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Outstanding participation of INCAE in OpsSimCom 2022

May 13 2022
Institutional comunication

Risk strategies, sleepless nights, last minute decisions and teamwork that brought very good results, led to Jacksenia Lamugue (Costa Rica), Dante Pescetto (Panama), Byron Solano (Ecuador) and Germán Guadamuz (Costa Rica) to become the best positioned INCAE team in the 18th edition of the Operation Simulation Competition (OpsSimCom) organized every year by the MIT Management Sloan School, with the participation of 60 teams from 21 universities and business schools from 10 countries. The winning team was Tic Takt Toe, from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

The virtual simulation competition, where master's students can test their knowledge in the business world, allowed the four INCAE Executive MBA students to explore their skills and strategies as if they were part of a company in the real world . A simulator designed by Processim Labs is used, a company that designs simulations for industries and business scenarios, and which is also part of the various courses taught at INCAE, which has allowed master's students to develop methods and strategies to improve their activities in this sector.

Trust, a value that weighs

"I think one of the things we all enjoy most about this simulation is that it feels like real life. They change the demand, the prices; you have to adjust operations, buy raw materials. And it was not until we found a strategy and worked in coordination that we became a machine”, says Byron, in charge of the structure of the project in competition. 

This INCAE team, one of several that participated in the competition on behalf of our institute, finished in 13th place after remaining in the Top Ten for several days. It was the trust between the whole team that allowed their abilities to be enhanced as a group and achieve such good results. 

"Each one brought their point of view and experience to the table. They are super good colleagues at what they do and that helped us make good decisions. At one point we were in 17th place and we made decisions in the last few runs of the game that allowed us to move up to 13th place overall in the table, where the best business schools in the world participate. We finished first at the INCAE level, in the Spanish-speaking countries, so we are very satisfied with the effort we made”, said Germán Guadamuz.

an incredible challenge

The competition kicked off on April 20, and teams from around the world had just a couple of days to promote their project on the online platform. “We were in one called Médica, which had two types of production line: a customized one, with a drip scheme, and a standard one with specific production characteristics that were simple.”, tells Byron about the development of the scheme. 

"The customized one worked with a demand with a known forecast, but with a changing price, while the standard one did so with an initial demand that we had to forecast and with prices that were changing. So, we had to identify how the evolution was, the highs and lows of prices and demand and that was what was interesting, because that is exactly what happens in the markets, especially in the Latin markets where there are highs and lows in prices with each situation. what happens in the world and in our regionss”, explains the Ecuadorian.

And he continues narrating: “We had to calculate the production lines and the goal was to have the best liquidity possible. That is to say, we had to have the least inventory in circulation, try to place the highest sale, and for that the production lines had to be very synchronized so that they flow optimally with little inventory. And the purchases of raw materials had to be very well calculated so that the inventory did not remain in the initial warehouse, because we also paid a fine when we had a lot”. 

Analyzing the information, rethinking investment strategies and managing to find solutions to production and distribution problems required almost 24-hour work, where the four team members took turns on duty to keep everyone active and informed about their position in the competition, recalls Jacksenia Lamugue. 

"They were unveiled after unveiled, emergency calls at dawn, but it was also a very nice job. How many of us in the business world have not had to be 24/7? I think it is very attached to what happens in reality. I loved the experience and I feel that it taught us what teamwork really is."He explains. 

As mentioned, the INCAE team managed to position itself in 13th place when the competition was about to end, since they decided to change the strategy 20 minutes before time ran out. That, says Jacksenia, also brought with it a great personal and professional learning. 

And he adds:Something very valuable was that we did not lose hope until the last moment, because there was a point where we were all burned out. However, it was not until the last moment, and I say this with great pride, that we decided and did things that I think had a positive effect on the result. We never lost hope. There was a moment where we dropped to 17th place, which was when we started to make decisions, but if we hadn't done that, maybe we wouldn't have achieved the result we got." 

For his part, Dante Pescetto, a businessman by profession, highlights the advantages offered by the simulator to the participants to test their knowledge and skills and thus react to possible risks, from healthy competition such as that of Processim Labs. He believes that it was the closest to reality.

"Creo Dante suggests. that in life we ​​find ourselves in situations where we have to make quick decisions, which have repercussions, and also that one cannot let oneself be demotivated by a bad decision made at a given moment. As a group we worked very well, we understood what the virtue of each one was, what was the role that each one had to develop. We were never that kind of people who assign roles and that's it: we encouraged everyone's participation and opinions, because they were very valuable”. 

Outstanding participation of INCAE 

The Annual Operations Simulation Competition (OpsSimCom) has been held since the year 2005. In 2021 alone, more than 55 teams from various universities around the world participated. It is a student-run event from MIT Management Sloan School, in which the best students from around the world compete to see who can run a business most profitably. It uses a simulator designed by Processim Labs, being Luis López, professor at INCAE, one of the co-founders of the platform.

INCAE, as an institution, had an outstanding participation in this eighteenth edition, held from April 20 to 22, 2022. Processim Labs awarded a special mention to the school, since several of its teams remained within the top ten places consistently. constant throughout the competition. 

First place took home a $2,000 prize, while second and third place earned a $500 award.

Congratulations to all of our participating students!