Advanced Strategy and Business Policy - Dr. Gordon Arbogast Jacksonville University

Section 1 -Introduction 3

Section 2 - Strengths & Weaknesses Analysis 6

Section 3 - Recommendation 9

Section 4 - Implementation 10
A. General Program Guide (Tutorial) 10
B. Class Structure Proposal 21
i. Syllabus Redesign 21
ii. Class Layout 24
iii. Team Set Up and Criteria 26
iv. Constraints and Conditions 27
C. Performance Evaluation 28
Section 5 - Risk Assessments, Evaluation and Control 31
Summary 33
Bibliography 34
Appendices 34

Section 1 - Introduction

In this research project, our objective is to evaluate FoundationTM for possible incorporation as part of future Management 552 "Advanced Strategy and Business Policy" classes. The appropriateness, suitability and viability of including FoundationTM in Management 552 "Advanced Strategy and Business Policy" are considered.

The company which offers products is Management Simulations, Inc. Current situation of (Management Simulations, Inc.) is as follows:
a. Current number of enrolled students = 28,000
b. Current number of universities participating = 400
c. Some of these universities include 15 overseas universities in the following countries:
Turkey, Malaysia, Australia, Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, to mention few. Total of foreign countries is around12. All the games are done in English as the international language.
d. 35% is MBA curriculum.

Foundation™ is a business simulation game where opposing teams run companies competing in the electronic sensor market. Foundation™ takes one product (sensors) and markets it to two global market segments (High-tech and Low-tech). Drawn from real-world situations, Foundation™ focuses on business planning, competitor analysis, cross-functional integration and team building. Each team will experience the impact their decisions have on the company's position and profitability. A winning position can be attributed to a team's good choices or bad tactics by the competitors. The simulation allows teams an opportunity to decide between multiple focused or differentiation strategies. All teams start with an identical position. A team name, and a product name will be provided to each team, beginning with a particular consonant, which should be used when adding new products, as your identification. This business simulation requires the input of decisions based on the information provided in performance reports from the previous year. Each round represents a year. In the Foundation™ business simulation, the increase in market share, price per share, and overall performance are based on five strategic decisions:

Research and Development
Marketing
Production
Finance, and
TQM initiative

Based on the decisions made in the five different strategies, automatic financial calculations are performed by the computer providing your company with the following financial statements for the current year:

Balance Sheet
Income Statement
Cash Flow
Ratios
Decision summary for current year

Each team can access all the teams' last year reports consisting of

Front Page including selected financial statistics
Stock Bond Market Summary
Financial Analysis
Production Analysis
Low Tech Market Segment Analysis
High Tech Market Segment Analysis
Market Share
Perceptual Map
Quality Initiative

There are several tools provided in the website (http://www.capsim.com) that can be used by the teams in order to communicate with your team through an online team conference, via e-mail to other team members or to the professor. Another excellent tool is that if the team is divided into the different strategies, each team member can upload their own decisions, review the other member's decisions, and then discuss them to reach an agreement. Every time a team member uploads a decision to , an e-mail is sent automatically to the other members of the team.

A helpful tool for the professor is his/her ability to read the team's on-line discussions.
Other tools available include, peer evaluations, tutorials, student records, personality scale, and team developer.

Section 2 - Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis toc

Our team had enrolled in the simulation system, studied the software, website, the team member's manual and had actually run the business simulation for six rounds (business years). We have identified the following strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths:

The simulations provide virtual business venture experience - without risk. Students would gain real world experience in running a company.
The simulation creates a unique emotional link to learning.
Experiential learning is the most effective form of training. Students learn best by doing
Participants become critical thinkers: It forces students to consider all aspects of decision-making and strategies.
Students reach an understanding of the importance of alignment in all functional elements of the business, and how they can best contribute to the company's overall strategic objective.
Students learn the importance of teamwork, and acquire strong team building experience.
Students learn how their decisions affect the overall strategic objective.
Allow students to apply most of the courses learned in the MBA such as Finance, Operations management, IT, Marketing, and overall, Strategies.
Flexibility: One can succeed, fail, or keep up with other firms in the simulation. One can also decide to be highly aggressive in all financial maneuvers, or stay highly passive.
An interactive business simulation: Students get the result from their business run in days, and can react to market conditions rather rapidly while they retain all the information from past "business year"
Accessibility from anywhere via the Internet - The student uploads decisions onto the web (then downloads the results after processing).
Data from each group is already sorted for the professor by industry and is processed at the push of a button.
he software is user friendly with ample software and decisional supports. A very informative, web-based tutorial program accompanies the simulation along with online help.
FoundationTM offers excellent graphical displays that are very helpful for business situational analysis.
On the average the professor will spend less than 1 hour per decision period working on the simulation. Actual processing time is only minutes but we have factored in time to review group's results and create questions, quizzes or course material.
On the Web Communication tools allowing the students to open business dialogues on-line (Chats).
Eliminates time and distance barriers to learning.
Package price is not too expensive ($39.00) see Appendix B for ordering options and details.

Weaknesses:

Organization of the simulation platform. The majority of the time spent in the game would be in deciphering the information in the various proforma financial statements and benchmarking data in the Courier. Given the proper time and effort, these sources of data offer very good information for decision-making. On average, the student would spend approximately 1.5 hours on each decision period.
As the FoundationTM simulation is rather involved, it will require more time in class to train students. The use of time in class is unavoidable upon implementation of the simulation and will require approximately 2.5 hours of class time in total over two class sessions at the beginning of the term.
The Team Member Guide accompanying the simulation software is not organized in similar fashion like that of the website, nor does it have much references to the website for further information, or execution of any simulation decisions. It is disjointed from the simulation website.
FoundationTM is limited to few strategic decisions, limiting the expansion to functional and operational strategies.
Students need to conference and form a pretty close relationship due to constant need for communication. Therefore, all members of the team must be available to communicate and participate on a weekly basis at least.
Students might tend to want to talk about the simulation run in class and it would be like companies talking about confidential information. Therefore, this might limit the students sharing and exchanging experiences and information.

Section 3 - Recommendation TOC

It is clear that this program offers more strengths (pros) than weaknesses (cons), and the merits of the program far outweighs the administrative and logistics concerns to implement this program.

Our team's overall experience and evaluation of the program has been favorable both in terms of benefiting from the features offered by the program and the learning benefits. We derived invaluable information and experiences from evaluating and trying this program.

We recommend trial implementation of this program for the most appropriate future term in Management 552 "Advanced Strategy and Business Policy" replacing the research paper, and have proposed a set of implementation plan along with class organization and performance evaluation.

Section 4 - Implementationtoc

A. General Program Guide (Tutorial):
FoundationTM business simulation sequence can best be laid out as follows for the students:
Step One:
Student Registration

Acquire software and Team Member materials. See Appendix B for details.
Receive team assignment from professor.
Follow registration instructions in Chapter One of Team Member Guide (register at http://www.capsim.com.)

Step Two:
Introductory Tutorials

Complete^®; Introduction Lesson provided in the Getting Started area.
Review the animated demonstrations of spreadsheet operations also provided on the welcome screen. The student can choose to download the animated demonstration files and review at his/her leisure. See Appendix A for details.

Step Three:
Situation Analysis

Coordinate specific assignments with each teammate for completion of the analysis exercise detailed in Chapter Four of the Team Member Guide (perceptual map market position analysis, demand analysis, margin analysis, etc.)

Step Four:
Business Plan

Review the student tutorial "How Do We Develop a Business Plan?" (located under the "How To" section of the web menu in Tutorials).
Develop your strategic plan as directed by your professor. Identify your success measurements.

Step Five:
Create 1st Year Business Decisions

Coordinate specific responsibilities with teammates. Use student software to make decisions (review Chapter Five of the Team Member Guide).
Follow instructions in Chapter One of the Team Member Guide for uploading decisions. The professor controls decision deadlines and availability of game results.

Step Six:
Analyze Results

Review the student tutorial "How to Analyze Results."
After 1st year decisions are processed by the professor, analyze results (each team assesses themselves, the competing teams, and look for opportunities).

Step Seven:
Make Subsequent Year Business Decisions

After each round of the game is processed, follow the instructions in Chapter One of the Team Member Guide for downloading new starting conditions, then repeat Step Five and Step Six for creating decisions and analyzing results. The professor decides when the game is over. We recommend to end after the seventh business simulation run.

Step Eight:
Prepare Final Debrief

As instructed by the professor, each team may be required to conduct a briefing for other classmates (acting as the Board of Directors.)
Review the "Stockholders Debrief" worksheet on the Web site in the "How To" menu section under Materials.

The best way to orient the students into the program is for the professor to actually show the class how to run the first round of simulation after Step Two (above.) The web-based tutorials take the student through each phase of decision-making and through the logistics of the decision-making screens. The web site also has a helpful "How Do I?" help menu to guide players through the simulation as questions arise during play. These helpful features allow the professor to encourage the majority of related learning to be done outside the class. For detail downloading and uploading instructions, please refer to Appendix A.

1. Research & Development Strategy:
allows students to revise products (industrial sensors) and develop new ones. Products are assigned size, performance and quality ratings. R & D efforts vary in length and cost, depending on the parameters of the project.
Research and development decisions allow each team to make the following decisions:

Performance: The performance level combined with the size determines the market positioning of the product, either in the high-tech or low-tech,
Size: The size combined with performance level determines the market positioning of the product, either high -tech or low tech.
Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) in a combination with performance and size, determines the market positioning of the product. MTBF indicates the reliability of the product(s) expressed in hours. The low-tech MTBF ranges from 14000-20000. The high-tech MTBF ranges from 17000-23000.

After entering a performance level, a size, and the MTBF, a revision date will be calculated by the program to indicate when will this product be available to the market. R&D costs associated with either redesigning an existing, or designing an entirely new product will be calculated by the program. A maximum of $1 million dollars will be charged per year against the current year's Income Statement. If the R&D costs are higher than $1 million dollars, these costs will be charged against the Income Statement the following years.
A perceptual map is provided to indicate the positioning of the team's product(s).

2. Marketing Strategy:
addresses segmentation and positioning, product development, perceptual mapping, customer purchase decision making, and the 4 P's (price, product, promotion and place).

Price: Price charged for a product this year.
Promotion Budget: Media/advertising expenditures to increase awareness on a scale from 0 to 100%.
Sales Budget: Sales Personnel and expanding the distribution network expenditures, which are measured as accessibility on a scale from 0 to 100%
Your Sales Forecast: How many units are you planning to sell during the year.
The program will provide you with the following:
Computer Predicition is the computer's prediction of unit sales for the year.
Gross Revenue Forecast is the calculation of price times unit sales.
Cost of Goods Sold is materials cost plus labor cost times unit sales.
Gross Margin Forecast is Gross Revenue Forecast minus Cost of Goods Sold.
Less Promo & Sales is Gross Margin Forecast less Promotion and Sales expenditures.

3. Production Strategy:
examines capital (automation) versus labor (overtime) tradeoffs, capacity utilization, margin analysis, asset turnover, and product introduction. The production strategy module is divided in three sections:

Schedule, which includes:
1. The unit sales forecasted by Marketing
2. Inventory on hand from units not sold last year
3. Production schedule to be decided on
4. Production after Accounts Payable.
Margins, which includes:
1. Overtime scheduled given capacity constraints.
2. Labor costs to produce a unit including overtime costs.
3. Material costs estimated to produce each unit.
4. Total unit cost, which is labor plus material costs.
5. Contribution Margin, which is defined as price - unit cost/price.
Physical Plant, which includes:
1. Current capacity available for production this year.
2. Buy/Sell Capacity allows the team to increase or decrease capacity.
3. Automation rating in a scale from 1-10. The more automation the less need for skilled workers.
4. New automation rating available next year.
5. Investment based on decisions regarding buying or selling capacity, or increase in automation.

4. Finance Strategy:
Complete^®; produces Balance Sheets, Cash Flow, and Income Statements. It examines capitalization using both stock and bond markets, and explores ratio analysis in detail. The finance module is the final module in which a team can make decisions and/or change decisions made in other modules according to financial capabilities. This module includes:

Plant Improvements
1. Total investments from the production module.
2. Sale of plant and equipment from production module.
Common Stock
1. Shares Outstanding
2. Price per share as of the day before stock price.
3. Earnings per share from last year's profits divided by last year's shares outstanding.
4. Max Issue of stocks that the board has authorized to issue for sale.
5. Issue stock being the amount of money that can be raised in the current year by selling common stock.
6. Max Retire are the stocks that are allowed by the board to be repurchased.
7. Retire stock are the stocks that is decided to be repurchased based on the maximum you can retire.
8. Dividend per share are the dividends that are decided to be paid to shareholders that year.
Current Debt includes:
1. Interest rate that will be paid on current debt.
2. Due this year is the amount that the company must pay in the current year.
3. Borrow is the amount of money your company wants to borrow for the current year.
Cash Positions includes:
1. December 31, 2000 is the cash position your company at the end of last year
2. December 31, 2001 is the cash position forecasted for the company at the end of the current year
Outstanding bond provides a summary of common stock issued and outstanding.
Long Term Debt includes:
1. Retire long term debt is the amount your company wishes to repay.
2. Issue long term debt is the amount of money your company wishes to borrow.
3. Long term interest rate on long term loans.
4. Maximum issue this year is the limit on long term debt your company can borrow.

5. TQM Initiatives Strategy:

TQM comprises Process Management Initiatives and Projected Cumulative Impacts. Some of the initiatives that management and your company has control over are:

CPI Systems, which is continuous process improvements that drives reductions in material costs.
Vendor/JIT, which is the pursue of vendor relationships and just in time inventory control systems.
Quality initiative training which produces reduction in labor costs.
Channel support systems improve distribution channels and lead to increased demand for your product.
Concurrent Engineering expenditures lead to reduced R&D cycle time.
Benchmarking initiatives reduce administration costs
Quality function deployment effort reduces R&D cycle time, increasing demand for the product.
Concurrent Engineering and 6 Sigma training reduces labor costs.
Total Initiatives is the sum of all investments on the TQM initiatives.

B. Class Structure Proposal toc

To implement the program with success, we are proposing a set of redesigned syllabus, a slightly different class layout, with suggestions on how to set up teams for the simulation program, and the constrains and conditions each team will face. Looking at the total number of classes for fall and spring a semester is limited to only 15 meeting periods. Three classes are taken up on the introduction, mid-term and final exam. Three other classes are used for the presentation of strategic audits and project presentations. This leaves enough classes to cover seven sessions of business simulations in the program.
i. Syllabus Redesign toc

Part of the implementation involves the redesign of the syllabus (See Appendix E).
A suggestion of the addition of materials, the simulation description, team requirements, grading procedures, and evaluation policy need to be incorporated into the syllabus is as follows:
Materials:

Foundation, Team Member Guide and accompanying computer diskette which contains all of the programs required to successfully operate the simulation.
Professor's Handouts including:
Strategic Audit Steps
Strategic Management Summary
Material including:
a. Tutorial
b. "Understanding your Team Development Report"

Ordering of Program Material
The cost of the materials is $39.00 per student. The materials can be provided to students in several ways including:
a. Through the bookstore, which of course will charge a markup. JU might opt for this to give the bookstore some business.
b. Through the MBA office in which they would pay when they register on-line without markup.
c. Pay directly to (MSI).
is willing to send materials before hand based on the roster. However, if the roster is composed of 30 students and sends materials for 30, and only 25 students end up the class, will only charge 25 students.

III. BUSINESS SIMULATION DESCRIPTION

Strategy may be defined as the art and science of formulating and implementing plans to achieve specific goals. As a successful manager and business leader you will be required to make intelligent decisions as you help to create and execute your organization's strategic plans. In this business simulation, we will examine the impact of your business decisions as they affect your organization's qualitative and quantitative performance. We will study the criteria for making intelligent choices from the many options available to your company and your competitors. To challenge your verbal, graphic, written, and electronic media communication skills, and to enhance your interpersonal abilities by interacting as a team in an organizational-like setting.

Can you organize a company team?
Can your team understand and use relevant information and make smart decisions?
Can you anticipate changes and prepare to avoid threats and exploit opportunities?
Can you gain a sustainable competitive advantage; can you win?

TEAM REQUIREMENTS

The members of the class will be divided into teams of 3 or 4 participants per team. The team will form a "company" that will manage a specific firm within the computer simulation program. Each team will compete against the other class teams in a multi-round sequence of business decisions. The first three rounds will be for practice purposes. After the third round, 5 more rounds will be played and grades will be based on these 5 rounds. Teams will be cross-functional with at least one finance or accounting major, and one marketing major (if possible). Team management is as important as team task accomplishment. Teamwork is an important aspect of this course. Students who, for personal or job-related reasons, are unable to work in teams are advised to consider this factor carefully before taking the course in this semester. Keep in mind that the course involves a considerable number of team meetings and that teams hold most of their meetings outside of the classroom.
In general, the probability that a team will win is dependent upon the following factors:

The ability to organize and effective team unit
The extent to which the team understands the "cause and effect" relationships in the specific business environment in which they are operating(dependent and independent variables)
The team's ability to formulate a well defined and relevant strategic plan and then execute that plan within the time-frame of the business model.

Boards' Report

Due Date

List of top management team and their roles

By the end of the third round, and at the end of the terms with presentations as the first part of the Board's Report.

Company's Vision a. Strategic Objectives
Description of the product(s) strategies
Uniqueness of the company
Distinguishable from competitors

Intended Strategies for:

Research & Development
Marketing
Production
Financial
TQM Initiatives

Comparison between emergent strategies and intended strategies
At the end of the term with presentations
Evaluation of company's internal strengths and weaknesses

Competitors' and Market Analysis

How well were inventories and stock outs controlled?

If the company got into trouble, did it make reasonable decisions to overcome the problem?

Description of reasons for strategic decisions made, and how these decisions were implemented

A statement of what was learned from the experience, what worked well, and what your team would do differently in the future

GRADING PROCEDURES

Qualitative & Quantitative Strategic Performance
A. From the Board's Report
B. Team Evaluation Form
C. Financial Performance

EVALUATION POLICY

A final letter grade will be determined by the total number of points accumulated during the term. Maximum point values are as shown below for each major evaluated item.

Business Simulation:
100 points

ii. Class Layout toc

Looking at the limited amount of time provided in class, we have come up with the following breakdown for time distribution needed in class. The initial class will need the majority of time to discuss the basic instructions covering the project. There needs to be a minimum of one hour to run a trial round in the classroom as a demonstration on the fields that students will make decisions on. It will also provide confidence to the students by demonstrating that each individual member can make decisions, change the decisions, and share the decisions, but that the decisions will be implemented after the whole team is in agreement and the final decisions are uploaded in the Internet. There needs to be a minimum of 20 minutes to thoroughly discuss the usefulness and practicality of this project. Through our own experience, this exercise will best minimize information overload, confusion, and enhances curiosity and interests in the teams to see what they can do better. This exercise is an efficiency and effectiveness enhancer: it will streamline and minimize many hurdles in the orientation of the program.

FIRST CLASS BREAK DOWN

10 minutes devoted to introduction of students in order for teams to be developed during break or after class. If there is some time left at the end of the first class, the professor might allow time class for the formation of the teams.
30 minutes should be concentrated on the actual procedures of using the software.
10 minutes should be concentrated on demonstrating the procedures on the web (www.capsim.com), such as downloading and uploading decisions, the tools provided in the website, and the conference tools.
20 minutes should include the professor's expectations from students, and explanation of performance evaluations of the teams including: the best team (top management) scenario, Board's report expectations, financial measurements, presentation requirements, and ethical (confidentiality) behavior. It must also be explained to students that there will be 7 rounds played from which the grading will begin at round 4 to 7, and that the first three rounds are for practice purposes.
15 minutes of this time should be centered around questions.

THIRD CLASS BREAKDOWN

35 minutes of class time should be devoted to team discussion that can involve the professor to clarify any questions or issues regarding the project.

SECOND, FOURTH - ELEVENTH CLASS BREAKDOWN

There will be no time needed to be devoted regarding the project in class. Students will work on the project at home during this time.

TWELTH CLASS - FOURTEENTH CLASS BREAKDOWN

Team presentation of project.

The total amount of time needed during class to adequately cover the instructions and questions regarding this project is two hours total. A suggested term schedule is provided in Appendix F.

iii. Team Setup and Criteria toc

When selecting the team it is crucial to first go around the class and ask for each member of the class to give his or her background and expertise. This can be performed by asking each class member at the beginning of the class to state his name, major and current job title. The students should be informed to team up with two other students in the class with different educational and/or work background. For example, an ideal team would be made up with students that posses a strong marketing background, finance background, and economics background.
This diversification in team selection is ideal for the project, which involves multiple facets of real world requirements in performing the project's requirements. When a team has a diverse background of members, this team will have no problem in completing the tasks set forth by this project. However, when a team is highly concentrated in one aspect of a business, be it marketing, finance, economics, or management, that team will be limited in its knowledge base to perform the tasks set forth by this project.
iv. Constraints and Conditions toc

Looking at the requirements of this project, some students may face certain constraints and conditions that could be helpful to identify before giving this project to the students. Below is a list of constraints and conditions that must be overcome by all students to have a smooth flowing process in performing the requirements of this project.

Technology is an important aspect of this project. All students should have access through home, school, or work of a computer, Internet, and Microsoft Excel.
Due to team involvement in completing this project, there should be at least one hour of out of class meeting time per group per week.

These two are the main constraints in undertaking this project. As long as these constraints can be met, the groups should not have a problem with completing the requirements set forth by this project.

C. Performance Evaluation TOC

When performing this program, each team is given a star based on five criteria. This evaluation process is one part of the overall performance of the team, but it is not the only measure to accurately judge the performance of the team. Listed below is a complete breakdown of the evaluation process needed to accurately judge the teams' performances.

Suggested parameters to evaluate the overall performance of each team:

The team's strategic performance during the full seven years of the simulation, including strategy planning, assessment and evaluation/control, and the firms positioning for the future (30%)
The firm's financial performance during the full seven years of the simulation, (30%)
Team's development evaluation (20%)
Team's presentation detailing the firm's successes and failures, and the reason/analysis behind each scenario. Suggested discussion points follows. (20%)

Total evaluation process equals 100%
When looking at the project's evaluation of team presentation discussion points the following questions should be kept in mind.

Seven-Year Summary

Were the market segments in which the company operated consistent with the its strategy?
Was the company's R&D and product positioning within market segments congruent with its strategy?
Was the company's financial strategy consistent with its overall strategy?
How successful does the company's promotion and sales force management appear to be?
How well were inventories and stock outs controlled?
How effective was the team's use of capacity and automation within the context of the company's overall strategy?
Was the company's management of human resources consistent with its strategy?
If the company got into trouble, did it make reasonable decisions to overcome the problem?
When looking at the project's positioning for the future points the following questions should be kept in mind.
If the simulation were to continue for another five years, is this company in a good position to do well in the future?
Has the management team struck a good balance between short- and long-term concerns?
Have they been thorough and realistic in identifying potential future threats and opportunities?
Have they made decisions that position the company to minimize the threats and maximize the opportunities?
Have the members of this management team shown that they have the competencies required managing this company successfully in the future?
Have the members of this management team shown that they have learned to work together to utilize the talents of each member?
When looking at the project's financial performance points the following questions should be kept in mind.
Has the financial performance of the team consistently increased or decreased?
Have the members of the team improved their financial position from the beginning of the project to the end of the project?
Have the members had to use emergency borrowing to meet the requirements in the rounds spending?
Did the team increase its cumulative profits from the fourth session to the final session of the project?
Did the team increase its overall market share in dollars from the fourth session to the final session of the project?
What was the trend analysis looking at the teams return on assets, return on equity, return on sales, and asset turnover ratios from the fourth session to the final session of the project?
What was the team's final stock price difference compared to the team's fourth session stock price?

Section 5 - Risk Assessment, Evaluation and Controltoc

The primary risk associated with implementing this program could be the professor's and students' frustrations associated with the time constraints, technology constraints, and evaluation process. The additional time the professor has to apportion for this program may take away some of the already time consuming class discussions on Strategic Audit requirements. The student's frustrations can be avoided with proper discussion and guidance during the first four meetings of class outlining the expectations from the professor and discussing the obstacles each student may encounter. During this time, any questions or concerns can be overcome as to not allowing for frustration from students to build up.

Another similar risk is associated with additional work scope making harder for the students to take on which may lead to complaints. Under this program, teamwork is very important and it is necessary for all team members to participate equally.

Usually, there is always one or two dominant person(s) who makes all the decisions, and the others just follow, or there is one or two person who is less than willing to contribute to the effort. This will reflect in the team evaluation and is important that all persons in team make decisions.

Risks
Benefits
(Additions to the Strengths Analysis)
Professor's and Student's constraints leading to frustration.
Much better fit as part of Management 552 "Advanced Strategy and Business Policy"
Additional workload leading to complaints.
The program offers excellent near real life business simulation. The students can actually practice and refining on the skills of crafting the vision, mission and strategic plans.
Unequal team participation.
Offers students a broad-spectrum of skill review and application on finance, marketing, economics, and business management.

Could be a better, structured replacement for research project.

While risks exist with the implementation of this program, the benefits and the strengths of the program far out-weighs the risks, and it is apparent that this program is worth trying as long as the following suggested control and evaluation are considered in order to implement this program smoothly.

Control

As the program is introduced, students could have two extreme reactions: Really excited about it, or really overwhelmed by the scope of the program.

The professor would need to encourage and motivate the students who are overwhelmed, while advising the enthused students to process the simulation runs within the program scope and not get too involved on details which could lead to information overload causing eventual frustration.

A careful check and balance should be heeded during each class discussions and to encourage feedbacks on the simulation runs via:

Instructions and information
Communication of what is expected
Detailing how this project compliments the rest of the class discussion & learning.

TEAMS

The members of the class will be divided into teams of 3 or 4 participants per team. The team will form a "company" that will manage a specific firm within the computer simulation program. Each team will compete against the other class teams in a multi-round sequence of business decisions. The first three rounds will be for practice purposes. After the third round, 5 more rounds will be played and grades will be based on these 5 rounds. Teams will be cross functional with at least one finance or accounting major, and one marketing major (if possible). Team management is as important as team task accomplishment. Teamwork is an important aspect of this course. Students who, for personal or job-related reasons, are unable to work in teams are advised to consider this factor carefully before taking the course in this semester. Keep in mind that the course involves a considerable number of team meetings and that teams hold most of their meetings outside of the classroom.

In general, the probability that a team will win is dependent upon the following factors

The ability to organize and effective team unit

The extent to which the team understands the "cause and effect" relationships in the specific business environment in which they are operating(dependent and independent variables)

The team's ability to formulate a well defined and relevant strategic plan and then execute that plan within the time-frame of the business model.

Boards' Report
Due Date
List of top management team and their roles
By the end of the third round, and at the end of the terms with presentations as the first part of the Board's Report.

Company's Vision a. Strategic Objectives
b. Description of the product(s) strategies
c. Uniqueness of the company
d. Distinguishable from competitors
Intended Strategies for:

Research & Development
Marketing
Production
Financial
TQM Initiatives

Comparison between emergent strategies and intended strategies At the end of the term with presentations Evaluation of company's internal strengths and weaknesses

Competitors' and Market Analysis

How well were inventories and stock outs controlled?

If the company got into trouble, did it make reasonable decisions to overcome the problem?

Description of reasons for strategic decisions made, and how these decisions were implemented

A statement of what was learned from the experience, what worked well, and what your team would do differently in the future.

Strategic Analysis For Competing Globally - Jim Chengary DePaul University >