Question

Minimum of three (3) pages, to maximum of four (4) pages, (APA format) summarizing your experience with the BSG simulation. However, cover page and abstract is not necessary. • While the list below is not comprehensive, students are expected to address these and similar characteristics:

- What were your key learnings during the BSG Simulation?

- What strategies were successful and why?

-Which were not and why not?

- What did you discover about working as a member of a management team?

- How did your team decide to organize its activities, meetings, and work?

- Did members of your team agree on your firm’s strategies? How did you handle disagreements?

- What lessons can you take from this simulation and apply to your current professional role?

Answer 1

A common approach in higher education to the delivery of business strategy courses has involved the use of case studies. Such a method can aid the development of both analytical rigor and the ability to synthesise disparate information. However, static case studies have a limited capacity to demonstrate time evolutionary behaviour. Perhaps more importantly, many academics have witnessed how students can become partially disengaged from the learning process when using case studies, as it is not possible to observe the outcomes of ones recommendations or decisions. In recognition of this, many Business Schools have sought alternative modes of teaching delivery.

The results are discussed with reference to Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. The article finishes with a summary of pedagogic lessons that emerge from the study.

A computer-based business strategy simulation game is a laboratory where experimentation with, and exploration of strategic decisions can be achieved. This is facilitated through examination of the simulation game’s time based behaviour. Such dynamics are driven by both the underlying structural design of the simulation, and any subsequent numerical modifications of its parameters. For a sufficiently complex simulation a high level of verisimilitude can be achieved.

Lane describes simulation games as a ‘learning from experience’ approach to managerial education. The high level of realism enables this type of learning to be achieved. The participants see the effects of their decisions traced out by the simulation. They can then reflect on their gaming experiences, re-conceptualise and make fresh decisions. Thus, learning is achieved through numerous iterations of decisions being played out, the consequences providing feedback. Analysis and discussion of case studies often fails to capture these dynamic aspects of strategic decision making. In effect, participants engaged in case study learning are less likely to pass through all four phases of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. Therefore, a number of authors conclude that simulations result in significantly higher efficacy on the part of students than do case studies. Parks and Lindstrom agree with the proposition that business strategy simulations can enable students to achieve higher levels of learning than case led teaching but warn that with little emphasis on strategic planning and implementation, the learning value of the simulation is probably no better than using cases.

Final year undergraduate students at Plymouth Business School are taught business strategy as a capstone subject. The mode of teaching delivery had previously followed the traditional model of formal lectures with accompanying student-led case study orientated seminars. The authors were of the opinion that case studies might have been leading students towards a view that the practice of strategy was simply mechanistic and that it could be successfully delivered through the application of a range of two-dimensional frameworks. Instead, the objective was to emphasise in the teaching the possible outcomes arising from alternative streams of strategic decisions. Simulation was proposed as an option to be considered for supporting the teaching of strategy.

After a review of various commercially available games, the simulation chosen was the BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME (BSG). This appeared to meet most requirements; it is PC based, textbook integrated, contains verisimilitude and complexity, is group based and should therefore stimulate ‘experiential learning’.

The BSG is based upon a global business engaged in the manufacture and sale of athletic footwear. Student teams (or companies) compete against each other for a predetermined pattern of market demand. An administrator is responsible for overseeing the running of the game and sets up the externalities which will shape the decision making at the company level (e.g. currency exchange rates, material prices and shipping costs). The simulation requires the input of yearly business decisions, these decisions are collectively processed on an administrator’s spreadsheet, and the game then rolls on to another year’s play. A score based on a number of performance metrics (profit, market share, capitalisation, sales volume, etc.) is determined, resulting in the teams moving up or down a league table. The BSG was run over eight weekly decision periods (simulated years).

The BSG is accompanied by fairly comprehensive playing guidelines but also has scope for a high degree of flexibility with regard to the pedagogic approach. Table 1 illustrates the approach adopted by the authors.

. One thing to change Try Strategy of High Volume Low Price provider. If executed well could of led to much higher sales as no other team members chose that strategy. - Higher EPS, ROE, Net Revenues and Net Profits

1. Do’s and Don’ts Do’s Look over all the financial & other reports in detail every round especially closest competitors. Know the demand of the market - Win Private-Label bids. After all the numbers are entered, look at the over-all again and have a separate managers meeting to fine tune and try different possibilities. Manage capacity well - focus on markets where there seems to be the most demand. Change strategies when market is saturated with same strategy.Continue with best practice methods that align with strategy Do Not .Implement similar strategies to many others in class . Run operations in-efficiently: “It’s not how much you earn but how much you keep… Buy more plant capacity than your strategy calls at a time. Presume that others won’t figure out your winning strategy .Produce in regions with lower profit margins