I’m incredibly behind on the follow-up to StratSim from last week. Considering the results, you would think I would’ve raced to the computer to post them.
Nope…I’ve been slacking (on blogging, that is. Ok, perhaps in other ways as well…ssshhhh).
I digress (a shocker). Back to StratSim:
After starting out in the lead, our firm fell to second place in both earnings and share price (the main measures success for the simulation). We also lost some market share in a few of our product lines. We operated in that standing for the remainder of the game. That was interesting, however: it challenged us to work even harder and to be creative. When we left on Thursday evening, we were in second place. The simulation was designed to advance for two more periods automatically—so the game would run as w/the last decisions made and w/the business model as is. Much to my delight, we learned that next morning (after an anticipation-filled 45 minutes of class) that we finished first in our industry! Overnight, we advanced our standing and finished first in both cumulative net income and share price. Apparently, our decisions and our strategy paid off!
The simulation was a rewarding experience. It was great to see all of the elements of our program come together over the course of that day and a half. I have a new appreciation for the magnitude of the decisions senior managers have to make—especially decisions that could cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars. Possessing a true general management perspective of an organization is clearly invaluable. The experience helped to underscore the importance of the broad skill-set we are developing here. A wise second year once said to me “if you want to be a technician, Darden is not for you. If you want to be a leader, Darden is where you want to be.” StratSim gave a small taste of that reality.
And…guess what? I actually had fun!!
Leave a Reply