QuestionBUS599 – MBA Integrative ProjectModule 1 – Background

The SLP for this course involves participating in a simulation exercise. Unlike cases, which are static, simulations are interactive and you can see the results of your decisions. Additionally, you can repeat the simulation to improve the quality of your decisions.

GENERAL SLP SCENARIO:

Joe Schmoe is the current VP of Marketing for Clipboard Tablet Co. He has a pricing and R&D strategy that he intends to use for the next four years: 2012 through 2015. The performance of the company is pretty lackluster and Joe gets fired on Dec. 15, 2015. You get hired to replace him as the company is about to move forward into 2016. But for some strange reason, you get caught in a Time Warp, much like the guy in the movie, “Groundhog Day.” You are doomed to repeat the last four years, 2012 through 2015, until you can improve the performance of Clipboard Tablet.

In particular, you will be looking at income statements and marketing reports and making decisions about pricing, product development (R&D expenditure), and product life cycles for a company that sells Tablet Computers.

This is a brief summary of what you will do in each SLP:

1. In this first SLP it is Dec. 15, 2015, and you are getting ready to make a Marketing strategy for 2016. But you want to review the performance of the company over the last four years, so you review the Financial and Marketing data, as well as the product data and how it stacks up against the competition. You have a great New Year’s Eve celebration thinking you are ready to move ahead.

2. In SLP2, you experience a Time Warp. You are back on January 1, 2012. You realize that you will have to go through 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, but you think you can do better than Joe Schmoe. You work your way through each year, trying to make better decisions and generate more profit and an overall better performance than your predecessor. As you do this, you keep track of your decisions, your reasoning and results, which turns into a final report that you hope will be useful as you move ahead into 2016.

3. In SLP3, the Time Warp strikes again. Once more you are at January 1, 2012. This time you decide to develop a complete strategy for all four years and use CVP analysis to help you. You analyze the results from your first Time Warp and develop another strategy, this time for all four years being predetermined.

4. In SLP4, it is the next day. You begin to implement your new strategy. You do so at the beginning of each year and time flows quickly. At the end of each year you review the results and collect the data. At the end of 2015, you note your overall performance, hoping that you will now move ahead into 2016. But once again, the Time Warp strikes and you have to do it again. This time you vow you will do it better. You analyze the results and use CVP analysis. You now have another strategy ready to go, having spent all of New Year’s day putting it together.

5. In SLP5, on January 2, 2012, you begin the same four-year journey again. You implement your strategy at the beginning of each year and get the results as time flies by. New Year’s Eve, 2015, you note your final results. How did you do? When you wake up on New Year’s Day, it is 2016. You celebrate. Then you understand that you had lessons to learn. So you decide to compare the results of this last Time Warp to the results that you got in the previous Time Warp. You will explain how the results are different and why they are different.

GET FAMILIAR WITH THE SIMULATION

Go to the simulation at Forio.com. You will see the simulation interface, which provides you with information about the Clipboard Tablet Company as well as the input interface to implement your strategy (pricing decisions and R&D budget allocations).

Explore the interface and get familiar with it and the information it provides. The menu on the left-hand side shows these options:

• Introduction – Some background about the company and its three products, and how to play the simulation.
• Financials – Provides the financial results of the current year and the previous year. Clicking on the tabs across the top will show different data for the company and for each of the three products.
• Market Info – Provides the market results of the current year and the previous year. Clicking on the tabs across the top will show different data for the company and for each of the three products.
• Make Decisions – This is where you input your pricing and product development budget (R&D%) strategy decisions.
• View Summary – This provides a summary of important information for each round (year). Here you can see your Score. An advisor will tell you how you are doing.
• Get Help – This provides additional information about the simulation and some theory that it is based on. You should click on each of these links to gain an understanding: Glossary of Financial Terms; Product Life Cycle (some theory you can use), and Feedback and Decisions. In this last link, notice the Systems Feedback connections.

Every time you open the simulation or reset it to play again, you will be at end of the year of 2011, and the data you see will show the results for 2011 and 2010 (previous year). When you run the simulation you will run it for the next four years: 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. After each year, you will always be at the end of that year and see the results for that year and the previous year.

OPTIONAL READING AND REOURCES:

Remember that in preparing the assignments for this module (as those that follow), you must demonstrate thatyou know how to use the appropriate business tools for such an analysis. This will require you to integrate learning from courses throughout the MBA program.

OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES:

Useful Internet Sites:

You may access some useful Internet and other resources relating to such matters as financial ratios and processes for measurement of organizational resources (both tangible and intangible)at http://www.investopedia.com/university/ratios/#axzz2JNe7QCr3 and http://www.sveiby.com/articles/IntangibleMethods.htm