Trainers Start-up - Business Simulation

Overview of Simulation

In the Trainers Start-up simulation, teams of students manage a start-up company trading in sports shoes. Here, they need to conduct analyses and hone their entrepreneurial skills to design and launch their company's growth strategy. Competing in a series of rounds, students then need to monitor company performance against their strategy's KPIs and overall objectives, make strategic decisions and respond to external events to improve their company's performance and earn points on the simulation's ‘Balanced Scorecard’.

Running a STart-up Company

The Trainers Start-up business simulation provides students with a practical experience of running a start-up company from scratch. They need to consider factors such as barriers to entry, the level of investment required and afforded, their human resources, as well as inventory. This in-turn will help shape their products' focus and how realistic their set objectives and KPIs are.

This simulation is highly suitable for academic and teaching staff that want to provide an experiential learning exercise for their students within the context of running a start-up company. 

TEAM-WORKING AND ROLE ASSIGNMENT

A key factor in all of our business simulations is team-working and delegation. As part of their company's management team, students need to work together to delegate their own roles and responsibilities. These roles consist of the CEO, CFO, Head of HR, Marketing Manager, Operations, and any other roles students determine are necessary for managing the business effectively. Together they share the responsibility of reaching the targets they have set in their company's business plan.

Business Plan

Once students have assigned their roles, it's time to set-up their business plan. Based on their internal and external analysis, students need to determine their product's competitive focus: cost leadership, product leadership, customer Intimacy, or a combination of all three.

They also need to set their own SMART objectives and KPIs deciding where to invest within the business to ensure these are on-track and eventually met. Within this, they need to decide how risky their objectives are. The level of risk applied to their objectives (and whether they're met or not) are key factors in earning points during each round of the simulation.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Students create an effective business strategy designed to increase sales and company growth.
• Students gain a greater understanding of the opportunities and challenges available in managing a B2C start-up company. 
• Students learn more about the impact of external events on their company's performance.
• Students develop entrepreneurial, team-working, analytical, and leadership skills.

ASSESSMENT ideas and examples

The  Start-up simulation is usually assessed in several ways. Below you will find the most popular options:

• Submit a business plan for the next financial year based on their company's overall performance in the simulation.
• Written group report in which the teams record each round what decisions they have taken and what they think the outcomes will be. They reflect on the decisions made in each new round and continue doing this throughout the business simulation.
• 360 Peer assessment in which students have to allocate a hundred points among their fellow team mates based on their contribution.
• Organise a “Dragon’s Den” elevator pitch, a presentation to ‘investors’, played by the other student teams or lectures.
• The stock exchange could become part of the assessment. Their share price or ranking position can be translated into 25% of their final mark on the module.