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Corporate Strategy Simulation

Corporation

An engaging, dynamic strategy simulation used in MBA and upper level undergraduate Strategy and Corporate Strategy classes.

Overview

Corporation provides students the opportunity to run a multi-national corporation overseeing three strategic business units in a dynamic and engaging environment. They set the course for the company in areas such as pricing policy, product/service quality, cost of leadership, as well as the major functional areas of marketing, operations, and finance. Twelve mini-cases (incidents) provide added discussion in social, ethical, operational and environmental business issues that relate to the corporation. Students are responsible for setting measurable goals and objectives that are aligned with the vision and mission of the organization. Corporation is an excellent complement to traditional teaching methods, allowing students to apply business concepts in a dynamic, integrative environment.

The Case

Corporation is a multiple business unit simulation based on a company that provides products and services in the information systems industry. This industry is typical of many post-industrial age businesses in that it operates without traditional production functions. The simulation focuses on operating one or more strategic business units or divisions that can be bought and sold on the open market or swapped in privately negotiated deals. Operations decisions are made for each SBU, as well as for corporate resource acquisition and deployment, each period. Each decision may be accompanied by a management incident that focuses on various stakeholders of the firm. It was originally designed for a major U.S. company to train middle managers about strategic decision-making in a multi-unit corporation.

Groups of 2 to 4 students compete directly with each other across 4 to 12 teams. Students are responsible for setting measurable goals and objectives that are aligned with the vision and mission of the organization.

To read the full copy of the case for the simulation, request a Faculty ID here!

Corporation comes with 12 incidents that challenge students to wrestle with various behavioral elements of their business. These include:

• Product and Service Standardization
• Ethical Policies for Overseas Operations
• Selling Excess Capacity Offshore
• New Advertising Campaign
• New Business Tactics
• Outsourcing Parts/Supply Chain Policy
• Social Responsibility
• New Product Introduction
• Excess Inventory
• Overseas Assignment Policy
• Employee Stock Program
• Political Activity

These incidents all have outcomes that affect the team's performance. They make great discussion topics in addition to covering important aspects of managing a business.

Objectives

Overall, Corporation provides an environment for students to see how their strategy turns out. To that end, the simulation has multiple key objectives for students:

• To learn how to operate in the global environment.
• To allow students with different backgrounds and training to make business decisions after considering the multidimensional aspects of each decision.
• To provide the opportunity for participant interaction in an organizational teamwork.
• To allow the player to practice his/her leadership and interpersonal communication skills.
• To aid in developing logical and rational decision-making skills.
• To demonstrate the importance of management information tools.
• To introduce the student to the various environmental, ethical, and social responsibility problems that may occur in a firm and to show the consequences of their decisions.

Performance Measures

With Corporation, instructors have a comprehensive set of metrics (25 in total) to judge team performance. For full access to all performance measures, request a Faculty ID. In general, team performance can be judged by the following:

• Cumulative Net Profit
• Cumulative SBU Profit
• Stock Price
• Return on Sales/Return on Equity/Return on Assets/Return on Investment
• Earnings Per Share
• Average Employee Turnover
• Average Innovation Index
• And more!

Any of the 25 performance measures can be weighted and combined by the instructor to form an overall score to evaluate how their teams perform.

If you are an instructor and would like to review Corporation for your class, please fill out our Faculty ID Request!