“I focused this course more on looking at larger strategic initiatives in retail management and then also tying them to the operational initiatives that we have in and part of that’s just burst out of my love for operations and supply chain and logistics. But also helping to show students that this is overall strategic value ideas that we have need to start down on the on the ground floor. And they need to work together to create value for our consumer. So, try to find ways to effectively show that and to prove that. Now, difficulties that I run into are that my courses are incredibly diverse. It is very common to have a class of 40 to 50 students with dissimilar interests and strengths which can actually make the course more challenging because we have different baselines to start.
I was consistently planning my course or prepping my course every semester and making changes and making improvements and then kind of making entrepreneur fit. And what I found in the last couple of years is I’ve kind of flipped that where now I’m much more focused on basing the course around the Entrepreneur and then kind of helping the course content to fit that.”
“I like to say that it’s easy to learn but it’s hard to master, which I think is good for students. But more than anything, when I approach my course, I want students to really understand that the decisions that they make should be strategic in nature, but they also will affect the operation of their business. And in turn, that will have a significant effect on long term strategic advantages and financial and profitability.
The simulation is doing a very good job with that. It’s not too over their heads, which I appreciate. But also there are consequences, right? There are consequences to poor management and there are wins for good management from a competitive standpoint. So it coincides very nicely with the lecture and the examples in the projects that I have in class to show them, especially when they move into financial analysis.
I really do appreciate what it’s brought to my classroom in terms of showing students things that I found really apply in my career and really apply in my professional experience. The simulation does a very good job helping us in the classroom.”
