Winning the Globus Business Game: What I Learned from Thinking Differently

During the master's degree in Service Management and Design at the University of Milan-Bicocca,
academic year 2022–2023, one of the courses included a
management simulation business game: Globus.

The goal was simple to explain, but not to achieve: compete in groups against the rest of the class and
manage a virtual company by making strategic decisions about pricing, investments, marketing, production, and so on.
At the end of the game, the score would decide the best teams.

My group has won the business game within the course and, for a few weeks,
we were also among the teams with the most points in the world in the general Globus ranking.

What I am interested in telling here is not so much the details of individual business choices,
but the method which brought us to this result.

The starting point: same guide, same tools… different results

All groups had:

• the same official guide of Globus provided by the professor,
• the same time available,
• the same basic information about how the game works.

The guide explained the rules, the general logic, but it certainly didn't indicate the "best strategy"“.
It was meant to give a clear picture, not to tell you how to win.

In practice, most groups started playing using:

• only the official manual,
• a little intuition,
• trial and error.

I, however, decided to take a further step.

Lateral thinking: if the goal is to win, it's not enough to "follow the manual"“

As soon as the business game was presented, I asked myself a very simple question:

“If my goal is truly to win, does it make sense to limit myself to using only the basic material that everyone else has?”

The answer, for me, was no.

So I did something that, as I understood later,
no one else on the course had done it:

• I bought a specific course on Udemy: “How to Win Globus”;
• I searched online for guides, articles and advice from those who had already played and won Globus;
• I studied strategies, typical errors and less obvious dynamics of the game.

There are no “magic tricks” to win, but there are people who have
already faced the same problem, they analyzed it and drew strategies from it
better than those that can be improvised in a few days.

This choice was a clear exercise of lateral thinking:

• instead of competing only on the “official” ground,
• I decided to move the game to another level: that of access to additional knowledge.

From study to practice: initial investment and cumulative benefit

Thanks to this extra study, we understood much earlier than the others:

• which were the really important indicators,
• where it made sense to invest aggressively right away,
• What mistakes to avoid in the first decisions, which are often decisive for the progress of the game.

This allowed us to:

• make decisions more aware from the beginning,
• Do bold investments in the early stages of the game,
• build a cumulative advantage which, round after round, became more and more evident.

While other groups were still trying to “figure out” the game as they went,
we already had a much clearer map of the territory.

The result?

• Victory within the course,
• positioning among the top teams in the world on Globus for a few weeks.

What this experience taught me

This experience has become for me a very concrete example of some principles that I also apply in my work.

1. Lateral thinking: moving the problem to another level

If everyone uses the same information, the same tools and the same approach,
it's difficult to create a real competitive advantage.

Instead of asking myself “how can I use the manual better?”, I asked myself:

“Who has already played this game? What can I learn from their experience?”

Thinking laterally means:

• look for non-obvious sources,
• look outside the “standard” perimeter,
• allow yourself to do things that others wouldn't even think of (like buying a course dedicated to a single business game).

2. Stand out from the crowd (even if it sounds exaggerated)

Let's face it: buying a course “How to Win Globus” it may seem excessive
for a simple university project. But that's precisely the point.

Many times, what makes the difference is the willingness to go the extra mile:

• invest time and money in targeted training,
• to study harder than what is "enough" to get a good grade,
• be willing to go beyond the logic of the bare minimum.

Often those who achieve results well above average are precisely those who accept appearing a little "strange"’
or “too serious” for the context.

3. Investing in knowledge generates enormous returns

The cost of the course and the time spent studying was tiny compared to the benefit:

• victory in the business game,
• a concrete experience to tell about my journey,
• a practical example of how investing in skills bring measurable results.

This same logic is what I apply in my work today:
I always prefer to learn tools, methods and strategies well, rather than improvise.

From business game to real life

Globus, in itself, is "just" a simulation game. But the way we approached it is exactly the way
where I see real projects:

• start from one deep understanding of the context,
• look for advanced knowledge even outside the standard channels,
• make strong initial decisions, which create advantage over time,
• don't stop at "everyone does it that way.".

For me, this business game was not just an extra mark on my transcript, but an important confirmation:

If your goal is to really get to the top, it's not enough to play like everyone else.
We must have the courage to seek different paths, study more deeply and invest seriously in the strategy.

And it is exactly this approach that I bring into my projects and consultancy today.
and collaborations with my clients.