Business Simulation

Reflective report

Board of Directors:
Akash Batra
Aayush Suneja
Sakshi Sidhwani
Varun Thakur
Sahil Sharma
Introduction:
This report serves as an assessment of the short and long term strategic and operational endeavors of
Company 2 - BALDWIN in the ‘Capstone Project Business Simulation’. It seeks to address the parameters
for the sustenance of the contextual conditions needed to maintain a competitive position in the sensor
manufacturing industry.

It aims to answer the following two critical questions:

1) Company 2 – BALDWIN’s strategic position at the end of the simulation, looking particularly at
its sources of competitive advantages and disadvantages.
2) Lessons learnt in developing and sustaining competitive advantages from participation in the
simulation. The Capstone Business Simulations are based on realistic business situations and
provide an unlimited range of Virtual business environments (Vbe) for managers to learn about
business and develop their managerial decision-making skills. The simulation includes a number
of manufacturing companies (teams), competing against one another in a common business
environment. It allows the teams to develop, implement and manage business strategies
throughout the life of a simulated company and provides them with a realistic strategic-level
business experience.

Company 2 - BALDWIN represents group 2 comprising 5 students of IMT’s PGDM PT batch of 2017-2020,
as a small manufacturing company that was created when the government split a monopoly into
identical competitors (other student group companies). As a monopoly, operating inefficiencies and
poor product offerings were not addressed because:

• Increasing costs could be passed onto customers; and

• Mediocre products would sell because customers had no other choices.

Each student group company was set up in four parts; namely (i) R&D (ii) Marketing, (iii) Production, and
(iv) Finance.

Company 2 – BALDWIN focused like this -

Two managing directors overlooking R&D

Two managers assigned to Marketing and

Production-

One managers overlooking Finance division.

With all reviewing peer departments together
at the end.

The objective of the company was to achieve

the highest Market Share thereby making decent profits. This future oriented goal meant that the
company had to set up a strategy that would enable it to be in the best possible shape both
organizationally and operationally throughout the simulation. To this end, Company 2 - BALDWIN’s
strategy was two step:

1) Initial round of the simulation we followed the broad cost leader strategy -

Broad Cost Leader: A Broad Cost Leader strategy maintains a presence in all segments of the market.
The company will gain a competitive advantage by keeping R&D, production and material costs to a
minimum, enabling the company to compete on the basis of price, which will be below average.
Automation levels will be increased to improve margins and to offset second shift/overtime costs.
Mission Statement: Low-priced products for the industry: Our brands offer solid value. Our primary
stakeholders are bondholders, customers, stockholders and management.

2) Later half of the Business simulation to earn profits we followed a strategy of Cost Leader with a
Product Lifecycle Focus described below:

 Cost Leader with Product Lifecycle Focus: A Cost Leader with a Product Lifecycle Focus centers on
the High End, Traditional and Low End segments. The company will gain a competitive advantage by
keeping R&D, production and material costs to a minimum, enabling it to compete on the basis of price.
The Product Lifecycle Focus will allow the company to reap sales for many years on each new product
introduced into the High End segment. Products will begin their lives in the High End, mature into
Traditional and finish as Low End products. Mission Statement Reliable products for mainstream
customers: Our brands offer value. Our primary stakeholders are bondholders, stockholders, customers
and management.

Finally, at the end of the simulation, strategic position of Company 2 BALDWIN

was pretty decent with Capturing second largest presence in the market share
and making decent amount cumulative profits.

BALDWIN was also able to secure second highest market capital and third
highest share price among all competing firms. This report serves to explain the
overall position during the simulation and the reason behind the end result.
Learnings Based on
our Experiences

Good Decisions
1. “It’s always good to know the Rules of the game you are about to Play”
 Use of TQM
 Learning from Tutorials along with the Practice Rounds
 Labor Negotiation Maintained

2. “Keep Personal opinions Aside, Think Like a Team”

3. “Try-Learn-Grow”
We Started Slow and Steady observing Patterns of the Changes we made

4. “This is not a 20/20, It’s a 5-Day Test”

Thinking Long term Gain, Always Know Business as a Long-term Game,
Play with all your Strengths in our case it was Marketing, Production, Budgeting

5. Take Loans!
It is always Good to take Appropriate Amount of Loans to Set a Base Structure for your Business

6. Multiple Products in the Same Segment can help Capture the Segment
Largely
 Bad Decisions

1. Being too Conservative!

Business itself is a Game if you play too Safe, You
Won’t Come out Big!
Keeping a Balanced Approach

2. Focus on Financial ratios should be Taken,

Random decisions to be Avoided

3. Research & Development of the Product

should be Done in such a manner that
product is launched in Time
Not to Miss out on theses Tiny Details
4. Inspite of the data Available, we worked on the Gut Feeling in the rounds when we started
realizing the use of data in the Later Stage

Key Learnings
1. Initial investment in Automation & TQM
Helped us Gain Big Time
They helped in Reduction and waste of Labour and
Resources

2. Investment should be Planned and

Systematic
Not to invest too much at a single Point

7. Industry Reports & Capstone Courier was taken as Base,

The Closer the Gap, in a demand and the Forecast, the Better are the Results