discussion response
Nandik1472
Discussion99.docxDid your team develop a cohesive business strategy before embarking on completing the entries for your decision rounds? How well developed was that strategy? (Note: Don't give away the details of your strategy if you plan to use that for future decision rounds).
Yes, our team managed to develop a cohesive business strategy after we all sat down together and assigned specific areas to each member of the team. After that we all basically worked as a team until we figured out (for the most part) how changes in one are altered previous changes in another area. In the end we all just sat down together and worked through each page as a unit.
Did your team focus on ensuring your decisions would attain all five of the key goals the board set for your firm (EPS, ROE, Credit Rating, Image Rating, Stock Price)? How did these goals impact your strategy decisions? If you didn't attempt to achieve meeting or exceeding in all 5 metrics, which ones did you knowingly sacrifice on and why?
Yes, definitely. It was hard to juggle the key goals as we implemented our strategy. It was kind of a ‘catch 22’ in such that our strategy would initially hurt our stock price and image rating. With that being said we chose to implement a strategy during the practice round in hopes of better understanding the outcome beforehand for the ‘real’ game.
How well did you actually implement your strategies? Did things turn out as you expected? If not, what types of things went wrong and why do you think they went wrong?
To be honest, our plan actually backfired and we had to significantly change our approach for year 12. We were led to believe our strategy would have worked if more aspects of the game had been ‘unlocked’ and not just practice. I guess we will find out.
What were the key changes you made to your strategies and decision entries after your Year 11 results were posted? Did you change your strategy? If, so, why? Did you change the way in which you were trying to execute your strategy? If so, how?
The key changes we made in our strategy were the way we began to base our moves around the cost changes in supplies and changes other company’s made. By doing this we ended up changing our strategy significantly due to our plan not going as anticipated in the previous year.
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Discussion 2
1. Yes, our team developed a cohesive business strategy before embarking on completing the entries for Practice Round 1. We decided that we would use strategies 2 and 5 as guidelines. It seemed to make more sense to produce and sell as many shoes as possible rather than finding a niche or attempting to be a high-end brand. That said, our strategy had to change from Practice Round 1 to Practice Round 2 after a less than stellar Practice Round 1.
2. In Practice Round 1, our team focused more on the player’s guide that the five key goals. The idea we initially had was that the five key goals may start less than great in the early years but would eventually come around if we were following what the player’s guide suggested. When our team came in last place in Practice Round 1, we decided that while the player’s guide was a good guide to refer to when needed, our focus should turn to the five key factors, which it did.
3. I think we implemented our strategies well each round. However, the strategies and results were drastically different. We discussed a strategy prior to Practice Round 1 and we executed it. Our results were very poor. We had to pivot and we discussed a new strategy prior to Practice Round 2 that we also executed with much better results.
4. Without knowing the changes the other teams made, I would venture to say that our team had to make the biggest changes between practice rounds. We finished in last place (and it wasn’t close) after Practice Round 1. After Practice Round 2, our team moved up to second place. We shifted our focus from what we thought the player’s guide was suggesting we do for each section and, instead, focused on the five key goals.
Thanks,
Joe Lensbower
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