Many high school students attend business classes in their schools, trying to learn various concepts and theories in business. However, students rarely get to apply them in real-life. I was no exception and I wanted to experience the business side of things as I had only been a consumer all my life. Participating in the Hubro Championship was a great experience for me where I was able to do just that. Even though I did not win the championship, I still want to share my experience as it was very meaningful to me.

The Hubro Championship organized by Hubro Education is a team competition where students can engage in intense business simulations for two weeks. During the simulation, participants have to make all the business decisions, including which product to produce, how many units to produce, whether we will build or rent factories, and how much loan we are going to get from the bank. There are, of course, competitors in the market place, and the participants get to see their rankings for total equity, net income, and sales. The winners are determined by their profits at the end of 10 quarter-experience (2 years and 6 months) of running a business. Hubro Championship provides marketing, finance, and bespoke simulations. Students can choose the simulation that fits their interest. Moreover, they can participate in more than one simulation, experiencing multiple simulated markets.

The championship was challenging. Every day is counted as a quarter, and every quarter, there are new decisions we had to make. As my teammate and I were both at the beginning of a new course, it was hard for us to commit one or two hours on the simulation every day. Another problem was communication. As a team, my teammate and I had to discuss various things, including decision making and calculations, but this turned out to be very difficult due to the Covid-19 restrictions in the country. We were not able to meet up as we lived in a country with high Covid cases. Therefore, we met online, which had problems of its own, such as technical issues.

But participating in the champion was enormously rewarding. The biggest thing I gained from it was that I got to experience being a business owner. By making business decisions, my teammate and I learned what kind of important decisions businesses have to make and what they consider in making the decisions. We also learned about budgeting, investment analysis, accounting, cash flow, product mix and calculations. These different elements allowed us to apply different theories and equations that we learned in the business lessons. Now I have a general sense what is involved in the business side of things, which I had no idea before as a consumer. Who knows? Maybe, a career in business administration is in my future.

Jessica Cho
Grade 11
International School of Prague