Business Strategy Game Reflective Report: Module Analysis & Strategy

This report presents a comprehensive reflection on a student's experience with the Business Strategy Game (BSG). The report begins with an introduction to the BSG, highlighting its simulation of the athletic footwear market and the competitive landscape. It outlines the student's team's vision, mission, and corporate objectives, including cost reduction, brand reputation improvement, value addition to products, effective human resource management, and marketing strategies. The report then delves into the situational analysis, encompassing macroeconomic factors (PESTLE), industry analysis (Porter's Five Forces), and the team's chosen generic strategy and strategic group (focus strategy). The implementation of the marketing strategy is discussed, with an emphasis on the alignment of simulation with learning objectives. The report provides detailed insights into the team's strategic decisions, their rationale, and the outcomes achieved within the simulated business environment. The analysis includes specific actions taken in different years of the game, such as decisions related to production, shipping, pricing, advertising, and human resource management. The report concludes with a summary of the team's key strategies and their impact on the company's performance.

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 1
Business Strategy Game
Course
Professor
Institution
City and State
Date

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 2
Business Strategy Game
Introduction
The learning experience is significantly changing following the introduction of computer
simulation games like a business strategy game. In this game, students are divided into different
teams and assigned tasks to run an athletic footwear company in head-to-head competition
against a similar company run by other class members. In real life, this can be compared to Nike
and Adidas which are some of the major athletic footwear companies in the world. Using the
example of these multinational companies, Students in groups can simulate to be members of
Nike and others as members of Adidas. In this case, the students will assume to belong to Nike
and Adidas and compete to make their individual companies succeed or gain a competitive
advantage over the other. This game reflects the real-life competition of footwear companies.
When conducting this online exercise the students learn about risk-taking especially when
developing their competitive strategies in each decision period. BSG provides learners with a
live case situation where they observe circumstance or events change as the game continues
(Thompson & Stappenbeck, 1999 p. 6). Students are directly involved and they have to make
strategic decisions for their company to run competitively and profitably.
The global athletic footwear market is competitive and beneficial to the sports industry
and generally to the lives of people (Boies, Lvina, and Martens, 2011 p.12) Globally, people
wear shoes or sandals to improve their lives and at the same time to cushion themselves against
risks that come with walking bare feet. This is being a crucial market, students can have an
experience of selling products they are consumers. Nevertheless, during the game as team

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 3
members we organized, planned and coordinated effectively. Essentially, when running the BSG
strategic decisions which are equivalent to those made in real companies were made.
Vision and mission statements plus corporate objectives
We fully understood that for our company to operate and remain competitive, we needed
to make strategic decisions on vision, mission, and corporate objectives. In my vivid
recollection, the vision statement created for the company to read “to give customers the most
compelling and unique online shopping experience.”For the mission statement, “it read to inspire
healthier communities by giving the most impressive and excellent shoes.” The mission and
vision statement played a crucial role in shaping our decisions and guiding our operations as a
company. Equally, we had to align the mission and vision of the company to the corporate
objectives of our company. The objectives were:
To reduce costs by avoiding shipping from North America to Asia
This route was expensive and as a business, it was crucially essential to avoid
unnecessary expenses. Businesses need financial prudence or cost leadership to allow them to
operate on low costs while maximizing profits. As a team, we had to evaluate the possible ways
of reducing our overhead costs. Notably, in year 16 as a company, we registered a loss of 83 in
the wholesale segment under the comparative competitive efforts. When a company registers a
negative, it is always prudent to look at possible areas that could be contributing to such a
situation.
To improve the brand reputation of the company by investing in advertising

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An organization that seeks to gain a competitive advantage should consistently strive to
better its brand image through consistently and compelling advertising. Since our operations
were online, we had to improve the internet segment by allocating US$10,000 for Company A.
Increasing the advertising spending to some considerable increases online presence of an
organization. Through increased advertising, our company aimed at boosting its performance and
its returns on equity. In the digital era, for the operations of a company to be efficient, the
organization should aggressively boost its internet advertising.
To achieve the greatest competitive advantage in the athletic footwear market by adding value to
its product
As a company, the team had to put more efforts into adding value to the footwear the
company was dealing in. In year 15, our company’s “production needed to meet the values for
the retailers. Retailers can only buy products from the company if they have added value which
can attract consumers. To improve the values, we had to make some strategic decisions related to
how we were going to improve organizational operations. As a result, activities such as include
effective supply chain, and manufacturing were keenly undertaken. In addition, we also believed
that for the operations of a company to be efficient, the company had to ensure proper utilization
of raw materials and other resources (Fleisher, and Bensoussan, 215, n.p). Also, our company
adhered to the legal rules and regulations so as to avoid distractions from the government that
could have affected our efforts to add value to our products.
To manage human resource effectively to spur cooperation

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In year 13, the company had aimed at success in the private market label and improving
the improving working conditions. This demonstrated the intentions of the company to have a
productive workforce that will cooperate to enable the organization to succeed. To achieve this,
our company made a strategic decision based on human resource management. Human resource
management has a variety of functions including recruiting, selecting, training and placing of
new staff members and improving working conditions (Noe et al, 2017). An organization
operates effectively if the human resource is available and the work environment is favorable. In
essence, our team was full and efficiently performed its activities. As company employees, we
were motivated and had high morale to perform our duties to enable the company to operate
optimally (Collings, Wood, and Szamosi, 2018, p. 21). Further, our team concentrated on
increasing the output of production and improves the quality of footwear to make the company
more appealing and competitive. It is in my belief that the company shares performed well in
most of the time due to our cooperation as a team.
In the same vein, as a company, we made strategic decisions related to marketing. The
marketing decisions we made included decisions entailing product promotion and advertisement.
The company used celebrity endorsement where it bet for LaBron Game for 2500000 in the year
14. The main aim of product promotion and advertisement was to increase sales and profitability
(Parnel, 2016, n.p). The revenue and profits of the organization increase immediate sales after
the sales rise.
Situational Analysis
Macroeconomic analysis-environmental scanning

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 6
In the PESTLE outlook of the company shows that it is operating in a favorable business
environment. In terms of political factors, the company runs in an environment without political
interference. However, as an organization, the government imposes some taxation. In terms of
economic factors, the business is affected by foreign exchange rates. These rates affected the
revenues the company generated from Europe-Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Based on
social factors, the demographics we served was composed of young adults with a substantial
income. These youths were in their early years of career, and ready to spend some money on
athletic footwear shoes.
In terms of technology, the company operates in a well-sophisticated environment.
Maintaining the website and digital marketing requires a superior application of social media
technology. There are various forms of marketing strategies that can be applied in order to
increase the sales of the company. In modern days, social media is one of the best platforms for
advertising the products of the company (Parnel, 2016, n.p). TV and magazines can also be used
to advertise the products of a company, however, we employed in most cases social media
technology. Through social media, we engaged in promotion by creating appealing ads that
could attract huge sales. Through advertising and sales promotion our company was able to
increase sales and inform customers about our products (Wang, Yang and Gao, 2016).
In legal factors, we complied with rules and regulations that govern the business
environment. We protected our consumers and labeled our products properly to show our
commitment to respect the legal environment in which our company operates. In addition, we
observed environmental factors like climate change. We had to manufacture shoes that are

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 7
environmentally friendly as one way of curbing climate change. Our global supply chain was
equally managed effectively to reduce environmental pollution.
Industry and Sector Analysis
M.E. Porter’s Five Forces
Competitive rivalry- The competitive rivalry was high in the market. The industry 2 scorecard
highlighted companies such as EPICH, HiTech, G-Active among others. This demonstrates how
competitive the footwear industry is. In this, a situation like this one, what is key is strategizing
on how to gain a competitive edge. The competitive rivalry guided our decision making and that
is why we were able to make headway in the industry.
Customers/buyer- the customers in the athletic footwear market have a high power that can
price down the products we were dealing with. An online customer is informed and
knowledgeable enough to make decisions. Equally, our customers are people that understand the
pricing of shoes and therefore we needed to reduce overhead costs that would have forced us to
review the prices upwards.
Power of supplier- the suppliers in the athletic footwear industry is less powerful and as a
company, we could replace those that are not efficient and proactive. When a business has
control over suppliers, a company will have an efficient supply chain. Therefore, during the BSG
we were not worried about the suppliers because we had them under our control.
New entrants- the athletic footwear industry is open to any investor or trader. Any person that
is interested in this market can gain entry. With the high potential of new entrants, we had to
keep a foothold on our market share to counter new entrants.

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 8
Threats of substitutes- the footwear products that we were dealing had close substitutes. They
could easily be replaced, but we had to strategize on how to maintain our market share. Our
company provided good leadership and that is why we were able to deal with several challenges
that could make us lose our market share.
Generic Strategy; Strategic Groups
Our company used a focus strategy, which only targeted athletic footwear buyers. This is
a niche market where customers fully appreciate the products we offered. Ideally, it was the
focus strategy that enabled as to earn customer loyalty.
Implementation of the Marketing Strategy
The group applied strategies that helped our virtual footwear company more competitive
as compared to others. In order to win the business strategy game, our team members were aware
and informed of the levels of the game and its complexity. Our strategies provided us an
opportunity to improve the competitive advantage of the company and make it achieve greater
market share thus increasing its revenue and income.
In our strategies, we aligned the simulation with the learning objectives of the class on
items such as taxation, marketing logistics, transfer pricing, and operation, HR among others.
The leader will first determine the learning objectives and apply simulations as a means of
achieving the objectives (Magnuson and Good, 2017). Alignment can be made certain with brief-
play activities and the sessions being held after every round of the strategy game.
In implementing the marketing strategy we introduced complexity each step at a time. In
our belief, understanding how to play the game put us in a better position to market our products

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 9
strategically. The business strategy game can be complex for the students. Introducing the
complex tasks each step at a time makes the students understand what is expected of them very
quickly (Magnuson and Good, 2017, n.p). Module simulation options will enable the instructor
to explain the decisions effectively and also determine the complexity level of the simulation.
The complexity of the simulation games enables the student to also learn about other complex
systems. Ideally, after learning the game, implemented our marketing strategy tactically.
Fundamentally, when the students find that the tasks or levels are very difficult, they will
be discouraged to participate in the simulation game. They will lack the motivation for learning
and engaging in the game. The complexity of a game depends on a variety of factors including
the level of education of participants, the age of the individual, experience with the game and
culture (Valdeza et al, 2015, p. 14). Introducing the complex steps one point at a time will allow
the participants to get motivated in taking part in the game as their understanding capacities will
be increased.
In our marketing strategy, we focused on knowing competitors that the group will work
with. This is important for the group to know what to expect when it comes to the class. By
knowing the competitors, it will be easier for the group members to identify the strategies that
the competitors will apply (Markulis, Nugent and Strang, 2016). It is important to determine
factors such as the prices of the competitors and other decisions that they have made. Knowing
the prices of the competitors enabled us to our group members to set reasonable prices to make
our company more competitive than that of their competitors (Barney, 2015).
We implemented our marketing strategy with a focus on increasing the probability of our
company. Profit is the most important factor as it determines the overall performance of the

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 10
organization (Vos, 2015, p. 51). If marketing strategies will boost profit, the group will focus
more on marketing strategies as compared to other strategies so as to increase the market share
and competitive advantage of the company.
In addition, in our team, each member in our group had to know his or her task and obtain
the necessary information that will help in accomplishing the tasks (Markulis, Nugent and
Strang, 2016). This was destined to improve teamwork and eliminate conflict (Hun et al, 2018, p.
162). Issues of accountability were made easier and individuals knew what was required of them.
Each member tried to perform his or her best so as to improve the performance of the group.
Additionally, the group the Belbin's team roles strategy to assign each of the members the roles
needed to be played (Gander et al, 2017, p. 277).
One of the team roles that were assigned in the group was an investigator of resources.
This involved looking for useful ideas that can be applied and brings them to the group. This role
required a member that was outgoing and a person good at creating and developing networks
(Eubanks et al, 2016, p. 256). In essence, we worked as one strong and determined team and that
facilitated us to accomplish our goals.
In addition, the coordinator role was assigned to one of the members who reached out to
public figures for celebrity endorsement of our products. A coordinator is responsible for
ensuring that every operation assigned should be related to the goals and objective of the group.
Coordinating role requires an individual that is able to identify the objectives of the group and an
individual that can effectively work with other members of the group. Other roles that we
assigned to the team members to facilitate the implementation of the marketing strategy included
specialists, implementers, and shapers (Eubanks et al, 2016, p. 256).

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 11
Recommendations for Future Strategy -milestones and leadership
In recommendation, we suggested that in future the group should use a differentiation
strategy. This strategy helps a team differentiate its products in a competitive market like the
footwear one. The group should always conduct a strategy evaluation to analyze if the strategy
selected will make the group obtain the desired results. The strategy is analyzed in terms of its
effectiveness and the resources that a business can obtain through it. In the future, the members
of the group will determine the type of strategy that works best and which can be prioritized.
During the strategic evaluation, the group will consider the impact of the strategies on the results
that will be produced (Vos, 2015, p. 51). The impact could be negative, positive or there could be
no impact at all.
Conclusion
Business simulation games not only enable students to develop strategic planning
experiences but also effective decision-making skills. Students get informed on the importance
of teamwork and know how to cooperate with each other even after the simulation games.
Making group decision will depend on various factors of the virtual organization. The
organization's goals and objectives must be considered while making decisions. The ethical
standards and the culture of the company should also be considered. The decisions that can be
made in the simulation game relate to human resource management, marketing, operations of the
organization, pricing strategies, operating costs and competitive strategy of the company. The
selected option among the variety of decisions is a competitive strategy. This decision aligns
with the goals of the organization of achieving the greatest competitive advantage in the market.
The team members are required to perform their tasks effectively before and during the

BUSINESS STRATEGY GAME 12
simulation games (Hernandez et al, 2018, n.p). The strategies discussed relate to how the team
will successfully participate in the simulation game in relation to its decision to achieving the
greatest competitive advantage
References