Graduates of the business program at Piedmont Technical College will now have an advantage. They will have global business experience, thanks to a new online project.

“We created the Management 240 class to be the capstone course of the business curriculum,” said Suzy Murray, instructor. “We wanted the students to be able to demonstrate a cross-functional integration of management, accounting and other business courses to solve management problems.”

Murray wanted to implement a project for the students that would test their knowledge in all areas and considered having the students start their own business, but the multiple sites proved to be a complication. Then, she found GLO-BUS.

“GLO-BUS was exactly what I was looking for,” she said. “It was a virtual online exercise that utilized every aspect the students could face in the real business world.”

GLO-BUS is a fully-automated, easy-to-administer exercise where class members are divided into teams and assigned to run a digital camera company in head-to-head competition against companies run by other class members. Company operations parallel those of actual digital camera companies. Just like Kodak, Canon, Fuji, Nikon and other real-world camera companies, GLO-BUS companies compete in a global market arena, selling digital cameras in four geographic regions—Europe/Africa, North America, Asia/Pacific and Latin America.

“Just like an actual company, there are no right or wrong answers,” Murray said. “The teams’ successes or failures are based on their decisions and the decisions of their ‘competitors’ in the market.”

Students not only competed against each other, but also the more than 200 other colleges and universities worldwide who utilized the program. During that time, teams were ranked weekly on their performance. The team of Katilyn Johnson of Ninety Six and Randy Noel of Greenwood scored in the Top 100, Top 50 and ranked number one for overall score.

“It was challenging,” said Johnson. “What you did depended on what others did. It was more hands-on.”

“By using sound strategies and decisions that we had learned in our business courses, our company made it to the Top 100 worldwide list for the week ending May 3,” said Noel. “At this time, Katilyn and I started to chuckle to ourselves. To see Piedmont Technical College in the Global Top 100 was nice to see. Then the last week of class ending May 10, we actually ended up the year tied for number one in the world. For our team to start out on even footing with business students from mostly big four-year schools, and then ending up tied for number one from all the schools and teams makes us very proud for Piedmont Technical College.”

The project was piloted with the spring term class for five weeks, but Murray says she will expand it for the fall.

“They were my guinea pigs, but it was more successful than I could have imagined,” she said. “I was amazed at how quickly they learned the system and how excited they were about the program.”

For more information on the business program, contact Murray at (864) 941-8445 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Photo Caption: Business students Randy Noel of Greenwood, left, and Katilyn Johnson of Ninety Six participate in the online class project GLO-BUS, where the pair finished the year tied for number one worldwide.