Each team member can assume one or more roles.

• Product Manager: Responsible for one of the five products in your starting product line.
• Segment Manager: Responsible for one of the five market segments.
• Functional Manager: Responsible for R&D, Marketing, Production, or Finance.
• Competitive Intelligence Officer: Responsible for predicting the behavior of one or more of your competitors.

Organization

You are free to decide how to organize your company. The chart below shows a company organized via Functional Managers (it includes additional modules which might not be used in your simulation). Your company might prefer to make R&D, Marketing and Production decisions via Product Managers, Segment Managers, or an amalgamation of Functional, Product and Segment Managers. However you choose to organize, keep in mind that clearly defined work assignments increase efficiency and improve communication.

Saving Decisions

As you work through your company’s decisions you can save them either as Official Decisions or as a Draft. The simulation will use your Official Decisions when the round results are calculated. You can update Official Decisions as often as needed prior to the round deadline.

Draft decisions allow you to perform “what ifs” in a personal workspace separate from your company’s Official Decisions. Draft decisions are not recorded in the Audit Trail.

Periodically and when you have completed your decisions and/or want to share your decisions with your teammates, be sure to use File > Update Official Decisions. All Official Decisions are recorded in the Audit Trail.

Official Decisions can be saved by Product, Functional Area, or All Products and Areas. What decisions you send depends on how your company is organized.

Communication between managers is essential; if one manager makes decisions for a specific product, other managers could overwrite those decisions if they upload by Functional Area or All Decisions.

Product decisions require funding, so Finance decisions should be made after all product decisions are complete. The website’s Decision Audit lists all decision changes.

	Keep the box unchecked if you are going to continue to make decisions.
	You have the option of checking the box if your decisions are done. If you change your mind, simply save again and do not check the box.

As an optional measure, you can tell your instructor that you feel the round's decisions are final. Doing so will not lock you out if you change your mind, you will be able to fine tune your decisions up until the round is processed.

You do not have to check the box. When the round advances, the last set of decisions saved to the website will be used.

Before checking the box, confirm with all teammates that their decisions are final.

Working Together From Different Locations

If you are working together via a conference call or instant message, you can easily share decisions with others in your group. Simply use File > Update Official Decisions then ask the group to go to the Undo menu item and select Undo to Official Decisions.

When the screen refreshes, your decisions will display for everyone.

Product Manager

Product Managers live and breathe for their assigned product— it is their baby. They must ensure their product meets the demands of the intended segment by asking:

• In R&D, is the product positioned correctly on the Perceptual Map?
• Is the Age correct?
• In Marketing, is the Price within the segment's expected range?
• Considering the expected demand for the segment and the number of competing products, is the Sales Forecast appropriate?
• In Production, is the schedule matching the Sales Forecast?
• Has the schedule been adjusted to reflect unsold inventory?
• Does the product have sufficient Capacity to meet current and future demand?

Product Managers concentrate on the specifics of their product, and how it relates to the segment. While they want their product to be supported to the greatest extent possible, they are not directly involved in Promotion and Sales decisions.

Segment Manager

Segment Managers are strategists. Their job is to answer these questions:

• Will new products enter or leave the segment this year?
• Is there too much production capacity in the segment (could lead to price competition)?
• Is there too little production capacity in the segment (could lead to a margin opportunity)?
• How does the company's distribution system (Sales Budget and Accessibility chart on each Courier Segment Analysis) compare with competitors?
• What is the margin potential of this segment?
• What should be done to gain competitive advantage for the segment?
• What will competitors do next year in this segment? In two years?

Segment Managers have more freedom than Product Managers to make strategy and policy recommendations. For example, if they observe a capacity shortage developing, a Product Manager will request more capacity, but a Segment Manager might recommend bringing in a second product to serve the segment. A Product Manager would never suggest "killing" their product, but a Segment Manager might conclude that the segment should be abandoned. The Segment Manager might then recommend:

• A rapid retreat from the segment;
• A phased withdrawal from the segment; or
• A hedging strategy where most of the assets are recovered (selling a portion of the Capacity), but the product is kept in the segment as a contingency.

Segment Managers present recommendations to a panel (teammates) that sets overall company strategy.

Functional Manager

A Functional Manager's job is to optimize the efficiency of the assigned function and to coordinate strategy across functional boundaries. Functional Managers assume responsibility for an entire department:

• Research & Development (R&D)
• Marketing
• Production
• Finance

Functional Managers are the authority for all rules that apply to their area.

Efficiency Concerns

R&D Managers should monitor project completion dates. Since the rules require that projects can only begin on January 1, projects that did not finish last year "lock out" a new project for that product this year.

Marketing Managers should monitor promotion and sales budgets. As these budgets increase, they experience diminishing returns. Price drives product margins, but Marketing Managers must be sure it is appropriate for the intended segment.

Production Managers should monitor inventory levels, plant utilization and overtime. These factors vary with automation levels. For example, running a second shift for a product automated to 10.0 (the upper limit) is different than for an automation level of 1.0.

Finance Managers should monitor cash positions, and, more broadly, the capital structure of the firm. Does the capital structure support the performance measures selected by the team? Is sufficient working capital on hand to weather a sudden surge in inventory?

Competitive Intelligence Officer

The Competitive Intelligence Officer's task is to see the market, and especially their company, through the eyes of the competitor. They study the Courier and answer these questions for their company:

• What segments matter most to them?
• What are they doing to achieve competitive advantage?
• What will they do with their product line next year? In two years?
• Is our company a threat to the competition?
• What could the competition do that is not in our company's interest?
• How can our company influence the competition to do what we want?

Each round, Competitive Intelligence Officers present a Competitive strategy in the form of, "If I were them, I would...." They should then recommend tactics designed to counter or neutralize their moves.

Coordination Concerns

R&D Managers

R&D Managers can explain the relationship between:

• Age and positioning
• Positioning and material cost
• MTBF and material cost
• Automation and project length
• Number of projects and completion times

R&D Managers coordinate with:

• Marketing when products are repositioned or introduced;
• Production when new products are invented;
• Finance over their budget.

Marketing Managers

Marketing Managers can explain the relationships between:

• Price and contribution margin
• Price and demand
• Promotion budget and awareness
• Sales budget and accessibility
• A/R policy and demand

Marketing Managers coordinate with:

• R&D when products are launched or repositioned;
• Production in their unit sales forecast and contribution margin; and
• Finance with sales projections and their budget.

Production Managers

Production Managers can explain the relationships between:

• Inventory levels and carrying costs
• Carrying costs and opportunity costs (not having inventory to sell)
• Capacity and second shift
• Automation and labor costs
• Second shift and labor costs
• Idle plant costs
• Consequences of buying/selling capacity or increasing automation

Production Managers coordinate with:

• R&D about new product introduction and material costs;
• Marketing about demand, scheduling, and inventory;
• Finance about plant and equipment changes, inventory levels, and contribution margins.

Finance Managers

Finance Managers can explain the relationships between:

• Stock retirement and capital structure
• Working capital and inventory
• Dividend policy and stock price
• Emergency loans and cash
• Current debt and short-term interest rates
• Bond issue and prepayment
• All financial performance measures

Finance Managers coordinate with:

• R&D over budgets and product introductions;
• Marketing about sales projections, margins, and marketing budgets;
• Production about margins, plant and equipment changes and inventory levels.

Tactical Mistakes

In all cases, when the team makes a tactical blunder, at least two functional managers are responsible. Here are some common mistakes:

• The company invents a product but forgets to buy plant and equipment for it (R&D and Production breakdown).
• The company takes an emergency loan because inventory levels increase (Marketing, Production and Finance breakdown).
• The company selects performance measures inconsistent with their strategy. For example, a "niche" company chooses to be measured by overall market share (Marketing and Finance breakdown).
• The company repositions a product from the High End segment to the Traditional segment, but does not address their material and labor costs (Marketing, R&D, and Production breakdown).
• The Finance Manager makes decisions before knowing the budget demands of all R&D, Marketing and Production decisions (Finance breakdown).