MBA students succeeded in a highly competitive market in the Business Simulation Game

Recently in a one-week block seminar in March 2023, the MBA students joined forces in teams and experienced tough competition in the Business Simulation Game. This simulation was designed to offer hands-on experience regarding business administration, production, marketing and finance, and to depict the complexity of business structures. 

In six teams, the students sat around a huge board which represented a company with production facilities (see picture below). Starting with a small-sized and rather old-fashioned manufacturing line, the teams had to face manifold decisions about product types, market development, stabilizing the financial situation and so on. To handle this complexity, the groups of three had to assign the functions of a marketing and sales manager, a head of finance and a production manager. In between the simulated years of production and sales, lectures about financial planning and investment analysis supported the understanding of the processes and offered explanations for the difficulties faced. This newly received knowledge could be directly integrated into the strategic planning and enhance the performance.

Due to a limited demand of the products and the use of a tendering process, the competition was fierce and the teams had to work hard on their strategy to succeed. But according to the students, this intensive week was worth it. For example, one team commented: “Thank you so much for this incredible module and learning experience. It was really amazing for us to understand the practicality of running a company in the real world and how one small mistake can lead to major issues.”

As lecturers, we would like to thank everyone for their active participation and wish them all the best for their upcoming Master's thesis and future career.

Prof. Dr. Hayo Reimers and Martin Haupt

//picture: Martin Haupt