Digby Allie Caroline Hannah Jonathan Chris Agenda Caroline

Digby Allie, Caroline, Hannah, Jonathan, Chris

Agenda ● ● ● Caroline: Finance Jonathon: Approaches and Goals Allie: Position of companies Chris: Social Responsibility Hannah: Human Resources

Competitive position with regard to rival companies ● During the practice rounds Digby fell under a zero dollar profit and remained there the whole time ● We decided to use other companies numbers for the first real round ● Started out in the lead ● That changed quickly and from there Digby remained constant ● We were in a weak competitive position with regard to rival companies

Financial Conditions ● Although we did not compete with other companies well, we still ended up with a positive profit

Financial Condition ● Net Profit: $4, 038 ● Started out with a strong financial position and from there dropped down and went below zero ● Ended up with a strong financial position in terms of a negative/positive profit ● Consistency is key ● Baldwin was our “goal” company

Company problems that needed to be addressed ● ● ● Not selling enough stock Going strictly by the financial reports Over/Underproduction Having no cash Retiring too much stock at once

Goals for your company ● ● ● To start and finish with a profit To be consistent Learn from every round and tried to take a different approach Sell and retire stock Not come in last place

Performance outcomes signaled ● ● Ended with a net profit Consistent Had cash Everyone learned something different overall

Strategic/ competitive approaches ● We looked at what Baldwin did in the practice rounds and compared it for our actual 1 st round. ● We should have pursued is to discontinue all of our products that were giving us negative income and keeping only the positive products just like Erie ● Sell all of the remaining products and to stop producing any products to have maximum profits and no cost from production.

Competitive advantage over rival ● We tried to have a consistent price range. ● When it came to stocks we tried to have as many investors within our company, showing that we had the second highest shares in all the groups. ● We had the highest training cost than any other group.

Could any of the strategy elements have been fine-tuned/ changed? 1. We tried to have the best start possible to the simulation. We looked at Baldwin’s first round numbers in the practice rounds. 2. Stocks. 3. Employee training costs. 4. We were the only group who had produced the lowest compared to our capacity. 5. Material and labor cost.

Strategic group map (Exhibit A)

How training and recruiting may have affected results

Most attractive companies Baldwin: besides Round 2 increased every round leading all companies now profiting the most at $73, 137, 281 (Exhibit B). Chester: shown a lot of growth after falling from nearly $40. 00 to $1. 00 in Round 4 they demonstrated substantial growth over the next 5 rounds to finish at the top with Baldwin in round 9. They are profiting the second most at $38, 137, 150 (Exhibit B). Ferris: shown in exhibit A they had a consistent performance, gradually were going up and never declining each round. Ferris shows a very steady strategy profiting $34, 308, 157 at the end of year nine. ● Baldwin and Ferris are similar on the chart in how they progressed through the rounds (years).

Exhibit B

R&D (adding and deleting products with the top three companies) ● Baldwin did not add or delete any product

Weakly positioned companies Digby: did not have a good strategy set in place, had a solid start but by round 3 started declining, then on round 6 & 7 started making small gains. By round 9 Digby surpassed Andrews by profiting $4, 037, 676 while Andrews came up profiting $-1, 161, 924 (Exhibit B). Erie: Showed a lot of fluctuation each round swapping positions with Digby almost every round. In the end they came out above both Digby and Andrews. I think Erie started profiting more because starting at round 7 they started “deleting their products. ” They deleted two products (Edge & Egg) in round 7, in round 8 they deleted another product (Echo), leaving them two products and eventually deleting Ebb in round 9. Andrews: Stayed the same on the position map by never really increasing much in profit each year. In round 7 they added(Aligma) to their product line but still never increased very much on the position map.

Exhibit B

R&D (adding and deleting products with the bottom three companies) Digby did not add or delete a product.

3 key factors for being successful 1. 2. ● Knowing what competitive advantages to use (When & How) Employ a strategy that fits the company objectives such as: A differentiation strategy is “to create a competitive advantage by offering products or services at a higher perceived value, while controlling costs. ” Ferris showed a differentiation strategy because their products were never in fear of declining profits as they stayed at their own pace. ● A cost leadership strategy is “to create a competitive advantage by reducing the firm’s cost below that of competitors while offering acceptable value. ” I feel for the most part that Baldwin and Chester tried to show a cost leadership strategy because, after examining their prices of their products, they consistently had the low priced products listed. ● A blue ocean strategy is “reconciliation of the trade-offs between differentiation and low costs. ” I think Andrews showed a blue ocean strategy because along the position map they stayed the same never increasing or declining very much. 3. ) Keep up with the trend of new inventions, technology and ideas that people have.

Companies that move to a different position on the map Chester: Went from being one of the top companies in round three to being dead last in round four to climbing straight up to catch up with Baldwin in Round seven and eight. Erie: Even though is still towards the bottom on the market position they showed significant movement, going up and down. . Erie was on their way up again in round 9 and if they hold true to their pattern they are showing they will most likely go up again before going back down.

Company’s strategy for exercising social responsibility/good corporate strategy ● Provide prices competitive with the market while following legal standards ● Satisfy both the shareholders and customers ● Be overall good corporate citizens

Shareholders pleased with your company’s social responsibility strategy? ● “There is one and only one social responsibility of business to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits…” ● High Share Numbers ● Poor Customer Satisfaction

Company approach to workforce compensation ● Retain employees ● Spend money on employee training and recruiting ○ ○ ○ Allows the company to retain employees Helps to increase the overall productivity index Workers can become more specialized and efficient at their jobs

Achieve “operating excellence” ● Investing in employees is investing in the company ● Spend money on recruiting and training hours for employees

3 -4 best indicators of operating excellence at your company? 1. Consistency 2. Actions taken to correct issues 3. Not failing

Where do you see your company going? ● Similar trends → consistency ● Based off of the other groups Digby may have moved up