Teaching the New Edexcel. Resources for Courses. A Level Business. The Stakeholder Game

Transcription

1 Teaching the New Edexcel A Level Business Resources for Courses The Stakeholder Game

2 Jorge are a major manufacturer of sportswear selling to an international market. They have 3 factories and a long history of providing good working conditions for its employees. Like every business, Jorge has a number of stakeholders (people or organisations that have an interest in the businesses operations). The stakeholders include customers, suppliers, employees, local and national government as well as the owners of Jorge themselves. As with any business, Jorge must pay attention to the needs and demands of these stakeholders if it wishes to be successful. Your team are the management of Jorge hoping to build on the company s previous success over the coming months. You will be presented with a list of 28 possible strategies for Jorge. You are going to choose one strategy for each period. The game will last for 12 months. You cannot choose the same strategy more than once!

3 Each time you choose a strategy you must bring your choice to the tutor at the front of the class where your choice will be given a score. Each strategy gives a score (between -4 and + 4) for each of the 5 stakeholders listed. Your score is an accumulative total of the scores of the Customers, Suppliers, Employees and Government. Your team must try and get the highest score possible. Your Shareholder score does not count to your overall score. However, the shareholder score must be above zero otherwise your main score does not count. You must always keep the shareholders happy! The winning team is the one with the highest Stakeholder score. Should there be a tie, the team with the highest Stakeholder and highest Shareholder score will be declared the winner. Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Strategy: Shareholders Customers Suppliers Employees Government SCORE

4 Possible strategies: 1 Alter some suppliers to bring in third world companies who guarantee good wages for their workers 2 Apply for business loan from bank research and development 3 Increase the size of the factory to enable increased production 4 Give money to retail outlets to support increased numbers of stores 5 Increase average employee wages by 3% 6 Sponsor the building of a local community hall 7 Increase price of products by 5% 8 Buy out a competitor 9 Start selling sportswear in new European locations 10 Re-negotiate cheaper supplies with current suppliers 11 Improve quality assurance measures 12 Increase funds given to charities 13 Open High Street retail outlets 14 Move customer service call centre to a foreign country 15 Reduce the number of managers by 15% 16 Increase the number of trainees by 10% 17 Temporarily alter the main business aim to sales maximisation away from profit maximisation 18 Open factory for 24 hours a day 19 Sponsor a major football team 20 Develop a new phone aimed at businesses 21 Out-source delivery of goods to an external business 22 Sponsor a major city marathon race 23 Reduce communications with trade unions 24 Alter the manufacture of sportswear to include more synthetic materials 25 Conduct more research on changing customer expectations 26 Start selling phones in new Asian locations 27 Negotiate deal with sports drink company to use Jorge name as an endorsement 28 Reduce number of factories to two to make efficiency gains

5 Initial Task Student Worksheet Your tutor is about to appoint you to play the role of one of the stakeholders in Jorge. You will either be the customer, supplier, shareholder, employee or local and national government. You will now receive a copy of 28 possible business strategies that Jorge may implement over the coming months or years. For each strategy you must give it a score between -4 and +4 depending on how negative or positive that strategy might be for your stakeholder. Once finished, give your Stakeholder impact sheet to your tutor who will input your scores onto the Game database. 1 Alter some suppliers to bring in third world companies who guarantee good wages for their workers 2 Apply for business loan from bank research and development 3 Increase the size of the factory to enable increased production 4 Give money to retail outlets to support increased numbers of stores 5 Increase average employee wages by 3% 6 Sponsor the building of a local community hall 7 Increase price of products by 5% 8 Buy out a competitor 9 Start selling sportswear in new European locations 10 Re-negotiate cheaper supplies with current suppliers 11 Improve quality assurance measures 12 Increase funds given to charities 13 Open High Street retail outlets 14 Move customer service call centre to a foreign country 15 Reduce the number of managers by 15% 16 Increase the number of trainees by 10% 17 Temporarily alter the main business aim to sales maximisation away from profit maximisation 18 Open factory for 24 hours a day 19 Sponsor a major football team 20 Develop a new phone aimed at businesses 21 Out-source delivery of goods to an external business 22 Sponsor a major city marathon race 23 Reduce communications with trade unions 24 Alter the manufacture of sportswear to include more synthetic materials 25 Conduct more research on changing customer expectations 26 Start selling phones in new Asian locations 27 Negotiate deal with sports drink company to use Jorge name as an endorsement 28 Reduce number of factories to two to make efficiency gains SCORE

6 Teacher Instructions Welcome to the Stakeholder Game The premise is that your students (separated into teams) represent the management of a fictional sportswear company the teams are coloured Blue, Red, Green, Purple and Orange. They have 10 periods in which to maximise their stakeholder score. The game is used to achieve the following objectives: To understand how business strategies affect stakeholders differently. To understand that strategies have different levels of impact on stakeholders. Limitations 1 The game does not always reflect an accurate effect on the actual impact on stakeholders. The figures used are simplistic and sometimes exaggerated to enable students to grasp the type and degree of impact that may occur. 2 The changes do not reflect any realistic time lag that would genuinely occur with real life business strategies this should be pointed out to students very clearly. Note: The game uses embedded macros. Ensure that these are enabled when prompted. Optional Initial task Before playing the Stakeholder Game you may wish to test your students understanding of particular strategies and how they impact on a stakeholder. Separate your class in to 5 groups and assign them a named stakeholder customer, supplier, shareholder, employee or local and national government. Give them the worksheet entitled Initial Task Student Worksheet: The Stakeholder Game (page 3 of this resource). Ask each group to give a score for each strategy indicating the level of impact that the strategy would have on their given stakeholder. Their scores can range from -4 to + 4 depending on how negative or positive that strategy might be for your stakeholder. On completion of this task lead a discussion on which strategies would have the largest negative and positive impact on their specific stakeholder. If you wish (and to engender a sense of ownership for your students), input these scores into the table on slide3 of the Powerpoint resource.

7 How to use the Main Game 1 Separate your group into 5 teams (or keep the same groups that you used for the initial task if you wish). Hand out the student worksheet (pages 1 and 2 of this resource). 2 Click on Click here to start. Click on Instructions to run through the presentation of instructions (or go over the instructions on the worksheet). 3 Then click on Click to start new game and confirm that you wish to start a new game. 4 You are presented with the main scoreboard view. Give the students a few minutes to decide which of their strategies that they wish to implement first. 5 When ready each group needs to come to the computer that is using the Powerpoint game (ensure that the screen is not being displayed to the whole class). With each coloured group click on the colour button at the bottom of the screen. 6 This will take you to the screen of the individual team colour. Ask the student to indicate which strategy number they wish to implement. Click on the strategy number. Ask the team to note down the changed scores (if any) to each of their stakeholder and their overall Stakeholder Score. 7 Repeat this with all 5 teams (you can toggle between team colours using the buttons at the bottom of the screen). After all 5 teams have had their strategies entered click on the Scoreboard button. The overall scores will be shown. Either call the scores out or allow the screen to be displayed to the whole class. 8 Repeat this process for all 12 rounds. 9 Announce the winning team at the end of the 12 rounds!