Gibraltar Students Place First in Wisconsin Virtual Business Competition

Gibraltar marketing students finished first in the Wisconsin Virtual Business Competition and in the top 20 percent internationally. Juniors Ryan Kropuenske and Andras Szalaka recently competed in the online DECA competition – Virtual Business Retailing Simulation. In addition to taking first in the State of Wisconsin, they earned 10th place in the Central Region, which includes 13 states of competitors. Internationally, they placed in the top 20 percent of all competitors.

The Retailing Track of the DECA Virtual Business Challenge encourages DECA members to test their skills at managing a retail sporting goods store. Competitors merchandise their products, determined purchasing levels, priced their products to assure a profitable margin, determined staffing needs, invested in advertising and more. For each round, teams were ranked based on their store’s cumulative profit after running the simulation for five virtual years. Kropuenske and Szalaka earned $3.6 million in net profits in five virtual years.

Students in the Gibraltar Marketing class apply classroom concepts to real-life operations through GBAY, the school store operation, and VBR, the Virtual Business Retailing simulation.