Simulation is a powerful yet entertaining way to learn how to compete in a fast-paced market where customers are demanding, and the competition is working hard to take away your business. Not only is it a motivational learning experience, but a transformational one as well.
Students @ SIIB, learn a subject entitled “Advanced Strategic Management” through the Capitalism simulation, students work in teams of four to five to experiment with business strategies and compete with other participants in a virtual business world filled with tactical detail. They deal with business concepts and the interplay among marketing, sales management, production, human resource, finance, accounting, and team management. Students take control of a new company and manage its operations through several decision cycles. Repeatedly, they must analyse a situation, plan a strategy to improve it, and then execute that strategy out into the future. They face great uncertainty both from the outside environment and from their own decisions. Incrementally, the students learn to skilfully adjust their strategy as they discover the nature of real-life decisions, conflicts, trade-offs, and potential outcomes. Student teams expand their operations and take on new tasks and responsibilities over 6 decision rounds representing 1.5 years of compressed time. They will evaluate the opportunity, choose a business strategy, evaluate tactical options, and make a series of decisions with Conscious Capitalism in mind. Their decisions are then weighed against the decisions of their competitors in the Marketplace simulator. Results are quickly fed back to the teams and the next round of decision-making begins. By design, the simulation requires that each quarter’s activities build upon prior content so that there is considerable opportunity to learn which actions drive performance up or down. By design, the simulation repeatedly challenges the students in cash flow planning, value creation in product design, pricing, media planning, search engine marketing, distribution, profitability analysis, production scheduling, human resource management, conscious capitalism, and strategic planning and management. The repetitive nature of the exercise works in their favour.
By design, the simulation makes competition key. The competitive excitement of the game is infectious. Winning requires that each team knows more and acts faster than the competition. Knowing that the competition is also working hard to win will catch all the players in an upward spiral of excellence. We see it all the time. Simulation is offered in Sem III, to all the three IB, AB & EE divisions’ students.