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MGT. 501 BUSINESS SIMULATION
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NATURE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE A basic objective of this course is to integrate the specialized areas of business administration by requiring the student to analyze and make strategical and operational decisions in the environment of a computer processed management simulation. Students will be placed in management teams and each management team will run their own company. The various companies will compete in an industry. Each company's management will be responsible for exercising all management, marketing and financing functions as well as making all decisions required in the "running of a business" which will impact the company's performance in the manufacturing and sale of consumer related products in a global environment. A second objective is to interject the use of the computer in decision analysis, whenever possible, by having the student use the computer to work out business problems. A third objective is to provide an environment in which the student can gain experience in working and perhaps contending with third party groups whose interest may not parallel those of business. Such groups might include:
ACTIVITIES Students will be placed in
management teams and each management team will run their own company. The various companies will compete in an industry. Each
company's management will be responsible for all of the decisions made, or not made, which
will impact the company's performance in he manufacture and sale of consumer related
products. EVALUATION AND GRADE DETERMINATION Each company's performance and relative competitive position will be measured using the following parameters:
Parameter weighting will be announced at the beginning of the semester as weights may vary from semester to semester. Annual and Game-to-date Company performance data as well as relative industry data will be provided annually and later in the game, Yearly. A company's relative industry ranking at the end of the simulation based on the above parameters will be largely determinative of the team and individual student grade. Each team is required to maintain a business diary/journal (in Microsoft Word format and submitted as one file at the end of the semester) that will detail for yearly plans and each Year's decisions: (1) the major decisions being made, (2) the expected or hoped for results, and (3) and evaluation of the causes of the success or failure of the decision(s). The diary/journal serves two primary purposes. One purpose is to cause the team to engage in strategical and operational planning and control. Another purpose of the diary/journal is to allow the instructor to evaluate the recovery process (planning and decision quality after the occurrence of a disaster) of a team who has made an earlier disastrous decision(s) which destroys their industry ranking. The lower the ranking the more comprehensive and detailed the diary! Students will be evaluated on their team's relative competitive performance (80%) and the comprehensiveness of their team's business diary (10%) and the subjective evaluation of their written term project (10%):
Term projects will be negotiated with the instructor and at a minimum will result in a written report evidencing further reading and understanding in the general area of business strategy. The List of References for the term project must contain at least six (6) citations from professional and/or academic journals.
You are expected to do your own work in this course and not to give or receive any unauthorized aid or assistance. No aid, human or otherwise, is permitted in taking the online quizzes and in the preparation of any research assignment. (This includes data collection, organization and the writing of the paper. You may however receive editing assistance on the paper should you desire. Remember that editing is not the writing of the paper. Papers written by someone other that you and/or internet copies are expressly prohibited). TAMU-T utilizes the services of TURNINIT.COM to assist in the prevention of plagiarism. You should review the definition of plagiarism found at http://www.turnitin.com/research_site/e_what_is_plagiarism.html and be sure that your work in no way runs afoul of University rules relating to academic dishonesty and plagiarism (please refer to the University official catalog and sections dealing with academic dishonesty and the student code of conduct therein). Copies of previous semester's research projects/case analyses or research projects/case analyses found on the web, should any exist, are expressly prohibited and to use them will place you in violation of course ethics. You may be requested to submit the following signed pledge on any assignment "I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this assignment or any assignment in this course". A failure to submit the sign pledge, if requested, or other course ethics violation will result in zero for that particular assignment, at a minimum, and may result in being dropped from the course. Nothing in this course ethics statement should prevent students from studying together or discussing any assignment in the normal and accepted academic manner. The intention is that each student will do his/her own work and will not use any analyses, should any exist, in making their analysis (team or individual). TENTATIVE PLAY SCHEDULE --SEE ATTACHED PLAY SCHEDULE The number of practice Years and actual play Years per
period may, and will likely, vary from the schedule. The instructor will attempt
to place the teams and their decision making under real world time constraints
and conditions as much as possible. The time given for making game decisions
will vary as the game progresses. The actual game may consist of more or less
than the number of Years indicated above.
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