engagement and perceived learning. For high school business courses, simulations offer a practical way to bring foundational concepts to life, helping students not just learn about business, but experience it.

Interested in bringing simulation-based learning into your classroom? Explore how Smartsims can support your teaching goals.

Instructors love Smartsims Business Simulations because they transform classrooms into engaging, hands-on learning experiences where students can apply theory to realistic scenarios in a low-risk environment. They make learning more fun and practical, encouraging students to become independent, strategic learners as they take a more active role in their education. 

• Interactive and hands-on: Smartsims Business Simulations provide an interactive, hands-on learning experience that engages students more deeply than traditional methods.
• Real-world application: The platform helps students see how their classroom learning applies to real-world situations, which can make complex topics more understandable and memorable.
• Student-led learning: It shifts the focus to a student-led approach, where students take more initiative in their learning journey, which can lead to greater success and retention.
• Positive student outcomes: The simulations contribute to high student ratings and have been shown to provide a strong foundation for students’ future learning and success in other courses.

Ready to elevate student engagement and outcomes? Explore Smartsims Business Simulations today.

In today’s fast-paced, complex business environment, developing strategic thinking, decision-making and leadership skills is more critical than ever. Business simulations offer interactive, experiential learning tools to offer learners the chance to engage in lifelike decision-making in a controlled environment. This article explores how scaffolding strategies can elevate the learning impact of business simulations, ensuring participants are supported without being spoon-fed.

What is Scaffolding in Learning?

Scaffolding refers to the temporary support provided by educators or systems to help learners bridge the gap between what they can do independently and what they can achieve with assistance. Like how builders require scaffolding to reach new heights during construction, scaffolding in education ensures that learners acquire skills and confidence until they can perform tasks unaided. It’s aligned with Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development.

Why Business Simulations?

Business simulations immerse learners in realistic environments where they must apply theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems like launching new products, analyzing market data, managing teams or navigating crises. These business simulations mimic real-world complexity while offering the safety of a learning environment. However, without adequate scaffolding, participants may become overwhelmed, disengaged, or focus solely on “winning” instead of learning.

Scaffolding in Action: The Simulation Journey of Santa Clara University

Let’s walk through a scaffolded simulation experience of Introduction to Business students from Santa Clara University using the MikesBikes Introduction simulation.

1. Pre-Simulation Preparation (I Do)

Before the simulation begins, instructors touch on every aspect of business and give learners an in-depth introduction. This is often done via lectures, sample case studies and majority of the instructors themselves have experience becoming a CEO or a president of their own companies – this gives students an opportunity to ask questions and learn from their experiences.

2. Single-Player Practice Phase (Scaffolded Solo Expedition)

Learners engage with the simulation individually in the Single-Player practice phase. They only compete against a single-computer opponent and can control the progress and pace of the simulation in their own time. This helps them learn through trial and error by testing different decisions and strategies – giving them the ability to apply theoretical concepts they have learned so far, familiarize themselves with the interface and build confidence without peer pressure.

This is scaffolded with immediate feedback through the reports that are immediately available to the students after each rollover (decision round) that they complete.

2. Guided Participation (We Do)

In the Multi-Player, competitive phase of the simulation, students make decisions collaboratively, guided by prompts, checklists and structured reflection questions.

Debriefing sessions after each rollover allow learners to analyze results, compare strategies and adjust based on feedback.

3. Peer Collaboration (You Do Together)

As learners grow in confidence, instructor support decreases. Peer learning becomes more central, with teams discussing trade-offs and refining their decision-making. The instructor and teaching assistants now act more like a mentor than a guide, intervening only to challenge assumptions or encourage deeper thinking.

4. Independent Mastery (You Do Alone)

By the final rounds of the simulation, learners operate independently. They navigate ambiguity, defend their strategies and present their company’s performance. The scaffolds have been removed, allowing for authentic, autonomous learning.

Best Practices for Facilitators

• Lay the groundwork for critical content.
• Design reflective checkpoints at key stages.
• Provide decision-making frameworks, not answers.
  • Smartsims offers optional written assignments to support and guide students in forming and reflecting on their strategy.
• Encourage peer coaching as scaffolds fade.
• Use post-simulation debriefs to reinforce lessons and connect theory to practice.

Scaffolding transforms business simulations from competitive games into powerful learning experiences. When designed thoughtfully, scaffolding ensures that learners not only play the simulation but deeply learn from it. They gain insights into strategic thinking, collaboration and leadership. As educators and facilitators, your role is to strike the right balance between support and challenge, creating experiences that are as rich as they are rigorous.

Scaffolding today’s learners into tomorrow’s business leaders. Experience the power of simulation-based learning with Smartsims. Contact us to get started.