Business Strategy Game Reflective Report

This reflective report is based on the Business Strategy Game and evaluates the major strategic decisions made during the simulation game. It also reflects on the internal, external, and competitive environment of the business and suggests the adoption of collaborative robotics technology as an emerging technology for C Company. The report includes a SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis of the company's micro and macro environment.

Business strategy game
reflective report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The current study was based on the simulation game and results of the game outlined that
performance was increasing. Every year the performance of the company increased slightly and
ultimately in year 16 the performance was the maximum. Further with help of the external and
internal environmental analysis it was evaluated both the internal and external environment are
suitable for the company and this is beneficial for C Company to grow and develop.
Collaborative robots can be of great use for the company, increasing its profitability.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
1. Evaluating the major strategic decision made during the six round simulation and reflecting
on one round that stood out..........................................................................................................4
2. Reflecting on internal, external and competitive environment of business.............................6
3. Emerging Technology that can be used by the C company.....................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

MAIN BODY
Mission
The mission of C Company involves enhancing the experience of the customers by
providing them with the quality footwear at a very reasonable price.
Vision
The vision of the C Company includes providing the services of creative and innovative
footwear’s to a large audience so that they can enhance their experience.
Values
 The major value included within the operations of the C Company is the charitable
contributions with the company do for development of the business
 Another value being included within the performance of the company is to focus on
premium quality at very low prices so that large number of people gets attracted.
 Moreover the value also includes having good relationship with each and every stakeholder
of the business so that they are happy and satisfied with the performance of the company.
Corporate objectives
 To increase the sales of the company by at least 15% till the next month.
 To increase the investment within the marketing segment by 18% within the next two
months so that the sales can be increased.
 To enhance be investment within resource and development and technology by 23% tell the
end of the September 2022.
1. Evaluating the major strategic decision made during the six round simulation and reflecting on
one round that stood out
By evaluating the simulation game result it is clear that the performance of the company
has increased to a great extent. This is particularly because of the reason that there were different
round and every round outlined the different results. With the analysis of year 12 performance it
was evaluated that the net revenue of C companies should atom 686906. All so the EPS of the
company was 3.27. On the other hand in case of your 13 the net revenue of the company was

509749 and the EPL was decline that is 2.87. Further in the year 13 the performance of the
company improved and the net revenues stated as 888950 and the EPS was 5.28. Further with the
help of the year 15 performances it was analysed that the net revenue of the company increased
that is it was 1226240 and the EPS were 7.217. Further in the year 2016 the results were
extremely high that is the net revenue was 1388841 and the EPS was 8.93.
Moreover the return on the equity was 22.7 and the stock price to that 192.82. Also the
credit rating of the company was A+ which is very good and its employees stated that the
performance of the company has increased within the year 2016. This performance has increased
due to some strategic decisions being taken place. The first strategic decision took place was to
increase the number of pair sold in all the four Geographic segments (Calabrese and et.al., 2019).
Also within these geographic segments there were two ways for selling the shoes that is internet
and wholesale. The quantity to be sold was increased for both the segments in each and every
geographic location. Thereafter the performance of the company increased to a great extent. Also
another strategic decision took place was to focus more on the LA geographic segment. This is
particularly because of the reason that this is the growing segment and because of this operating
profit in the year 2016 was the highest that is 51.96% for internet segment and 30.32% for the
wholesale segment (Aydiner and et.al., 2019). The simply implies that the marketing expenses
might have increased and because of this sales of both the segment has increased to a great
extent.
Further another strategic decision being undertaken by the company was to stop the
production of P label operations. This is particularly because of the reason that performance of
the company might not be good in the segment (George, Walker and Monster, 2019). Hence as a
result of this C Company stopped its production. Thereafter stopping of this production the
performance of the company improved and this was a good sign for the company.
With the evaluation of all the data and the strategic decisions being undertaken from all
the years was 2016. The reason underline the fact that 2016 was a stood out year because it
witnessed high growth and this made the performance of the business very high. Also sales of
the company was highest within the year 2016 only and this implies that the performance and
operating profit of the companies highest within the year 16 only. Thus this simply implies that
the overall performance of the company has improved within the year 16 and as a result of this it
is the year which stood out the most (Bouwman, Nikou and de Reuver, 2019). This year was also

good learning and many different lessons were learnt from the present year as well. The reason
underlying this fact was that taking proper and effective decisions is very important for the
company in order to evaluate the performance of the business.
Hence with this I learned that the proper analytical skills need to be possessed by the
person in order to run the business successfully. This is necessary because in case the analytical
and critical thinking skills will not be present within the person then they will not been position
to evaluate and analysis working and take proper decisions of the business. Also with the help of
this year it was evaluated that shutting down the segment of the business is also very important
(Haseeb and et.al., 2019). This is pertaining to the fact that when any segment of the business is
not working properly then it is better to shut down that business segment. With the help of this
simulation it was evaluated that the P label operations of C Company was not operating well.
Hence as a result of this performance and production of this operation was shut down. This was
only possible with help of good critical thinking and analytical skills only. Thus it is very
necessary to possess the critical thinking and analytical skills and order to run the business
successfully.
2. Reflecting on internal, external and competitive environment of business
Macro Environment
In order to analyse the macro environment of C company the following PESTLE analysis
can be used,
Political
It is the interferences from the government rules and regulations that can impact the
operations of the organization and its products. Government is also responsible for affecting the
tax rates in the market which affects the cost of production (Fernandes, Honã and Cruchinho,
2020).
Economical
The economic stability is very important for an organization to survive in the market.
Economical factors such as employment rate, inflation and GDP of the economy impacts the
performance of the footwear organization.
Social

The changes in the social trends influences the customers preferences which impacts the
sales and also the marketing practices and of this organization. This can be the reason due to
which the business might be influenced to produce a certain category of product.
Technological
Development of new technologies in the market is considered to be the factor which is
responsible for the sales, product and operation of the footwear products for this company. It can
be considered to be the strategy that needs to be implemented by this organization to gain
effectiveness.
Legal
Certain laws related to employment, consumers and other operations which are involved
in the production of footwear can directly impact the growth of the organization. This can impact
the ways in which the business is able to develop new strategies.
Environmental
The environmental factors that are affecting the production of the footwear products such
as the use of leather. These can affect the organizations image and also have negative influence
to the operations of the organization.
Meso Environment
Analysation of competition can be done through Porter’s five forces,
Threat of new entrant
For this industry the threat of new entrant is always going to be there due to little
investment that is required and a easy business model that can be very effective for developing
profit (Mulu, 2019).
Threat of substitute
The threat of substitute is always present for the footwear industry company as it is not
that difficult to imitate the design of the products. This is a major threat to the organization and
hence it needs to increase its operations.
Bargaining power of customers
The bargaining power of the customers are considered to be the factor that is very high in
the market as the customers have many options to choose from and thus, they are seen to gain an
advantage in the market.
Bargaining power of suppliers

The bargaining power of the suppliers of this company is mediocre as the suppliers also
have many options to choose from meanwhile there are also quite a few numbers of suppliers for
this organization.
Competitive rivalry
The exiting competition in this market is very high due to number of businesses is able to
gain competitive advantage that can impact its growth, some market giants like Nike and Adidas
are also a threat to this organization.
Micro Environment
For the C company the micro environment of its footwear industry can be analysed with the
help of SWOT analysis,
STRENGTHS
The brand name of this company is very strong which is one of the major factors that can
be considered as its strength in the footwear industry (de Vasconcelos, 2018). This has been the
reason for the increased sales of the organization. Due to the increase practices of the sales
operations the organization has been able to gain strong revenue in the operations that can
provide the growth that it requires. It can be said that the strong position of this company in the
market can be considered to be the factor that can allow the organization to gain the success that
is provided. Due to all these factors the organization has been able to gain low cost of
manufacturing which has lead to its growth.
WEAKNESSES
High level of competition it is facing in its market from other competitors with similar
business model is the factor of concern for this organization. Due to the increase in the sales of
other competitors this organization has been seen to suffer the most due to the negative aspects
of the revenue that is generating from footwear that is manufacturing. It is not at the top of the
market share in Spain due to which the business of the company is not able to gain the most
revenue out of the market. This is also affecting its revenue and is the factor that is responsible
for the creation of new operations (Marlena and Dwijayanti, 2018). In order to gain competitive
advantage this organization would have to invest in the advertising expenses that is a weakness
for this business.
OPPORTUNTIES

New markets that are there for this company to explore certainly one of the few
opportunities for the organization given that it is able to capitalize on them. This is also the factor
that is responsible for the creation of new strategies that can impact its performance regarding
the strategies that affect the operations. The increase of the ecommerce practices is also an
opportunity for the organization to develop its operations and can be considered to be the factor
that will allow the organization to gain control in the highly competitive market. Expanding the
products of this organization can also be a way for which it would need to implement research
and development practices.
THREATS
The highly intense competition that is present in the market is the factor which can be
considered to be a very big threat to the organization. The expenses that the business would have
to do regarding the position of the organization is the factor that can turn into a huge threat to the
operations of the organization that can be affected because of the substitute options that are
available. The market entry in this industry is also easy due to which this is always a major threat
to this organization. Increase economic crisis is also a threat to this organization which can
affects its revenue and make the company suffer loss.
3. Emerging Technology that can be used by the C company
Collaborative Robotics
Collaborative robotics is commonly abbreviated as cobot. It is one of the emerging
technologies by the IT industry. Collaborative robotics is basically a robot that within the range
of specific distance facilitates direct human and robot interaction. The humans and robots
remains in close relationship. The traditional applications of the industrial robots are different
from the applications that are involved in cobots (Adriaensen and et.al., 2022). The traditional
industrial robots did not have any contact or relationship with the humans.
The cobot exhibits safe relationship and behaviour towards the environment or their
surroundings and humans as the they are constructed using light weight materials, the edges are
rounded and the speed and force are limited based on the sensors and software used.
The past few years have experienced the increase in popularity of automation the
various industries including the footwear industry in which company C operates. The
manufacturing industry is highly fascinated and inclined towards the technology automation. The
activities have been highly changed with the usage of advancement of technology in the sector.

The speed of getting the work done increases rapidly with enhancement in the quality (Cohen
and et.al., 2022). Huge profits can be earned by the company C with the adoption of
collaborative robotics in the manufacturing unit of the firm. The robots under collaborative
robotics technology are designed to work continuously 24 * 7. Resulting in higher productivity
and higher the productivity higher are the profits earned by the company. The cobots are highly
versatile and capable in taking the creativity in the activities.
There are variety of advantages that collaborative robotics entails within the organization.
Company C can also have those advantages if the managers decide to adopt to the technology.
The cobots are helpful in picking, packaging and palletizing. These mentioned requires to be
done properly and with accuracy. The performance of these tasks manually requires many labors
to be employed and a lot of consumption of time. Human are tend to make mistakes so the tasks
can not be performed accurately by humans. The use of cobots in tasks like packaging will
ensure perfection and uniformity in the process, leading to increased level to customer
satisfaction because of perfection in the service.
In addition to the uniformity and accuracy in the processes of picking, packing and
palletizing and advantage of increased level of speed can also be enjoyed by the company C. The
robots are programmed for working hours, days and without incurring any error (Schmidbauer,
Komenda and Schlund, 2020). Further the task of welding at company C production process can
be efficiently and effective done by cobots. The performance of tasks like welding through
collaborative robotics results in saving huge costs by the company. Waste production is also
minimized by using the cobot technology.
Assembling is a major part of production process at company C. The process in time
consuming and boring foe humans to perform. Cobots can never be bored of doing the tasks they
are supposed to do further the speed of cobots remains the same tat every level of production.
The task of assembling can be done with proficiency,and speedily with collaborative robotics.
Activities related to handling of materials can be done easily with the usage of cobots.
Inside the manufacturing unit movement of materials around the factory space of company C can
be done swiftly. The expectations of the customers regarding regarding the care of the materials
used in production processes of company C can be taken care of easily. The company can ensure
that the health of its workers and their safety at worked are taken care (Sowa, Przegalinska and

Ciechanowski, 2021). The costs of the company can be reduced to great extent, production cycle
automatically gets faster and downtime reduces drastically.
Another advantage that is associated with cobots employment is that they can inspect the
products for the quality check. The company C believes that the key to profitability is quality.
With high level of quality the company C ensure high satisfaction level of its consumers.
Currently the task is done by the workers of the company. The workers make mistakes and get
tired easily. With the deployment of cobots the task can be performed without any compromise
in the quality.
There are various disadvantages or limitations to the collaborative robotics. Cobots can
not handle the loads that are higher. Small loads ranging from three to ten kilograms can be
handled by cobots only. The heavy duty applications are not supportable by majority models of
cobots. Although the collaborative robotics are high in speed as compared to humans but the
speed is limited and can not to extended to a great extent due to safety reasons. The cobots are
further not as efficient as six axis robots are. The tasks that are too precise and have delicacy can
not be instructed properly to cobots by the humans. The next limitation is that the cobots are not
completely independent. Collaborative robots can work 24 * 7 but not in the absence of human
assistance there is requirement of assistance by humans are the working of collaborative robotics.
Recommendation
It is recommended to the future senior managers of the company C to bring the
technology of collaborative robots in the company as with the ongoing advancements in the
technology by the IT sector secure a potential exponential growth in the technology (Nogueira
and et.al., 2019). The above mentioned limitations in the technology are improving with the
recent developments in the technology for example new gripper technology, embedded vision,
artificial intelligence and machine learning have increasingly working upon countering the
negative sides of the collaborative robotics.
Management can address the issue of battery charging that are used for powering the
cobots by automatic return of cobots to the charging ports in case of low batteries. The challenge
regarding the inability of cobots to detect the abnormalities can be addressed by designing the
human robot collaborations in industry 4.0. By considering the effective implementation
measures by the manufacturers the speed related safety can be ensured.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adriaensen, A. and et.al., 2022. Teaming with industrial cobots: A socio‐technical perspective
on safety analysis. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service
Industries. 32(2). pp.173-198.
Aydiner, A. S. and et.al., 2019. Business analytics and firm performance: The mediating role of
business process performance. Journal of business research. 96. pp.228-237.
Aziz, I., and et.al., 2020. Dulang Module in Determining The Proportion of Bengkilas in
Palembang Limas House. International Journal of IJCIET. 11(4). pp.14-23.
Bouwman, H., Nikou, S. and de Reuver, M., 2019. Digitalization, business models, and SMEs:
How do business model innovation practices improve performance of digitalizing
SMEs?. Telecommunications Policy. 43(9). p.101828.
Calabrese, A. and et.al., 2019. Integrating sustainability into strategic decision-making: A fuzzy
AHP method for the selection of relevant sustainability issues. Technological
Forecasting and Social Change. 139. pp.155-168.
Cohen, Y. and et.al., 2022. Deploying cobots in collaborative systems: major considerations and
productivity analysis. International Journal of Production Research. 60(6). pp.1815-
1831.
de Vasconcelos, T. D. R., 2018. Feasibility Study for New Investments in Footwear Production
in Bangladesh: An International Competitiveness Analysis (Doctoral dissertation,
ISCTE-Instituto Universitario de Lisboa (Portugal)).
Fernandes, S., Honã, I. D. And Cruchinho, A., 2020. Fashion Revolution As Promoter Of Social
Innovation And Sustainability In Fashion. Revista De Pielarie Incaltaminte. 20(1). P.51.
George, B., Walker, R. M. and Monster, J., 2019. Does strategic planning improve
organizational performance? A meta‐analysis. Public Administration Review. 79(6).
pp.810-819.
Haseeb, M. and et.al., 2019. Role of social and technological challenges in achieving a
sustainable competitive advantage and sustainable business
performance. Sustainability. 11(14). p.3811.
Marlena, N. and Dwijayanti, R., 2018. DEVELOPING FOOTWEAR BUSINESS: WHAT IS
THE STRATEGY?. Jurnal Ilmiah Econosains. 16(2). pp.187-197.
Mulu, J. N., 2019. Factors Influencing Growth of Leather Footwear Production in Kenya: A
Case of African Leather Industries Ltd (Doctoral dissertation, United States
International University-Africa).
Nogueira, R. and et.al., 2019, September. Self-adaptive cobots in cyber-physical production
systems. In 2019 24th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and
Factory Automation (ETFA) (pp. 521-528). IEEE.
Schmidbauer, C., Komenda, T. and Schlund, S., 2020. Teaching cobots in learning factories–
user and usability-driven implications. Procedia manufacturing. 45. pp.398-404.
Sowa, K., Przegalinska, A. and Ciechanowski, L., 2021. Cobots in knowledge work: Human–AI
collaboration in managerial professions. Journal of Business Research. 125. pp.135-142.