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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 like to lose in Monopoly or Risk? Yeah, like that.

You will be at a crossroads when choosing how to invest. Either go heavy on automation, or introduce products in high end, performance, and size. It’s possible to balance things out and do both, but decide now which option you like more. Automation increases the contribution margin and thus profitability, while new products rob your

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