GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL
REPORT
Cesim Global Challenge
Hernan Hernando Hernandez Hernandez
B00701786
Ulster University
QA Business School
Table of Contents
PART A. Group Report ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Blue team-work best management practices ………………………………………………………………………. 3
Review and Analysis of Practice Round …………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Analysis, Review and Reflection of Rounds ………………………………………………………………………… 6
Market analysis ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6
Determining demand and techs for each market ……………………………………………………………….. 7
Production planning ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 8
Determining Research & Development …………………………………………………………………………….. 9
Setting marketing plan ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10
Adjusting logistics ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10
Financial planning ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
Checking the availability of cash for paying debt …………………………………………………………….. 10
Evaluation of Strategies …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11
Blue Team Overview – A critical evaluation of the Global Simulation Challenge ……………….. 12
Blue Team Signed letter ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 13
PART B. Individual Report ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14
Round Individual reflection …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 14
Simulation Reflection ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 15
Global challenge simulation relevance ……………………………………………………………………………… 16
Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
TEAM BLUE REPORT
ACADEMIC REFLECTION
Hernan Hernandez B00701786
Yeqiong Ren B00670727
John Castrillon B00703837
Harkirat Kaur B00700776
Hector Garzon B00701415
Diana Medina B00702130
International Business Simulation
Ulster University
MSc International Business
12th May 2016
PART A. Group Report
Blue team-work best management practices
Blue team applied different team-world best practices, for each round a ‘CEO’ was selected to
be responsible for directing the team-efforts and submitting the final decisions. Time and the
schedules were the challenge that mainly every team member had to face; however, all the
deadlines were met. In order to work in synergy and give the best each team-member was
allowed to work independently and to bring different ideas which then were exchanged,
coordinated and gathered within the group. Every decision made was agreed by the whole
group led by a CEO in every round and the implementation was subsequently assessed, the
team used different methods of communication mainly technological, such as videocalls,
messages and more importantly every meeting in the classroom provided an opportunity to
share information in person and make the necessary adjustments before submitting any final
group decision.
Blue team was made up by six team members each of whom brought their own and unique
experiences resulting in a mix of skills from different and related business backgrounds in order
to make the best decisions. Figure 1 shows the skills and roles of each member of the team.
Fig 1. Management Skills Blue team
Skills Role
Diana Medina Operations Production
Harkeerat Kaur Critical thinking Research & development
Hector Garzon Logistics – networking Logistics
Hernan Hernandez Accountancy Finance
John Iver Castrillon Responsiveness-adaptability Demand
Yeqiong Ren Marketing Marketing
Soon after a round begun, Hernan would take the leadership to organize the team and delegate
specific responsibilities, nonetheless, each member of the team were selected to be the CEO
for a particular round as explained before, therefore, this strategy gave the team the
organization to make the final decisions, their particular specialism and skills brought to the
group are explained as follow:
Diana Medina: As the production manager, Diana was in charge of directing, and coordinating
the resources necessary for producing the technological products in the three different markets,
she had good communications with all the team, mainly with Hector (logistic) in order, to make
the entire decisions based on cost, quality, and quantity specifications. She shared her
knowledge with the team and helped to improve skills such, time, material resources and
financial resources management. Additionally, she brought the ability to pay attention to every
detail in order to avoid costly mistakes.
Hector Garzon: As the logistic manager, Hector was in charge of planning, directing
acquisitions, forecasting and managing product liability in the three different markets. He
mainly focused on transportation priorities, including the relative costs and benefits. He
brought different skills to the team, namely, complex problem solving, coordination by
adjusting his actions in relation with other’s actions, he also helped the team by managing
personnel resources as he had already got experience in HRM, therefore, he not only executed
logistic duties, but also he was motivating and directing the team members as they worked.
Harkeerat Kaur: As the R&D manager, Harkeerat developed good professional relationships
with each member of the team, setting and meeting deadlines, like everyone, she had the
opportunity to manage her own work load and helped the team to keep motivated, she was
autonomous to make decisions, however, before every round ended she would communicate
all the results of her decisions to rest of the group to reach an agreement. She was in charge to
manage product development and observe tendencies that indicated the need for new products
and services. She brought to the team knowledge about Decision making and data analysis
Hernan Hernandez: As the finance manager and leader in every round, Hernan was providing
appropriate financial advice to the process of decision making as well as undertaking related
accounts administration. The sorts of skills that he brought to the team were the ability to work
as part of a team, initiative, leadership, numerical abilities and self motivation, additionally all
his expertise in economy and finance.
John Iver Castrillon: As the manager in charge of analysing the process regarding the
demand, John was studying all the possible changes based on the outlook in every round, to
adapt the strategy and be responsive to any change that would have altered the business
environment, he would analyse all the network coverage forecasts and the trends for
technologies in every market for every round. His role was vital for the success of the company
since sales and operations planning journey were based on his prior decisions, he managed the
forecasting team bringing skills such self-control, adaptability to different contexts and
expertise in international business as that is his first degree.
Yeqiong Ren: As the marketing manager, Yeqiong coordinated all the marketing programs,
namely determining the possible demand for the technological products offered in each market
as well as benchmarking to establish what the competitors were doing in terms of marketing.
She was in charge of applying the pricing strategies to maximize the firm profit and the number
of features to maintain the costumer’s satisfaction; additionally she applied methods (marketing
strategy) for promoting and selling the products. She brought to the team her professionalism
and learning strategies.
Review and Analysis of Practice Round
As the starting process, Team Blue had the opportunity to be familiarised with the environment
proposed by Cesim. It was a really interesting opportunity to demonstrate and practice the
abilities for the negotiation and proposal of business changes and strategies. As the
environment and conditions of the game were giving in the lectures, as group it was interested
to find that all the team members were a little bit disoriented and many questions came up in
order to give the best individual and team efforts to gain every round.
In first place, the group found difficult to manage the software, they were honest to admit that
not all the rules and conditions were clear and explained in a proper way, however after
receiving a lecture the team found that the Cesim platform was a very friendly software that
will allow the team to implement the knowledge and experience as Business Managers.
By following the hand book provided by Cesim, team Blue started to gain confidence with the
managing of the business environment and through the sample provided by Cesim in the video,
it was much easier to follow and adequate the different strategies according to the business
environment proposed for the current universe 1. Obviously the combined effort and team work
was crucial in order to obtain the best results in the practices rounds, preparing the team for the
final and official rounds.
Initially, team Blue follow the analysis of the business environment in order to formulate
accurate strategies, through the PESTLE analysis, the team could identify the possible
opportunities and threats for the business in order to implement the best possible strategies in
order to be the winner and most profitable team; it could be mention that the analysis made in
the two practice rounds helped the team to obtain the first places within the competition,
generating motivation within the team members making more competitive and attractive the
competition through the time; it could be also mention that taking into account the results from
the practice rounds the team could identify which options and strategies were possible to
implement through the whole competition.
Finally it is important to mention that from the practice rounds, team Blue could identify that
the best strategies could be formulate by doing an accurate environmental analysis, taking into
account the performance of the competitors and the actual market conditions and trends, it was
important to determine that the group analysis during the rounds and the individual
contributions of each team member was a crucial factor that allow the tem obtain the great
results for the first time during the competition. Despite the disparity in opinions and thoughts
team blue had a good communication and integration from the beginning, making easier the
development of each round, in moments of confusion and stress because of the lack of
understanding of the platform, it was the good communication the important tool that allow
team blue to be pioneer and gain the first place during the practice round.
Analysis, Review and Reflection of Rounds
Team blue made a process for analysing, reviewing every round’s result:
Market analysis
Generally, team Blue started with PEST model for analyse macro-market conditions. Then
picked most influential points for discussing and analysing current ongoing round’s
modification. Almost every round, there were changes in political or economic situation
between American and Chinese governments, tension political relationship, rising tariff or
currency adjustments, these changes have influenced production, tax and logistics planning
directly.
It is also important to comparing competitors’ results from last rounds, usually, team Blue
follow these steps: Market reports Financial Statement Production Report Cost
Report Ratios, combine with SWOT model. The aim for this process is to determining main
competitors in current market and learning from their strong points.
Determining demand and techs for each market
Basically, team blue depends on analysis results and network coverage forecasts, using intense
data analysis and scenario analysis methods for determining demand and techs for each market.
For instance, as shown in C.1 is the network coverage forecast in round 5.
C1
Round 5 was one of the most important rounds for team Blue’s development. Started from
rounds, team Blue formally changed main product strategy from price war into high-tech
strategy, and production demand distribution tended to become diversification. Thus, based on
previous rounds accumulative capital and technological development, team Blue decided these
products distribution plan (as shown in table C2) for round 5 and further rounds:
Tech 1
Tech 2
Tech 3
Tech 4
USA √ √
Asia √ √
Europe √ √
C2
Tech
Market
Production planning
Demand forecasts and market condition analysis have already determine part of production
goal in each rounds, therefore, team Blue’s main concerns in this step are costs and productivity
distribution. Especially after round 5, strategy has changed in to high-tech strategy, thus
production strategy also changed into diversification. C3 shown the production planning,
production decisions( in-house and contract manufacturing) and production capacity of round
6.
C3
Team Blue tried to achieve lowering costs while maximizing production, eliminating
overproduction and minimizing unsatisfied demand. However, at round 5, team Blue didn’t
give enough attention of insufficient productivity, which actually caused later rounds’ shortage
in demand. It could be solved by planning new plants in Asia. Increasing the productivity in
Asia also can help releasing producing pressure in USA plants.
Determining Research & Development
R&D expenses is sensitive for whole teams financial deployment. As a mobile company,
mobile phone’s short product life-cycle characteristics makes team have no choice but keep
non-stopping invests in R&D. On the other hand, technological development made rising costs
in newer techs. Therefore, team Blue’s approach in this part:
a. Checking and analysing potential tech growth.
b. Comparing with competitors’ R&D expenses.
c. Calculating Return of investment index, make sure ROI is always higher then
costs.
Yet, the different expenses and time-costs of in-house development and purchase technology
and design licences has seriously influenced team’s decision-making. As shown in C4, which
is a technology development charts at the end of round 7
C4
Tech 1, as high selling product with price-war strategy, team blue has stopped developing new
feature since round 5, tech 2 was sold large number in Asian and European markets, however,
tech 3 and tech 4 has replaced its market shares in these tow market, which means tech 2 started
decline stage, so team blue also stooped develop new feature since round 5. As for tech 3 and
tech 4, in-house development is cheaper but costs one more round for developing, which in
contrast, buying technology is slightly more expensive and can start producing immediately,
thus, team Blue has use both ways to make sure diversification of products in markets.
Setting marketing plan
Marketing plan has two parts: price decision and promotion decision.
During round 2 to round 4 for tech 1 and tech 2, price-war strategy with ongoing new product
features has primarily operated in all markets. Thus, profitable lower price, and also need to
skip from dumping suspicion, offered customer more buying choices with reasonable
promotion expenses are the main strategy and aim for team Blue in marketing during these
rounds.
Adjusting logistics
In this step team Blue generally comparing with previous rounds logistic decision then depends
on changing taxation and shipping costs from production area to markets, decided priority
logistics orders to production.
Yet, since high-tech strategy and production diversification strategy started at round 5, the
logistics was also based on market demand
Financial planning
Team Blue has realized several decisions in financial statement are accumulative. Thus,
comparing with previous results and current round’s costs and profit forecast, constantly made
dividend payment and share buyback.
Checking the availability of cash for paying debt
Therefore, C5 has shown several financial points at the end of round7
C5
Evaluation of Strategies
Team Blue used PEST analysis in every round to find something related to economic issues.
This strategy yielded me to years and years. In round one the tariffs were high due to political
tension between USA and China government. So in the beginning team blue used PEST to
analyse some market conditions and then we started to study each part of the strategies. Blue
team used the planning for right process which is focused on cross company enterprise and
beneficially run the business to fulfil customers demand. During the rounds it was discussed
that the demand needed to be planned for the betterment of our business. Our team used
forecasting strategy to evaluate of the future demands. We were also focused on competitor
analysis strategy that allow us to keep an eye on competitor’s decisions in every round and to
revolve our strategies against the competing teams. Micro environmental factors helps us to
interconnected with company factors, customers and our competitors. By using marketing mix
we try to get lowest the cost and highest the production and also get satisfied demand and less
satisfied demand. We also try to find balance with two main factors, financial capacity and
productivity.
Team blue also considered about the consumer buying behaviour, we focused on some steps
that customers take before purchasing the products such as information search, purchase
options and purchase decision and try to meet customer’s demand. Our team was mainly
focused to develop the strategies that devoted to increase market shares because these strategies
grant the formation of a competitive choice for the company to develop an authentic
environment. During the game our team was depended on marketing and we considered that
we are losing some market shares. Therefore for first five rounds we focused on High tech
strategy to win market shares. We also made a plan to pay reasonable payment to the dividends
round by round. Team Blue considered to control market position. Tech 1 and tech 2 were very
popular in USA market where we used diversification strategy. Our team planned to invest in
product development where we offered our customers good products at a lower price as
compare to other teams. At last we can say that these strategies helped us to develop and
improve our responsibilities towards the global challenge simulation. On the other hand, our
sales revenue was very high and in round 6 our profit was not very good. The main reason for
less profit is that we put too much money in research and development and also is making
balance between in-house producing and outsourcing manufacturing.
Blue Team Overview – A critical evaluation of the Global Simulation Challenge
Blue team was a magnificent team where every member was supportive one another. Unity,
good communication between members and the mixture of strategies applied during the game
were core elements of blue team success. These fundamentals drove the team to be always one
of the leading companies with the largest profits year after year.
As most of the team members were risk-averse, in time of crisis such oilstan, decisions were
made trying to evade any form of investment. Consequently, the enlargement of the assets in
terms of new plants and development of new technologies was affected. Being risky would
have helped blue team to increase its production and gained a bigger market share towards the
end of the game considering that the volume of products demanded grew sharply in the last
two rounds of the challenge. However, the assets and the outsourcing capacity that blue team
had in those particular rounds were not enough to meet the increasing demand in the
marketplace.
Furthermore, the high levels of cash that blue team accumulated as a result of great revenues,
should have been reinvested quicker in order to make blue team more competitive against other
players and thus, assure that our shareholders had always the higher returns as they were
expecting. Yet, it is important to highlight that despite of the lack of investment mentioned, our
shareholder received every year the agreed return as well as the long term debt was paid. These
facts can be seen as indicators of how healthy the financial situation was for the company and
it was reflected in the low gearing coefficient that blue team had during all game. Undoubtedly,
blue team had a robust and strong financial performance which could have allowed easily the
firm to take new long-term loans in order to expand it as much as it could.
As a whole, the Global Simulation Challenge was a real experience for the blue team. It created
a real atmosphere of how businesses are carried out in the international environment. The
synergies between the team had to be gathered in order to understand how the market works,
analyse scenarios, financial situation, competitor strategies, understand preferences, estimate
the demand, create an optimal production plan and shape all other price, R&D, logistic and
taxation strategies that permitted to get the most of the market share and guaranteed the highest
possible return to our shareholders. However, the only downside of the challenge could be that
antidumping price and other policies that are present in the real world, should be included to
make the game even more real and enlarge the knowledge and understanding of other situations
that firms can face when internationalising.
Blue Team Signed letter
Deleted for privacy purposes.
PART B. Individual Report
Round Individual reflection
Reflection Round 1. As a member of blue team and considering that my academic formation
has been based on the economic field, it was agreed among the blue team’s director committee
to choose me to carry out all the decision making process in the first round of the game. Even
though I was leading the round, all decision were discussed with all members in our weekly
meeting and via WhatsApp where a group was created to debate any decision. With the
knowledge from the practice rounds, blue team knew that our initial and main strategy should
be focused in gaining the biggest slice of market share possible in order to assure the highest
return to stakeholders. To do so, the firm had to be expanded in terms of new production plans,
number of features to offer and technology evolution. With these element, blue team could
offer competitive prices in the market place and take advantages that maybe others did not
have.
Thus, the initial strategy was in pro of producing all the in-house capacity as well as using the
outsourcing resource we had at the beginning of the game in order to have as much revenues
as firm could. Attending the demand forecasted, the more wanted technologies were Tech1 and
Tech 2. Thus, it was decided to produce only these two technologies. Especially tech 2 that
was the more desired one. Other technologies (3 and 4) were not taken into consideration
because their expensive costs. Prices were stablished considering production costs and some
other relevant information that was analysed from prior rounds. However, with the intention
of achieving our aim of enlarging the firm and considering that there were some political
tensions between the USA and China governments, on my command, it was suggested to make
some investment in Asia. The proposal was to build three new plants in Asia in order to have
presence in this continent, decrease logistic cost and avoid high taxation of products as a result
of the political disparities. In addition, purchasing new licences was a necessity at that time in
the game. It allowed the inclusion of new features on products while making them more
attractive than our competitors. Furthermore, first dividends were paid to our shareholders in
order to build trust between them and blue team. The proposal was accepted for all member of
the blue team committee and it was executed.
The results from this round did not disappoint. However, it could have been better. Blue team
was the third on revenues with sales of 1 989 502, consolidating a share price on U$ 200.4 just
$3 below of the green team which had the highest share price. Yet, it must be mentioned that
other players did not invest in Research and development as blue team did. This dissimilarity
made the difference between blue team and others in future rounds.
Simulation Reflection
Cesim Global Challenge is a system which creates a hypothetic marketplace that gather all
elements found in the international business sphere: suppliers, firms, products and consumers
from all over the world. The simulation involves market analysis in terms of budgets,
competitors and other forces of the market; demand estimations based on evaluation of
demand estimations and consuming buying behaviour; constructing an optimal production
plan (In House/Outsourcing) to satisfy all the demand; Research and Development
determining how and where to invest (Licences purchasing/In house production/Construction
of new plants); Marketing which involves the processes of setting prices and the level of
promotion to push a particular product; Logistics and taxation to adjust transportation costs
and taxes in different continent in order to overlap tariffs; and obviously the respective financial
analysis in terms of capitalisation of company, cash flow statements, ratios, market shares as
well as equity and liabilities statements.
As the all competitors were aiming to maximise the shareholders returns, it was necessary to
develop strategies supported on theories and case studies studied on lectures. For instance,
when evaluating the market conditions, PESTEL and SWOT analysis were relevant to identify
opportunities, threats and other situations that could impact the wellness of the firm.
Furthermore, the initial strategy was decided considering consumer buying behaviour and the
forecast demand. Consequently, low prices were stablished for our team as well as competitors.
As a result, a “price war” started and new strategies had to be applied in order to get the best
possible results. A marketing mix strategy was designed to produce with lower costs than other
players when capitalising on the production. This strategy was combine with policies of
keeping prices down when other teams were increasing prices. To do that, evaluation of
financial situation and productivity was carried out with concepts learned during the course.
Executing those strategies the team capitalised the firm and obtained the biggest market share
in those rounds. Yet, new strategies had to be developed due to the simulation environment
was changing year by year. Thus, as it was a technological evolution based game, the next
strategy was diversification. The aim of this was to obtain the potential profit while offering
new technologies. The technological evolution process could be illustrated as follow:
Tech 1 & 2 in round 4
All technologies in market round 5 and 6
At the end, all these strategies resulted in placing our team in the leading positions of the game
as one of the most capitalised firms with high levels of revenues and achieving our main
objective: maximise our shareholders return.
For designing and executing these strategies, blue team had to have a theory background that
was gained from lectures and own study. The atmosphere created by Cesim provided the
chance to contrast the theory and practice regarding to international business.
Global challenge simulation relevance
The Global Challenge is a didactic business game that allows players the understanding of the
international business operations of a firm in a competitive environment. All lineaments of the
game are …
MSc International Business
MODULE TITLE: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SIMULATION (BMG706)
TEAM REPORT & INDIVIDUAL REPORT
MODULE LECTURER: DR. ANWAR HAQUE
Sohail mia (B00699495)-The Team Leader
Sushil sitaula (B00696966) Md sadequl haque saju (B00699212)
Judith ovadje (B00699810) Abdul bayes shipu (B00700142)
Submitted by -Sohail Mia
B00699495 | LONDON CAMPUS
15 DECEMBER, 2015.
LONDON CAMPUS
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Team Report Contents
Page No
Part –A (Introduction of team)
1-5
Part-B (Review and analyse the practice round)
6-7
Part-C (Analysis, review and reflection of the rounds)
8-9
Part-D (Evaluation of the Strategies)
9-11
Part-E (Team performance and a critical evaluation of global simulation challenge) 11-14
Part-F (Signed Letter of Marks allocation)
14-15
Individual Report Contents
Part –G (individual reflection of the rounds) 16-19
Part –H (Reflection of the overall simulation) 19-20
Part-I (My view about the Global Challenge Simulation) 20-21
Conclusion 22
References 23
Appendices 24-28
2
Orange’s Team Report
Vision – Inspire people to connect with passion and affordability.
Mission – To maximise shareholder value through innovation, affordable prices by
benefiting customers’ needs.
Our Corporate Values-Our values based on three principles –Excellence,
Commitment and Credibility.
Excellence –Everything we do
Commitment –To our stakeholder
Credibility – To staff , clients and suppliers
Part –A (Introduction of team)
Orange is the leading and the most innovative and most profit making
Telecommunication Company based in the United States. We made the largest profit
in the business simulation among all team, it demonstrated and reflected our in-depth
understanding, knowledge and skills throughout the journey of simulation game.
Orange proud of its Excellency, commitment and credibility to stakeholder over the
years. Orange is the most reliable and trustworthy brand in the mobile phone
manufacturing industry which is bringing new and innovative handsets with exclusive
features and technologies to markets first than all competitors.
ORANGE
EXCELLENCE
CREDIBILITY COMMITMENT
3
Orange has quickly expanded its business operation all around the world through
strong leadership, effective management, leading R & D (Research & Development)
affordable pricing strategies and largest distributions and selling networks. Orange
believe in “destructive innovation” that means our continuous endeavours, focus and
goal is to invent new technologies to satisfy consumers’ demand and to hold the
leading position in the global markets.
Team members’ skills and expertise
Orange team formed with five diverse members. The core values of team based on
five principles which is bonding glue that tie up everyone and everything together that
reflects our team culture. The core values of orange team is demonstrated in the graph
-1. Orange has demonstrated its effective team work, team sprits and collaboration
throughout the rounds leaded by strong and effective leadership of Mr. Sohail Mia
(B00699495). Every team member encouraged and promoted him to be our team
leader. We are delighted that we chose a right individual who showed his leadership
skills, management efficiency, and responsibilities beyond our expectation. Mr. Mia
treated, valued and respected every team member equally and his influence motivated
us strongly to accomplish our team work effectively on time. He has done MBA (Master
in Business Administration) in previously, that helps us to get more insights about
multinational business operations, importance of strategic values, operational and
tactical values of an international organisation and many more things.
4
Graph-1: The core team values of Orange.
Sushil Sitaula (B00696966) is one of the most dedicated team player, he has shown
his analytical skills throughout the rounds. He is observant and reliable, he utilised his
creativity and efficiency in this simulation. Although, he is quite in nature but his
sincerity impressed the team. He has completed professional leadership and creativity
diploma that helped him to put his learning in the simulation game. Md. Sadequl
Haque (B00699212) and Abdul Bayes Shipu (B00700142) demonstrated their
sincerity and flexibility to the team. They both showed their team sprits and
hardworking attitudes all rounds the business simulation. Sadequal Haque carried out
very good efforts to finish team task on time. Mr. Shipu is a good example of an active
listener, he is introvert, and however he contributed team effectually.
Another, amazing team player is Judith Ovadje (B00699810), she is only female
member of our team. She bought her experiences of working multinational companies.
Her rational and constructive argument added new dimension to our group work. She
is outspoken and inspirational, she shared her knowledge, experiences and expertise
and she added her openness and operational attitudes all over the rounds. Finally,
every team member worked together, shared their views and experiences and
contributed to be the most profitable telecommunication company among all the
competitors.
Orange
Team
Values
Trust &
Respect
Team sprits
Motivation Engagement
Transparency
5
Communication and Decision Making Techniques
From the beginning of the business simulation, we have developed our team values
that was demonstrated in the previous graph -1. We developed our team spirit and
added our learning outcomes and experiences subsequently at every round to
improve our performance. We have created “What UP” group messenger to
communicated each other’s, besides telephone conversion and email services. Every
round we have set our group agenda, group meeting and minutes as suggested by
our respected tutor Dr. Anwar Haque, which helped us to improve our performance
and group activities round to round.
Arindam & Nag (2011) recognised four ways of group decision making process such
as Brainstorming, Nominal group technique, Delphi technique and Didactic interaction.
Orange group used brainstorming technique for all group decision, as it is the more
effective, allows every individual to generate ideas rather than evaluation of ideas. In
addition, brainstorming technique based on simple structure which is quick, efficient
and lets instantly discussion to make decision among group members.
We set mandatory group meeting participation and engagement. We are very focused
and motivated through effective and friendly leadership of Mr. Sohail Mia. During our
group meeting, brainstorming and identified tactical and operational strategies
individually, and then discussed our ideas, arguments, rational among group .Finally
we have decided together the best strategic options to achieve our company mission
all around the rounds.
6
Part-B (Review and analyse the practice round)
To understand the business simulation working process, at first team were given the
opportunity to involve within the simulation (cesim, 2015), as refer as Practice rounds
by the simulation itself. There was two practice round. At the beginning team orange
felt nervous and complex regarding the simulation interface and rules because it was
the first time that orange Team is playing the game. Team were sensitive regarding to
familiarize within the simulation, Team was confused and tensed. At the same time,
Team thought that effective leadership is needed to guide the Team. As (Locke, 1991)
states that Leadership is the process that induce others to take action towards a
common goal. Soon team leader was formed then Group discussion was conducted,
realized that every team member needed to understand about strategy and its
importance at the same time Simulation decision guide was considered for
familiarizing the simulation. Various simulation videos was considered to understand
the basic workflow of simulation. Though it wasn’t sufficient to act at first.
With a limited knowledge, Team played practice round 1, decision was made after
group discussion that every member will play the simulation, as per according to
decision guide. Team somehow managed to input some ‘raw value’ raw value because
Team didn’t knew what value need to put what is the minimum and maximum value
and what that value means. For example in demand section, Team forecast that in
USA market share would be 19.3 %, in Asia 19.3 % same goes to Europe. Team did
not knew exact relationship between demand forecast and market share in the
simulation, so Team put same value in every country. Same goes to every part of
business function like production, marketing. Minimum money was invested in
Research and development. As a result came out we found that our team made
highest profit with high market share. After reviewing the result and comparing with
others, knowing that our team actually did well and was more motivated and willing to
learn more about the simulation. Also team realised that leadership is the key factor
that makes the Team strong and success.
7
As Team moved to practice round 2, group discussion was conducted for making
effective decision, this time every team members had gone thoroughly decision guide
once more to make sure that team understand every aspect of simulation areas. Team
familiarize with market outlook, understand that one round is equal to one fiscal year,
and when investing in production plant it takes two round which means two fiscal year,
and payment is done on that year. Team also familiarize with research and
development areas that in simulation there are two options to get technology in house
development when invest takes one extra round to be available whereas, buying
technology and design licenses when invest technology is available immediately.
Team also analysed the competitors, their marketing budget, and their cost and
production capacity. This round Team was looking for new technology so team decide
to invest in house development with minimum price also effective marketing.
The result of round 2 showed that our team was still market leader with highest profit
and high shareholder return. This was achieved from effective group discussion. From
the practice round Team learn many aspects of business simulation, layout of
simulation, Team realised that there is relationship in every aspects of business
function in simulation, Team also learnt that with effective marketing mix, Team can
maximize market share and profit. Team also learnt other main areas of decision
making such as logistics in order to meet the demand, finance and budget that proper
strategy is needed to pay the dividend. Beside that one the main aspects is that group,
meeting where team felt that it is necessary after playing practice round.
Part-C (Analysis, review and reflection of the rounds)
During Group meeting, Team had discussed various different approach to market the
product in the beginning of the round 1. The strategy was based on company’s vision
and mission. From round 1 to round 3 Team followed the strategy of cost based Pricing
strategy with low promotion. Team Orange also invest in Research and development.
Further Team also considered to not to pay dividend to the shareholders or issue
shares.
8
From the financial statements and other market reports showed that Team strategy
was not effective because team didn’t able to capture market share nor the Team
orange had surplus the Profit see appendix 3. Team orange market capitalization of
the company was lower than the other team. Team orange market capitalization was
$ 9297005 (K USD), whereas other team like Team Green who called themselves as
Mobile Tech inc had $ 21277713 (K USD), shareholder return was also lower see
Appendix 1 for all ratios of Teams. Also other teams were selling handset more
affordable compare to our team. Team orange also realised that investment on
Research and development was very low which had direct effect on sales because of
unavailable features. Lastly from the analysis from the report, Team understood that
Promotion strategy was not working effectively. Finally from the report, Team
understand that Orange needed to invest in new plants in Asia, because competitors
already invested in plants which was another reason that demand in Asia was not
fulfilled and cost of transportation to Asia was high from USA.
After analysing all the data and strategy that Team had pursued, in future team
considered to follow differentiation strategy in order to maximize Profit because it will
also allow Team to adjust the price according to market competition and availability of
technology. Another strategy that Team would considered to do huge invest in
Research and development and will only consider buying technology if needed.
Whereas in promotion Team orange would invest more for effective promotion. Also
Team will consider investing in few plants in Asia but not too high.
After focusing on different strategy from round 4 to 7, result was very effective all the
strategy that was considered had positive impact on the company’s growth. Team
orange surplus more profit by round 6 see appendix 4, Team had $ 1002977 ( K
USD), Team orange market capitalization of the company had increased to $
21946209 ( k USD) which was the highest among all the teams by round 7. Share
price had increased (see Appendix 2) which was good sign that company is very
strong, shareholder return was high. Team orange was the first Team to gain market
share in new Technology 3 and 4 which shows that the strategy of investing on
Research and development was effective.
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Part-D (Evaluation of the Strategies)
A strategy is the way or the direction a firm use to achieve its’ goals and objective in a
changing environment by using its’ limited resources and competence so that they can
satisfy their stakeholders (Johnson et al 2005). In this global simulation competition,
there different strategies all the various competitors from the different team applied in
the challenges to arrive at an end result. Looking at the overall challenges one can
evaluate the different strategies used by the different group. As a team (orange) being
the winner of the competition the strategy we used and how we applied it gave us the
competitive advantages over rivals. As explained by (Hunger and Wheelen 2005), it is
very important to make the best the right and the best possible strategy that will of
benefit to firm. Right from the start we were very careful when choosing a strategy to
be applied although we made some few errors and mistake in some of our decision
making which affected our profit a bit.
At any point in time before we apply any strategy we always look at the market
condition. The market condition as explained by (Butt et al, 2010) is the position of
the firm or the economy of the environment the firm operate in and this condition
influences the firm in taking a strategic decision that will either affect the firm positively
or negatively. The condition can be the demand for the product, cost of production,
price or even the external environment (PEST). The market condition gives us an
insight on what strategy to use at every round.
In employing the strategy we looked at the external factors of the market outlook that
can be an issue on each round using PEST analysis.
Political:- There are political intervention in all the three market environment ,
USA, Asia and Europe. For example in round 2 the USA and the China
government are hitting each other on a head to head in imposing higher tax on
imported goods of each other country while the whole of Europe is imposing a
very high tax of 31% on corporate firm. The strategy we in this round was to
invest building more plant in Asia and USA to minimize exportation
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Economic:- The ups and down of the global economy plays a role the instability
in price exchange rate and interest rate. For example in round 3, the high cost
of oil in China has made transportation to go up with about 15% which will
eventually affect production and cost of outsourcing.
Social:- The social behavior of this three region is different each region has
have what they crave for the hand set the Asian customers care of about the
price to purchase the handset while the USA and European customers care for
the features of the handset. Our strategy was to in each concentrate on each
region products that is most requested.
Technology: – The way things are getting done are being influence at the
speed rate in changes in technology. For example a sudden outbreak in
technology which has helped USA and Europe to support Tech 4. We had to
invest for new plant in USA for tech 4.
Production:- We aim at meeting the market demand, so we make sure we fully utilize
the needed capacity on each round to as much as possible avoid waste or under
produced. Although in some occasions we contract manufacturing. For example in
round 5 we involve contract manufacturing in tech 4 in the USA because we want to
make sure we meet up with market demand.
Investment:- we invested wisely especially in-house research and development
(R&D) being that the mobile phone have a short life span that is, new technology on
handset comes so quickly and if one is not at alert, competitors will take over the
market by offering new and enhanced mobile handset , therefore we make sure we
invested on innovation. With the market growth is what we decide invest in building
more plants to meet up the demand capacity.
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Marketing:- In carrying out our marketing, the strategy we use was to invest in
promotions using different type diverse channels to ensure our product rich the right
audience we set our price to suit the different market ensuring we make gain, offer the
product and the feature in accordance to the different market preference for example
tech 2 is most crave for in the Asian market. We also make sure the product is in the
right place. For example we enter into contract with some network provider.
Transportation: – We make sure we have an effective logistic using modern means
of technology to reduce and minimize cost, and time saving. We make sure we satisfy
the region of production more in as much as we try to satisfy other region. Satisfying
the region first save cost for us because we don’t have to pay for tariff since it is
produce within. For example tech 2 is which is mostly in demand especially in Asia,
we make sure that region is most satisfied for tech 2 before the other region.
Finance: – when it comes to financing we make sure we try to limits taking founding
from outside .we use in house funding and when the need to raise fund we take long
term loan and sometimes sell share. We make sure no matter how little the dividend,
as we make profit we pay dividend to our shareholders in accordance with our
dividend policy and also pay back debts that needed to be paid at the right time.
Part-E (Team performance and a critical evaluation of global simulation
challenge)
Team was formed with 5 talented innovative people to face the challenge from
business simulation game. It needed collaboration and contribution from each member
to compete with other groups. It is not easy to achieve the objectives initially. So we
identified the importance of effective leadership and select a leader who has higher
acceptance among the group. As claimed by Yukl (2006), a leader must have the
ability to lead people to achieve the goal.
12
In this business strategy game, team leader assign task to every member and together
we come out of the solutions in terms of areas such as market conditions, demand,
production, R&D, marketing, logistics, tax, and finance. Team leader has used the
Tuckman model for the process development through four steps which are forming,
storming, norming, and performance. During the process of the business strategy
development, the group members came out with different ideas. There were
arguments and conflicts within the group members but the group was able to come up
with final decision because of strong leadership. The group also faced some problems
during the process development. Looking at the market condition, the US seems to be
the mature market and the European is near to saturation. So we used higher
technology there compared with the Asian market. Also The difficulty we faced is the
right decision making to fulfil the demand in the different market. After effective
consultation, the group members agreed to set new plants in Asia in order to reduce
the costs.
The group members also understood that there is shortage of supplying handset in
the market. Outsourcing strategy (Kenion, 2005) was one of the solution to increase
the cost efficiency and to fulfil the market demand. During the discussion, there were
some agreement and disagreement among the members. However, team saw the
benefits of the process development especially referring to the production
development. This area is very complex when comes to the analysis of unit cost,
production and capacity utilisation. The initial few round, we did not manage to fully
utilise the capacity. There was a waste in the production capacity. However, the time
gone by, the group manages to utilise the capacity maximisation. There are two
production lines at the round 7. Group members decide only producing tech 3 and tech
4 to reach the profit maximisation. However, there was still a shortage of quantity to
fulfil the market demand.
13
The group members decided to continue the outsourcing strategy in order to maintain
customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the global markets. The decision of the
production was still based on the Asia plants and US plants which was safer option.
Coming to the R&D area, it always had different opinions for the product development.
Group members thought tech 2 was a big unique selling product in the market. So
Tech 2 consume the largest provision fund for the R&D development following by tech
4, tech 1, and tech 3. But we belive there were some lacking in The R&D investment
decision which could have been done better way if we played the game again.
Group members were more knowledgable and confident in term of marketing
development. Marketing is important to gain sales in order to achieve the corporate
goals and objectives (Lynch, 2000). So far, it was the most interesting part of the whole
process of the business strategy development. The team orange manage to compute
the cost and selling price. The calculation also comes out the margin of the sales. The
team also decided the provision amount of products for each region. Obviously, every
round maintains profit margin. The team have made quick decisions on marketing
areas. Obviously this area had better acceptance among the group members.
Team identified the problem of the logistics. Although some members suggested to
develop a new plant in the Eastern Eunopean and to distrubute the products into the
European market. However, team members understood that there was shortage of the
capital investment. So, we did not invest on new plant in europe and the European
market relied on the concept of supplier chain and logistics development through the
US plant and the Asian plant. so it was a tough decision and we could have done
better if we had invested for a new plant in europe.
14
One of the bad side from the group process and decision was the production strategy.
Tech 2 seems to be the best products in Asian market. However, it may not be right
because there are some developed countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and
Singapore have advantage technology. So The decision to make tech 2 in Asia may
be not reality. We may made a bad decision on European market where the team
could consider building a new plant in the Eastern Europe. This is because some of
the Eastern Europe countries are developing countries which may be a new markets
for the team Orange business development. The outsourcing development also needs
to consider for the quality due to the complaints.
To conclude the global simulation challenge development, it is an interesting project
because of knowledge and skills tranfers among the decision making from the team
members. It can be improved through the collaboration and absopt the professional
knowledge to make decision making.
Part-F (Signed Letter of Marks allocation)
Dear MR ANWAR HAQUE,
First of all a big thanks to you for giving us an opportunity to gain experience about
how to run a business in competitive global market through Cesim global challenge
game. Though it was a long journey but we finally completed our Cesim game
successfully. This was possible because of a strong team work and greater
contribution from each members of our team. As a result group performance was
highly appreciated and we become number one amongst all other competitors in this
business simulation game. Below we identified some main areas where our entire
group members contributed their ideas and knowledge’s to make our organisation
most profitable compare to other competitor groups. And some suggestion provided
regarding the mark distribution among the group members.
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Contributing areas Suggested marks among group members
Group meeting Every group members were present at all group
meeting and shared their own ideas equally.
Strategy making Every member analyses and researches the
market condition properly and we all were agreed
to implement the most suitable strategies for the
business success.
Time spent for playing cesim games We all group members spent 15 hours a week to
play this game. It was a long journey and we work
shoulder to shoulder to make it possible. So equal
contribution remarks.
Decision making It was very difficult to take right decision
considering the continuous changes of market
condition in each round. But all of our group
members worked hard and share their different
ideas and assist the future market very well. As a
result our group decisions for future business
strategy were spot on. So we appreciate very
group members equal contribution.
Signatures of group members:
Sohail mia (B00699495)-The Team Leader
Sushil sitaula (B00696966)
Judith ovadje (B00699810)
Md sadequl haque saju (B00699212)
Abdul bayes shipu (B00700142)
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Individual Report
Part –G (individual reflection of the rounds)
The purpose of the international business simulation is to maximise the total
cumulative shareholder investment and return, which comprises dividends, changes
in the values of shares as well as the interest that the dividends generate for the
shareholder (Cesim, 2015) .To gain outlined objectives and to fulfil company’s mission,
the Orange team was formed by five dynamic members who worked as a senior
management executive in the international business environment in a team setting.
According to simulation guideline, the all members agreeing together, has urged,
offered and encouraged me to lead the team. I took this challenge as a mean of
opportunity to gain new skills, qualities and experiences and to evaluate my
potentialities. All group members put their trust on me to carry out my responsibilities,
finally through the hardest efforts of team members and through my leadership, the
Orange team has been highlighted as the largest profit making team among all others
participated teams.
Leadership
As being promoted of group leader, I had to work on all the aspects of decision making
process and finalised the group decision at every round through group discussion as
a core responsibility. However, I have tried to allocate group works among group
member in different areas at every round based upon on their interest and personal
skills, so that the team can get more insights and different approach to compete with
other teams, it also develops divers skills of team members end of the rounds. I also
endeavours to work in the different areas besides my core responsibilities that are
demonstrated below.
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Market Outlook Analysis
In the first round and fourth round, I worked in the market …