MARGA for Students
Online Business Game Competition for students
The General Management Business Simulation for universities & business schools
MARGA for students is an open Online Business Simulation Competition: Each team is in direct competition with teams of other degree programs and universities.
- Teams from different universities and degree programs (with up to six students per team) manage their own virtual company, develop strategies and implement them.
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Within seven periods, students have to develop and produce products, as well as position and sell them on the market. The team which has created the highest company value is the winner of the competition.
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Topic related learning videos with live Q&A sessions after each game period and the Online Course "Financial Basics" create an important theoretical basis and refer to the content of the business simulation.
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MARGA for students runs completely online and is offered in English and German.
Learning objectives
Students steer their own virtual company and put their managerial knowledge and skills into practice.
- Deepen and apply managerial topics
- Align all company divisions and functions
- Make substantial corporate decisions and discover the role of managers
- Develop entrepreneurial thinking and acting
- Discover management as team work
MARGA makes management tangible!
Our trial offer
New customers can register their first team free of charge.
Simply indicate that you are registering as a new customer in the "Further information" field when you fill out the registration sheet.
Learning contents
From targets via corporate strategy to sustainable returns: Students manage the whole corporate process. Thus, MARGA offers a unique knowledge transfer to entrepreneurial thinking and acting.
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Market & Competition
- Marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion
- Competitive strategies: Cost Leadership, Differentiation, Focus (Niche)
- Portfolio Management: Cash cows, Dogs, Question marks, Stars
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Production & Resource planning
- Production planning and capacity management
- Investment planning
- HR management
- Procurement and logistics
- Make-or-buy decisions
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Finance
- Internal and external financing, equity and debt financing
- Management of receiveables and accounts payable
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Controlling/Accounting
- Value-based Management
- Financial reports: Balance sheet, Income statement, Cashflow statement, Segment reporting
- Cost accounting: Full costing, Direct costing
- KPIs - Profitability, Liquidity, Financing, Asset structure
- Foreign currency/Hedging
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Soft Skills
- Organization and interaction in a team
- Team skills
- Self-organization
- Communication
- Virtual teamwork
- Project management
The Online Competition for Students at a glance
Target group: Students (first degree, i.e. bachelor and master degree) of business and economics, etc.
Next date: April 29 - June 21, 2024
Registration deadline: April 15 , 2024 (summer term 2024)
Total workload: approx. 45 hours (flexible planning)
Duration: 8 weeks
Price: 740 € per Team (up to six persons). New customers can register their first team free of charge
Language: German and English
Organization: MARGA offers a full-service package including organization and communication (no licence); the program runs completely online
Technology: Online access via standard browser (no additional software installation required)
Your option: The learning content can be questioned in a final oral or written exam. We will provide you with possible questions and answers.
Your Benefits with MARGA
✔ High operational flexibility: Participation is exclusively online and can take place regardless of location and time. There are fixed deadlines for the individual decision-making periods in the simulation. In between, the students are completely flexible in their working hours.
✔ Learning by Doing: The students learn independently by actively leading their own virtual company. Learned contents are applied and repeated over several periods which leads to a sustainable learning effect.
✔ Game-based Learning: The participants develop a feeling for the interaction of the various corporate divisions and functions in a playful manner. The competitive nature of the business game ensures interactive and motivated learning.
✔ Real scenario: The MARGA business simulations use current scenarios which are closely related to real economic events and developments.
✔ Individual tutoring: MARGA experts provide support during the self-directed online phases for content-related and organizational questions on two days of the week.
✔ Strong partners: With ESMT Berlin and Handelsblatt Media Group, we have two strong partners at our side who stand for scientific content and economic topicality.

What I particularly appreciate about 'MARGA for Students' is the comprehensive service. I divided my students into teams and registered them for the competition. From then on, MARGA did the technical set-up and handled communication with the participants. At the submission deadlines, I was always informed about the current content focus and the ranking of my teams. My students received exemplary support from MARGA and learned a lot from a different event format and the broader perspective outside the university.
Prof. Dr. Jochen Zimmermann, Dean of the Department of Economics, University of Bremen

What we enjoyed most about MARGA was the unique opportunity to put our knowledge about management to the test without taking real risks. To understand the impact of decisions on different figures and economic interrelations was the foundation to react flexible and preciously on changing market conditions.
Nils Kohrn, participant of MARGA for Students - Westfälische Wilhelms-University of Münster from Germany