Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants Award to Final Year Business School Undergraduate Students
Friday 5 May

Winning student teams

The Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants (LSCA) has established an award scheme for final year undergraduate business students in DCU Business School. The LSCA prize is awarded to the student teams who achieve first and second place in a Business Simulation group project. This project is part of the continuous assessment element of the Strategic Management module (mt301), which is delivered on all of the undergraduate business degrees in DCU Business School.

The objective of the Business Simulation is to:

• manage all aspects of an airline business for up to ten trading periods
• enhance students’ understanding of theoretical strategy concepts and their application to real-life
• develop skills in information management, business analysis and strategic thinking
• integrate their knowledge of various business disciplines
• develop an appreciation of the complexity of decision-making in business
• encourage creativity and innovation and
• promote teamwork and communication skills in a challenging but enjoyable scenario.

The Business Simulation requires teams of students to manage an airline business over approximately two years of trading. The students must manage financial, marketing, operations and human resources aspects of the business as well as setting the strategic direction of the firm. Teams compete against one another in a simulated trading environment in what are often difficult economic and environmental conditions. Each team must make up to thirty business decisions during each trading period and these decisions are submitted each week over an entire semester. At the end of the simulation each team submits a report which evaluates the performance of their business and their own performance as a team.

The criteria used to assess the projects include demonstrating the ability to manage a going concern, the ability to manage their way through adverse trading conditions, thorough knowledge and understanding of the problem or issues facing the business, the ability to draw on theoretical models as an aid in analysing and understanding the circumstances in which they find themselves, and demonstrating creativity and originality in the final report.