Assignment task:
Recount three ideas and/or tasks that you might mention in an interview as something you accomplished. It could be a lesson in group cooperation, building a budget that supports you strategy, competitive pricing strategies, challenges of marketing product where there is little differentiation, etc.
A little more definition regarding the assignment. It should be between one page long. The idea is for you to give some thought about what you learned in the course, and to think about how you might use those achievements in the context of a job interview and/or on your resume.
If you are going into marketing, perhaps you might say, gained an in-depth understanding of how sensitive pricing, promotion and features are to targeting different customer segments, especially for largely undifferentiated products.
Accounting might focus on translating strategies into specific spending plans for each market segment. Then taking those plans and building detailed multiyear projections for each market. And then evaluating the feasibility of those plans based upon our resources.
Or focus on Group dynamics of working in a diverse team to accomplish goals under significant pressure and to make a series of complex decisions. What lessons did you learn?
Outside of the game, you learned lessons in strategy--applying SWOT and Porter's 5 forces analysis to assess potential markets and gain consensus on which strategies to pursue.
Subject: Strategic Management
Capstone will provide you with skills and experiences that you can highlight on your resume. The tools and projects that you will work with are highly sought after by many employers:
- You will develop a hands-on understanding of strategy and implementation by playing a business simulation used in many executive training seminars.
- You will learn how to use widely accepted industry tools to evaluate alternative strategies and to create team consensus on a strategic direction.
- A major portion of the course is focused on your team creating a detailed business plan supporting your chosen strategy.
- You will learn the importance of having a unified strategy based on customer needs and competitive pressures.
- Using Financial analysis to help assess competitive situations, formulate strategies and translate those strategies into concrete steps including, product positioning, production scheduling and capital budgeting-whether you are running a startup, managing a department or a whole company.
- Hands-on experience in preparing multi-year budgets for worldwide operations, providing complete financial statements for the US, Europe and Asia.
- In the final report you will communicate with shareholders regarding your actual business performance versus plan, recount external factors that affected that performance, and reflect on how to improve future performance.
- Last and most importantly, you hone your skills in working in a diverse group--creating a team culture and cooperating to meet deadlines under significant pressure.