São Paulo – Two college students from Santa Catarina are representing Brazil in a business management and strategy contest starting this Tuesday (17) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Arthur Alberton Lenzi, majoring in Physics, and Anna Beatriz Ribeiro, majoring in Production and Systems Engineering, are competing in the Global Management Challenge, with other college students from 34 countries.
Both are students of the Center of Technological Sciences (CCT) of Santa Catarina State University (UDESC), in Joinville, 179 km from the capital Florianópolis. This Monday (16), they attended the competition’s opening ceremony. The contest is scheduled for Tuesday (17) and Wednesday (18).
According to UDESC, the pair won the competition’s national round, which took place in São Paulo, in March, leaving behind 500 competitors. Arthur and Anna were coached by professor Fernando Natal de Pretto and traveled alongside professor Adolfo René Santa Cruz Rodriguez.
In Dubai, the competitors will face business management and strategy tests. They will solve challenges in the areas of production, finance, marketing and human resources of a virtual company, utilizing a business game, a management simulator software.
The Brazilian pair departed to Dubai on Thursday (12) and had time to get to know the emirate. “The city is wonderful,” said Arthur to ANBA by phone. “We went to many places, it’s a very different place because of the culture and the climate,” said the student.
Arthur said he’s optimistic with the competition. He liked the group in which they will compete. They were assigned groups after a draw, with the results announced on Monday evening. Arthur and Anna went to the Blue group and will compete in the semifinals this Tuesday with India, Greece, Macau and Czech Republic.
The other groups are Red (Estonia, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia and UAE), Green (Cape Verde, Nigeria, Panama, China, Russia and Angola), and Yellow (Hong Kong, Kenya, Kuwait, Portugal and Spain). The finals take place on Wednesday.
Arthur credits the pair’s achievements – the victory to represent Brazil in the world finals in Dubai – to the guidance of professor Pretto. “The determining factor for the victory was the professor,” said the student.
Visit the Facebook page to follow the Brazilians’ performance at https://www.facebook.com/gmcbrasil/
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
