In this three-part assignment, each student will develop and critique a vision for her/his company and offer a view on the company’s intended strategy. Assume that your team is about to have a meeting to agree upon a vision for your company. These assignments are pre-work for that meeting.
Part One: Vision Statement
As an individual (not a team), prepare a vision statement for your sensor company. The statement should present as accurate a picture as possible for your company at the end of the simulation eight years from now. It is not important that the statement is a polished public relations statement. An introductory statement with a coherent list of bullets might be best, so long as it provides clarity to all team members. It is also appropriate to provide a narrative on what your company will not be.
Here are some questions you can reflect upon to bring your vision into focus:
1) By segment, how many products will appear in the segment?
2) What will our capacity and automation levels be in each segment?
3) How much money will we have invested by the last round (round eight)?
4) What will our financial structure look like? The financial structure is everything on the right hand side of the balance sheet. Fundamentally, it summarizes how much of the assets were funded by debt holders and equity holders. You can review the financial structure your company has today by looking at your “Annual Report.” On the right hand side of the Balance Sheet, you will see your financial structure in percentages. To determine what sort of structure you want, you can ask several simple questions.
a) What mix of long term debt, stock issues, and retained profits do we need to grow the company?
b) Do we want to keep profits or pay them out as dividends?
c) Do we want to pay off our debt to avoid interest payments?
d) How would we express these in percentages? For example, 5% accounts payable, 5% short-term debt, 30% long-term debt, 20% stock, 40% retained earnings.
5) Are we biased towards cost leadership or differentiation or both?