A team made up of friends, code-named "KTMC", emerged as the Champion of the Hong Kong Management Game today (26 July) by outperforming four other finalist teams.

The Management Game is a simulation exercise making use of the computer program SIMBUSI to simulate a competitive business environment.

In the Hong Kong Final, each of the five teams managed a company selling T-shirts. Their business objective was to outperform all other competitors and return the highest profit.

�Apart from the typical decisions like pricing, marketing and production, teams have to make strategic decisions like reacting to market calls on product safety, handling concern on staff working environment. Teams were also challenged on their ability to predict the market demand, as excessive old products were disposed of at a loss. At the beginning of the competition, all teams face a problem of raw materials shortage," said Mr Eric Chan, team leader of "KTMC", "which was a big shock to all of us", as the business environment was a far cry from the plain sailing situation they experienced in the elimination round before. After the initial shock, the team managed to continue with their planned strategy, climbed to the top position and stayed there through to the conclusion of the contest.

At the end of the six periods, KTMC`s three-member team reaped a total of $18 million profit and won the honour of Hong Kong champion. A team from Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited led by Mr Kelvin Wong became the first runner-up, and another team from Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited led by Ms Phemie Wong came third.

Mr Russell Morris, the SIMBUSI Game Designer, commented �teams were challenged by the fact that all markets were very slow in growth. In order to grow, they had to win orders from their competitors. Combined with this, they had to use all of their skills balancing the production and sales because fashion trends change quickly. Overproduction results in expensive scrapping of out-of-date stocks."

The champion team was awarded four airtickets to Singapore, a cash prize of HK$5,000 and the SCMP Morning Post Perpetual Trophy.

The first runner-up team received a cash prize of HK$3,000. The second runner-up was awarded a cash prize of HK$2,000.

The Prize Presentation Ceremony was held immediately after the competition. It was officiated by Mr Tom Eves, Editor of Classified Post; and Dr Albert Ma, Council and Executive Committee Member, The Hong Kong Management Association.

Organized by the Hong Kong Management Association, the Game is sponsored by Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, A. S. Watson Group, the South China Morning Post, Classified Post as well as Jiu Jik.