From One Simulation to the Next,,,

After spending a total of 15 hours cooped up in small learning team room with LT7, I can safely say, no one was killed! Better yet, I don't even think anyone plotted a murder. During StratSim, we were the Auto Execs of Firm B, Industry 2 - Buzzy (sports car), Beaut (Luxury car) and Boffo (Family car) were our initial weapons as we competed for market share against 4 other firms in our industry. We used conjoint analysis, test markets, focus groups, economic data and good intuition to forecast where the market and our competition was headed. After a few minor upgrades, our first concept, Borvette, a high-end large sports car failed miserably. We launched the car with an advertising budget of $40 million and promoted with $120 million because of a miss-stroke of a key. OOOOOPS!

We thought all was lost. Our stock price was hammered and though our core cars were carrying Borvette, we sat with 45,000 in inventory, indicating, we sold 5,000 during the initial launch. BLX, the new style of modern luxury was next in concept phase, but was delayed at the last minute and replaced with Bruis, the first car to be introduced into the rapidly growing Hybrid market. Due to logistics, BLX and Brius hit the market at the same time and Firm B stocked out of 5 of 6 cars that period - rolling the stock price up to $52. The simulation ran for two additional periods with no new decisions and though we made some good late in the game decisions, we never anticipated, 1st overall in the industry, 1st in Firm B across industries and a very pretty stock price of $131! LT7 rocked the house!!

After StratSim, we started a new simulation for Ops where we are making cell phones. We have to analyze various attributes of a cell phone, decide which ones to add to our phones, forecast demand, set up a procurement strategy and choose the companies from whom we order. Changes to orders may be made in between months for a small fine of $2 million. After each year, we receive a board review of our progress and a positive or negative vote of confidence from each of the 5 board members. My team has only completed year 1, but so far so good.

In addition, here is a video from last year's LT11 on their interpretation of StratSim.