The Business Strategy Game

Some of our MBA coursework is actually fun. I would put the Global Business Strategy Game (BSG) in that category. For the uninitiated, the BSG is a game where you and your team take on the role of managing a global footwear company and compete against your classmates for market share and try to meet various performance metrics. Although the class was a lot of work, it was pretty fun at the same time. The game is very detailed and you control total operations from materials purchase prices to production, distribution, warehousing, marketing, charitable giving etc. You are a publicly traded company so debt ratios, outstanding shares, and EPS are all factors that play into your companies stock price and overall performance. There is even an option to bid on celebrity endorsements against the other teams to give your market appeal an extra boost.

The game taught us many things but I think my biggest takeaway was how much your competitors dictate how you operate your company. We had a plan to make and market a specific type and quality of shoe at a certain price but quickly saw that we were competing in the same market segment as several other teams and we were cannibalizing each other's sales. Once we began to differentiate ourselves in the market we did much better as a company and our team ended up in the top half of the class. The game lets you tweak hundreds of choices so it's a difficult but fun learning curve as you try to guide your company toward greater profitability and seek to meet shareholder expectations. I'd love to play the game again using the knowledge I now have after fine tuning our strategy over the past 5 weeks. Click the link to check out the game The Business Strategy Game