The Great Game of Business:

August 26, 2010

This past week, I got the chance to attend the Business Simulation Workshop here at the Great Game of Business.  Going into it, I half expected to spend two days sitting in a room listening to someone lecture to me about sales and revenue, but that was not the case…

 I was paired up with a fellow SRC employee and we were given a business (fictional, of course) to run as we saw fit.  Our job was to create a manufacturing center and balance our books.  We were given a $30 million dollar investment to use to control what type of machinery we purchased, what type of widgets we created, and how many widgets we created for each month.  We also had to price the widgets to meet our overhead and also create profit for ourselves and our shareholders.  But, we were not alone in this project.  There were four other companies (other teams) competing for their own share of the same market.  The plot thickens…

 Our strategy was to go after the smaller yet higher revenue yielding “Green” widget market while maintaining some presences in the larger, more demanded “Yellow” and “Blue” widget markets.  Our profits were high for a few months until competition entered the “Green” market. To stay competitive, we were forced to rethink our pricing strategy.  At the end of the training, we all gave a presentation to potential investors convincing them to buy stock in our companies.  I’m not usually one to brag, but our company received the most investment dollars ($135 million, but who’s counting?). After I left, I found myself still thinking about different strategies I could have used and I really wanted to continue playing the game.

 Overall, the experience was very enriching.  I honestly wish I could have done this training instead of taking my intro to accounting and finance classes in college.  I got the same information that I got from class along with hands on application in just two days. (But I won’t name my Alma mater at risk of having my diploma taken away).  The accounting and financial takeaways are useful to anyone in any industry and the strategic aspect of the game forces each person to think and act like business leaders.  If I had to change one thing about the two days, I would have tried to undercut the other companies in the “Yellow” market while our profits were still high… Oh well, as they say, “hindsight is always 20/20.”

-Matt