They didn't even win their class-wide competition on the first try but when it came time later to take their know-how to a national level, a team of three senior EKU business students knew they had a shot at winning the Capstone College Bowl 2000, the first-ever on-line business management simulation contest.

Their confidence was well-founded. Competing against the likes of University of North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Northeastern and Rutgers, among others, the EKU trio finished third overall among approximately 50 teams from 35 colleges and universities and claimed first in its specific industry.

After the initial disappointment, the performance certainly proved the team's grasp of one important rule of business management. As Scotty Ham put it, "We learned from our mistakes."

Ham, an accounting major from Somerset, was joined on the team by Bryan Sears, a general business major from Somerset; and Stephen Abney, a computer information systems major from Lexington. All students in the senior-level "capstone" class required of all business majors, their diverse academic backgrounds within Eastern's College of Business & Technology proved invaluable in the competition.

"Eastern is really pushing teamwork in all our business classes," Abney said.

"We learned how all the areas of business work together," Ham added. "The three of us (who were not teammates by choice) ended up being a great mix."

Capstone, a product of Management Simulations Inc., is used by more than 300 colleges and universities to give their students hands-on experience in business decision-making, and the chance to apply some of the theory they've learned.

Dr. Stephen Brown, the team's adviser, said the simulation "provides a dramatic hands-on opportunity for students to see the dynamic interaction of what it takes to run a business. They understand the importance and impact of our foundation and core business courses and why these courses are required of all business students."

Sears concurred. "We did so well because of the knowledge we had gained from our other classes," he said. "It was a combination of everything we've learned."

Each team in the competition was given a mythical business to manage over a six-year period compressed into one day. The ultimate goal is to produce the highest cumulative profits.

The on-line event was staged on-line over two successive Saturdays, Dec. 2 and Dec. 9.

"We had to take turns eating breakfast the first Saturday," Sears said. "The second Saturday, none of us ate. There was no time for eating. It's a scramble. You have to be able to react real quickly to what your competition is doing. "

Also, as Ham noted, "in every round, customer expectations change and you have to be able to react to that, too."

Besides the lessons from the competition itself, Ham said the written memorandums required from the team to explain the rationale behind each decision aided in the learning process.

Despite the hundreds of hours the team spent on the project, "it was a fun way to end my college career," said Abney, who received a baccalaureate degree along with Sears and Ham at EKU's fall commencement Dec. 16.

Brown predicted the best is yet to come.

"They have shown that once EKU's students graduate, they will be able to compete with the best the country has to offer," Brown said. "Bryan, Steve and Scotty were able to take a complex set of financial, economic and market data, sift through it and make good business decisions. It certainly demonstrates our students have what it takes to run a successful business."

Contact: Dr. Brown at 859-622-4986 or 859-623-0817 or Bryan Sears at 859-625-5340 or 859-408-3867.