Gameplay Event: May 2023 - Recap

Participants from 11 different countries and 23 different academic institutions (and one competitor company) joined us on Wednesday for a Gameplay event. Edumundo has previously done Game-Play events with similar formats but this time was a little different. 

The Setup

The business simulation used this time was Sneakers Inc (or Trainers Inc for the Brits), a relatively challenging business simulation which can be used right up to MBA and corporate training levels. Two quickfire rounds of the game were played which is a very short amount of time to make very big decisions for a business.

Typically, when deployed as part of a course or module students would have hours to work on the simulation for every round. During this event the teams had 30 minutes for the first round and just 15 minutes for the second round so this was just a flavour of what experiential learning and employability skill development is like when running an Edumundo Business Simulation. 

The Teams

Teams were decided based on the participants subject field and a member of Edumundo staff was assigned as a team captain. Marketing, Sales and Business Strategy experts were strongly represented among participants. The financial and accounting savvy were the second largest group with other subject areas making up the remaining players. 

Rather than having team captains playing the role of teacher or a Edumundo Business Simulations support team, the team captains played the role of a student who was CEO of the business. The event participants in each team were invited to play the role of other board member roles such as CFO, CMO and COO. Once teams were assigned it was time to have some fun and show how it's done. 

Round 1

Teams spent the first round setting up their company with some spending more time on deciding what roles participants would play on the board while other teams spent time working on a brand logo. All teams then worked on their business plans, locked in their target markets and set strategy for growth. By the end of the first round there were two teams that were clearly ahead. 

The nature of Competition

Each business simulation round is a full financial year however and a lot can change from round to round with the right (or wrong) decisions. As in the real world, firms competing in the same market do not enjoy perfect competition. A business does not know what the decision making process of its competitors or consumers is. The very reason, as our teams understood, that it is possible for firms to make profit.  Therefore, what is 'right' or 'wrong' in the world of business depends on the decisions of all other players in the market. Indeed whether making no decision is the best decision depends on a number of factors being calculated by the simulation between rounds. 

Round 2

Most of round two was spent analysing the impact of the decisions made in round 1. The ranking displayed provides some context however not knowing what moves the players of other teams made meant teams had to really dig into the plethora of available data. In a real academic setting students on different teams will often discuss how they are getting on in the simulation over the duration of the term. Not to be overlooked, this is an important part of experiential learning within business related subjects. As in the real world, companies that are able to be more well informed about the the market can create competitive advantage. In response to this students can be selective about the information they want to disseminate informally through discussions with their peers and formally through the press releases within the simulation. But with only 15 mins of the second and final round of this teaser speed provided a crucial advantage for the podium position teams. 

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