GBA 498 GoVenture CEO Simulation Guidelines and Rubric During the course of the semester, you will be participating in an on-line PC-based exercise in head-to-head competition against their classmates and computer-based participants. Access to the simulation can be attained by going to www.goventureceo.com and following the student registration. However, before registering you will need a company ID that is provided by your instructor. Your instructor will notify you of which group you are a member of, along with the simulation number required to participate. There are three components of this project: 1. Weekly decision rounds 2. Draft of 3-Year Strategic Plan (This Assignment box is linked to Turnitin.) 3. GoVenture Simulation Debrief (This Assignment box is linked to Turnitin.) Decision Rounds Practice Simulation Decision Rounds All companies start out on the same footing with equal resources Each decision round represents a year You can advance each year manually Full Simulation - Decision Rounds All companies start out on the same footing with equal resources Each decision period in represents a year. Periods will be advanced by the instructor. You will make variety of decisions each period relating to product pricing, R&D, sales and marketing, and targeting different consumer profiles and market territories. In addition, there is accounting and cost data to examine. The overall goal of the your company is to achieve net profitability, a comprehensive measure that accounts for a combination of profitability and the different ways in which you can raise capital. Your cumulative rank score is calculated based on the company s achievement of each of the ten performance targets are as follows (more detail on the calculations is contained in GoVentureCEO): Rank Achievements achieved compared to other businesses Trends percentage of periods where your performance score stayed the same or increased Profit total profit earned compared to other businesses Revenue total revenue earned compared to other businesses Product competitiveness combination of price, brand, and R&D scores Inventory Management percent of missed unit sales compared to units sold Marketing total brand equity scored Advertising advertising effectiveness score HR Management HR Score Cumulative rank score (out of 100) The total score is composed of an average of your cumulative rank score, scaled market share, scaled price competitiveness, scaled advertising effectiveness, scaled web site usability, and scaled revenues. Note the raw scores in each of these areas is scaled based on your performance relative to the other groups in the simulation.
Draft 3-Year Strategic Plan After year 3 in the simulation, you are required to submit a three-year strategic plan that will cover the remaining three years (years 4, 5, and 6). Preparation of a 3-Year Strategic Plan involves: 1. Stating a strategic vision for the company in a brief paragraph. What is it that you are striving for? Think of this as your team s vision statement what are your broad goals for the next three years? 2. An introductory paragraph that discusses where your team is in the simulation what have you done up until now, what has been driving your decisions, what is your performance like? Just provide an idea of your current status in the simulation. 3. Based on (2) above, discuss your current strategy and note whether your current strategy is either on track or will require substantial internal changes; 4. Declare what strategy the company will employ, why you chose the strategy, and how you will deploy it. This will be based on your current status in the simulation and you will choose a strategy based on improving your status. This is not an action, but a specific strategy (e.g. market development, product development, market penetration, etc.); and 5. Establishing financial objectives for total revenue, profits, cash flow, and stock price appreciation for each of the next three years. You should also have a projected income statement that lays out expected unit sales, revenues, costs, and profits for each of the three geographic regions for the each of the next three years. When you create your financial projections, be sure that you state your assumptions as well. GoVenture Simulation Debrief In addition to the draft strategic plan, you are required to submit a 10-page maximum paper discussing their strategic plan. It must contain, at a minimum, the following topic areas: Discuss the original strategy, the plan and original financial targets Identify issues related to the original strategy and underlying assumptions o Stakeholders o Key Assumptions o Strategy with Potential / Desired Outcomes What occurred in subsequent decision rounds did you have to modify your approach or assumptions and why/why not? Financial Debriefing did you achieve your financial goals and why/why not? Deliverables All deliverables are due no later than Sunday 11:59 PM EST/EDT of each module. Module GoVenture Simulation 1 2 Practice Rounds + 1 Decision Round 2 Decision Round 2 3 Decision Round 3 Decision Round 4 4 Draft of 3-Year Strategic Plan 5 Decision Round 5 6 Decision Round 6 8 GoVenture Simulation Debrief
GoVenture CEO Simulation Debrief Grading Rubric Content Original Plan Discussed: Original Strategy Original Financial Targets Original Strategy Discussion: Identify issues related to strategy Evaluates assumptions Recognizes stakeholders and relationships to the strategy Frames a concrete strategy and acknowledges potential outcomes Strategy Debriefing: What occurred in subsequent decision rounds Did strategy have to be modified Financial Debriefing: How did you perform vs goals? Points Earned Total / 100 Comments:
Grading Rubric Limited Proficiency Some Proficiency Proficiency High Proficiency Grading Rubric for Strategic Plan Component Within GoVentureCEO Identifies & Explains Issues Related to Company s Strategic Plan Fails to identify or explain main issues or topics relevant to the company s strategy. Presents the issues or topics inaccurately or inappropriately. Identifies main issues or topics relevant to the company s strategy, but does not explain them clearly or sufficiently. Successfully identifies and summarizes main issues and topics relevant to the company s strategy, and weakly explains how to deal with these issues or topics. Clearly identifies and summarizes main issues and explains how to deal with them by addressing the company s strategy. Evaluation of Facts and Information Used in Developing Strategy Fails to identify facts and information that counts as evidence used in developing strategy and fails to evaluate its credibility. Successfully identifies some facts and information that counts as evidence used in developing strategy but fails to thoroughly evaluate its credibility. Identifies the majority of important facts and information used as evidence in developing strategy and rigorously evaluates it. Identifies all facts and information used as evidence in developing strategy and provides additional data or information for consideration. Recognizes Stakeholders and their Relationships to Strategy (including all employees, political, shareholders, community, vendors, environment, and ethical) Fails to accurately identify any relevant stakeholders and their contexts to the issues. Presents problems as having no connections to stakeholders. Shows some general understanding of the contexts to the issues but does not identify any specific ones relevant to situation at hand. Correctly identifies all the contexts to the situation but only addressed a limited few. Correctly identifies all the contexts to the situation and also identifies minor contexts to the company s strategy. Frames a Concrete Corporate Strategy and Acknowledges Possible Outcomes Fails to formulate and clearly express corporate strategy and/or fails to anticipate possible outcomes. Formulates a vague and indecisive corporate strategy and/or vaguely describes possible outcomes. Formulates a clear and precise corporate strategy, but addresses the company s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats only lightly. Not only formulates a clear and precise corporate strategy, but also addresses the company s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in detail.
Adequately Discusses Strategic Outcomes and Deviations From Plan Adequately Discusses Initial Financial Targets and Performance Relative to Plan Points Given 100 Point Scale Fails to identify and evaluate any of the important issues and/or outcomes in subsequent decision rounds and their effects on the company's strategy and resulting deviations from the initial plan. Fails to discuss any of the financial targets along with assumptions. Fails to address any of the issues related to deviation of performance vs. goals. Identifies some of the most important issues and/or outcomes in subsequent decision rounds and their effects on the company's strategy and resulting deviations from the initial plan. Discusses most of the financial targets along with assumptions. Identifies most of the issues related to deviation of performance vs. goals. Identifies and evaluates the majority of important issues and/or outcomes in subsequent decision rounds and their effects on the company's strategy and resulting deviations from the initial plan. Discusses the majority of financial targets along with assumptions. Identifies the majority of issues related to deviation of performance vs. goals. Identifies and evaluates the all important issues and/or outcomes in subsequent decision rounds and their effects on the company's strategy and any resulting deviations from the initial plan. Discusses all financial targets along with assumptions. Identifies all issues related to deviation of performance vs. goals. 0 69 70-79 80 89 90-100
Grading Rubric for Student Performance in GoVentureCEO Grading Rubric Time Spent Online Working With GoVenture CEO Simulation Student Discussion Question Posts (Optional) Scaled Revenue Scaled Market Share Scaled Price Competitiveness Scaled Advertising Effectiveness Scaled Web Site Usability Scaled Cumulative Rank Points Given 100 Point Scale Score Limited Proficiency Some Proficiency Proficiency High Proficiency Less than 1 hour per week Fails to identify or explain main issues or topics relevant to the discussion question. Presents the issues or topics inaccurately or inappropriately. Between 1 1.5 hours per week Identifies main issues or topics relevant to the discussion question but does not explain them clearly or sufficiently. Between 1.5 2.5 hours per week Successfully identifies and summarizes most of the main issues and topics relevant to the discussion question. More than 2.5 hours per week Clearly identifies and summarizes all the main issues and explains how to deal with them within the context of the discussion question. 0 69 70-79 80 89 90-100
Sample Spreadsheet for Calculating Scaled Grades in GoVenture CEO Cumulative Rank Mkt Shr Competitiveness Site Usability $Million Group Score Scaled % Scaled Price Scaled Score Scaled Adv. Effect. Rev Scaled Total Score One 66 93% 8% 100% 30% 60% 94% 100% 100% 24.626 100% 92% Two 58 82% 4% 50% 50% 100% 80% 85% 100% 13.010 53% 78% Three 71 100% 7% 88% 30% 60% 94% 100% 100% 23.801 97% 91% Four 55 77% 1% 13% 9% 18% 88% 94% 100% 10.593 43% 57% Five 49 69% 0% 0% 0% 0% 72% 72% 100% 3.134 13% 42% Cumulative Rank: One Two Three Four Five Rank 2 1 1 1 1 Achievements 5 8 4 2 1 Trends 9 9 9 9 9 Profit 1 1 1 1 1 Revenue 8 10 7 6 2 Product Competitiv 6 6 5 4 3 Inventory Managm 10 10 10 10 10 Marketing (Brand E 5 6 1 2 2 Advertising 10 10 10 10 10 HR Management 10 10 10 10 10 Total Points 66 71 58 55 49 Percentile Score 93% 100% 82% 77% 69% Note Percenitle Scores are Calculated As A Percentage of the Highest Group's Score. All Raw Scores Come from Within GoVenture CEO Reports