Project 4: Simulation as a Tool for Strategic Decision Making—Part 2
Step 3: 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.

Download a fresh Capsim Decision Record and use it to take notes at the conclusion of each round for each of the four functions, R&D, Marketing, Production and Finance.

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

Project 4: Simulation as a Tool for Strategic Decision Making—Part 2
Step 4: Save Your Decisions

When your team is satisfied with its decisions, the team coordinator will submit the final decisions to Capsim. Your Round 1–4 results will be available immediately after the round is processed as per the deadline in the table below.

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 on 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.

Project 4: Simulation as a Tool for Strategic Decision Making—Part 2
Step 5: Evaluate Your Contribution to the Team

When you have completed all four rounds, write a post of 200 words or less in your group discussion area explaining the decisions in which you were involved, the logic behind those choices, and how those decisions contributed to the team’s strategy and results.

Project 4: Simulation as a Tool for Strategic Decision Making—Part 2
Step 6: Analyze Your Team’s Decisions and Results

INBOX: 1 New Message

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

Hello,

I think we’ve learned a lot about MediCorp’s capacity to compete internationally. Well done.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on what we have learned by employing a global strategy for our client. Again, I have compiled some key questions about how the decisions you made for MediCorp affected the company’s performance.

Please use the attached template and prepare an eight- to ten-page analysis for me by the end of the week. Type your answers directly in the template.

Thanks,

Jillian

Attachments:

Project 4 Analysis Questions

You have now finished working with your team on implementing a global 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 4 Analysis Questions template. Link to the Learning Topic from MBA 620 in Question #6 can be found here. 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.

Fill out a Capsim Decision Record at the conclusion of each round. This document will serve as a record of your thoughts and decisions in each of the functional areas.

The next step provides recommended delivery dates and file-naming protocols for Project 4 deliverables.

MBA 670 Project 4

Individual Analysis

[Name]

[Team Name]

[Product Name or Names]

[Market Country or Countries]

[Course Name]

[Course Section Number]

[Instructor]

[Date Submitted]

Project 4 Analysis Directions: Write your answers below each question. Please do not delete the questions.

1. What strategy were you implementing?What type of product (speed, accuracy, service life, and price) did you design in Round 1? Explain how your settings for speed, accuracy, service life, and price in Round 1 were driven by the chosen strategy.

2. How did you create a sales forecast in each round? Explain. For Round 1 only, how did you use the sales forecast for capacity planning?

3. What was the level of automation in your plant? Why? Discuss the role of contribution margins, if any, in your decisions regarding automation.

4. Are you running a second shift? Why or why not? Did you have inventory issues in any round? Explain.

5. Which country (or countries) and customer segment (or segments) were you targeting with your product and why?Describe any two marketing decisions that you implemented over the four rounds to enable your desired targeting. If you introduced a region kit, describe how that affected your sales.

6. Remembering what you have learned in MBA 620 and by referencing the financial accounting ratios, calculate the net profit margin ratio at the end of Round 4. What does this ratio tell you about the profit being generated?

7. Examining the balance sheet at the end of each round, calculate the current ratio for each round. Next, perform a trend analysis based on the current ratio you calculated for the end of each round. Do you find the current ratio increasing or decreasing through the four rounds? (Keep in mind, if the current ratio is below 1, the company does not have enough in current assets to cover current liabilities, if the current liabilities were all due at once). At the end of Round 4, can the company satisfy current liabilities?

8. Understanding how efficiently your company is operating is important from an operations and finance perspective. The best way to measure operational efficiency through financial statements is through working capital. Calculate working capital for Round 4 using the balance sheet for your calculation. How efficiently is your company operating? (Keep in mind, a good working capital ratio is between 1.2 and 2.0).

9. At the end of Round 4, how aware are consumers of your product in each country? How accessible is your product to the consumers in each country? How did your awareness and accessibility change from Round 3 to Round 4, and did that have any impact on your sales?

10. Did your team’s decisions in Rounds 1-4 always align with the chosen strategy? If you found yourself deviating from your strategy, explain why. In hindsight, what decisions would you have made differently? Explain.