Developing Core Business Management Skills Using Simulation and Competition

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Developing Core Business Management Skills
Using Simulation and Competition
www.prospercomp.co.uk
Prosper in HE
Putting Theory into Practice
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Navigation

• Navigate through the presentation by using -
• buttons for movement to
  specific points
• buttons for self-paced
  demonstrations of topics
• The mouse, and not the keyboard,
  should be used at all times.

Demo
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Introduction
TELL ME, and I will forget, SHOW ME, and I
may remember INVOLVE ME, and I will
understand (Confucius 450 BC)

• One of the best ways to involve students is
  through the use of simulations, which fall into a
  learning category that is sometimes called
  discovery or problem-based learning.
• Simulations have a number of key elements -
• They mimic processes that occur in the real
  world
• They require problem-solving and decision-making
  skills
• They allow for self-evaluation and reflection
• Delivering simulations through the use of a
  competition -
• Enhances the student learning experience
• Motivates students to learn
• Adds quality and interest to undergraduate and
  postgraduate courses
• Encourages teamwork

Main
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Main Menu
Overview Of Prosper
Setting Up A Competition
Assessing Performance
Quit
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What Is Prosper ?
Overview Of Prosper

• Prosper is a unique training vehicle that
  utilises a sophisticated computer simulation to
  develop the core skills needed to run any modern
  business, including -
• Commercial awareness
• Problem-solving
• Decision-making
• Teamworking and leadership
• To enhance and stimulate the learning environment
  Prosper is delivered through a Business
  Management Competition.
• Participating teams are given the challenge of
  managing their own fictional business in a
  competitive and dynamic environment reflective of
  the 'real world', with their performance being
  benchmarked against each other through an on-line
  league table.

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The Task
Overview Of Prosper

• The company has already been operating for one
  year, and the management team must continue
  running the company for the foreseeable future,
  known as the Early Years, making critical
  decisions that affect the key functions of the
  business -
• Finance
• Marketing
• Overheads
• Procurement
• Personnel
• Operating the core business
• The decisions are made for a period, which
  represents one quarter, or three trading months.
• The company's performance is not only governed by
  the effectiveness of their own decisions, but
  also by local and global market forces, and
  random unforeseen events that can happen in the
  'real world.

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Key Features
Overview Of Prosper

• Prosper introduces many of the key concepts and
  problems faced in running a modern business
  today, such as -
• The importance of forming a company strategy
• The need for effective teamwork and
  communication skills
• Measuring company performance through KPIs
• Responding to local and global random events
  that can occur
• Controlling the company's finances, and looking
  after shareholder interests
• Managing the companys overheads effectively
• The importance of marketing
• Competitive tendering
• Personal management, and picking the right
  people for the job
• Operating the core business profitably

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Benefits
Overview Of Prosper

• Prosper is essentially a practical, hands-on
  distance-learning training tool, and the emphasis
  is on the participants to -
• Organise themselves
• Learn how to play
• Work as a team to make effective decisions
• The benefits from a tutors perspective are -
• A competition is easy to setup
• It requires minimal internal administration
• Progress of the teams can be monitored on-line
• Its an effective way of motivating students to
  learn
• Assessment can be easily incorporated
• And from a students perspective -
• It develops a greater understanding of the
  problems and decisions that are involved in
  running a modern business
• It raises commercial awareness
• It develops teamworking and leadership qualities
• It enhances problem-solving and decision-making
  skills
• It improves communication and IT skills
• Its an enjoyable way of learning !

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SetUp Tasks
Setting Up A Competition

• Running a Prosper competition requires very
  little work from the organisers, apart from -
• Deciding who is to take part
• Deciding upon the number of weeks to allow for
  trialling (normally a minimum of 3)
• Deciding upon the competition timeframe
  (normally 8 rounds)
• Deciding upon the timetable for entering
  decisions (normally 1 round per week)
• Giving the participants a briefing session about
  what the competition involves
• Splitting the players into teams (normally a
  minimum of 3 people per team)
• From this point onwards the participants interact
  directly with the Game Controller by -
• Choosing a team name, and selecting a team
  leader
• Sending the Game Controller the team details
• Obtaining further details from the Game
  Controller to get started
• Downloading and installing the latest Prosper
  software from the website
• Taking part in the competition
• The organisers will be able to monitor the
  progress of the teams by -
• Using an on-line league table
• Communicating directly with the teams (tutorials
  etc)

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Getting Started
Setting Up A Competition

• The Software
• The Team Module software is used to -
• Enter decisions for each period relating to the
  key managerial functions
• Obtain information that enables effective
  decisions to be made
• Measure the performance of the company against
  key performance indicators

• Learning How To Play
• To learn how to manage the company there is -
• A comprehensive slideshow tutorial
• Interactive help
• Opportunity to trial the software
• Feedback provided each round

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Trialling
Setting Up A Competition
For teams to manage their company as effectively
as possible, they need to spend time learning how
to use the simulation. To achieve this there is
the opportunity to 'trial' the software prior to
the start of a competition, using trial data that
comes with the software. Past experience has
shown that 'trialling' is the real key to success
in playing Prosper, and can make all the
difference between starting a competition well,
or no so well. Below is a diagram outlining the
trial process.
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Deciding Who Wins
Setting Up A Competition
Key performance indicators are used to measure
the progress of each company. The indicators are
all weighted at the start of the early years to
reflect their variability, and initially sum to
1000. Each companys progress against the other
competing teams is based upon the total of the
performance indicators using the Prosper League
Table, which is displayed on the website at the
end of each round.
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Prizes Cost
Setting Up A Competition
Costs The cost of taking part is priced per team,
and is available on request. If a large number
of teams are involved a lump sum price can be
arranged. Prizes The organisers may decide to
offer prizes for the winning team, runners-up
etc. This should increase the competition amongst
the teams, and enhance the learning environment.
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Methods
Assessing Perfromance
There are a number of ways in which the
performance of a team can be assessed at the end
of a competition. Final Postion/Score Performance
can be measured by a teams final position in
the competition, and their score relative to the
starting point of 1,000 points. Although this is
not guaranteed to indicate the level of
understanding a team has acquired, it is a useful
benchmark. Business Performance Report An
effective way of guaging how well a team have
understood the concepts of managing their company
is to ask them to provide a written report at the
end of the game based upon their company
performance and strategy. The next slide
outlines a suggested reporting structure that
could be adopted. Presentation The team could be
asked to make a short slideshow presentation of
their companys performance to a panel of
stakeholders e.g., lecturer, invited guests,
other teams etc.
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Business Performance Report
Assessing Perfromance

• Having played a Prosper competition each team
  could be asked to produce a Business Performance
  Report.
• This would not only develop report writing
  skills, but also provide a measure of how well
  the management team understood how to run the
  various functions of the business, identify any
  problems encountered, and highlight lessons
  learnt.
• The report may be group marked, and based upon
  the following sections -
• Executive Summary
• Company Strategy
• Financial Management
• Overhead Management
• Procurement
• Managing The Core Business
• Teamworking
• More information about the content of these
  sections is available upon request.

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Presentation
Assessing Perfromance
Having played a Prosper competition each team
could be asked to give a presentation to
stakeholders, and the other teams, about the
performance of the company whilst they were in
charge. This would not only develop presentation
skills, but also provide a measure of how well
the management team understood the key business
indicators, and identify any problems encountered
along the way. At the end of the presentation,
which may be limited to 5 minutes, there could be
a question and answer session with the
stakeholders and other teams. This would put the
presenters under added pressure, reminiscent to
what might in the real world.