Every decision counts...

What I've learned from playing the game so far is that every small decision the management team makes or every small change it introduces might have a large impact on operational efficiency and financial performance. That is why even the smallest of changes needs to be in line with the general strategic direction set by management. Only then will managers be confident that small changes are not hurting their company's performance for the long run.

It takes money to make money

Growth requires investment. Obviously you can't just throw money around, but you can't conserve all of your resources or shareholders will punish your stock. If you aren't doing enough investment to produce growth, then shareholders will wonder why they should give you capital. This is true in the simulation: If you have too much cash, you will be punished. Thus, if you do well one period, you may have to invest rapidly the next.

Mike's Bikes Tip

This is very practical when you're testing decisions on the single player: try to consider the long-term effects of each decision by pushing the program forward two or three quarters. One term it may work, but the next term it may seriously damage the firm. In this way, it is very similar to actual strategic management: Executives can inflate their stock value through short-term moves, but these backfire in the long-run by sacrificing investments.

Cutting and Pasting Into the Blog (Not a Strategic Management Tip)

Just a side note--I tried to cut and paste my post from Word and the blog did not like it. I kept getting HTML error messages. But when I typed directly in the blog, I had no issues. So, I would recommend just typing in the blog to save yourself some frustration. :)

Initial Thoughts About Environmental Analysis

I have found a lot of value in not dividing up the environmental analysis by functional department or comfort level. Although staying in your area of expertise allows you to offer a deeper analysis, when everyone takes the time to review and analyze all of the information the team can better find and understand the links between external and internal factors. This broad understanding usually produces a stronger strategy and more coherent team focus.