Competition between UNLV, UNR is all business

Kris Hill

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2000 | 9:31 a.m.

Patrick Donnelly, 23, runs an $83 million international shoe company.

He's not famous, though. His company isn't real.

With a team of other UNLV students, he runs his fictitious company as part of a business strategy game -- a competition that will be a significant chunk of his grade for a management strategy course.

The competition pits business students at the University of Nevada, Reno, against UNLV students to see who can run the most successful company.

This is one of the final business courses for the 60 UNLV students due to graduate in December. There are 39 UNR students. The simulation gives them a chance to apply the theories they have learned in classes such as finance, marketing and management.

The game is one-fifth of each student's grade. Even if a company fails to make a profit, as long as each student tries, the grade won't drop, professor Darryl Seale said.

The students are teamed in groups of up to five students. Twenty-three teams compete in two leagues -- both in the shoe industry.

They meet each week outside of class, planning and implementing their strategies.

The teams decide such things as how many shoes to make, how much money to spend on advertising and other details. The competition is heading into its fifth week, with each seven-day period representing a year.

The students are not given all of the challenges that real-world companies face such as strikes, culture issues or delivery delays.

Each week in class the students receive a detailed report on the results of their decisions as well as the effects their competitors' choices had on the industry and their company in particular.

It may be play money, but Donnelly said the stakes feel real, not like a grade on the line.

He agonizes over every decision his team makes. He worries about every penny his company spends, he said.

Susan Wayman, a classmate, said the demands of running a fake company are greater than she expected. In addition to three hours a week of class, she meets with four teammates for two hours each week to decide what they will do next, she said.

Donnelly and Wayman, who are on different teams, were careful not to reveal details of their business strategies -- trade secrets, you know.

"I can't provide that information for fear of revealing my team strategy to any of our competitors," Wayman said. Her team's strategy has deviated from its original one, she said.

Students aren't focused exclusively on the game. In class they discuss case studies and theory, take exams and later will produce a separate group project.

Wayman, a wife and mother in her 30s who returned to UNLV three years ago to finish her degree, hopes to earn a master's degree in business administration and become an executive, she said. She sees plenty of room at the top for women.

Donnelly, a former fraternity member who transferred from Arizona State University, would like to go into sales.

The game has been used for two years at UNLV and four years at UNR, but this is the first year that the schools have competed against each other.

Being the loyal Rebels that they are, Wayman, Donnelly and Seale would like to see UNLV take the top five spots.

But in this case, winning is less important than how they play the game. They are putting four years of theory to work, and that's the point.

"The game is the most important part of the class," Donnelly said. "And the most fun."