Postgraduate Enginuity Competition 2017

Introduction

©Virtual Management Simulations

 The Task
It is the beginning of 2017.

A UK-based global construction business that has only been in

existence for one year needs a new management team to run the
company for the foreseeable future.

The company operates in a number of sectors, with jobs, clients,

rival competitors, and people worldwide.

To grow the business the new management team will need to

devise an effective business strategy.

To implement the business strategy decisions will have to

be made in a number of key areas :-
§  Financial management
§  Overhead management
§  Procurement
§  Job progression
 Timeline
Decisions are made for a quarter, also known as a period, representing 3 months in the real
world.

......

Periods 1-4 5-8 9 - 12 13 - 16

Year 2016 2017 2018 2019

Historical Year 2017 Onwards

(Before current (NEW management team in control)
management
took control)
 Stages of Management
The new management team will be making their first decisions for period 5 (2017 Quarter 1),
and then for subsequent periods (6,7 etc) known as the Early Years.

Early Years
The competition for jobs comes from a number of simulated
companies. Each one has their own unique profile and bidding
history, and a careful assessment of the opposition is required to
formulate an effective procurement strategy.
 Measuring Performance
The success of the company is determined by 10 key performance indicators.
The indicators are all weighted at the start of the Early Years to reflect their variability, and
initially sum to 1,000 at the end period 4.
Each company’s progress against the other competing teams is based upon the total of the
performance indicators using the Enginuity League Table, which is displayed on the competition
web page at the end of each round.

The league table measures the

relative performance of each team.
 The Global Economy
The simulated global economy is based upon predictions for the ‘real world’.

JOBS
There are jobs worldwide in 5 sectors :-

HQ §  Industrial
§  Building and Commercial
§  Transport
§  Energy
§  Water and Sewage

with clients, people and rival competitors globally.

WORLD EVENTS
There are economic, political and environmental
world events that can impact upon the business,

Examples include :-

§  Reports from the IMF, CBI and other organisations

§  Currency fluctuations between countries
§  Shortages of skilled labour in different countries
§  Brexit and the US election
§  Civil unrest in the Middle East
§  Russia-Ukraine gas dispute
§  Climate variations around the world
 World News
Information is critical for re-evaluating business strategy, and to reflect this world news,
based upon current and future world events, is available from ENN, the
ENGINUITY NEWS NETWORK.
 Business Strategy
The new management team need to develop a clear strategy to :-

§  Grow the business and improve its value

§  Enhance the company’s reputation with clients
§  Keep shareholders happy

The value of the company is measured by a number of assets, such as the company cash
account, capital base and investments.

OBJECTIVES

Developing an effective strategy will involve acquiring a good understanding of :-

§  The economic environment in which the company is operating

§  The strengths and weaknesses of the business as it currently stands

The strategy will consist of number of objectives relating to :-

§  Identifying new work in different sectors and locations (UK/Overseas)

§  Expanding the infrastructure of the business to achieve growth
§  Winning new work in a competitive bidding environment
§  Improving profitability through effective job and overhead management

The company's strategy will need to be revised as performance changes.

 Environment, Strengths & Weaknesses
ENVIRONMENT

Realistic scenario enabling participants to deal with business decisions and situations
that are commonly encountered in real life.

The scenario is based on the UK and World economies as they are today, and
predicted to be in the future, both from a financial viewpoint (interest rates, overdraft
limits etc), and in terms of the characteristics of different locations worldwide :-

§  Current and future availability of new work in the UK and Overseas

§  Potential client base, and their expectations
§  Rival competition for new work, and margins achievable

To add to the realism the environment is constantly changing to provide

ongoing challenges.

COMPANY SETUP AT TAKEOVER

Detailed information is available is make an appraisal of the strengths and

weaknesses of the business when it is taken over, including :-

§  Share price
§  Company value
§  Profit figures (previous year)
§  Market share
§  Current work in progress
§  Future profit
 Making Decisions (Core)
IDENTIFYING NEW WORK
The company will not grow without
new work.
The Marketing Department identify
new jobs that the company can bid
for in different :-
§  Locations (UK/Overseas)
§  Sectors
o  Industrial
o  Building & Commercial
o  Transport
o  Energy
o  Water & Sewage
WINNING NEW WORK
The Procurement Team bid for jobs
identified by the Marketing
Department, which involves :-
§  Assessing the bidding strategies
of rival competitors
§  Identifying risks and costs, and
setting margins to bid
competitively
PROGRESSING JOBS
Jobs secured need to be
successfully completed by the
Construction Team.
This involves :-
§  Allocating appropriate resources
to progress jobs, such as project
managers and labour
§  Effective risk management
§  Overcoming problems that occur
during the construction, such as
job delays

SHAREHOLDERS
The company is owned by
shareholders who expect a
return on their investment
in the form of a dividend.
Making Decisions (Corporate)
DIVERSIFYING
To reduce costs in the core
business (build and risk
costs), the management
can invest in other
companies.
INFRASTRUCTURE
To achieve enhanced
growth the company’s
infrastructure (capital
base), in the form of fixed
assets such as plant, can
be expanded.
OVERHEADS
Staffing the support
services sufficiently will
enable to company’s
strategy for identifying and
progressing work to be
carried out.
The support services
departments are :-
§  Marketing
§  Head Office
§  QHSE
§  Measurement
 Key Features
ENGINUITY exposes participants to the key aspects of managing a global construction business.
 Team Working
Effective team working will be vital to ensure that the company runs smoothly.
 Success or Failure
The decisions that have to be made each period, and the fate of the company, lies in the hands of
the new management team.

Success

Failure
 Competition Structure
Up and Running Trialling
•  Introduction to •  Practice (trialling) with
Enginuity the live data for period 5
as often as required
•  Teams registered for before the competition
the competition by the
course leader •  Flexible trialling;
individually or as a
•  Live data and further group
instructions sent out
upon registration •  Communication by
email with the
•  All team members can competition controller
install the software
•  Full support
The Competition
•  6 rounds of the Early
Years to be completed
(periods 5 to 10)
•  Detailed competition
progress, such as
league tables and news
headlines, displayed on
the competition home
page on the website
 Getting Started
The steps needed to get up and running with Enginuity are as follows.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Software Installation Live Data Learning How To Play

•  The software and
tutorial are available
from the
Participants’ Area of
the website
•  The live data will be
sent out to all team
contacts upon
registration
•  The live data is held in
an access database of
the form “bcu2017_t?
p#.dat”, where ‘?’ is a
team’s unique number,
and ‘#’ is the latest
period number
•  Teams use the
software, tutorial and
their live data to
practice, known as
trialling
•  Teams can trial
individually, or as a
group
•  During trialling the
teams are given lots of
feedback, hints and
tips

•  At the end of the

trialling, the best set
of trial decisions can
be used to start the
competition
 Software
The software and other tools needed to take part are available from the Participants’ Area of
the website (www.enginuitycomp.co.uk).

The ”Installation guide” will guide you through the process of installing the
software.

Once installed, the “GETTING STARTED” and “LEARNING ZONE” pages

should be used to get up and running with Enginuity.
 Trialling
The process for making and submitting trial decisions is as follows.

MAKE DECISIONS FOR PERIOD 5

Use the Participants’ Module to enter decisions into the ‘live’ company database,
“bcu2017_t?p5.dat”, where ‘?’ is the unique team number.

SUBMIT DECISIONS FOR PROCESSING

E-mail the company database to the competition controller, Mike Fletcher, at

mike@enginuitycomp.co.uk
Keep
trialling
period 5

FEEDBACK RETURNED

Decisions are processed, and the company database, “bcu2017_t?p6.dat”, is returned

containing the results for period 5.

REVIEW RESULTS FOR PERIOD 5

Use the email feedback and the database “bcu2017_t?p6.dat” to review results for
period 5, and determine changes required to the previous period 5 decisions.
 Website: www.enginuitycomp.co.uk
On the ENGINUITY website there is a competition home page providing comprehensive
information about the progress of the competition.

To access the competition home page use the ‘further details’ link on the home page of the
website.

Use the ‘further details’ link to

access the Competition Home Page.