A team of three fourth-year business administration students in York's Schulich School of Business has placed first in its world region in the L'Oréal e-Strat Challenge.
Fady Abdel-Nour, Robbie Agar and Amelia Miao topped the undergraduate category for Zone 6 (Canada and Australia) in the annual online competition and won the right to compete at the international finals being held on April 16 in Paris. The competition will conclude with an awards ceremony inside the Eiffel Tower where the winners, one undergraduate and one MBA, will be announced and awarded €10,000 ($15,875) for a trip to the destination of their choice.
Right: Robbie Agar (left), Amelia Miao and Fady Abdel-Nour
"I am just in awe of these accomplishments by our undergraduates," said Elizabeth Maynes, director of the Bachelor of Business Administration and International Business Administration programs at Schulich.
Maynes has asked Professor Ashwin Joshi, marketing specialist and director of Schulich's Graduate Program in Business Administration, to assemble a team of faculty members to help the finalists prepare for Paris.
The L'Oréal e-Strat Challenge is one of the world's biggest online business simulation competitions and is open to undergraduate and MBA students in their final two years of university or business school. In teams of three, students manage a portfolio of brands, making decisions on all aspects of a firm: marketing, advertising, pricing, production, R&D. With the new sustainable performance initiatives, students will also consider diversity & equity, environmental and employee benefits as part of a long-term strategy.
In its first seven editions, the L'Oréal e-Strat Challenge has brought together more than 177,000 students from 2,200 schools representing 128 countries.
The e-Strat Challenge is one of three business simulation games organized by L'Oréal. Schulich students won the final round of the Brandstorm competition in 2006 and have been finalists on several occasions.
For more information about L'Oréal business games, click on the Careers link at the L'Oréal Web site.