Project 3

Project Management Plan: Quebec City Store Opening

Step 5: Make Your Decisions

Your team is now ready to help MediCorp compete in the genetic testing device industry by making strategic decisions through the Capsim platform. Your decisions will direct four calendar years of your client’s operations. On December 31 of each year in your simulation, Capsim will produce a report that reflects the results of your decisions. Your team will use these reports to make further decisions for the following calendar year. First, consult your Round 0 Report to understand the starting position of MediCorp’s business. Use  How to Find Reports in Capsim to locate the Round 0 Report and reports for all subsequent rounds. Then, begin making decisions for your client, consulting Capsim: A Systematic Approach to Making Strategic Decisions for direction.

Tips

· Teams should make their decisions in the following order: (1) R&D, (2) marketing, (3) production, and (4) finance. In this simulation, your team is unlikely to be successful if it makes decisions in a different sequence. However, coordination between the four areas during all decisions is also critical, and you may have to revisit decisions based on input from other departments.

· For your own benefit, it is advisable to individually take notes on the decision-making process, which may help you analyze your team’s results later in this project.

Fill out a Capsim Decision Record at the conclusion of each round for each of the four functions, R&D, Marketing, Production and Finance. This document will serve as a record of your thoughts and decisions in each of the functional areas.  

Proceed to the next step for more information on finalizing your team’s decisions.

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Project Management Plan: Quebec City Store Opening

Step 1: Prepare for Group Work

Jillian emails you and your teammates with instructions on how to approach expectations, roles, and the division of labor on the MediCorp project. You will work on the same teams as in the previous project.

INBOX: 1 New Message

Subject:  MediCorp Project Work Plan From:      Jillian Best, CEO, MCS To:           You and Teammates

Hi all, My thanks to each of you for getting up to speed on this project. It looks like we’re now ready to hit the ground running. The members of this team have a wide range of skills and interests, and I want to leverage our strengths the best we can. As we work with MediCorp, you will be assuming various roles to suit the client’s needs. Thanks in advance for your willingness to remain adaptable and to work together. As you get underway, please review the attached Guidance on Teamwork document for information on managing roles and responsibilities for this project, and fill out your team work plan, which is linked from the Guidance on Team Work document.

I will be in touch with more details soon.

Thanks again,

Jillian

Attachments:

Guidance on Teamwork

When you have completed your team work plan, the team coordinator will post it to the group’s discussion area. This work plan applies to both Project 3 and Project 4. Then proceed to Step 2, where you will discuss industry analysis with your colleagues.

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Project Management Plan: Quebec City Store Opening

Step 2: Discuss Your Industry Analysis

Discussion

An understanding of  industry structure  and  industry analysis  will be critical for making informed decisions for MediCorp. Therefore, Jillian Best has convened a discussion about these two topics to prepare your team for the work ahead.

Based, on your readings, respond to at least one main topic by Saturday midnight; respond to the second main topic and a minimum of two posts from your classmates (at least one in each topic) by Tuesday midnight of Week 5.

Discussion Topic 1: What industry sectors tend to be better performers? Why? How may Covid-19 lead to growth in certain sectors and decline of other sectors that will have to ‘re-invent’ themselves to make them competitive? You may pick a sector from healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, manufacture, IT, or transport.

Discussion Topic 2: Select any company from the Standard & Poor's 500. Select one or more activities in the company’s value chain that would be candidates for relocation to another country. Provide a brief justification and examine the challenges you see in coordinating the global value chain after the proposed value-chain activities of your chosen company are set up in the new country.

Review the  MBA Discussion Guidelines  for instructions on participation in discussions. Also, abide by the following guidelines:

· The titles of your main postings should indicate the discussion topic number (e.g., #1, #2).

· In your discussions, cite examples when you describe theories from your reading and research. You may use examples from your organization or industry, current or recent newsmakers, or other reliable sources.

After the discussion, proceed to the next step, where you will learn more about your client and the scope of your consultant agreement.

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Capsim Decision Record

Directions: This document is intended to help you record your thoughts as you apply your team’s chosen strategy through the rounds in Capsim. The notes you take here will be useful for your final analysis. Find your assigned department below. Listed in each department are the action items given in Capsim: A Systematic Approach to Making Strategic Decisions.

Explain your decisions for each action item in your department. Be sure to update this form after each round and evaluate your prior decisions.

Chosen strategy:

Research and Development

· Speed

· Example: For round 1, because my team chose a local niche differentiator strategy, I did not increase speed. Right now, speed seems to be in a good spot on the perceptual map. Next round, if the sweet spot changes more than 1 point, we might need to spend some money to improve speed.

· Round 2, the spot on the round 2 perceptual map shifted but not enough (less than 1 point). So, we saved some money by not unnecessarily updating the speed. I’ll keep it at this speed for one more round and see where this product is on the perceptual map.

· Accuracy

· Service Life

Marketing

· Regions Selected for Sales

For each region selected:

· Price

· Promotional Budget

· Sales Budget

· Forecast

Production

· Plant Location

· Order

· Capacity

· Automation

Finance

· Borrow

· Issue (Borrow)

· Retire

· Issue

· Buy Back

· Issue Dividend

Project Management Plan: Quebec City Store Opening

Step 3: Research Client Needs and Project Scope

INBOX: 1 New Message

Subject:   Capsim Documentation for Project Preparation From:       Jillian Best, CEO, MCS To:            You and Teammates

Hello, I trust you have all completed the project work plan. We need to get down to business now. First, I’d like to share three resources that will help us all understand our client’s current needs and their preferred processes, all of which will substantially shape how we approach our work. First, familiarize yourself with some critical background information on our client by reading the MediCorp, Inc. client brief attached to this email. Then read the User Guide, which will help orient you to several areas of working in Capsim:

· market segments

· region outlines

· business environment

· strategy implementation

· decision making

Finally, read the Market Conditions Report. This document will help you understand MediCorp’s customers from a few angles:

· positioning

· segment sizes and growth rates

· pricing analysis

· customer buying criteria

· regional operating costs

· currency exchange rates

Right now, we’re focused on gathering information and understanding MediCorp’s business as best we can. Then we’ll start developing a strategy to help direct this client’s business. Best, Jillian

Attachments:

MediCorp Client Brief User Guide Market Conditions Report

After reviewing the materials Jillian sent you, proceed to Step 4 to decide on a strategy that will direct your guidance for MediCorp.

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Project Management Plan: Quebec City Store Opening

Step 8: Analyze Your Team’s Decisions and Results

INBOX: 1 New Message

Subject:  Report From:      Jillian Best, CEO, MCS To:           You

Hello, I think it’s time to take a step back and assess the direction of our work with this client. I need you to write an analysis that (1) describes the decisions your team made in Rounds 1–4 and the results of those rounds and (2) interprets how your decisions influenced the results. I’m looking for an eight- to ten-page analysis that answers some key questions about the influence of the decisions you made for MediCorp. Please use the attached template and have the report ready for me by the end of the week. Type your answers directly in the template. Thanks for your hard work, Jillian

Attachments:

Project 3 Analysis Questions

Dupont Formula ROE

You have now finished working with your team on implementing a local strategy for MediCorp. At this point you will transition into an individual role of an analyst for MCS. Each person on the team will do his or her own analysis of results without any consultation with other team members or with students on other teams.

Submit an analysis of Rounds 1 through 4 of the simulation by answering the questions provided in the Project 3 Analysis Questions template. Your report should be eight to ten pages (approximately 250 to 300 words per question), double spaced, excluding cover page. Any tables, graphs, and figures should be included in the body of your answers. Your report should have one-inch margins and be double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. In-text citations and references should abide by APA format. Do not delete the questions as you complete the template.

Along with your analysis, submit your Team Decision Record. Thus, you will submit two files to the dropbox located in the final step of this project.

The next step provides recommended delivery dates and file-naming protocols for Project 3 deliverables.

 

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Project Management Plan: Quebec City Store Opening

Step 4: Decide on a Local Strategy

Video supplied by Creatas Video+ / Getty Images.

Your team will make strategic recommendations for and provide consulting advice to MCS’s client, MediCorp, which designs, manufactures, and sells genetic testing devices. You will make decisions in four functional departments: R&D, marketing, production, and finance.

It is important for MediCorp to tailor their R&D, marketing, and sales efforts to specifically reach the segment of the market most likely to buy their genetic testing devices. The success of MediCorp depends on the ability to tailor their products to meet their customer’s needs and desires. In conducting a  target market analysis , it is essential to ask the right questions before settling on a company-wide strategy.

One aspect of target market analysis will involve an  evaluation of opportunities for international expansion . In which country should MediCorp locate their factory? Where will the genetic testing devices be sold? Currently, the United States, Germany, and China are being considered. If MediCorp decides to follow a local strategy, they will focus on a single country for their entire business. Not only will they locate their factory in this country, they will also make genetic devices that meet the preferences of customers in the country. On the other hand, if MediCorp adopts a global strategy, they will need to make corresponding decisions about factory location and marketing operations. A global strategy must also account for country tariffs and intercountry shipment costs, among other country-specific criteria.

A systematic approach to choosing an  international strategy  is highly recommended for a company like MediCorp. Until a strategy is chosen and implemented, the company will continue to follow a “sales approach” with the main objective of simply growing sales in the chosen market or markets.

Your team will need to select a strategy to guide its decisions for MediCorp. Review all  eight strategies in Capsim  before making a team decision.

Your team will pick one of the four  local strategies and use the same local strategy for four rounds in this project. In Project 4, your team will pick one of the four global strategies and use that global strategy for all four rounds in that project. No two teams can use the same strategy in the same project.

Reserve your team’s choice of local strategy for Project 3 in the Strategy Selection discussion area by 11:59 ET on Tuesday of Week 4. Strategies will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Then continue to the next step, where you will apply your strategy to make key decisions for MediCorp.

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Project Management Plan: Quebec City Store Opening

Step 9: Submit Your Work

Take note of the recommended delivery dates and file-naming protocols in the following table:

Steps	Deliverable
Step 2	Team work plan
Step 3	Industry analysis discussion
Step 8	Individual contribution
Step 9	· Project 3 analysis questions

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Project Management Plan: Quebec City Store Opening

Step 6: Save Your Decisions

When your team is satisfied with its decisions, the team coordinator will ensure that the final decisions have been saved for all four functional areas. Your Round 1–4 results will be available immediately after the round is processed as per the deadline in the table below.

Project 3 Decision Deadlines
Round	Deadline
Project 3 Round 1	8 p.m. ET on Thursday of Week 5
Project 3 Round 2	8 p.m. ET on Saturday of Week 5
Project 3 Round 3	8 p.m. ET on Monday of Week 5
Project 3 Round 4	8 p.m. ET on Wedensday of Week 6

Classes in Europe and Asia will follow the schedule set by their faculty.

Only one set of decisions needs to be made by each team. All team members will have access to the decision areas for all other members. You only need to make decisions for your assigned area, but you can see what decisions other team members are making, if needed. For example, before making decisions in marketing, where you have a primary role, you can click the R&D tab to see what decisions have been made.

When you are done, be sure to select File, then Save Decisions from the dropdown menu when you are done, or else your team members will not be able to see your decisions. You must select Save Decisions and exit Capsim before your teammates can view your decisions. If you decide that you need to make a change, you can make the necessary adjustments to your decisions and select File and Save Decisions once again to overwrite the previously saved decisions. Choose Exit to return to the Participant Dashboard.

Once a round is processed, you can then begin to make decisions for the next round. If you miss the deadline, your round will be processed with the decisions from the past round, unchanged, or with any partial decisions your team has made.

After Round 4, your team role ends, and you will begin your individual analysis of the decision-making process spanning the past four rounds and the outcome of those decisions.

Proceed to the next step to begin analyzing your contribution to your team as well as your team’s results.

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