Trainers Start-up - Business Simulation

Introduction

In the Sneakers Start-up simulation, teams of students manage a start-up company trading in sports shoes. Here, they need to conduct analyses and hone their entrepreneurial skills, to design and launch their sneakers company's growth strategy. Competing in a series of rounds, students then need to monitor company performance against their KPIs and overall objectives, make strategic decisions and respond to external events to improve their company's performance and earn points on the simulation's ‘Balanced Scorecard’.

Developing a Winning Strategy

Once students have assigned their roles, it's time to design their growth strategy. Based on their internal and external analysis, students need to determine their product's competitive focus: cost leadership, product leadership, customer Intimacy, or a combination of all three.

They also need to set their own SMART objectives and KPIs deciding where to invest within the business to ensure these are on-track and eventually met or exceeded. Within this, they need to decide how risky their objectives are. The level of risk applied to their objectives (and whether they're met or not) are key factors in earning points on the 'Balanced Scorecard' during each round of the simulation.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Students create an effective business strategy designed to increase sales and company growth.
• Students gain a greater understanding of the opportunities and challenges available in managing a B2C start-up company. 
• Students learn more about the impact of external events on their company's performance.
• Students develop effective team-working, analytical, entreprenuerial, and leadership skills.

ASSESSMENT ideas and examples

The Sneakers Start-up simulation is usually assessed in several ways. Below you will find the most popular options:

• Submit a business plan for the next financial year based on their company's overall performance in the simulation.
• Written group report in which the teams record each round what decisions they have taken and what they think the outcomes will be. They reflect on the decisions made in each new round and continue doing this throughout the business simulation.
• 360 Peer assessment in which students have to allocate a hundred points among their fellow team mates based on their contribution.
• Organise a “Dragon’s Den” elevator pitch, a presentation to ‘investors’, played by the other student teams or lectures.
• The stock exchange could become part of the assessment. Their share price or ranking position can be translated into 25% of their final mark on the module.