The Business Strategy Game and GLO-BUS

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GLO-BUS is the world’s only truly global simulation where the focus is on competitive strategy. GLO-BUS is a completely online exercise where teams of students run a digital camera company in head-to-head competition against companies run by other class members. Company operations parallel those of actual digital camera companies. Just as in the real-world, companies compete in a global market arena, selling digital cameras in four geographic regions-Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.

Company co-managers must make decisions relating to R&D, component usage, camera performance, product line breadth, production operations, work force compensation, outsourcing, pricing, sales and marketing, and finance. The challenge is to craft and execute a competitive strategy that results in a respected brand image, keeps your company in contention for global market leadership, and produces good financial performance as measured by earnings per share, return on investment, stock price appreciation, and credit rating.

All aspects of GLO-BUS parallel the functioning of the real-world digital camera market, thus allowing you and your co-managers to (1) think rationally and logically in deciding what to do and (2) get valuable practice in making a variety of different business decisions under circumstances that mirror real-world competitive conditions.

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The Business Strategy Game is the most widely played computer simulation in the strategic management market and is used in business schools all across the world. The industry’s product is athletic footwear and the geographic scope of the market is global. Each company in the industry is managed by a team of student(s)/player(s) who must match their strategic wits against the other company teams and the competition is head-to-head.

1. Requires a Variety of Decisions–The company that players manage has plants to operate, a work force to compensate, distribution expenses and inventories to control, capital expenditure decisions to make, marketing and sales campaigns to wage, a website to operate, sales forecasts to consider, and ups and downs in exchange rates, interest rates, and the stock market to take into account.

2. Branded Markets–Companies can manufacture and sell their footwear in branded markets in North America, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, plus they can compete for supplying private-label footwear to North American chain retailers. Branded sales can be pursued through any or all of three distribution channels (1)independent footwear retailers, (2)company-owned and operated retail stores, and (3) direct sales made online at the company’s website.

3. Extensive Strategy Options–Companies can position their products in the low end of the market, the high end, or stick close to the middle on price, quality, and service; they can have a wide or narrow product line, small or big dealer networks, extensive or limited advertising. Company market shares are based on how each company’s product attributes and competitive effort stacks up against the efforts of rivals. Demand conditions, tariffs, and wage rates vary from geographic area to geographic area. Raw materials used in footwear production are purchased in a worldwide commodity market at prices that move up or down in response to supply-demand conditions.

4. Drills Players in Real-Life Management and Decision-Making–In plotting out competitive strategies each decision period, players are thrust into becoming active strategic thinkers and planners and forced to assess the industry environment, evaluate the strength of competitive forces, and monitor the actions of rival companies. Each team of company executives is challenged to chart a basic strategic direction for the company, set strategic and financial objectives, choose from any of many different strategies, and then try to make the chosen strategy work or else change to an alternate strategic approach. As the simulation unfolds and new events transpire, players have the opportunity to react to changing market and competitive conditions, initiate moves to try to build competitive advantages, and decide how to defend against aggressive actions by competitors. Having to live with the decisions they make, they experience what it means to be accountable for performance and for achieving satisfactory business results.

5. Exciting, Integrative, and Very Hands-On–This global industry simulation is a very powerful hands-on exercise for conveying the challenge of managing a business in the 21st century and for giving players valuable practice in how to exercise good business judgment. Because the elements of The Business Strategy Game cut across many different areas of company operations, the exercise helps players integrate material from many different core courses in business, look at specific functional decisions from the standpoint of the company as a whole, and see the importance of thinking strategically about a company’s competitive position and future prospects. Players of the simulation learn an enormous amount from working with the company and industry data, exploring strategic options, and trying to unite production, marketing, finance, and human resource decisions into a coherent business strategy that produces good results.

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The Business Strategy Game and GLO-BUS offer more learning power than the traditional text-case model. Students become emotionally involved as their competitive juices are sure to be stirred in a head-to-head competitive battle for market share and industry leadership. Students design a strategy resulting in a competitive advantage for their company and compete against the companies of classmates and students around the globe.
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