The latest entrants in the Smartsims Hall of Fame marks another milestone in showcasing students who achieved the highest results in their respective completed business simulations. The latest entrants from the Fall semester represents a remarkable blend of talent, innovation, and dedication to excellence in their respective business simulations.

MikesBikes Introduction

The latest Multi-Player (2023/2024) entrants:

The latest Single-Player (2023/2024) entrants:

Matthew Moler from University of Idaho also successfully landed 8th place in the Single-Player All-Time Hall of Fame.

Check out the MikesBikes Introduction Hall of Fame.

MikesBikes Advanced

We have a team from Belmont Abbey College in third place, Pedality with Timonthy Kirchner, Quinn Smith, Brianna Sroka and Zachary Gonsiorowsk – achieving an SHV of $757.29.

Check out the MikesBikes Advanced Hall of Fame.

Music2Go Marketing

The latest Multi-Player (2023/2024) entrants:

In the Multi-Player All-Time Hall of Fame, three students from University of Southern Maine managed to land several spots! In 10th Place we have Jaden Bauch, in 16th Place we have Nick Shaw and in 19th Place we have Zach Simon.

Check out the Music2Go Hall of Fame.

AdSim Advertising

The latest Multi-Player Hall of Fame entrants:

The latest Single-Player Hall of Fame entrants:

Check out the AdSim Advertising Hall of Fame.

Congratulations to all the latest entrants in the 2024 Fall Hall of Fame!

In celebration of achievement and dedication, we proudly announce the latest entrants into our Quarter 2 Hall of Fame. These students and teams have distinguished themselves through their exceptional performance over the past quarter. Congratulations to making it to the Top 20 Hall of Fame!

MikesBikes Introduction

Multi-Player

We have 6 students and teams enter the MikesBikes Intro Multi-Player Hall of Fame for Quarter 2.

In 2nd Place we have Jim Hustad from Madison College. In 7th Place we have Sebastian Prada from Sharyland High School. In 11th Place we have a team from Dakota State University with Maxwell Tyler Habermann, Karl Praizner and Basim Quadir. In 16th Place we have Yuji Rice from University of Oregon. In 18th Place we have a team from Drexel University with Braeden Myrick, Eveli Malk, Tina Zhou, Eshan Nakum, Prakhar Pare and Prisha Patel. In 20th Place we have a team from Midwestern State University with Caden Caitlin, Thomas Houchin, Fatiha Nawshad and Dylan Sundack.

Single-Player

Connor Oxlad from University of Adelaide is the only entrant in the Single-Player Hall of Fame for Quarter 2.

Discover the All-Time MikesBikes Introduction Hall of Fame here.

MikesBikes Advanced

Multi-Player

We have 5 new entrants in the MikesBikes Advanced Multi-Player Hall of Fame this Quarter 2.

We have two teams from Slippery Rock University. In 12th Place we have Christian Aloi, Ruth Berguist and Brendan King. In 13th Place we have Logan Keast, Jeffrey Keiter, Angelina Marsh and Evey Mertens.

In 16th Place we have Miao Dong from University of Colorado Boulder. In 18th Place we have Deepak Kumar Angurula from Selkirk College. In 19th Place we have a team from University of Kansas with Charles Bourquin, Jaxon Correll, Jackson Satterwhite and Aydan Smith.

Single-Player

We have 9 new entrants in the MikesBikes Advanced Single-Player Hall of Fame this Quarter 2.

We have 5 students from Webber International University, Robinson Jason Robert from in 5th Place, Allen Noah Michael in 6th Place, Nadia Reid in 10th Place, in 17th Place we have Dasia Lanae Wandick and Sneed Sydney in 20th Place. From Algonquin College we have Matthew Thomas in 7th Place and Isaac Whelan in 18th Place. In 13th Place we have Deepak Kumar Angurula from Selkirk College.

Discover the All-Time Music2Go Hall of Fame here.

Music2Go Marketing

Multi-Player

We have 5 new entrants in the Music2Go Multi-Player Hall of Fame for Quarter 2.

All 5 teams are from University of Southern Maine. We have Nathan Haskell landing in 1st Place and in 8th Place (All-Time). In 4th Place we have Ryan Curran, in 6th Place we have Lyndsey Kamszik. In 7th Place we have Lilly Dwyer and in 12th Place we have Aiden Giles.

Single-Player

We have a single entrant in the Single-Player Hall of Fame for this quarter. In 1st Place and 5th Place (All-Time) we have Raven Sy from Durham College.

Discover the All-Time Music2Go Hall of Fame here.

AdSim Advertising

Multi-Player

We have 3 new entrants this second quarter in the AdSim Multi-Player Hall of Fame.

In 2nd Place we have a duo from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Patrick Langan and Takeya Griffin. We also have two teams from Salem State University – in 12th Place we have Olivia Taylor Bowers, Madison Frost, Dakota Girard and Vin Tep. In 18th Place we have Sofhia Contreras, Jack Barone, Kendall O’Brien and Aaron Ross.

Single-Player

We have 5 new entrants this second quarter in the AdSim Single-Player Hall of Fame.

From Salem State University – in 2nd Place and 18th Place (All-Time) we have Jeremiah James Okoro, in 3rd Place and 19th Place (All-Time) we have Vin Tep. From Durham College we have Ravneet Singh in 12th Place. From Eastern Michigan University we have Jennifer Kennedy in 14th Place.

Discover the All-Time AdSim Hall of Fame here.

Presenting the first quarter entrants of the Music2Go Marketing and AdSim Hall of Fame. These exceptional students epitomize dedication and perseverance in the simulation world, showcasing the tangible rewards of their unwavering commitment. Their achievements shine as a guiding light for their peers, illustrating that anything is achievable with determination and focus.

Music2Go Marketing First Quarter Hall of Fame Entrants

We have five new entrants from University of Southern Maine.

Nathan Haskell takes 1st Place and 8th Place in the All-Time Hall of Fame. In 4th Place we have Ryan Curran. In 6th Place we have Lyndsey Kamszik. In 7th Place we have Lilly Dwyer and in 12th Place we have Aiden Giles.

Music2Go Hall of Fame

AdSim Advertising First Quarter Hall of Fame Entrants

We have two new entrants from Durham College in the Single-Player Hall of Fame.

From Durham College we have Gurpreet Singh in 2nd Place and Ravneet Singh in 10th Place.

AdSim Hall of Fame

Congratulations to all the students for this outstanding achievement!

We are thrilled to unveil the newest inductees into the MikesBikes Advanced Hall of Fame for the first quarter. These exceptional students have demonstrated remarkable excellence, achieving their positions through unwavering dedication and relentless hard work. From all of us here at Smartsims, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the new entrants!

In the Multi-Player Hall of Fame, we have four new entrants.

We have two teams from Keyano College – in 6th Place we have Akira Inc lead by Christer Carlo Camacho, Francis Miguel De Leon Dela Cruz and Justine Nicolle Lim. In 17th Place we have Charveca Bikes with Charisma Timbreza Anquillano, Heaven Lara Manahan and Danica Babor Manzanilla.

We have two teams from Slippery Rock University – in 12th Place we have RCB Inc. with Christian Aloi, Ruth Bergquist and Brendan King. In 13th Place we have MK Cycling lead by Logan Keast, Jeffrey Keiter, Angelina Marsh and Evey Mertens.

In the Single-Player Hall of Fame, we have seven new entrants.

From Webber International University, we have Douglas MacCraw in 5th Place, Allen Noah Michael in 7th Place and Jason Robert Robinson in 12 Place. From Algonquin College we have Matthew Thomas in 9th Place and Jesse Piggott in 15th Place. In 10th Place we have Deepak Kumar Angurala from Selkirk College. From Keyano College we have Francis Miguel De Leon Dela Cruz in 14th Place.

These students serve as living proof that hard word and dedication yield results. They stand as beacons of inspiration for fellow students undertaking the MikesBikes Advanced business simulation.

Get to know the first quarter MikesBikes Advanced Hall of Fame entrants here.

We are thrilled to announce these individuals who have earned a well-deserved place in the MikesBikes Introduction Hall of Fame for the inaugural quarter of 2024. These exceptional students have demonstrated unparalleled skill, strategic acumen, and unwavering dedication in navigating the dynamic world of MikesBikes Introduction to Business simulation.

Sincerest congratulations to the newest members of the MikesBikes Introduction Hall of Fame!

In the Multi-Player Hall of Fame we proudly acknowledge two teams from Drexel University.

We commend KJBM Cycles, led by Ben Bloom, Max Guillot, Karen Lin and Julie Tran securing 11th Place and Vroom Vroom Inc with Jackson Bello, Quinton Brewster, Luca Bruns, Aarva Khanna and Clint Lin in 14th Place.

In the Single-Player Hall of Fame we proudly introduce seven new entrants whose achievements have earned them a well-deserved place in the Hall of Fame.

From University of Adelaide we have Timothy Gibbons in 2nd Place and 3rd Place in the Single-Player All-Time Hall of Fame, Mitchell Love in 8th Place, William Hunt in 11th Place. From High Point University we have Ngoc Minh Thu Bui in 9th Place. From Santa Clara University we have Olivia Chi in 13th Place, Liv de Jounge in 17th Place and David Cheon in 19th Place.

We acknowledge the students’ hard work, planning, and determination that led to this achievement. Their success inspires others, showing how strategic thinking and innovation can lead to excellence.

Explore the newest Hall of Fame entrants here.

In 2023, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of MikesBikes World Champs, and the competition concluded with Steven Szeles and Griffin Wirth of Pikes Bikes from the University of Idaho emerging as the new MikesBikes World Champs Winners!

Steven and Griffin share their MikesBikes journey and advice to future students:

Our decision-making process was not overly complicated, we analyzed the previous years market as well as the reports made available to us. With the information it provided we identified the product(s) with the highest possible profit, then invested our resources in the most efficient way possible to achieve the max profit.

Our strategy going into the simulation was to buy SCU early so that we would be able to produce more bikes in the later years and not be limited by our capacity. Apart from this we tried to find what decisions would yield the most profit rather than the most revenue or market share.

One challenge we faced was adapting to the advanced simulation from the intro simulation. We also faced the challenge of predicting what our opponents would do. With so many options and other competitive teams it was hard to predict what people would do and how we could adapt to their decisions. We tried to be aggressive while still being realistic to ensure we didn’t overextend ourselves.

To help prepare ourselves for the Mikes Bike World Championship we reviewed information made available online regarding the competition. Watching video analysis of previous winners’ decision-making process was integral to the strategy we inevitably employed. We also consulted with our professor to clarify things we didn’t fully understand.

The simulation was a lot of fun. However, with enough time you can break down the simulation and begin to understand how every decision will affect shareholder value. With shareholder value being the only determinate of the winner, it promotes aggressive and unsafe business decisions. Every year you are trying to gain the most shareholder value and thus are not making decisions that would be considered long term. In this way the simulation loses its real life feeling and becomes like a game.

The Mikes Bikes simulation project in our Business 190 class was the highlight of the semester, being the first hands on opportunity we’ve received to apply what we have been able to learn both in class and in the real world, it stood out as an exciting chance to showcase the work we have both put in outside of the classroom.

The number one piece of advice we would give new students would be to put profit first. Many people try and lower price and try and get as much market share and sales as possible. This is flawed as it lowers your profit and profit is the number one driver of shareholder value. Profit will drive your shareholder value, revenue alone will not.

It is a huge milestone for Belmont Abbey College as this is their first time to win the MikesBikes World Champs title! The winning duo from Belmont Abbey College, Jake Rybarski and Timothy Gosnell of Abbey Bikes share their experience and the lessons they have learnt in the World Champs.

What is your decision-making process within the simulation?

Before decisions are made, we like to look at what everyone else is doing and mainly go for sure thing sales as opposed to compete on the advertising and PR, although these are important and maintaining an average rating on them is a must to avoid slipping behind.

For every period we had a general idea of what we wanted certain ratios to be such as the gross margin percent and the operating margin. For every period we looked through essentially every report and collected information to look at trends. After a lot of practice with the simulation in class this semester, you begin to sort of develop a decent intuition about how high some expenses should be. The advertising and PR budgets were prorated based on the viewership for the target audience which is given in the reports. The internet section involves more analysis and that section as it usually sees one of the quicker upticks in the budget and the fastest cutoffs, at least for our decisions which are based on the viewership reach based on spending graph that is given in the reports.

What was your strategy going into the simulation?

Our main strategy was mainly competing on the variables with high sensitivities in their respective industries. For instance, we competed with prices in the kids and commuter bike markets, for adventurers, it was a bit of everything, but mainly price and later in the simulation, product specs, and for racers we tried to ensure product spec accuracy was high and maintain rising quality levels with every rollover. We found both in the qualifying rounds and the final rounds that teams like to charge a little more than us or less, but quickly lower or raise prices to our levels. This resulted in our team gaining more sales after the first rollover than we compete for with advertising and quality. We also watched teams that spent a lot on advertising and PR and focused on gaining more of a market share for our team in these segments in order to make their cost of sales even more detrimental to their bottom line. Usually, this can be done through a simple price adjustment because several segments will respond more acutely to price than an increase in advertising awareness. After this happens, Teams then lower their prices in a sort of panic mode. Though, they keep advertising expenditures high, so their strategy of selling for a higher price but more awareness doesn’t work if you have a team that focuses on these things. We instead maintained our price levels and we observed in every game we played teams would adjust their prices closest to ours and in a sense, we maintained the industry standard. If you can get in the lead, this phenomenon will only become more pronounced as the teams that lag behind will begin to copy the front leader as a strategy to catch up. In the spirit of Napoleon, we did not “interrupt our enemy [competition]” when they were making a mistake by raising our prices in panic mode.

It’s tempting for teams to close the gap between worker SCU and plant SCU early in the simulation to maximize the work gained from a single factory worker. However, A large increase early on makes maintaining quality levels extremely expensive. We observed several teams fall into this in the first rollover by doubling their plant sizes and their quality levels in future rollovers were quick to fall. Our goal then was to slowly increase plant size, and in fact never closed the gap between factory and employee SCU, as this is not actually strictly needed and provides the ability to gain higher quality for less cost. With virtually every team entering every market, the sales one team can gain in an economic way never truly reaches a point where massive amounts of plant size are needed.  

In summary, the strategy was to compete in “high” sensitivity areas so that our firm could go for the “sure thing” sales to better predict outcomes and maintain stricter control over costs.

What challenges did you face? How did you overcome these?

A challenge we had in the qualifying round was buying more plant one the first rollover than we would usually do since we thought this would give us a slight advantage in the subsequent rollover. Instead, it made cost projections more difficult and quality levels suffered as we entered the high margin market of the racer segment. We had good control over the gross margin percentage increases for all the rounds except one, though we quickly adjusted with more careful planning and being more exact in data trends.

Was there anything, in particular, you did that you think helped to prepare yourself?

Practicing in single player, in class this semester, and paying very close attention and maintaining detailed records to identify trends with the closest accuracy possible.

What do you think of the business simulation?

Jake: I really enjoyed the business simulation, and we think the results showed. It was always a fun and competitive challenge which had our team striving to do better every round.

Timothy: really like the simulation because I like constructing models, analyzing data, and making that data tell me something that isn’t explicitly contained within it. The business simulation gives me a lot of data and information to use and makes it so that my work in excel and have actual results that can be tested against the predictions I made.

Comments on your experience in your course simulation and with the MikesBikes World Champs

I really like the business simulation and think it’s a must for any student studying a business related major. It gives you the opportunity to see how well you perform based on how much work you put into it. I think we put a lot of work into winning the World Champs. The mikes bikes champs were also fun, challenging, and just a bit stressful, but only because we really wanted to do well.

Advice to future students

The most important thing is to make sure you read every single report before every round. The more information you can correlate, the better. The operations report and marketing report are going to be the most important. Also, keep a close eye on the manufacturing quality report. You’ll want to make sure the quality index is slowly increasing. What will be the biggest road block to increasing it steadily will  be purchasing too much plant in the first round. Purchase some, but in manageable amounts so as to prevent the quality systems index from having to receive a massive infusion of cash to maintain current quality levels.

If you find yourself behind the other teams, evaluate your cost of sales. This issue seemed to be common in our game as we observed several teams spending a lot on advertising and PR and the benefit was much less than the cost. It will take some time to find the balance, especially while competing, which is why we think the best strategy is to focus on those areas where target audience has a “high” preference for something, as outlined in the reports.