What is the Business Strategy Game All About

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What is the Business Strategy Game All About?

• To give you practice at formulating strategy and
  implementing strategy
• To enable you to apply much of what youve
  learned in this course and the College of
  Business and Economics
• To demonstrate your ability to build consistent
  and effective strategy at the corporate level,
  the business level, and the functional level.

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Corporate-Level Strategy Decisions

• Global or multi-domestic or transnational
  strategy
• Which international markets?
• Do you want to produce in one plant and ship to
  international markets? or, have plants in each
  international market?
• What type of shoes will you produce at which
  plants? Why?

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Business-Level Strategy Decisions

• Low cost or differentiation or integrated?
• Do you want to compete as the low cost provider?
• Do you want to compete as a differentiator?
• If so, how will you differentiate your shoes?
  quality? service? image/advertising?
• Or attempt both?
• broad or focused scope

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Functional-Level Strategy Decisions

• What are the marketing, manufacturing, human
  resource, and financial decisions that support
  your business-level strategy?

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An Example

• Example If you choose the business-level
  strategy of differentiation on quality
• What percentage of long-wear materials should go
  in the shoes?
• What is the level of advertising that supports
  the strategy?
• How much should the company spend on methods
  improvements?
• How much should the company pay workers for
  incentive pay?
• What level of investment should the company plan
  for to support this strategy?
• Should mega-stores be used? If so, how many?

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Key Issues

• You must input realistic what if numbers in the
  game for the projections of profit, ROI, and
  cashflow at the bottom of the screen to be even
  close to reality.
• Your actual profit, ROI, and cashflow numbers
  will depend on what other companies do. That is,
  the numbers on the bottom of the screen when you
  make your decisions will be different from the
  actual results.

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So, how does this all work?

• There will be 2 practice simulations (Years 11
  and 12) so you can learn the game
• You will devise a strategic plan outline for the
  practice session and a complete strategic plan
  for the real competition.
• The real game will then begin. We will start
  all over at Year 11 and make 5
• decisions.

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Your team will make decisions on the following
decision screens, including

• Production and Labor
• Plant Upgrades and Capacity Additions
• Shipping and Warehouse
• private-label marketing
• Branded marketing
• Bids for Celebrities
• Finance cash flow

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You will NOT use the following screens

• Plant purchase/Sale (though you may close a
  plant)
• Internet Marketing
• These screens may be open to you as the game
  progresses.

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After every decision, you must turn in

• Completed Projections Form from previous year
• Projections Form for current years decisions
• Decision Disk
• Copy of the Minutes of your Weekly Management
  Meeting (s).

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• Your decision is due 30 MINUTES BEFORE CLASS
  ENDS.
• The disks will be processed and return to you by
  the end of class.
• You can then use the disk to print off the
  reports about your companys performance in the
  industry

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After the processing....

• You should print out and analyze your companys
  performance. Use all of the reports provided,
  including
• Footwear Industry Reports
• Competitor Analysis Reports
• Company Reports of Current-Year Results
• Benchmarking Report

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Every team member will need their own copies of
the Footwear Industry Report and Company Reports
for every year. (Warning they cannot be
re-created at the end of the game.)
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After the final year of decisions, every team
will be required to write and present an analysis
of the industry, their companys strategy,
operations, and performance to the Board of
Directors (your classmates). Your objective is
to persuade the board to retain you as a top
manager of the company. The analysis and
presentation are due over the final two weeks of
the course.
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Hints About the Game

• Price is the most important competitive factor
• Make your strategic decisions up front and act on
  them IMMEDIATELY!
• Act aggressively. Implement your strategy
  immediately.
• Those teams that dilly-dally and implement
  their strategy timidly, typically have a hard
  time catching up.
• Stick to your Strategic Plan, however, be ready
  to adjust your strategies as the level industry
  competition evolves.
• Attend and actively participate in all management
  meetings.

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• This is a sophisticated game, so you will not
  understand it very well at the beginning!
• Most teams that do well have done a significant
  amount of analysis of the previous years results
  BEFORE they come to class
• Those who understand the game earlier, do better
  and have more FUN!
• If you are having problems getting the team to
  work together, see me as soon as possible!

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QUESTIONS?