User Manual Management Simulation Phone Ventures version 22 August 2018 PDF

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Download User Manual Management Simulation Phone Ventures version 22 August 2018 PDF

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User Manual International Business Simulation “PhoneVentures”

User Manual PhoneVentures ©

Word in advanced This document serves as a user manual for students using the international business simulation: “PhoneVentures”. This manual describes all decisions in detail and explains the various effects of those decisions presented within the results and analysis part of the simulation. But first we start the manual by explaining what a simulation is, how it works and how to win. Hope you will enjoy competing against your peers, collaborating with your team members and learning by doing. Edumundo UK 2018 ©

Further support: If matters remain unclear after reading, please contact our online helpdesk at: http://www.edumundo.co.uk/helpdesk. Alternatively, there is a “Support” button on the top of the simulation page, enabling you to send your queries or remarks to the same helpdesk. All helpdesk questions will be answered within one working day.

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

Table of Contents The Simulation ................................................................................................................... 4 How to get started ......................................................................................................... 5 Ranking ........................................................................................................................... 6 How to earn ranking points: .......................................................................................... 6 Calculation ..................................................................................................................... 7 Analyze your decisions’ results once a round is calculated ........................................... 7 Business Plan ...................................................................................................................... 8 Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 8 SWOT analysis ................................................................................................................ 8 Competition ................................................................................................................... 8 Identity ............................................................................................................................... 8 Vision .............................................................................................................................. 8 Targets............................................................................................................................ 8 Long-term goals ............................................................................................................. 8 Perspective ......................................................................................................................... 9 Growth strategy ............................................................................................................. 9 Decisions ............................................................................................................................ 9 Countries ...................................................................................................................... 11 Country information ....................................................................................................12 Country decisions ......................................................................................................... 13 Management ................................................................................................................ 14 HR (Human Resources) ................................................................................................ 16 Product ......................................................................................................................... 18 Research & Development ............................................................................................ 19 Distribution .................................................................................................................. 21 Marketing ..................................................................................................................... 22 Financial ....................................................................................................................... 23 Results .............................................................................................................................. 24 Balance Sheet ............................................................................................................... 24 Income statement ........................................................................................................ 27 Cash flow statement .................................................................................................... 29 Inventory ...................................................................................................................... 30 Staff at your Headquarter ............................................................................................ 31 Analysis ............................................................................................................................32 Market analysis ............................................................................................................ 33 Targets.......................................................................................................................... 37 Scores ........................................................................................................................... 37 Communication ................................................................................................................ 38 News............................................................................................................................. 38 Press messages ............................................................................................................38 Marketing campaigns................................................................................................... 38 Simulation Schedule: ...................................................................................................39 More questions? .............................................................................................................. 40

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

The Simulation Quick start guide Congratulations, you are now entrepreneurs and you own your own smartphone company. You are not producing smartphones yourself. They are produced in Asia under your license, and based on your quality demands and with features developed by your R&D department. Your competitors are the other teams in your group. They start with exactly the same financial situation, market, staff numbers, etc. Each round stands for 1 year of operations. You can alter all your decisions over and over again, until the dead line of the round. Business plan Each year you can alter your strategic Business Plan. The most important part are the Targets. Choosing your 5 targets and KPI will make sure you’re able to receive ranking list points. Other parts of your Business Plan are for example your Competitive strategy, where you decide on which of the three market segments you’d like to focus. Operational Decisions Your operational Decisions should be taken in line with your Business Plan. Each year you can alter all decisions for all different departments of your company. On top of that you have to decide to which countries you’d like to expand your business. Results The Results section shows you the results of your previous year’s Decisions. Here you can analyse the financial statements, the HQ’s staff indicators and inventory levels per country. Final notes 1. Don’t forget to click Save at the bottom of each tab. Remember you can save as many times as you like, until the deadline of the round. 2. No chosen Targets (within the Business Plan) means no ranking points. 3. Click on Help desk in the top right corner for all your questions. Please note that they will be answered within 1 working day. Good luck and may the best company win!

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

How to get started Below you will find how to get started in 6 steps. 1. Introduction presentation Your lecture or an Edumundo specialist will introduce the simulation to you using a short presentation. You can also look at our online presentation on YouTube to know everything there is to know on how to get started. Go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9DKMg426q4&t=0s 2. Login On the login sheet provided by your lecturer or Edumundo specialist you will find the website (http://businesssimulation.edumundo.com) on which the simulation can be found. Drop down to the correct simulation name, and use your unique team’s username and password. 3. Company Profile Click on Company Profile and work your way through the 3 tabs in the sub-menu: • Change company data: choose your company name, add a description and a logo. • Change board members: Add your team member’s names and give them a role within your company (CEO, Marketing Director, etc.) • Change password: Change your password. Your username will remain the same and cannot be changed. 4. Business Plan Once you have settled on a profile for your company, you must think of a strategy that will make your company grow into the largest of your market. Click on Business Plan within the Strategy Plan submenu. • First, fill in how you will compete at the ‘Competition’ page. • Second, analyse your business by making your SWOT. • Then, ensure the vision of your company is clear to you and your team members. • Most importantly, strategize about which Targets you will set and how high those targets will be. Too low and you may miss out on points, but too high and you may not accomplish them at all. • Finally, write your growth strategy. 5. Decisions Once you have finished all of the above you are ready to start making decisions. These decisions are made locally per country and for the entire global company. Being: Countries, Management, HR, Product development, Marketing and Finance.

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

Ranking After calculation you can look at your position by visiting the “Ranking” page at the top right corner of the simulation. This page will show you: • Your ranking in comparison to the other teams. • Your company name, and the names of your competitors. • The percentage of growth (or shrinkage) of your company compared to the previous round. • The group you are playing in (you only compete directly against the companies within your own group). • And finally, the total cumulative amount of ranking points received thus far.

How to earn ranking points: To earn ranking points, you must set annual targets and achieve them. The more ambitious you set your targets, the more points you will receive. As such, a company that sets its target to achieve a 10 million Euro in profit will receive much more points in comparison to a company aiming for a 1 million Euro in profit. But only if they manage to reach their target ff course.

Targets: The more you move the indicator to the right the more ambitious your target will be. The more difficult is becomes to reach the target and earn more Ranking points.

To add to this, you will only receive 75% of your points when you have made a loss in the previous round. Ultimately, you do not receive any points when your company has no more equity and is solely running on liabilities. A final note: Targets can (and probably should!) be changed each round. Be sure to fine-tune your targets at the start of each round.

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

Calculation The simulation will be calculated automatically according to the pre-set calculation schedule. This schedule can be found in section Communication → Calculation deadlines. The last decisions that are saved will be taken into account by the algorithm.

Analyze your decisions’ results once a round is calculated After calculation follow the 4 main steps to analyse your results: 1. Ranking Go to the Ranking (top right of every page within the simulation) to see how your company has scored and compare your score with all other companies in your market. 2. Analysis The second thing you need to do is visit the Analysis page. At the External Analysis submenu, you can see how many sales you have had in your chosen countries. Click on the drop-down menu and select a country you operate in, then click on one of the three market segments to view relevant market data and the impact of your decision on those market segments. But also in comparison to other teams that are also operating in the same country. At the Internal Analysis submenu you will find all the data concerning your companies points and how you achieved them. Score will give you the data on how your points came to be. It shows how you have performed and if you have reached the targets you have set for yourselves last round. 3. Results Once you know how many ranking points you’ve received( Ranking), how you’ve earned them( Internal Analysis Score), by performing well in the countries you operate in ( External Analysis Markets) you can review your results of last round. Results are provided in financial and non-financial 4. Targets Finally, after evaluating your results and current situation, you need to fine tune your targets to fit this situation. As an example, if you have set ‘Staff education level’ as a target make sure you are not already past your target value, but that you change it to something ideally challenging but realistic.

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

Business Plan Within this part of the manual we discuss the several strategic parts of your business plan. No company can do without. By determining your business plan you as a team write down your analysis, determine your identity and set out what you wish to accomplish.

Analysis SWOT analysis What are your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? By filling this in you will have a much better chance of creating a successful business strategy. Competition Determine why your customers should purchase your products over your competitors. Choose your competitive strategy: o Cost leadership. o Product leadership. o Customer intimacy. o Combination of all of the above Elaborate on your decision by writing a short justification on the choice made. This will benefit you while reflecting on your strategy and your overall performance.

Identity Vision A company is nothing without a clear vision of where it wants to go, and what it wants to be. A powerful message to tell your customers what the future of your business will look like. Select three core values and decide their priority. Now write down your vision and elaborate on the values you believe are important. Targets Arguably the most important part of the simulation. Correctly setting your targets might ensure your victory. Choose five and pick one of these five to be your KPI. Your KPI will provide you with five times the amount of points in relation to the other four targets.

Long-term goals1 If strategic goals are made available, you have to decide which strategic goal you wish to accomplish in 5 years’ time. These goals are: 1

Strategic goals are optional and are part of the scenario. It could be that this decision is not part of your simulation.

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

• • • • • •

Highest annual profit Highest overall reserve Highest annual sales numbers Highest global annual turnover Europe's highest turnover Highest turnover outside Europe

Perspective Growth strategy Create your Ansoff Matrix to give yourself a good overview of how you plan on getting your company to grow.

Decisions After establishing your strategic business plan you are ready to take tactical decisions for the upcoming round. As you know, one round stands for one year of operations. You have to take all annual decisions that are presented to you within each department. Being: • • • • • •

Countries Management HR Product ( development) Distribution ( logistics ) Marketing (global and E-marketing)

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

•

Financial

Use the main submenu or hover over the HQ building to enter each department and take your annual tactical decisions.

Important Please note that you have to click Save at the bottom of each tab before you go to the next tab. You can save your decisions as many times as you want during a round. The last decisions that are saved will be taken into account.

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

Countries Decide which countries you want to be operating in. You can either use the map or click on the list below. Each year more countries are made available.

Look at the list of available countries. This list will grow while each year/round more countries will open their borders.

By selecting a country, information about this country is presented. Read the generic description of the country, analyse the market size, the annual demand per market segment, the yearly cost for entering the market, cultural differences, productivity and HR cost.

By checking the box: Enter this market, you accept the yearly cost mentioned and more decisions for this specific market will appear.

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

Country information At the top of each country page generic information is provided. On the right side of the page market information provides you with the necessary data you need to use before entering the market, making a sales fore cast and to see the cost structure for operating in the country itself.

YEARLY LOCAL OFFICE COSTS This shows you the annual cost to operate within this country per round. These fixed cost are for LOCAL COMPETITION This will give you a general idea of how many local competitors are already active within this country. The local competition are not your global competitors. Countries with a strong local competition are much harder to enter and beat the local competition and the global companies that also seek profit in the same market. ADDITIONAL WORKLOAD HEADQUARTERS IN FTE This means that by doing business in this country more full time employees in the HQ are needed to handle orders. Make sure you have enough employees to handle the extra work load ! MARKET SEGMENTS This will tell you the size of the market segments within this country. The numbers represent the annual demand per pie part. LOCAL EMPLOYEES More details on what the effects will be on your staff’s performance when active in this market. It will tell you how many staff members will work in this country, their productivity per full-time employee and the wages. HOFSTEDE'S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS A short description of the country’s culture dimensions as by Hofstede’s model.

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User Manual PhoneVentures ©

Country decisions Once you have read the country information and decided to enter the market, thick the box and the following decisions are made visible:

Price Determine your selling price per country. Be aware of your manufacturing cost and distribution cost in order to maintain a healthy gross margin.

Marketing Determine your local marketing policy: • Penetration Marketing: This action will contribute to the effect of your marketing campaign. Especially in the first two years that you’ll enter a new market and are still trying to establish your brand. • Marketing Budget: The annual local promotion budget you are willing to spend on marketing in this particular country. The higher the budget, the more effective your marketing will ...