The Business Strategy Game

The Business Strategy Game Online ™

The rationale for using a business simulation is given in the Player’s Guide as well as on the BSG web site, so I will not waste your time by repeating it. It is an excellent opportunity for you to utilize all the knowledge from your previous courses, while learning the intricacies of making “internally consistent set of decisions” that constitute your strategy of “positioning” your company / product in the context of competitive space based on assumptions / forecasts of what your competitors may do. Of course, as in real life, your competitors may not necessarily act as you predict. This creates uncertainty, in the sense your strategy of “positioning” may not work out exactly as you plan, because the competitive space itself may shift due to competitor actions. Your team then will have to figure out whether and what changes to make in the next round.

If that sounds like a daunting task, yes, it will be so in the beginning. It will require time, effort, and thinking. Plan on spending a lot of time up front, and then it will taper off. Here is a checklist of what you need to do beginning first week of class.

  1. Register: Every student in class will need to register on the Business Strategy Game Online (BSG) web site within the first two days of the semester and begin working. Students should use their Metro email account for registration purposes. You will need appropriate registration code and a credit card to purchase access to the game. (Please note that there is NO REFUND once you register on that site). Registration Codes will be made available to students when classes begin. Look for my message under the Bulletins from Dr. K topic under Discussions.All the following steps can be taken only after registration on the BSG web site.
  2. Download the Player’s Guide from the “Corporate Lobby” on the BSG web site to your disk storage (hard drive or Flash drive). The Player’s Guide in PDF format is useful because you can search it for specific terms, e.g. “plant purchase”, or “S/Q Rating” etc.
  3. Begin reading the Player’s Guide immediately , but do so in small chunks at a time. It is a lot of information, and tough to digest in one shot. I have placed a BSG PowerPoint and it is available on Blackboard Vista from the NavBar for reading (or save it to your hard drive so it’s available to you locally as you read the Player’s Guide). Try to draw your own flowcharts of how the different variables in the Athletic Shoe Industry are related, or of how you would go about making decisions. A graphical representation seems to help people. Draw a diagram of the value chain and show where decisions need to be made to achieve your competitive position in the Strategic Group Map.
  4. Check the System Requirements: Make sure you have the correct versions of Internet Explorer – IE 7 (32 bit) works best. You will need the Flash Player plug-in. Metro Computer Labs have all the needed software.
  5. Explore the BSG Web site before clicking on the “Decisions and Reports” link. There are links at the top on the BSG web site. Learn to navigate the BSG Web site (there is a link for those instructions). “Right-click” on the links to “Open in new window” so that you can simply switch from window to window for instant reference. Click on the BSG Quiz 1 and BSG Quiz 2 links to check out the sample questions for the two Quizzes that you will need to take later. Quizzes will not begin until you click on the Start Quiz link, and only during the dates when the quizzes are supposed to be available.
  6. Click on the Decisions and Reports link to start the program. The BSG web site will open the Decisions program in a new window of the browser using Flash. Video Tutorials as well as a Help page are available for every decision screen. You will need to go through all Turorials and Help pages to become intimately familiar with these screens and how to input numbers. Spending a couple of hours or more on these is absolutely essential to develop efficiency in working with these screens.
  7. Print out and study Company Operating Report (COR), Competitive Intelligence Report (CIR) and Footwear Industry Report (FIR). You will need to spend time to analyze and understand these reports. Use this information to make forecasts and begin developing your strategy. To become efficient, you will need to develop your own algorithm about how to approach the information. This is an important skill for your later success in your career.
  8. Practice making Sales Forecasts and entering Decisions on the various screens. Remember, you can practice and exit the program without saving any strange numbers you may have entered. Practice will allow you to become efficient in the “mechanics” of your decision-making.
  9. Read EVERY Help screen associated with every decision screen. The Help screens are invaluable in working with that program. I cannot emphasize their importance too much.
  10. Know the “strategy terms” used in the Player’s Guide. To check and improve on your understanding, look up those terms in the book and then read about those topics. Otherwise, you may not come across some of the terms until chapter 5 in the Textbook.
  11. IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT! Communicate and share your ideas with your Team members. [Online students: As you work on your Game, keep one browser window open for Blackboard. Use your Team Topic under Discussions to leave messages and ideas for your teammates.]
  12. Every student is expected to put in the necessary time in preparing for every round of the game, and to help the team in generating information / graphs / charts for analysis, planning and presentation of team performance.
  13. Have fun! Yes, if you have the right mind set, work can be fun.

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