Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Simulation vs Reality
What I have learned from using Mikes Bikes is that the offline mode simulation is good for practice but it shouldn't be heavily relied on for making our real life decisions in the online mode. It is impossible to predict human behavior and emotions with a simulation. Our decisions should be based on business cirucmstances to maximize our learning.
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I agree that it is impossible to predict human behavior and emotions with a simulation; however, I think the simulation itself is a good tool to use in understanding strategic management as a process. Over the past few rollovers, I've really been able to see how the process is cyclical, continuous and cross functional through launching new products and our strategy formulation and implementation.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the first two posts. From my experience with the project, off-line simulation may help to give you an understanding of how things would work if past results were taken into account, however, completely basing your future decisions on that would be imprudent because your competitors can do anything. With such variability in the markets, as well as with your competition, all you can do is try to constantly update your environmental analysis and stay consistent with your overall strategy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler. The offline mode not only spins out skewed results but isn't practical whatsoever. Another area in which the simulation isn't practical is because firms have no idea what their competition is doing when it comes to product development. In the real world firms know what their competition is doing on a day to day basis. CEO's don't fall asleep one night and wake up noticing that their competition added a brand new product to their product line. In a competitive environment firms are constantly researching what their competitors are up to on a day to day basis (not annual). My team from personal experience was impacted by this fault and has been hard since. While this simulation provides a good overview of how business functions work together in a competitive environment it doesn't take into account a very important part; competitor research. After all...it is just a simulation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brad's point that despite the fact that our team performance is affected by the decisions of the rest of the teams, the environment in which we operate is pretty sterile. I can understand the stand point of the creators of the game that usually competitors try to keep in secret the development and launching of new products, but I really wish I had seen the economy as a factor in the decision making process. Giving information about the state of the current economy at the beginning of each round would have tremendously influenced our decisions and made the game more realistic and interesting. If you are really interested in the business simulations, I strongly recommend you have a look at CESIM - great application used in many corporations and business competitions.
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