Delta Hedge Fund Management: Simulator Experience Report & Reflection

The report details a student's experience with the Delta Hedge Fund Management simulator, focusing on the application of marketing strategies, financial decision-making, and teamwork dynamics to maximize shareholder value (SHV). The student reflects on the simulator's seven rollovers, analyzing the impact of decisions related to marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion), advertising expenditure, pricing strategies, and production efficiency on sales, profit margins, and market share. The report highlights the team's strategies, including aggressive marketing campaigns, brand promotion, and distribution channel diversification, while also identifying areas for improvement, such as the importance of increased advertising expenditure and better inventory forecasting. The reflection section discusses the team's dynamics, referencing Tuckman's stages of group development (forming, storming, norming, performing), the challenges faced in decision-making, and the student's role within the team, including the identification of action points to enhance future team performance.

Report and Reflection on Simulator Team Experience
Name
Date

Report: Delta Hedge Fund Management
Shareholder Value (SHV)
First Rollover
At this stage, the team wanted to popularize our product offering and and so it was decided that we
adopt a suitable marketing mix involving the product, price, place. The opening price was set at $
730 and the team decided to engage in a public relations exercise at a cost f $ 410000, to augment
the marketing effort, which was budgeted at $ 332500, for advertising on various media platforms,
including TV, magazines, and the Internet. The strategy was an aggressive marketing and public
relations campaign to create a hype on the product and attract new customers; with the budgets and
projections shown below;
The team wanted the brand to be recognized, realizing the value of a strong brand in attracting
customers and creating customer loyalty to the brand and $ 250000 was set for brand advertising.
For place in the marketing mix, the team sought a direct online selling approach, bypassing middle-
men, and set retail margins of 35%. the team planned to increase efficiency and quality as well, as
strategic decisions. The planned production was 16000 units, with foretasted sales of 18000 units
Results: The strategy paid off, with sales increasing and the company achieving healthy profit
margins., however, the team did not meet the sales targets and market share and the sales were
below the forecast target. At this point, the company was at the same level as the other competitors
in terms of shares, share prices, capacity, and sales, with each having a single product.
Rollover Two
At this stage, the team decided to focus on creating brand awareness through aggressive marketing
and pricing, with a decision to drop the prices slightly in order to get more customers on board. The

team more than doubled the advertising budget tp $ 950000, with PE expenditure at $ 450000;
foretasted sales was 21000 units, and we were to produce 17500 units. Brand advertising
expenditure was raised to $ 500000; the shot below shows the decisions taken;
Results: Despite lowering the prices and increasing advertising expenditure as well as PR
expenditure and efforts, the sales only rose marginally. However, we reasoned that the advertising
and PR expenditure was justified as the business was still young and we needed to aggressively
penetrate the market, gain market share, and attract and retain customers. To increase reach, a sports
store was added as one of our distribution channels. Our forecast efficiency was our undoing, at just
56% which led to a lot of unsold inventory, inventory has associated costs. We had committed much
less to advertising, compared to competitors, whose advertising expenditure tripled ours, at the very
least.
Rollover Three
The team continued the strategy of aggressive advertising and marketing, with a further slight
reduction in product prices, and the use of a mixed media approach to advertising as shown below;

Brand advertising expenditure was raised to $ 700000 with the sales channels and decisions on
improvement on quality and efficiency also being made, as depicted below;
Results: The sales continued to grow, although margins reduced to 33% as we lowered prices
slightly. The sales were not as good as we had planned for, and reasoned we should continue with
our aggressive advertising and brand promotion strategy with competitive pricing. Low advertising
and the media mix used led to low sales compared to competitors, whose sales tripled ours
Rollover Four
At this phase, the team decided not to increase expenditure on advertising and brand promotion;
these were retained at previous levels. However, a decision was made to enhance efficiency and
improve capacity, with quality products and as the new strategic decisions to move forward and
meet the sales targets, as depicted below;

We also sought to rationalize production as inventory was piling and yet the sales targets were not
met
Results: This strategy led to improvements in sales, and we saw a steadying in operating costs as
we did not increase advertising and promotion budgets. Investments in efficiency saw enhanced
profitability as sales improved, inventory reduced, and operating costs grew marginally
Rollover Five
The team sough to slightly lower advertising costs, and increased brand promotion by the same
margin; the strategy was to strengthen the brand as the team sought to diversify its distribution
channels to include bike shops and discount stores. The aim was to diversify the distribution
channels as a way of increasing sales, with quality and efficiency being the driving forces behind
the decision, as depicted below
Results : The business experienced increases in sales revenues and volumes, with improved
profitability as we sought to be more efficient.

Rollover Six
Because of increasing sales and growing demand, the team decided to increase capacity, with
increased production and sales targets. The team increased advertising and promotion expenditure,
with with greater investments in efficiency and quality improvement, given that the business sought
to have a differentiated product of high quality. The sales were not increasing as fast as we wanted
though, so prices were slashed, resulting in reduced margins; the team sought a strategy of selling at
a guaranteed low price fr the highest quality, borrowing from the Wal-Mart strategy, with the aim of
reaping from volume sales. The image below shows these decisions
Results: Per unit margins dropped; however, sales volumes increased, with efficiency strategy
paying off; profits also grew.
Rollover Seven
The previous decisions saw an increase in sales that was below target; with rolled over inventory,
the team reduced production and sales forecast, while more money was used in advertising and
brand promotion. The retail prices were maintained, with a greater media mix for the advertising
campaign, as shown below;

Results: Increased sales, although growth in profits and revenues were not as fast as desired
Rollover Eight
The results of the previous efforts were evaluated; the team managed to achieve a shareholder value
of $ 31.48 which put us at position 5 out of 6 in term s of absolute dollar values. The leading team
was Hi5 team with an SHV of $ 145.62, followed by CA Sports with a SHV of $ 141.67. The third
team was the Well-Being Group with a SHV of $ 135.44, followed by the Fire Wheels group in
position four with a SHV of $ 70.94. Delta hedge was position 5 and Bazoora was last with a SHV
of $ 6.97. Cumulatively, Delta Hedge Fund Management was still fifth with a cumulative SHV
change of 138%, the pack was again led by Hi5 team with a cumulative SHV change of 1207%.
Sales and Profit
In terms of sales, Delta hedge Fund management was fourth this time, with retail sales of $ 42.6
million, behind CA Sports with $ 54.4 million, Hi5 with $ 53.9 million, and Well Being Group with
$ 53 million. Delta also came in fourth in wholesale sales with $ 31.9 million, with a gross margin
of $ 17.4 million, which again put the team at position four. In terms of profit, the Delta Group
Hedge Management managed a net profit $ 3.7 million, putting the team at position five out of six
other firms.
Advertising Costs

To enhance customer satisfaction and support our distributors, the company was joint third I terms
of advertising expenditure which came to $ 6.4 million.
Where Improvements Could Be Made
Our main undoing was in spending much less in advertising; in comparison, the competition spent
on average three to four times what we spent on advertising. We assumed that our media channels
for advertising would reap maximum results from low expenditure. This was a mistake; we should
have used the Internet and social media more than traditional channels such as TV to aggressively
promote our product and brand. Better forecasting should have helped use manage inventory more
efficiently. Using principles such as Just in Time would have helped us rationalize inventory and
meet demand, without extra overheads.

Reflection Report
Introduction
Before undertaking the project as a team, the author first familiarized with the simulator through the
individual practice session to familiarize with how the simulator operates before running the
simulator as part of a team. The aim was to maximize shareholder value and customer satisfaction.
Working as a team has benefits and also challenges because individuals have different traits and
ways in which they work with others. This paper is a detailed reflective report on the team activity
and team dynamics while undertaking the simulation task as a team. The reflective report is done in
the context of the teamwork theory that posits that there are four distinctive stages in team
dynamics, starting with forming, followed by storming, then norming, and finally performing;
based on Truckman teamwork theory. This reflective report discusses how well it reflected in the
group (or otherwise) while undertaking the simulation project. After discussing the way the team
operated as a group, the report will identify three action points that can help with future group
activities to improve performance and team output.
Reflection
The teams were formed after doing the individual practice that helped the author familiarize with
the simulator and know what kinds of decisions needed to be made and when. While doing the
group activity, I experienced some stark changes, especially on decision making because during
some instances, people had different opinions and ideas on how to improve, and so we could not
come to an agreement on what to do. The team followed through based on the natural team working
theory; once the group was put together, we decided to allocate people roles, with an overall team
leader, a secretary to take notes during meetings, and other team members were given roles to be
recording the decisions made, and the outcomes of those decisions to help the team keep track of
what decisions were taken and help in making better decisions in future. At this point, based on the
team work theory, is the forming stage where the team members had not properly gelled
(Acemoglu, Arellano & Dekel, 2013). Naturally, there were some ‘power struggles’ within the team,
and a desire for each person to ‘exert their influence’ in the team, before we got down to serious
work.
I had been selected as the team secretary and would organize fr team meetings and take notes of the
proceedings of the team meetings. While this happened subconsciously at times, my understanding
of the forming stage in the team theory was that everyone was trying to find their own space and
establish their place within the team. The proceedings were characterized by people cutting others
short, or outrightly disagreeing with the opinions of the others, without really providing an
alternative. In some instances, I had to step I to resolve little things that were threatening team
harmony, as the team leader would sometimes be overwhelmed while trying to keep the team

together and keep things going. I have this tendency to be able to quickly understand people at a
deeper level and develop a means by which to handle them, and this came in handy.
At one point the team meeting when we were setting our time table and frequency within which we
had to meet, the disagreements were so many that I had to tell everyone that each persons opinion
was valuable and not necessarily wrong or right but just a perspective. At the end of the meeting, I
had an idea about the strengths and weaknesses about the team members; apparently I did not fully
understand my weaknesses at that point! At the end, I realize, to my surprise that I was interfering
with what the team leader ought to have been doing, which is aligning the team with the goals of the
team and the project. Further, sometimes I have a tendency to not express myself very clearly, so I
realized I should not have intervened unless invited to. I am also good at reading body language and
I was able to understand that the expressed body language was generally ‘tense’. However, I
understood this as the forming stage and these were expected reactions and experiences among the
team members. We agreed to go review the objectives, develop ideas individually and then have
another meeting where everyone would have a chance to give their ideas.
During the second meeting during our planning phase, everyone was given time to discuss their
points of view and give their opinion without being interrupted while I patiently took notes, this
time without interjecting. Once all points had been given, we discussed each persons’ points one by
one and evaluated their pros and cons, including on team roles and individual responsibility in the
team. During and after this meeting, when the team came up with resolutions and how to proceed
with the project, there was less tension and ‘infighting’ as happened in the first meeting. People felt
their ideas and opinions were valued and so they felt a deeper part of the team. This, based on the
team work theory, implies that the storming process in team dynamics had started happening. This
is the stage where people see themselves as being part of a team, although the team had not fully
gelled (Acemoglu, Arellano & Dekel, 2013). One of the members even challenged the suitability of
the team leader in leading our group, partly stemming from their not so rosy engagements during
the initial meeting.
Again, this to me was a natural process when people still challenge one another, even as they now
realize that there are members of a team. At one point I was so irked that I responded to him with
very unkind words and went on for almost half a minute. At the end of the meeting, still the team
had not gelled; I could see the chemistry was still not the best for a well functioning team. I noticed
that subsequent meetings when we started the simulator and other teams were overtaking us, that
conflicts and disagreements increased, rather than subsiding as I had hoped. Because of constant
disagreements, arguments, and personal differences, the performance of the team in the simulator
suffered, and this only served to further people’s frustrations. Based on the team work theory, such
events are expected during the storming stage, and it showed in our performance. The team was not

focused at all on the task, and even I felt very frustrated. Because of these challenges, the team
leader called for a bonding meeting where we did not discuss anything to do with the group
assignment (simulation); instead we discussed current events and had pizza together and just made
jokes, without discussing about the project, even when some team members tried to raise the issue.
After a nice evening with the team, we decided to have another meeting in three days time, where
we would decide on the best way to move forward with the simulator project.
During this meeting, the team members were more mellow and I could feel the team gelling; in
hindsight, I realized that the team leaders’ idea to have the team come together and not engage in
any thing related to the team task was a masterstroke. I realized that I had been wrong to judge him,
albeit in silence, that he was not capable of successfully leading the team to achieve success.
Subsequent meetings where decisions had to be made based on out team task were more productive,
and there was a sense of unity of purpose and cooperation, with people realizing that we were all in
this together, the success of the team would translate into individual effort, and not the other way
round when even I thought that the success of the individuals would lead to the team ultimately
succeeding. According to the stages identified in team work theory, this is the norming phase, when
members of a team begin coming together emotionally and psychologically; processes are
developed and better ground rules are set (Halverson, 2008). The next team meeting was
particularly successful because the individual roles had were better clarified and the subsequent
sessions saw a greater togetherness of the team.
Having realized that we had to cooperate together to achieve the vest scores from the simulation,
the team set about making the best managerial decisions with everyone focused on being the best
team. There was greater synergy in the team with people willing to take the back seat when they felt
their ideas were not being beneficial to the team. The team was more effective, and according to the
team theory, the team had reached the performing stage when people place greater focus on the
tasks ahead and work together, effectively (Halverson, 2008). In a way, even the challenges the
team experienced was a form of evolution of a team, like an artwork that starts with a white canvas,
and slowly develops into a finished masterpiece. The team work and my experiences opened up my
eyes to new insights and how to operate in groups; eventually, it will gel together and the team will
perform effectively. However, in retrospect, I feel there are we got wrong and should improve on, fr
better performance in future, specifically on how to build teams, how to resolve conflicts, and
effective communication channels and skills.
Areas for Improvement
Team building techniques
When building the team, we started on the wrong footing; roles were allocated arbitrarily, rather
than by letting every individual understand what was required and identify their roles and decide

what roles best suited them. We did not clearly set the objectives, perhaps on the assumption that
since everyone had used the simulator individually, then everyone understood what was required.
While we knew about the task, we were not clear on the team objectives and goals, and that
explains the initial disagreements and lack of cohesion. Looking back, I now understand that team
forming requires a better understanding of the team objective and goals, even in written form, and
letting each team member volunteer to do a certain task based on their strengths. Having an
objective would have helped use better understand the team roles and help us gel faster.
Conflict resolution mechanism
This is an area where there is a lot of room for improvement; we did not decide on how the team
will operate in terms of resolving conflicts. Conflict resolution mechanisms are essential in teams
because it s never if conflicts will arise, but when they will arise (Lencioni, 2013). Having a
mechanism for effective conflict resolution greatly helps in managing conflicts and egos that are
normal with teams and ensuring the team remains focused. There are times when even I felt that I
should maybe join another group, or that I cannot work with certain team embers; but because we
lacked a mechanism for conflict resolution, this became a very serious hurdle, until the team leader
decided to have a bonding meeting where we did not discuss any work tasks. In hindsight, we
should have had a more progressive team forming and development activities; the bonding meeting
should have happened before we got to undertaking the simulator assignment, rather than in the
middle of the task.
Effective communication skills and channels
Communication happened, but looking back, it was neither effective, nor were there formal
communication channels. Especially when conflicts arose everyone was jostling to take the
initiative in resolving it/ them, and the result was greater conflicts and disagreements. Everyone
sought to impose their ideas, believing they were right, and we had everyone interrupting everyone
resulting in greater conflict. However, after having the bonding meeting, we set out a mechanism by
which to communicate. For instance, at one point, everyone had a chance to talk and no one was
allowed to interject, even if they had strong reasons to interrupt. This helped the team get ahead,
however, I feel it was a case of a too little, too late; as our performance showed, other teams were
able to perfo4m much better than out team because we started doing the fundamental right things
when it was too late and after wasting a lot of time disagreeing and fighting, because we did not
have a well defined team objective, we did not form the team effectively, and we had no means for
conflict resolution, or defined communication methods and channels.

References Used
Acemoglu, D., Arellano, M., & Dekel, E. (2013). Advances in Economics and Econometrics. Tenth
World Congress Vol. 1 Vol. 1. New York, N.Y., Cambridge University Press.
Halverson, C. B. (2008). Effective multicultural teams theory and practice. Berlin , Springer.
Lencioni, P. M. (2013). Overcoming the five dysfunctions of a team: a field guide for leaders,
managers, and facilitators. San Francisco, Calif, Jossey-Bass.