Wednesday, June 18, 2008

When Simulation becomes more real than Real Life....

Term 2 at ISB has reinforced two things - one, we're in a world-class B-school with world-class subjects and faculty ...and two - the sleepless nights and the general mothering continues. It just gets worse.
But first, Competitive Strategy, and Prof. Prashant Kale, of Ross Business School. The subject took us by storm. All case-study based...but the Prof takes it to another level. He believes in the socratic method of teaching which means all Arbit CP ends (I guess I have to define Arbit CP - arbitrary class participation, or the bane of all lectures). You say something stupid, you get asked 8 questions before you back off, and you're at an answer completely different from where you started off. And, you're never going to forget it that way. Everyone gets called btw...you can run but you can't hide. I for one am not going to forget Porter's 5 forces, or the McKinsey game matrix, or the Pepsi-Coke strategy case, or Southwest Airlines, or Apple..or..or...(oops I did forget)
Then, there's Markstrat. Can't find any appropriate link whic describes how painful and exciting this thing is. I'll try my darndest - Markstrat is an online simulation exercise, developed as a teaching tool by two INSEAD Profs, Herbert Gattignon and Jean-Claude Larreche. So we have a firm, an industry, one - potentially two - products to launch into Markstrat World. There's a budget to do sales, advertising, R&D. And 8 decisions to make - all of which would include a combination of increasing production, launching new brands, new products, new target segments. We're competing against four firms in one industry...and against all firms across ISB which have the same characteristics as us. Confused? So are we...
Suffice to say- Markstrat world has taken over real life. I for one am obsessed - how the hell did firm E kill the market? Can we do enough R&D and launch a new product? Can we wage a price war? What the hell is the sales force reaction elasticity? Are the consumers price elastic or inelastic? Am I sounding like a total nerd? Do I need to get a life?
At the moment, my firm, i.e firm I (the five firms are A, E,I,O,U) have got hammered with the highest level of inventory across all firms and industries, and have no money to launch new products. But I will fight like my life depends on it, grades be damned.

To end on a more realistic note - two snafus:
Arbit CP of the year
Prof asks a student - "Who will be your target segment?
Student - "Err... The customers"
Prof - !!!!!!!!!

Close runner-up
Prof: We will now define Π, as the measure of risk...
Student 1: How do find out the value of Π?
Student 2 (interrupting without listening to the entire thread of conversation): Duh, it's 22/7, didn't you know that?
Class: Huh?

So long folks, next week is midterm. See you if I survive.

1 comment:

Bornloser said...

Markstrat Markstrat all the way dude.... it is damn exciting :)