Business Strategy Simulation

Since 2012, I have taught the capstone Strategic Management course in the following institutions:

1. Keuka College, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2016)
2. University at Buffalo School of Management in Singapore (2016-2019)
3. University at Buffalo School of Management in Buffalo (2016-2019)
4. Canisius College in Buffalo, in both the undergraduate and MBA capstone courses (2019).​

Teaching in three countries at four campuses, has helped me develop the use of the Business Strategy Game simulation (https://www.bsg-online.com/) into the undergraduate capstone courses.
The students make 57 decisions weekly for each year of the simulation, covering business operations in the following areas:

1. ​Corporate social responsibility and citizenship (up to 8 decision entries).
2. Production operations (up to 11 decision entries per production facility, with a maximum of 4 plants).
3. The addition of facility space, equipment, and production improvement options (up to 8 decision entries per production facility).
4. Worker compensation and training (up to 6 decision entries per production facility).
5. Shipping and distribution center operations (up to 5 decision entries per geographic region).
6. Pricing and marketing (up to 9 decision entries in each of 4 geographic regions).
7. Offers to sign celebrities (2 decision entries per offer).
8. Financing of company operations (up to 8 decision entries).

Each week represents a year of business operations in a global shoe industry. The students are divided into teams, with each team representing one international shoe company, and the entire class represents the worldwide industry. The teams compete with each other.
Students approach the simulation in one of two ways. The majority of the students see it as a game and simply guess. A few student teams realize that this is their opportunity to apply their undergraduate studies into one course, using the skills they have gained from their business education to make holistic decisions in competition with the other teams (companies). It is these few groups of students who learn the most from this simulation.
This is an example of Project-Based Learning. The students learn from experience. They analyze their strategic positions, make decisions weekly, and then see the results of their decisions on Monday mornings.
After graduation, students have contacted me after job interviews to tell me that when they explained their work in the simulation, the interview took notice, exploring in greater depth what they had done and learned. These students tell me that their experience, and discussing it with interviewers, has helped them stand out from other candidates, and in some instances, get jobs.
I'm about to start two new sections of Strategic Management at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. With my own learning experiences from using the simulation, I hope these two capstone sections to be the most productive for the students ever. I'll report back at the end of the coming fall semester.

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