Beverage company, Coca-Cola Nigeria, has demonstrated its interest in boosting the profile of  Nigerian youths in a new move geared towards their career growth.
The firm which is sponsoring the Global Management Challenge (GMC) initiative, expected that such a move would further enhance the intellectual capability of the country’s largest group beyond their academic pursuit.
The Global Management Challenge is the largest Strategy and Management Competition in the world. It is the largest international event based on business simulations, with more than 500,000 university students and company managers participating in it throughout the world.
The competition which is a virtual business simulation kicked off recently at the University of Lagos and has 80 students with not less than a CGPA of 4.30 across different departments from the institution sponsored by the beverage company who will later compete for the team to represent Nigeria in the upcoming international final coming up in Dubai in April.
Speaking during the contest,  Public Affairs and Communications Manager of the company, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, congratulated the students for being privileged to partake in the life-changing programme as he emphasised that the initiative would further prepare them for the future.
“Doing the right things requires knowledge, understanding and experience. This competition will offer the perfect synergy between knowledge, intelligence and the right experience to be good managers in the future. I will like everyone involved in this great competition to open their minds as this will be very helpful not just in school but also in the future,†she said.
Also speaking, the company’s Head of Customer and Commercial Leadership, Peter Ekunkoya stated that the company was committed to empowering and providing youths with basic life and business skills to thrive in their endeavours, hence the initiative.
In his remark, Associate Professor and Director, Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre, University of Lagos, Dr Sunday Adebisi, thanked the company for being responsible to the society.
“I am particularly delighted with this initiative which will help our students to become smarter and as well groom them to make  wiser business decisions in the future. I am therefore imploring the students to be focused and aim for the best.â€
The GMC coordinator, Mr. Ryan thanked the school authorities for the level of professionalism and support received at the point of conceptualisation to the execution of the programme.
He explained that the participating students will form 20 teams of 4 members each who will then be given a virtual company, initially identical to every other company in the competition. Each team then develops its company by making a series of decisions relating to every aspect of the business.
These decisions made on the ‘Decision Sheet’ are run through sophisticated business simulation software, which generates in-depth management reports, showing the consequences of the decisions. The aim is to finish the game with the highest share price on the virtual stock exchange.
