...Simulation MBA Capstone Tasks: Best Practices If you are in the MBA Capstone course, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. These best practices are designed to help make the stretch of your educational journey as smooth as possible. A mindset of excellence Your MBA Capstone tasks should reflect your highest quality work; your current state of excellence. The standards are high for the capstone tasks. Doing just enough to get by or good enough will result in re-work and re-submissions. The best practice is to strive for excellence. Read for understanding Read the course of study, task instructions, and task rubrics. Seek clarification on any points that might be subject to multiple interpretations. Do not assume; know. The best practice is to be prepared by reading for understanding. Capsim Simulation The designation of MBA indicates the ability to lead and manage both vertically and horizontally across an organization. It is the ability to maximize organizational success by understanding the organization as a system of integrated and interdependent parts. Successful completion of assessments in your MBA courses signals that you know the theories and competencies; the simulation is an opportunity to demonstrate and apply your skills. The best practices are listed below. 1. Read the Team Member Guide; understand your role and the roles of other team members. 2. Complete the Capsim pre-work. 3. Understand the simulation is challenging, time intensive...
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...BUSINESS SIMULATIONS E X A M I N AT I O N USA & Canada 877.477.8787 Outside USA & Canada +1.312.477.7200 WWW.CAPSIM.COM Welcome to Comp-XM Your Registration Number If your instructor or school did not give you a Registration Number, you will need to register online using a credit card or checking account. Welcome to Comp-XM® an integrated evaluation tool that will allow , you to demonstrate your business skills. Comp-XM has two sections: 1. A business simulation similar to the one you just completed and 2. A series of quizzes, called Board Queries, that ask questions related to your simulation environment. The Simulation Round 1 Board Queries Board Queries are web-based quizzes that relate directly to the results of your simulation. As CEO, you will report to the Board of Directors. The Board FRXOG DVN XS WR ÀYH VHWV RI TXHVWLRQV %RDUG 4XHULHV that are based on the results of your previous rounds. )RU H[DPSOH WKH ERDUG PLJKW UHTXLUH \RX WR FRQGXFW a break-even analysis on an increase in production automation or calculate the effect additional ERUURZLQJ ZLOO KDYH RQ \RXU ÀQDQFLDO UDWLRV 7KH questions use standard true-false, multiple choice and essay formats. All the information needed to answer the queries appears within the pages of The Comp-XM Inquirer, an industry newsletter similar to The Capstone® &RXULHU RU 7KH )RXQGDWLRQ® )DVW7UDFN ,Q &RPS;0 you work as an individual, which means all success will be attributed to your efforts. This is your chance...
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...General strategy: Be aggressive as it’s a zero-sum game. I think the first pitfall comes from teams who listen to the professor and treat it as a friendly competition, or take the advice to be a quality niche player. It’s possible to take over the market and grab every segment, which has the benefit of choking revenue from other companies while making yours look better. Since you’re trying to be first, your scorecard will establish the class curve and automatically give your team an A. Yes, for probably the only opportunity you will have in college, you receive an A by lowering the grades of your fellow classmates. Enjoy the ride. Round 1: Borrow long term debt to the hilt, and issue max stock and you should have around $56 million to play with. You’ll zoom ahead of your classmates as they’re too timid to fully commit and go all-in. College students in their early twenties have this misconception that low debt is a good thing, probably because they’ve been traumatized by student loans. Companies use debt for positive things such as growth and plant investment, similar to homeowners who take on a mortgage or take out equity on their home; it shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing. Before starting your practice rounds, read your capstone student guide a couple times to familiarize yourself with the game. It’s a desperate situation when you try to intuit or “feel” your way through the game. We had a few teams who didn’t do the research and lost their shirts. Remember what it felt...
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...CapSim Demonstration Notes 1. Save MS Excel file from “Getting Started” or work directly online 2. Login to the Excel file using login created during registration a. File, Save (different save options) i. Save “directly to the website” ii. Save “All Team Decisions” to save everything b. Undo i. “To last save” means: ii. “To start of round” means: c. Decisions: i. R&D 1. Performance: Should be within the fine cut, to appeal to customers, should be near the ideal spot. 2. Size: Should be within the fine cut, to appeal to customers, should be near the ideal spot. a. Positioning Reminder: Just beyond fine cut, appeal drops 1%; ½ way between fine and rough cut appeal drops 50%; Just inside rough cut, appeal drops 99%. b. When you revise, you can see where the new and old products are on the Perceptual Map. c. Time for revisions: The length of time required to revise a sensor (change positioning) varies. Slight revisions complete in 3-4 months; more extensive changes are most of a year. Reported under Revision Date. When you have more than one product under revision, the overall revision time lengthens. Pay attention to this…you probably do not want to lock up a product for more than a year because they won’t sell while under revision. d. Cost of Revisions: R&D revision costs are driven by the time it takes for them to complete—a 6-month project costs $500K a 12-month...
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...BUSINESS SIMULATIONS USA & Canada 877.477.8787 Outside USA & Canada +1.312.477.7200 WWW.CAPSIM.COM The Course Road Map Registration Getting Started Login with your User ID and Password at capsim.com. Click on Capstone. Go to Getting Started and follow the steps that include: » Reviewing the Rehearsal Tutorial » Opening the Capstone Spreadsheet » Forming your company Practice Rounds (if applicable) Competition Rounds When the Competition begins, your decisions count! Additional tasks could include: » Optional Homework Assignments » Peer Evaluations See your Dashboard for complete information. (if applicable) Go to capsim.com/register, follow the onscreen instructions and register into your Industry.* Create your User ID and Password. *Your instructor may have given you an Industry ID Number. If not, you can locate your industry by using your school name/campus and either the course section number, start date or your instructor’s initials. Most instructors include team Practice rounds. When the Practice is over, the simulation will restart from the beginning, using the unique model selected by your instructor. Your instructor might include a Comp-XM exam. Go to the Course Page and choose Comp-XM. Follow the instructions on the Dashboard which include: » Decision making using the Comp-XM Spreadsheet » Board Queries (quizzes) Table of Contents 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 introduction .................................................................
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...Chester Group: Capstone Strategic Plan I. The Environment The business environment in the simulation is unique because everybody starts at the same place. Every team or “company” has a product in each of the five market segments with the same market share. For the purposes of this simulation, Chester has chosen a business-level strategy as a differentiator with a high-tech focus. Our team has chosen this strategy to take advantage of the high tech markets and the customers who desire higher performing products. In the rehearsal simulation, our team focused on products in the traditional, high-end, and performance segments. We believe the other companies competing in the simulation are going to choose varying strategies so it would be best to choose one that we feel fairly comfortable with. A differentiation strategy with a high-tech focus could be a competitive advantage in a market where other companies are utilizing a low-cost or low-end product focus. Likewise, it could be a liability in a market where other companies are trying a similar focus. From week to week, we will be able to view the results of the other groups. By critically examining their results, we should be able to relatively determine what business strategies these teams are trying to capitalize on. If it becomes clear that another company is directly competing with us on a high-tech differentiation strategy, we can adjust the prices, sizes, and mean times between failures of our products accordingly...
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...that the company should be judged on its ability to make a profit, gain market share, provide positive ROA and make money for our shareholders with an increasing stock price. Our target was a stock price of $38 by year 6, with an increase in profit and ROA year-over-year. The complete Strategy Statement is attached as Appendix A. 2. A description of the strategic decisions made over time The team decided to focus primarily on Low-End and Traditional products because the majority of the market demand was in these two categories. We believed that if we could maintain a prominent presence in these two sectors we would be able to be successful. In order to gain a larger market share we moved products from the Performance and Size segments into Low End and Traditional, thereby doubling our presence within these markets. It was our belief that these products would then be cheaper to maintain from an R&D standpoint and have more potential to sell since market demand was so great between these two products. While High End, Performance, and Size were growing at a faster rate (Appendix B, Exhibit 1), they were not growing fast enough to surpass Low End or Traditional (Appendix B, Exhibit 2). In order to forecast where the product placement would be year over year, we built a spreadsheet that provided product forecasts through all six...
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...® EXAMINATION GUIDE ® Capsim Management Simulations, Inc. Welcome to Comp-XM Your Registration Number If your instructor or school did not give you a Registration Number, you will need to register online using a credit card or checking account. Welcome to Comp-XM® an integrated evaluation tool that will allow , you to demonstrate your business skills. Comp-XM has two sections: 1. A business simulation similar to the one you just completed and 2. A series of quizzes, called Board Queries, that ask questions related to your simulation environment. The Simulation Round 1 Board Queries Board Queries are web-based quizzes that relate directly to the results of your simulation. As CEO, you will report to the Board of Directors. The Board FRXOG DVN XS WR ÀYH VHWV RI TXHVWLRQV %RDUG 4XHULHV that are based on the results of your previous rounds. )RU H[DPSOH WKH ERDUG PLJKW UHTXLUH \RX WR FRQGXFW a break-even analysis on an increase in production automation or calculate the effect additional ERUURZLQJ ZLOO KDYH RQ \RXU ÀQDQFLDO UDWLRV 7KH questions use standard true-false, multiple choice and essay formats. All the information needed to answer the queries appears within the pages of The Comp-XM Inquirer, an industry newsletter similar to The Capstone® &RXULHU RU 7KH )RXQGDWLRQ® )DVW7UDFN ,Q &RPS;0 you work as an individual, which means all success will be attributed to your efforts. This is your chance to show your strategic vision, tactical abilities and business...
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...------------------------------------------------- BA 411 Simulation Analysis Report ------------------------------------------------- C61585 ANDREWS AUTHOR Yizhe Xu As a broad differentiator in the industry, Andrews made total of 116,981 thousands net income during the past 8 years and had market share of 17.33% at the end, which is higher then that of industry average --16.67%. 1A broad differentiator strategy maintains a presence in every segment of the market. Under this strategy, Andrews tried to gain a competitive advantage by distinguishing the products with an excellent design, high awareness and easy accessibility. 1In order to take advantage of the strategy, Andrews need to develop the R&D frequently and keep face with the market. “1Premium products for the industry” is the mission statement of the company. Although Andrews had a decent performance within these years, there are three key functional areas that company need to improve -- R&D, production and finance. Andrews had a decline of market share from 2014 to 2016 while its main competitors had a rapidly market share increase of 4% in that period. Andrews’ market share decreased from 16.67% to 13.97% in three years, which made it much harder for the company to expand later on. The decrease of the market share for this period was mainly because the relatively late start of the R&D improvement. For instance, the units sold in traditional segment for Andrews in 2015 is 1,070, 11.8% of the total...
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...Andrews Corporation | Performance Assessment & Competitive Strategy Evaluation | Practice Rounds | Table of Contents I. Performance Assessment 3 1. Marketing 3 1.1. Awareness and Accessibility 3 1.2. Product Attributes 4 1.3. Customer Survey Scores 5 2. Production / HR 6 2.1. Analysis 6 2.2. Productivity Improvements 8 3. Finance 9 4. Balanced Scorecard 9 II. Competitive Strategy Evaluation 11 1. Strategy and Competencies 11 2. Specific Decisions 12 3. Competitive Advantage 13 I. Performance Assessment (Desiree) 1. Marketing 1.1. Awareness and Accessibility Andrews’ marketing efforts can and should be improved in the formal simulation. We understand that in order to gain market share, we must ensure customers are aware of our products and can easily purchase them. We intend to invest more in marketing in the early rounds of the simulation to maximize awareness and accessibility in order to spend less in subsequent rounds to maintain adequate levels. We intend to achieve a minimum of 80% awareness by round 4 for all of our primary products, though we will likely continue on a similar course with regard to accessibility. Unfortunately, due to what we believe to be an unexplained glitch in the system, our awareness dollars seemed to be wasted on our new products. The primary evidence of this lies with Apex, a new product introduced in practice round 2. Apex started with 25% awareness as a new product in round 2. We invested...
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...Andrews Corporation | Performance Assessment & Competitive Strategy Evaluation | Practice Rounds | Table of Contents I. Performance Assessment 3 1. Marketing 3 1.1. Awareness and Accessibility 3 1.2. Product Attributes 4 1.3. Customer Survey Scores 5 2. Production / HR 6 2.1. Analysis 6 2.2. Productivity Improvements 8 3. Finance 9 4. Balanced Scorecard 9 II. Competitive Strategy Evaluation 11 1. Strategy and Competencies 11 2. Specific Decisions 12 3. Competitive Advantage 13 I. Performance Assessment (Desiree) 1. Marketing 1.1. Awareness and Accessibility Andrews’ marketing efforts can and should be improved in the formal simulation. We understand that in order to gain market share, we must ensure customers are aware of our products and can easily purchase them. We intend to invest more in marketing in the early rounds of the simulation to maximize awareness and accessibility in order to spend less in subsequent rounds to maintain adequate levels. We intend to achieve a minimum of 80% awareness by round 4 for all of our primary products, though we will likely continue on a similar course with regard to accessibility. Unfortunately, due to what we believe to be an unexplained glitch in the system, our awareness dollars seemed to be wasted on our new products. The primary evidence of this lies with Apex, a new product introduced in practice round 2. Apex started with 25% awareness as a new product in round 2. We invested...
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...Foundation Simulation Final Report MANA 4322 – Organizational Strategy Example 2015 Annual Report Sensors, Inc.’s Mission Statement: The Mission of Sensors, Inc. is to provide high quality sensors to the electronic sensor industry for distribution world wide. Sensors will produce a variety of sensors in both the High and Low Tech markets using established market specific R&D methods and price them competitively within this highly competitive market. Sensors is committed to producing products that have excellent designs and quality attributes. Original Strategy: At the outset of incorporation, Sensors, Inc.’s management decided that it would concentrate on a strategy of being a Cost Leader with Product Lifecycle Focus. In this strategy, we will focus on keeping our R&D, production and material costs low and compete with the other companies in our industry on the basis of cost. We will introduce new products into the High Tech market every other year or so and allow them to move through the perceptual map into the Low Tech market and then eventually become obsolete. We will measure our performance in terms of Stock Price, ROE and ROS. Environmental Analysis: Electronic sensors are used in a wide variety of industries and applications and are in constant need of modifications to meet customer demands. The customers usually like to purchase smaller sensors with higher performance, especially so in the High Tech Market. In the Low Tech Market, larger...
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...Foundation Simulation Final Report MANA 4322 – Organizational Strategy Example 2015 Annual Report Sensors, Inc.’s Mission Statement: The Mission of Sensors, Inc. is to provide high quality sensors to the electronic sensor industry for distribution world wide. Sensors will produce a variety of sensors in both the High and Low Tech markets using established market specific R&D methods and price them competitively within this highly competitive market. Sensors is committed to producing products that have excellent designs and quality attributes. Original Strategy: At the outset of incorporation, Sensors, Inc.’s management decided that it would concentrate on a strategy of being a Cost Leader with Product Lifecycle Focus. In this strategy, we will focus on keeping our R&D, production and material costs low and compete with the other companies in our industry on the basis of cost. We will introduce new products into the High Tech market every other year or so and allow them to move through the perceptual map into the Low Tech market and then eventually become obsolete. We will measure our performance in terms of Stock Price, ROE and ROS. Environmental Analysis: Electronic sensors are used in a wide variety of industries and applications and are in constant need of modifications to meet customer demands. The customers usually like to purchase smaller sensors with higher performance, especially so in the High Tech Market. In the Low Tech Market, larger, slower sensors...
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...Foundation Simulation Final Report MANA 4322 – Organizational Strategy Example 2015 Annual Report Sensors, Inc.’s Mission Statement: The Mission of Sensors, Inc. is to provide high quality sensors to the electronic sensor industry for distribution world wide. Sensors will produce a variety of sensors in both the High and Low Tech markets using established market specific R&D methods and price them competitively within this highly competitive market. Sensors is committed to producing products that have excellent designs and quality attributes. Original Strategy: At the outset of incorporation, Sensors, Inc.’s management decided that it would concentrate on a strategy of being a Cost Leader with Product Lifecycle Focus. In this strategy, we will focus on keeping our R&D, production and material costs low and compete with the other companies in our industry on the basis of cost. We will introduce new products into the High Tech market every other year or so and allow them to move through the perceptual map into the Low Tech market and then eventually become obsolete. We will measure our performance in terms of Stock Price, ROE and ROS. Environmental Analysis: Electronic sensors are used in a wide variety of industries and applications and are in constant need of modifications to meet customer demands. The customers usually like to purchase smaller sensors with higher performance, especially so in the High Tech Market. In the Low Tech Market, larger, slower sensors...
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