Executive Summary

The purpose of writing this report is to evaluate and provide sound advices to the company, Venture Simulation Ltd on its business simulation game, Sim Venture. Several recommendations will be given for future improvements based on the main business areas of the company. In recent years, the business simulation industry is growing rapidly. With outstanding product design and feature, more and more educational institutes and commercial organizations demand the business simulation to provide their students and staffs quality business and entrepreneurship learning. Since there is a potential market opportunity for the product, it is necessary to introduce a new product and implement an aggressive marketing strategy in the existing and new market in order to obtain sustainable competitive advantage for larger market shares. For scaling the venture, the owners emphasize the long lasting customer relationships to enhance the customer loyalty to the product. Effective intellectual property protection strategy must also be executed in order to prevent others from copying the simulation. Finally, several innovative strategies including effective marketing strategy, introduction of new product, penetrations of new markets are strongly recommended for better future business growth.
Table of Contents

Executive Summary
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Background of the Company 1
3. Market Opportunity 2
4. Product Attractiveness 2
5. Implementation of Innovation 3
6. Scaling the Venture 3
7. Intellectual Property Protection Strategy 4
8. SWOT Analysis 5
9. Recommendations 5
10. Conclusion 6
11. List of References 7
1. Introduction

Sim Venture business simulation game was launched by Venture Simulations Ltd, UK in 2006. The business simulation game was developed and designed by brothers Paul and Peter Harrington, founders of Venture Simulation Ltd. The company specifically commits to developing and innovating business simulation technology. Peter Harrington, one of the organization founders, was inspired by an innovative idea that the traditional approach to business learning and training should be enhanced by the application of business simulation. After few years of research, he then partnered with his brother, Paul who has more than 20 years’ experience in the software design industry, to invent a business simulation game and finally created the simulation. The business simulation is widely used in education institutions and commercial, public and voluntary sector environments in order to promote advanced learning process about the entrepreneurship and business. This report is prepared to evaluate and advise on the business. It mainly focuses on its market opportunity, product uniqueness, business innovation and business model. Strategies and recommendations will also be provided for effective venture success.

2. Background of the Company

Venture Simulation Ltd was established by brothers Paul and Peter Harrington in UK since 2006. The company had launched a business simulation game named Sim Venture. It was designed by the founders of the company to promote accelerated learning about the entrepreneurship and business. Peter Harrington has a strong entrepreneurial background whereas his brother, Paul has more than 20 years’ experience in the software design industry. By integrating their innovative ideas, they took nearly 4 years to develop the simulation. As an educational tool, the simulation is now widely used by many educational institutes and commercial sectors. Since the business simulation industry is still growing, there is potential market opportunity for the product.

3. Market Opportunity

The business simulation, Sim Venture has a great market opportunity as the industry is still considerably growing in recent years. Due to advanced information technology today, computer games and consoles can be easily found in many places. Most students have already been playing computer games since primary school. In a sense, recent college and university students will also have some experience in gaming (Jones, 2003). Current generation of students prefer to learn by practicing and are conducted as experiential learners. Therefore, the business simulation has become one of the educational tools that provide them an effective learning environment (Williams, 2011). In this respect, more and more business schools and companies emphasize the usage of business simulation game in their curriculum. As a result, this trend affords the potential market opportunity for the business simulation products.

4. Product Attractiveness

Sim Venture is a Window-based business simulation game. It requires the player to formulate a strategy and make strategic decisions in order to manage consequences in a coherent way. Decisions are to be made in all main business areas within the game such as marketing and sale, operations, finance and organization. There are several levels of difficulty in the simulation. Users can simply challenge a particular level according to their ability. Information available within the game will support the users in problem solving and help them to track the records. Besides that, Sim Venture also comes with a "save and load" function and allows the user to print a range of important reports. As an educational tool, it is essential to promote entrepreneurship education by integrating theory and practice within the game (Ruben, 1999). Unlike other online educational tools, users are allowed to access the game even when they cannot connect to the internet. Besides that, Sim Venture provides a series of unexpected events setting such as economic recession, cash-flow crisis and business growth pain to enhance the user's experience. Overall, Sim Venture as an outstanding educational product not only facilitates class learning but also delivers great value to the customers.

5. Implementation of Innovation

There are a variety of definitions of innovation based on different phenomenon. The most appropriate definition was provided by Schumpeter, 1997. He stated that firm can introduce innovation through generation of new or improved product, introduction of new processes, development of new sales and supply markets, and reorganization of the firm. Firm can increase the value of the product through innovation (Heskett, 1986). Therefore, it is suggested that the company should enforce innovation on its business simulation, Sim Venture in order to increase the product value and simultaneously gain sustainable competitive advantage. In my opinion, the company should improve its existing product and provide a free upgrade for existing customers. Some extra features can be added to the existing simulation such as online multiplayer function and save data backup on the cloud server. If necessary, the company can introduce a new product to gain more market share including inventing a premium version of the simulation. This premium version will provide more advanced options in the game such as running different types of business, expanding the business areas decisions and advanced tutor facilitating settings. Furthermore, the company should explore new markets to increase its sales revenues. It should establish an innovative strategy and focus more on the Asian countries since the business simulation is still little known in most Asian countries. On the other hand, the company should develop the simulation for other computer operating systems such as Mac OS and Linux OS. Besides that, the business simulation can be introduced in mobile phone industry. Most importantly, skilled human capital is still known as the most important factor for innovation. Hence, the company should recruit and provide them quality training for effective and successful innovation (Douglas and Piotr, 2009).

6. Scaling the Venture

The owners of the company, Peter and Paul Harrington, have put a lot of efforts into building and maintaining long term customer relationships. By establishing a business based on lasting relationships with satisfied customers, more and more customers from education institutes, commercial companies and training agencies will loyally stick to the company product. Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty will bring great benefits to the company since loyal clients are less costly to serve and require less resource intensive (Crosby, 2002). More importantly, it can generate more sales revenues and profits and hence considerably scale the business (Newell, 2000).

7. Intellectual Property Protection Strategy

As the company's core business depends heavily on the selling of business simulation, it is essential to formulate some strategies to protect the company's intellectual property (IP) such as copyright and patent. The main purpose of holding an intellectual property right is to suppress competition. In other words, it is used to prevent other competitors from offering similar product or service to the customers (William and Felix, 2013). Several approaches are recommended as below:
a) Hire a professional attorney.
b) Register intellectual property (IP) such as copyright and patent for the product.
c) Keep the ideas secretly from other competitors.
d) Keep the designs in a safe place.
e) Only contact with those people who plan the product design and development together.
f) Ensure that the design of the product does not infringe others' IP.

8. SWOT Analysis

|Strength |Weaknesses |
| | |
|1. Distinctive competences in features. | |
|2. Product innovation capabilities. |1. Only support offline gaming. |
|3. Unique business simulation knowledge. |2. Poor brand reputation. |
|4. Intimate client relationships. |3. Lack of proper marketing. |
|5. Training programs provided. | |
|Opportunities |Threat |
| | |
|1. Develop online multiplayer version. | |
|2. Target mobile phone and tablet operating system. |1. Intensive competitions. |
|3. Penetration of new market in Asia. |2. Changing customer needs and behaviors. |
|4. Integrate social networking features into the |3. Shortage of skilled software developers. |
|simulation. | |
|5. Enter into strategic alliance. | |

9. Recommendations

Several recommendations are made as below for improvements to the company:
a) Improve the existing business simulation by developing an online multiplayer version.
b) Implement aggressive marketing strategy especially in Asian countries.
c) Introduce new product (premium version) to the existing and new market.
d) Design a business simulation for mobile phone and tablet platforms (eg. IOS and Android OS).
e) Enter into strategic alliance with other gaming companies.
f) Recruit and train more skilled software developers.
g) Maintain long lasting client and agency relationships.

10. Conclusion

In conclusion, the business simulation game, Sim Venture designed by Venture Simulations Ltd has a potential market opportunity as the industry is still considerably growing. With outstanding product designs and features, the company can obtain a sustainable competitive advantage against its competitors for larger market shares. Furthermore, the company should build premium version of the simulation for existing and new markets to gain more market shares. Exploration of new markets and adequate skilled human capital will lead to better profitability. The founders, Peter and Paul Harrington focus on building long term customer relationships for substantial business growth. Moreover, the company must establish an intellectual property protection strategy to prevent competitors from offering the similar product to the clients. For now, it is suggested that the company should implement an aggressive marketing strategy to promote the business simulation in order to build internationally strong brand image.
11. List of References

Williams, Dina (2011) Impact of Business Simulation Games in Enterprise Education. In: Paper Presentations of the 2010 University of Huddersfield Annual Learning and Teaching Conference.University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, pp. 11-20

Jones, S. (2003). "Let the Games Begin: Gaming Technology and Entertainment among College Students,"Pew Internet & American Life Project

Schumpeter, J. (1997). Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung. Eine Untersuchung über Unternehmergewinn, Kapital, Kredit, Zins und Konjunkturzyklus, 9th ed., Duncker and Humblot, Berlin

Heskett, J.L. (1986). Managing in the Service Economy, Harvard Business School Press, Boston

Douglas Lippoldt and Piotr Stryszowski, 2009, Innovation in the Software Sector, OECD publications

Crosby, L.A. (2002), Exploring some myths about customer relationship management. Managing service quality, Vol.(12), pp. 271-277

Newell, F. (2000), Loyalty.com, Customer Relationship Management in the New Era of Internet Marketing, New York: McGraw-Hill

William W. Fisher and Felix Oberholzer-Gee (2013), Strategic Management of Intellectual Property, California Management Review, US

Small Business Development Corporation, Strategies to Protect Your Intellectual Property, reviewed 7 December 2013,

Sim Venture, Overview of Sim Venture, reviewed 7 December 2013,