Analysis of Strategic Decisions and Models in BSG Simulation Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of strategic decisions made within a Business Strategy Game (BSG) simulation. It evaluates the performance of different companies based on various criteria, including investor expectation scores and best-in-industry scores. The report highlights the strategic decisions made by Company B, which achieved the highest improvement, focusing on tactics such as branded production, production facilities, distribution, internet marketing, and wholesale marketing. Key decisions included a shift from internet to wholesale marketing, investment in production technology, and expansion of distribution channels. The report applies and evaluates supporting strategic and management models, including stability, retrenchment, and growth strategies, as well as Porter's Five Forces analysis. It examines how these models influenced key performance indicators (KPIs) such as earnings per share (EPS), return on equity (ROE), and image ratings, demonstrating how strategic choices impact overall business success and market value.

Business Strategy

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1 Outline and evaluate the major strategic decisions made during the BSG simulation.............1
2 Apply and evaluate at least six supporting strategic and management models, concepts and
ideas.............................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business strategy refers to a proper plan or blueprint which enables in achieving mission
and vision. It allows companies to develop short and long term goals through which they are able
to compete in the market. A business simulation game is a management game that focuses on
economic process of a business (Raghunath and Rose, 2016). They are real world games which
analyses business strategies on basis of certain criteria. This enables in calculating overall
business rating by comparing with other companies. However, it helps in analysing strategic
decisions taken by business. This report will describe about how different organisations were
evaluated and what strategic decision was made during BSG simulation. Moreover, different
strategic and management models and concepts will be discussed.
TASK 1
1. Outline and evaluate the major strategic decisions made during the BSG simulation
In BSG game there were many companies that were taken. Then, each one was evaluated
on basis of certain strategies and criteria. This was done to evaluate what strategic decisions were
taken by them in simulation. The simulation was done by taking five major tactics that are
branded production, production facilities, distribution and warehouse, internet marketing and
wholesale marketing. Also, it the simulation was done twice and then results were obtained.
Here, a simulation game has been played in which different companies were taken and then
analysed. The criteria taken were on basis of investor expectation score and best in industry
score. Both the score were given equal weight of 50-50%. Thus, by analysing results of all
companies it is evaluated that B company shows highest improvement from all others. There is
improvement in many measures of company such as EPS, ROE, etc. Moreover, there has been
different strategic decision that has been taken (Meckling, 2015). Due to this B company
obtained such greater ratings.
From results it was identified that investor expectations score for B company was highest
among all. This can be stated that earning per share of company was raised up to $6.26 in 2013.
Here, investor was expecting EPS at $3.50. From this it can be analysed that rise in EPS is due to
internet marketing and branded production. In this company has focused on digital marketing to
gain competitive advantage in terms of return on equity. Besides this, it can be evaluated that by
doing branded production product quality have improved. This would have benefited in rise in
sales and profits. Thus, increase in share price led to rise in market value.
1

Moreover, it has been observed through simulation that best in industry score is of B
company that was 79. This was due to increase in return on equity which aroused from 23% to
33.1%. This was possible due to taking strategic decision in wholesale marketing. Company
shifted from internet to wholesale marketing.
In addition to it, this can be analysed that credit rating of B company was improved.
Here, investor was expecting B+ credit rating but in year 2013 it was A+. The company took
strategic decision in production facilities. They started using technology in machines which
benefited in more production. However, more new products were developed and there was
smooth flow of production (Whittle and Myrick, 2016). There have been many other plants
established with new machines and employees. It has supported in producing new range of
products. This strategic decision was taken in support of growth strategy. They started offering
new products to consumers.
Also, in image rating B company got 75 in 2013 which is above customer expectation
that was 72. In this company focused on internet marketing and attracted new customers. It was
benefited in effective marketing of products. Moreover, attractive marketing generated
awareness among customers. This strategic decision enabled in improving image rating. B
company has been able to maintain their high market value and brand name in the market. This
has assisted in maintaining goodwill.
Additionally, there exist many other measures which were taken into consideration. The
net revenue generated by company in 2012 was +1.1%. But in year 2013 it raised from
$652,311. So, company has emphasised on branded production. With this there has been rise in
revenue. Moreover, by improving quality of products customer has been retained. Besides this,
high quality products established a branded image in the market. Here, also growth strategy
model has been applied where branded products were manufactured. It has been important for B
company to get higher rating in terms of return on equity.
Alongside it, another measure was net profit. In this it has been analysed that in 2012 there was
62.8% net profits of B company. But in 2013 it has been $125,819. Thus, rise in net profit has
been through distribution and warehouse. The company has expanded their distribution channels
by building warehouse. So, there was rise in sales and distribution of products. Moreover, B
company strategic decision has been effective (Mi, 2015). This was useful for them in operating
in wide areas and reaching throughout country.
2

Additionally, in ending cash measure there was not change observed. It was stable in both
2012 and 2013. This has been evaluated that no strategic decision was taken or implemented.
However, it has been essential in rising cash and generating revenue of company.
It can be evaluated that B company has taken several strategic decisions which enabled
them in getting higher industry rate score. The strategic decision taken was in regard to branded
production where products manufactured where of high quality.
In production facilities, B company strategic decision was to enhance flexibility in production.
Many new process and methods was implemented which supported in production. In distribution
and warehouse company increased their return on equity. Through rise in sales, more return on
investment was gained. Internet marketing decision helped them to generate awareness in
market. The company advertise their products and service and attracted more customers. Hence,
image rating of company has improved. By taking strategic decision of wholesale marketing, B
company distributed more products as compared to other (Zakaria, Hashim and Ahmad, 2016).
It has resulted in generating more revenue and profits.
With this it can be evaluated that different strategic decisions enabled B company in
improving their economic performance. By this each measure was improved. It helped in
increasing rating of investor return and overall industry rating. B company has been able to
generate more revenue and profits. There was change in thing due to which improvement was
observed in overall rating of company.
The internet marketing strategic decision has been taken by applying Lewin change
model. In this a proper plan was developed to implement change. Furthermore, it created
awareness among employees about what change is going to be implementing. Thus, this decision
was beneficial for B company. Also, it resulted in generating more revenue and profits through
it. There was another model applied by B company that was porter five force analysis. It helped
them to analyse their competitive environment. By this they identified areas in which they were
lacking. Thus, they took effective decision of internet and wholesale marketing. With this, it
enabled in removing weakness and analysing opportunities for growth and expand. Through this,
they entered in new area and generated more sales and profits. Besides this, there have been
many other benefits of conducting and applying this model.
Therefore, B company took such crucial strategic decisions which enabled them to
improve their certain measure (Whittle and Myrick, 2016). It supported them in getting better
3

rating than others and generating more revenue. Besides this, due to taking of those decisions it
led to change in EPS, ROE, etc. It has been analysed that by taking effective decision company
can improve their rating in industry. Also, it helps in obtaining higher position than others and
attracts more investors. By performing well and above customer expectations B company has
been able to survive in market. By taking that decision company has been able to rise their
capital. It has expanded them into different markets. Those strategic decisions were the reason
that investor expectation was more in 2013 as compared to previous year that is 2012. However,
among all strategic decisions the major one was internet and wholesale marketing (Nair,
Jayaram and Das, 2015). It was because it supported both in improving image rating as well as
net profits and revenue. Apart from it, distribution and warehouse assisted in improving return on
equity and revenue and profit.
2. Apply and evaluate supporting strategic and management models, concepts and ideas
There are many strategic models and concepts that can be applied by companies to
improve their economic growth. It depends on overall rating of business that which model will
be appropriate. Moreover, it is identified that each model is evaluated so that it can be
implemented in properly. Herein, the conceptual frameworks for strategic management including
continuous and dynamic processes to maintain the performance metrics on which a company's
performance is evaluated (Bryson, 2018). There are four types of strategies which act as
conceptual strategies that an enterprise adopt in the corporate setup such as stability,
retrenchment, combination and growth (Strategic planning models. 2016). These types focus on
sustainability component over a period to generate value creation and worthiness in the
competitive marketplaces. The stability strategy is defined as the incremental improvisations for
overall maintenance of performance (Kerzner, 2019). This is named as a 'no change strategy' and
is mainly dealing with management of profits by high inflation rate, cost cutting etc. During the
emergency time or situational crisis of B company, it was important to understand that caution
strategy was applied by the administration to mitigate the negative effects in terms of stabilising
the revenues and financial losses.
Furthermore, retrenchment strategy is significant in building the business scope by
improving the operational activities like branded production, wholesale marketing, internet
marketing, wholesale marketing etc. as mentioned in the case of B company. Along with, this
strategy is the combination of smaller strategies like divestment strategy, spin off demerging,
4

turnaround strategy etc. (Haines, 2016). All these lay an emphasis on bringing back the
restructuring in context to internal and external aspects of the business metrics. Herein the spin
off strategy proved beneficial for company B and made it attain the desired rating of A+ despite
the assumed B+. In regard to the above, the growth strategy has been implemented via using
concentration and diversification. The customer function is based on conglomerate
diversification which highlights the needs for tapping the alternative technologies and unrelated
dimensions such as steel, power etc. (Bianchi and Tomaselli,2015) Additionally, all these
strategies when combined together to provide effective results as in the case for B company.
Their fundamental outline concentrate on converting the available resources in optimum levels to
bring feasibility and reliability among the targeted customers. For instance, Image Rating has
been not met as the investors’ expectations is 72 and the actual rating received was 75; however,
the EPS (Earnings per share) reached an astounding figure of 6.26$ from the expected investor's
3.50$.
Consequently, Porter's Five forces might be used to understand the performance metrics
and the overall productivity in terms of profits, revenues and business's success. There are five
forces which is useful in underlying the impact of its execution part. B company has identified
the industry's competition and utilised the internet marketing in wholesome manner which
supported in exceeding the results of the scoring measures like EPS, ROE etc. The competition is
medium and cut throat in seeking the higher sales and profits in order to achieve the expected
outcomes (Nair, Jayaram and Das, 2015). In lines with this, the threats of potential entrants
forced B company to be innovative and agile as well to maintain the user's interface friendly and
accessible. This has been clearly demonstrated on the Scorecard that out of 12 companies, B
company showed excellent services in context to the delivery and quality.
In continuation to the above forces, the next factor is threat to substitutes which is evident
in the BSG simulation and the cut throat competition. However, this focuses on B's company net
revenues which has been increased by approximately 1.10 %. It is also elucidated that the
performance of this company in comparison with other companies like FIRST CHOICE, Gaia,
Dogue and more was more consistent ad stable which helped in regaining its positioning in the
gamin sector. There is also a need to understand that power of suppliers ad power of customers
are both in strong demand to survive in any sector or industry, especially in the technology based
area (Vitasek, 2016). B's company performance was good in terms of their own expected
5

investors' perceptions. For e.g. 23 % was fixed but the actual ROE generated was 33.1 % and
suggested that their distribution and warehousing facilities has enhanced with focus on bringing
innovative ideas on the table through proper channels for brand promotion (Cassidy, 2016).
Power of customers are always the focus point to maintain the performance metrics and are
considered as the driving forces to bring significant alternations. These customers play pivotal
role in gaming zones and hold a powerful authority in channelizing the distribution channels and
controlling the demand and supply.
Therefore, power of supplies is interrelated with the power of customers and are
interdependent to satisfy the investors, shareholders, taskforce and in turn, this leads to
generating better expected outcomes among the existing and newly formed customer base
(Jarzabkowski and Kaplan, 2015). Along with this, these strategic management models and
concepts assisted B company to reach the specific product of BSG simulation in the most
proficient manner. Therefore, the strategies mentioned above on the basis of parameters like
branded production, internet marketing etc. shifted their expected results into better results.
Furthermore, there was high improvement in results which supported B company in getting
higher rating. They took strategic decision in improving their economic growth. Also, it has
enabled them to perform well in business game. Similarly, B company can improve their future
strategies. They can also make changes in other areas as well.
Another strategic idea that has been implemented is as follows :-
Lewin change management model – This model contains three steps which help in brining and
implementing change. Moreover, it becomes easy for organisation to apply change in their
structure. The three steps are as follows :-
 Unfreezing – In this step awareness is created that change is going to implement. It helps
employee in getting ready for change and making things easy. The employee starts
accepting change and communicate with each other regarding change. With this it
becomes easy to implement change. Similarly, B company also implemented change with
help of this step.
 Changing - this is next step in which process is described about how change will be
implemented. Here, time frame and strategies are developed. This support in
implementing change. A proper plan is developed which makes it easy in smooth process
of implementing change. It benefit in applying change in effective and systematic way.
6

 Refreezing - this is last step in which change is finally implemented into organisation. It
modifies structure, process, goals and objectives, etc. it makes it easy in accepting things.
Moreover, rewards are been given in order to implement change. It makes it easy for
employees to continue with change implementation.
CONCLUSION
It has been summarized that a blue print is essential in bringing robust strategic changes
at the organizational levels. This has shed light on the business simulation game (BSG) which is
based on attaining the vision, objectives and mission of the B company. Their management
established an integrated approach in projecting the revenues and profits on the basis of several
parameters like branded production, wholesale marketing, internet marketing, wholesale
marketing etc. These parameters highlighted the short and long term goals in developing the
BSG simulation for reaping benefits among the competitors at the marketplaces. Moreover, this
has analysed six supporting strategic and management models which helped in gaining insights
on applying the scoring measures and others. Additionally, it led foundational frameworks in
achieving the objectives and mission in the form of monetary measures by the company.
Moreover, it emphasized on overall analysis of blue print in effectual manner.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bianchi, C. and Tomaselli, S., 2015. A dynamic performance management approach to support
local strategic planning. International Review of Public Administration.20(4). pp.370-
385.
Bryson, J.M., 2018. Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to
strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. John Wiley & Sons.
Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. Auerbach
Publications.
Haines, S., 2016. The systems thinking approach to strategic planning and management. CRC
Press.
Jarzabkowski, P. and Kaplan, S., 2015. Strategy tools‐in‐use: A framework for understanding
“technologies of rationality” in practice. Strategic Management Journal.36(4).pp.537-
558.
Kerzner, H., 2019. Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project
management. Wiley.
Meckling, J., 2015. Oppose, support, or hedge? Distributional effects, regulatory pressure, and
business strategy in environmental politics. Global Environmental Politics, 15(2), pp.19-
37.
Mi, J., 2015. Blue ocean strategy. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, pp.1-1.
Nair, A., Jayaram, J. and Das, A., 2015. Strategic purchasing participation, supplier selection,
supplier evaluation and purchasing performance. International Journal of Production
Research.53 (20). pp.6263-6278.
Raghunath, S. and Rose, E.L. eds., 2016. International Business Strategy: Perspectives on
Implementation in Emerging Markets. Springer.
Vitasek, K., 2016. Strategic sourcing business models. Strategic Outsourcing: An International
Journal.9(2). pp.126-138.
Whittle, R. and Myrick, C.B., 2016. Enterprise business architecture: The formal link between
strategy and results. CRC Press.
Zakaria, N.S., Hashim, M.K. and Ahmad, S.A., 2016. Business strategy and performanceofsmes
in the manufacturing sector. International Journal in Management & Social
Science, 4(5), pp.254-261.
Online
Strategic planning models. 2016. [Online] Available through : <
https://www.clearpointstrategy.com/strategic-planning-models/>
8