Each decision period in BSG represents a year. The company you will be running began operations 10 years ago, and the first set of decision entries you and your co-managers will make is for Year 11. The first time you launch the Decisions/Reports Program from your Corporate Lobby, you should scroll down. View Year 12 BSG Decisions from BUS 6611 at Troy University. 11/9/2016 INDUSTRY18 DECISIONENTRIESA1Shoes YEAR12 CORPORATESOCIALRESPONSIBILITYANDCITIZENSHIP Useof. BSG 2017 - Business Strategy Game - Guide How To Win - V2 Best strategy. University of Greenwich. Managing Strategy (BUSI1324) Uploaded. Aivis Arturs Atvars.

Based on our experiences and what we have learned from adopters,there are several things that contribute greatly to conducting theBSG simulation effectively:

1. Schedule 2 practice rounds (barring timeconstraints) to deepen class member familiarity with the how thesoftware works, the decision entry screens, and the information andoutcomes provided after each decision round. Two practice roundsalso give company co-managers a chance to try out differentstrategy/decision combinations and see what happens.
2. During the Course Setup Procedure, create an extracompany for you to operate throughout thepractice rounds (and maybe for several additionaldecision rounds)—do this especially if you are a first-timeuser or if you want to learn more about what operating a company isall about. The company you manage can easily be deletedlater.
   • Running a company yourself is the quickest and most productiveway to familiarize yourself with “how things work”, explore all thevarious decision entries, view the reports showing the results ofeach decision round, and experience what the simulation experiencefor students is all about.
   • Operating a company will equip you to (1) see the value of theinformation that you and your students are furnished after eachdecision round, (2) provide the class with your perspectives aboutthe competitive battle that is taking place and call attention toparticularly interesting outcomes, and (3) be wise in assigninggrades and otherwise conducting the simulation.
   • The knowledge and understanding gained will also enable you toanswer student questions about this or that aspect of thesimulation (which sometimes occurs) and, if you wish, to provideadvice and counsel to companies that may be floundering and needsome guidance.

   If you opt to run your own company, inform the class whichcompany you are running, tell them it will be a temporary thing(and that your company will be deleted later), indicate that youwill exercise care in making “competition friendly decisions” thatare not aimed at stealing sales and market share from othercompanies, and make it clear that you have no intention of tryingto outcompete the companies they are running or otherwisedemonstrate your prowess. What class members need tounderstand is that your purpose in running a company during thepractice rounds is to become as familiar as possible with what isinvolved in making decisions, managing company operations, andcomprehending the information in the various reports available toall companies.

   Once the practice rounds are completed, there is an item on theAdministration Menu for the industry that enables you to quicklyand easily delete the company you are running from the competition.(Note: No company can be deleteduntil the practice rounds are completed.)

   Also, bear in mind that the built-in Collaboration andVoice-Chat capabilities allow you to join an online meeting of theco-managers of any company—either as an observer or as anadvisor/consultant. If you have run a company yourself for severaldecision rounds, you will be better prepared to take on this role,answer student questions about this or that aspect of thesimulation (which sometimes occurs) and, if you wish, to provideadvice and counsel to companies that may be in need someguidance.

3. Stress to class members the importance and value of usingthe Video Tutorials and the detailed Help sections to find answersto any questions they have.
   • The short 2-3 minute Video Tutorials are particularlyhelpful during the practice rounds when students firstencounter the software menus and the information on the screens andare wondering what to do next.
   • Whenever class members want more in-depth explanations anddetails than contained in a Video Tutorial (or the Player’s Guide),all they have to do is click on the Help button at the top of adecision screen or report page.
   • The Help sections for decision screens provide informationabout each decision entry, full explanations of cause-effectrelationships, and tips/suggestions about what to do and notdo.
   • The Help sections for any page of the Company Reports,the Footwear Industry Report, and the Competitive IntelligenceReports explain what the numbers mean, how they are calculated, andhow to use the information to good advantage.
   • We have gone to considerable lengths to make the Help pagesincredibly valuable and useful to company co-managers inunderstanding how things work and in wisely and successfullymanaging their companies. If you insist that class membersmake full use of the video tutorials and consult the Help pages anytime that questions or issues arise (and not lean on you foranswers that they can discover for themselves), you will find (ashave we and other BSG users) they will be able to figure things outnicely for themselves.

   Here, it is well worth taking a few minutesof class time to explain to company co-managers that they can benever too well-informed about all the various aspects oftheir company’s operations or about the cause-effect relationshipsbuilt-into the simulation, but that it is exceptionally risky anddangerous to be very poorly informed and have little commandof what is going on. Company managers never put their company’sperformance at risk by “knowing too much” about their company’soperations and “how things work”, but they very definitely puttheir company’s performance at risk when they “know too little.” Inthe real world, managers get fired and ruin their careers when theyact like “loose cannons” and make seat-of-the pants decisionsrather than making thoughtful, informed, analysis-baseddecisions.

4. Urge company co-managers to have a printout of the latestCompetitive Intelligence Report in front of them and consult itscontent before entering any upcoming decisions relating topricing, advertising, S/Q rating, number of models, delivery timeto footwear retailers, and all the other decision entry variablesthat determine their company’s competitiveness vis-à-vis rivals.Tell them that if they don’t consider how their company’scompetitive effort compared to rivals and to the industry averageeffort in each geographic region in the prior year (as displayed onthe pages of the Competitive Intelligence Report), then they willbe flying blind into competitive battle with no clue as to whethertheir competitive strategy and marketing effort is likely tosucceed or be an utter disaster.
5. Urge company co-managers to pay special attention to thebenchmarking data provided on page 6 of the FootwearIndustry Report that accompanies the results of each decisionround. Studying the numbers on this page is critical if companyco-managers are to stay abreast of how well their company’s costscompare with those of other companies in the industry.
6. Warn company co-managers against trying strategies andmaking decisions that are imprudent, highly risky, orun-businesslike (things that also would get a manager firedin a real company). The whole Business Strategy Gameexperience is about having class members assume the role of abusiness professional who is trying to achieve the best possiblecompany performance using managerially prudent and responsiblebusiness approaches and endeavoring to make “wise” decisions inoperating the company and fashioning a successful strategy.

   The Business Strategy Game exercise is intended to “test”a co-manager’s knowledge and skills in running a profitable andsuccessful company—which means acting in the best interests ofshareholders and not driving their company to thebrink of bankruptcy. Overzealous students who put their company’sperformance at risk with extreme prices or marketing tactics or whowander off on a tangent and endeavor to “game the system” almostalways shoot themselves in the foot by driving down companyperformance. Little of value comes from students approachingthe BSG exercise like a daring adventurer out to win some variantof a videogame with whatever “off-the-wall” or un-businesslikedecisions they can enter on the screens. When class membersknow you will hold them accountable for bad or foolish decisionsthat cause their company to bleed red ink while other companies areprospering, they will be less likely to make “wild” decisions orpursue irrational or “bound-to-fail” strategies.

7. Stay abreast of the results of each decisionround. It will take about 10-20 minutes for you to explorethe results of each decision round. First click on the industry youhave created for your class that appears on the upper right of yourinstructor Center screen. Then, on the Administrative Menu on theleft side of the screen, click on the link that says BSG Reportsfor Industry __, where you will see five report options. Check outthe first three menu selections (Footwear Industry Report,Competitor Intelligence Reports, and Administrator’s Report) andspend as much time as you wish exploring the information. Allcompany co-managers get the first two reports, but theAdministrator’s Report’s Report is only for the instructor andcontains a lot of interesting cross-company comparisoninformation—this information is not provided to class membersbecause of its competitively sensitive and proprietary nature.Usually, you have no compelling need to examine the CompanyOperating Reports, except to satisfy your curiosity about theircontents—these are used mainly when issues regarding a particularcompany arise that you need to look into more deeply. The DecisionHistory report is rarely of much interest until perhaps midwaythrough the simulation, at which point you may wish to check outthe decision histories of the best performing companies and comparethem to the worst performing companies to see what’s working welland what is not. The Decision History report is also useful forcounseling poorly-performing companies on ways they can improve.

   Once you have become familiar with the contents of the FootwearIndustry Report and the Competitive Intelligence Reports, you’ll beable to zero in quickly on what’s of particular interest andeconomize on the time it takes to monitor the outcomes.

8. Use 10-15 minutes of class time to “debrief” the teams onthe results of early decision rounds. In our class, it isstandard to have a debriefing to go over the results of the firstpractice round. We provide each class member a copy of the FootwearIndustry Report and the Competitive Intelligence Report and thenwalk them through these reports page-by-page so they will be up tospeed on all the information at their fingertips following eachdecision round. In this initial debriefing, pay particularattention to the information in the Competitive Intelligence Reportshowing the actions of all the companies in the marketplace (theirprices, advertising, styling/quality ratings, rebates, and so on)and their positioning on the industry strategic group map. If youwish, you can have debriefings for the second practice round, maybethe first couple of scored decision rounds, and on those occasionswhen something of significance occurs that you want to talk about.These give you an opportunity to:
   • Call attention to particularly interesting outcomes andresults, especially those in the Competitive Intelligence Reportand the benchmarking data on page 6 of the Footwear IndustryReport.
   • Comment on any outcomes or conditions that company co-managersshould take think about.
   • Convince class members of the merits of digesting anddiagnosing the results of each decision round before rushing intomaking decision entries for the upcoming year.
   • Connect events in the simulation to your lectures on thechapters or to similar situations in some of the assigned casesyou’ve discussed.

   From to time-to-time, you’ll discover revealing tidbits ofinformation in the Administrator’s Report (cost details, operatingstatistics, and profit margins) that you can summarize and shareorally with class members—but take care not to single out oridentify any company in these remarks and “give away its secrets.”You can just say “there’s one company that …” or “one company hadunit labor costs as low as $___” or “ one company spent $___ onTQM/Six Sigma programs at one of its plants” or one companyreported an industry-high profit margin of $___ on each brandedpair sold in Latin America, while one company lost $___ on itsbranded pairs sold in that same region.”

Bsg Game Quiz 2

Four Other Suggestions of an Administrative Nature

Winning The Bsg Game

1. Use the Class Presentation PowerPoint slides thatwe have created to describe The Business Strategy Game to yourclass and explain some of the mechanics. To access the slides,click on the Class Presentation link in the Instructor Support boxon the left side of the Instructor Center screen.
2. Require class members to take Quiz 1 and Quiz 2;set the deadline for completing Quiz 1 to correspond with thedeadline for the first practice decision and the deadline forcompleting Quiz 2 to match the deadline for the Year 13 or Year 14decision round.
3. Require company managers to do peer evaluations of theirco-managers, as well as an evaluation of their ownperformance. Class members can see the content of the12-question peer evaluation form by clicking on the PeerEvaluations link in their “Corporate Lobby” but they are not givenaccess to completing the form until the availability date/time thatyou set in your decision schedule. To counteract the tendencyof less motivated and less industrious co-managers to contributelittle and “ride the coattails” of more industrious co-managers, itis wise to emphasize to the class early on that the results of thepeer evaluations will be taken seriously and that failureto be a contributing team member will negatively impact theirgrade. While there’s a strong propensity for teams to strike a dealwhereby everyone gives their peers a good evaluation, it is oftenthe case that team members will be sufficiently disenchanted with anon-contributor’s performance that they will give that person aweak evaluation—low peer evaluation scores are thus a fairlyreliable sign of a problem!
4. Be wary of counting each class member’s simulation gradeless than 15-20% of their overall course grade. Having thesimulation exercise (and especially the overall company performancescore) count only a small percentage greatly weakens the effortstudents put into running their company and thus causes many of thepotential learning benefits to go unrealized.