Four Iona College Student Teams Rank in Global Top 100 of Business Competition

GLO-BUS virtual simulation gives students an opportunity to Learn Outside the Lines of a traditional classroom

December 16, 2021

Iona Students Learn Outside The Lines

Putting their business acumen to the test, four Iona College business student teams earned top placement in the GLO-BUS business competition, an online simulation run by McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Making the “Global Top 100” was especially notable as 2,000 teams from over 100 colleges and universities competed.

The following LaPenta School of Business senior teams placed in the Global Top 100 during one of the weeks this fall:

• Gregory Nixon and Bridget O’Rourke
• Courtney Clarke and Jack Ruscetta
• Nicolas Dacaj, Austin Ebanks and Christian Geddes
• Danielle Amato, Brandon Figueroa and Ron Gorani

The business simulation challenges students to run an international company that produces wearable video cameras and camera-equipped drones.

The competitive online business game is a required semester-long assignment in the Iona Capstone course, Business Policy and Strategy, taught by Dr. Jeffrey Alstete, professor of management, in the LaPenta School of Business.

Four additional Iona business students earned first place as the overall best-performing company within the College, making them eligible to compete in the next Best-Strategy Invitational, where high-performing companies worldwide face off in a two-week competition. These seniors are Michael DelBene, Edwin Johnson, Charles Tejeda and Kristjan Staka.

DelBene said: "Glo-Bus taught me many intricacies of the decisions and their impact on a company. Working with [my classmate] Edwin was a great experience. It inspired me to strive to one day become a senior executive and make these decisions in a real company.”

Staka said: “Like every other game, you have to know the rules. Be flexible with your strategy as you learn how the simulation works and pay close attention to the competitors’ moves. Make sure to learn from their mistakes and gems in them.”

Alstete has used active learning simulations since 2005 and writes research journal articles about teaching strategic management. GLO-BUS is a completely online global simulation where the focus is on competitive strategy, and student teams run companies that produce wearable action video cameras and camera-equipped drones in head-to-head competition against companies run by other class members.  Company operations parallel those of actual technology companies. Just as in the real world, companies compete in a global market arena, selling cameras and drones in four geographic regions—Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 students and an alumni base of more than 50,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona is widely recognized in prestigious rankings, including The Princeton Review’s 2025 national list of “The Best 390 Colleges” and The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse’s “2024 Best Colleges in America,” which ranked Iona at #66 in the nation overall and #8 in the nation among Catholic schools. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just six percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review recognized Iona’s on-campus MBA program as a “Best Business School for 2023.” Iona also offers a fully online MBA program for even greater flexibility. In July 2021, Iona announced the establishment of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences, which is now principally located on Iona’s Bronxville campus in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian. Connecting to its Irish heritage, the University also recently announced it is expanding abroad with a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.