5 The Capstone Courier

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Customer purchases and sensor company financial results are reported in an industry newsletter called The Capstone Courier. The Courier is available from two locations:

The Courier displays “Last Year’s Results.” The Courier available at the start of Round 1 displays Last Year’s Results for Round 0, when all companies have equal standing. The Courier available at the start of Round 2 will display the results for Round 1.

Successful companies will study the Courier to understand the marketplace and find opportunities. As the simulation progresses and strategies are implemented, company results will begin to vary.


5.1 Front Page

Use the front page of the Courier to see a snapshot of last year’s results. Be sure to compare your company’s sales, profits and cumulative profits with your competitors’.

5.2 Stock & Bond Summaries, Financial Statements and Production Analysis

Page 2, Stock and Bond Summaries, reports stock prices and bond ratings for all companies. The page also reports the prime interest rate for the upcoming year.

Page 3, Financial Statements, surveys each company’s cash flow, balance sheet and income statements. This will give you an idea of your competitors’ financial health.

Page 4, The Production Analysis, reports detailed information about each product in the market, including sales and inventory levels, price, material cost and labor cost. Are you or your competitors building excess inventory? Excess inventory puts pressure on profits (see 8 Forecasting).

The Production Analysis also reports product revision dates. Does a competitor have a product with a revision date in the year after the year of the report? This indicates a long repositioning project that will possibly put that product into another segment.

If a revision date has yet to conclude, the Courier will report the product’s current performance, size and MTBF. The new coordinates and MTBF will not be revealed until after the completion of the project.

Check your competitors’ automation, capacity and plant utilization. Increases in automation reduce labor costs and this could indicate competitors might drop prices for those products. Did a competitor reduce capacity? Selling capacity reduces assets. Running the remaining capacity at 150% to 200% can improve Return on Assets (ROA).

The Production Analysis will report the release date (but not the coordinates) of a new product if:

Are your competitors investing in capacity and automation? The Production Analysis reports capacity and automation ratings for the upcoming round. The Financial Statements survey reports the cost of plant improvements for all companies.


5.3 Segment Analysis Reports

The Market Segment Analysis reports, pages 5 - 9 of the Courier (Figure 5.1), review each market segment in detail.

Figure 5.1 Market Segment Analysis: Segment Statistics and Buying Criteria
display in the upper-left corner of each segment analysis. Accessibility and Market
Share Actual vs. Potential Charts display to the upper right. Customer Awareness
percentages and December Customer Survey Scores display on the lower part of
the page.

The Statistics box in the upper-left corner reports Total Industry Unit Demand, Actual Industry Unit Sales, Segment Percent of Total Industry and Next Year’s Growth Rate. The Customer Buying Criteria box ranks the customer criteria within each segment.

Are your products meeting your buyers’ expectations?

The Perceptual Map shows the position of each product in the segment as of December 31 of the previous year.


5.3.1 Accessibility, Market Share and Top Products In Segment

The Accessibility Chart rates each company’s level of accessibility. Accessibility is determined by the Marketing Department’s sales budget– the higher the budget, the higher the accessibility. Accessibility is measured by percentage. 100% means every customer can easily interact with your company– sales, customer support, etc.

The Market Share Actual vs. Potential Chart displays two bars per company. The actual bar reports the market percentage each company attained in the segment. The potential bar indicates what the company deserved to sell in the segment. If the potential bar is higher than the actual, the company under produced and missed sales opportunities. If the potential is lower than the actual, the company picked up sales because other companies under produced and stocked out.

Top Products in Segment lists the products selling in the segment and reports:


5.3.2 Awareness and the December Customer Survey Score

Customer Awareness is determined by the Marketing Department’s promotion budget– the higher the budget, the higher the awareness. Awareness is measured by percentage. 100% means every customer knew about your product.

The December Customer Survey Score indicates how customers in the segment perceived the products. The survey evaluates the product against the buying criteria.

Product ages and distances from the ideal spots change throughout the year, therefore scores change month to month.

If a repositioning project concludes late in the year, the survey score for December could be significantly higher than the scores for the previous months.

Use the customer survey score as a quick comparison tool when conducting a competitive analysis. Perfect scoresare almost impossible. Scores of 50 or above are considered good.


5.4 Market Share Report and Perceptual Map

The Market Share Report details sales volume in all segments, reporting each product’s actual and potential sales. Did your company under produce? If the actual percentage for your product is less than the potential, you missed sales opportunities. If your actual is greater than your potential, your competitors under produced and you picked up sales that otherwise would have gone to them.

The Perceptual Map (Figure 5.2) displays all the segments and every product in the industry. Are your products competitively positioned?

Figure 5.2 Page 11, The Perceptual Map: The map shows all segment rough cuts,
fine cuts and every product in the market.

5.5 HR/TQM/Sustainability Report

The HR/TQM Report displays among other information First and Second Shift labor usage by each company.