“The goal of a CEO is to maximize the total shareholders return”, said Mr. Varun Patil, our instructor for the Global Business Simulation Class. I was extremely excited about this subject. As the management of Mobile Inc, a cellular device brand based out of United States, we were catering to Asia, US and Europe. A pre-read had given us the idea that this subject would require skills from all subjects we had taken in the 1
st year for this trimester for that matter. As Mr. Varun briefed us on the simulation, things started getting clearer and clearer. Use of demand analysis given the industry growth and country specific growth, an extrapolation was made keeping a little aggressive stance.
The investments had to be made accordingly, keeping in view the capacity utilization, both plants owned by the firm and outsourced work. Similarly, analysis on past trends and current economic scenario had to be kept in mind when devising R&D investment allocation, Marketing decisions, logistics and setting up on finances and budget. The entire course seemed like a web of a spider each clog representing an area that required specific attention and although different from others was inter-connected in ways beyond comprehension
The 4 hours session was intended to accustom us to the interface and 2 rounds of simulation. The most interesting part of these simulations were the fact that we weren’t against some bots but our own peers. It gave each one of us an advantage as we knew how they think. It made me to realize how important it is to not just understand the competition but also competitors, personally. The decisions an individual takes is influenced highly by one’s personality.
With each team trying to link their investments, promotions and costing with pricing of the products in different markets. Our team had decided investing in In-house R&D and purchasing 2 features of a new technology. This strategy not just gave us the first mover advantage but also charge a premium from the market, a must needed boost to the ever reducing margin in the cellular device business. Having run Correlation- regression on past data, trying to figure out which factors impact the most.
At the end of the 2
nd round, after deviations and reasoning as per the changing economic scenario in respective countries, the results were clear, we had been successful to create maximum shareholders return, but will we able to sustain this at the end of the total nine rounds was the question. Whatever the results may be, the learning to take decisions and application of the so many exclusive concepts learnt at different parts of the course would all come handy at one point was unfathomable. Intrigued and exultant, we vowed to continue to work with the same zeal on the subject and not get lost amongst the plethora of everyday tasks, assignment, presentations to only take it up at the last moment.