Program structure, business and finance homework help

Program structure, business and finance homework help

OVERALL PAPER STRUCTURE

This component will be graded on how well the team addresses:

a. Strategy (pre-game): Going into the game what did you think you would need to do to successfully compete against the other teams in your industry?

b. The execution of the plan during game play: What changes did you have to make to your team organization and or strategy to successfully compete?

c. Analysis of the results and recommendations for future play (post-game): What did you learn and how what changes would you make if you had to compete in this simulation again?

DETAILED PROJECT AREAS TO BE INCLUDED IN YOUR REPORT

1. Industry Analysis – Apply 5-forces model to the German Muesli Industry

According to Porter’s five forces model, five competitive forces determine industry profitability, in this case the German Muesli industry. Our team, N, decided it would be smart if we implemented a strategy keeping all five forces; threat of substitutes, threat of new entrants, existing rivals, bargaining power of suppliers, and bargaining power, in mind.

1. Strategy — Develop a generic strategy for your company (Porter mode)

To sell products at market price and sell products in high demand in the muesli industry.

1. Business Processes – Develop initial plans for handling business processes to implement the strategy within the industry.

Consider the following for Business Processes:

Team Management

• Team Division of Labor: Who will be doing what jobs and/or performing which transactions?

Donaji Oregel will be in charge of the Production Section. Kyle Hanlon will be in charge of the Reporting and Monitoring Section. Talal Ahmad will be in charge of the Marketing Section. Lastly, Connor Quigley will be in charge of the Financial Management Section.

• Collaboration Strategy: How was your team able to communicate with each other? Which team members communicated the most with each other? Were all members able to communicate successfully and work together rather than just completing tasks in isolation?

Team N was able to communicate efficiently and effectively. All members were able to communicate successfully and work together due to the team’s ability to congregate in one area and due to the team’s strong verbal skills.

• Leadership: Did someone function as a team leader to keep the group focused and on task? If so, did you decide on this as a group or did a leader emerge? If not, would you have performed better if someone had performed this function?

Everyone of us contributed to the leadership role in some way for our team. We all realized the importance each of our individual roles within the team was, and that allowed us to step up and all take on leadership as a whole. This is why we were not able to appoint one member as the team leader, but instead we appointed every member of our team as a leader. This really allowed us to stay on task and stay focused with no problems.

Marketing Strategy

• Product Mix: Which products did you sell and in which sizes? Did you change the recipe to make your product contain more of the desired ingredients?

• Place (region to sell): Which areas and which types of retailers bought the most of your muesli? ***(THIS QUESTION IS NOT ANSWERED IN THE ESSAY YET)
• Pricing: How did your prices compare to the other teams? What strategy did you use to determine your price? Did you use a strategy that looked at production costs and then mark up the muesli a certain amount or a certain percentage, or did you use market forces to determine your price?

Team N’s prices were comparable to the market average price for the product being sold. Team N determined their price by two main variables; the supply of the product, and the demand for that product. When determining prices, we let market forces play a substantial role. Market forces served as our main determinant due to the fact people will not buy a product from you if your neighbor is selling the exact same product for substantially less. We were able to keep a close eye on what products were selling easily, and what products were not such hot items. Our strategy was to focus on producing the goods that were selling the best on the market, and sell them in places where the quantity was low. By doing this, we were able to target the market into buying our products. We found this to be an extremely useful and effective tactic. We sold a lot of the 500g Blueberry, and the 500g Mixed Nuts. Those two items were our hottest sellers because we avoided selling them in places where there was a surplus of them. Once we saw how many raw materials we had left over, we were able to change up our recipe a little bit in order to use all of those excess raw materials. We did most of our marketing in the West and the East. Those two locations seemed to heed the best results for us. The first round, we didn’t target a specific location, but soon after realizing the areas that needed certain kinds of product, we targeted the West and the East. Compared to the other teams, our prices were slightly lower. Kyle was able to look at what price each good was selling at and communicate with Talal as well as Donaji and Connor to determine how much lower than the market price we should go. In order to determine our price, we actually looked at the market price for a certain product, and how well that product was selling, and made our price accordingly. For instance, if the product was selling for $4.50 and it was selling really well, we would have matched that price. However, if the product was not selling well, we would have dropped our price slightly and watch it perform. We definitely used market forces to determine our prices.

• Promotion (Advertising): Did you use advertising? Did you use it effectively? Did you advertise products that you did not have in stock? Did you raise prices on those products you were advertising?

Team N used the advertising and marketing sector to its full advantage. In the practice run, the marketing and advertising costs are what put our team in so much debt. It was extremely beneficial that this happened because it served as a learning experience for us as a team. We now knew that we would still have to advertise the appropriate products, but we now had a more conservative approach on how we would do our advertising. Instead of just advertising every product, we looked at our list of targeted products, and formed a watchlist. Using that watchlist, we were able to determine what products needed to be advertised more heavily. Doing this really allowed us to maximize our advertising, and make the most out of the cost it took to advertise. We used this tactic very effectively, and believe that this is the major reason our team did so well. Some of the products we were advertising we would raise the prices on, but others we would not. It all depended on which items were selling well and which ones were not. The one thing we tried to avoid doing was advertising products that we did not have in our stock. We viewed this as a waste of money and time and therefore chose not to do it. Team N was able to gather most of their sales due to their giant marketing presence during the simulation.

Sales Forecasting *THIS IS WHERE I LEFT OFF AT

• Products Produced: How did you decide on which products to produce? How did you decide on which lot sizes to produce in?

• Forecasting: Did you order lots of cereals at one time or forecast your products one at a time?

Production Strategy

• Production Planning: Did you release everything when the raw materials came in or did you try to time the release of your production to when you anticipated running out of inventory?

• Capacity Planning: Did you stick with the 21,000 boxes per day capacity that you had or did you increase your capacity? Did you stick to the 12 hour set up time or did you reduce your set up time? What were the results of those actions?

• Production Management: Were you able to keep your production lines running at all times or were there times that you were not producing because you didn’t purchase your raw materials in time?

Inventory Management

• Raw Materials: Did you ever exceed your ability to store your raw materials and have to rent more warehouse space or did you stay within the prescribed limits?

• Finished Goods: Did you ever have more boxes of cereal to store than you had space for and have to rent more warehouse space?

Financial Strategy

• Financial Management: How were your financial numbers compared to the other teams? For example, Credit Rating, Net Income, Sales, Gross Margin, ROE, etc.

Team N’s credit rating was middle of the road compared to it’s competitors. Team N was not able to reach the height of Team M’s A+ credit rating but did not seep so low to be given an A- or BBB+ credit rating. Team N’s final credit rating was a modest A. Team N was able to finish middle of the road once again with a final net income of -$658,024.28. Team N was close to becoming profitable like Team M $997,001.70 was able to achieve but managed to stay out of crippling debt such as Team P -$1,316,073.45. Team N finished middle of the pack in respect to sales with a total sales amount totalling at a vast $2,379,819.62. Team N finished with a modest ROE% of -3.402.

• Cash Management: Did you manage your money well, or did you have to borrow more money or have your credit rating decline?

Team N was able to successfully manage its money. Team N’s credit rating did initially decline when first production occurred but was able to surge back to its original position following the Team’s first sales. Throughout the entirety of the simulation Team N did not borrow any money and was able to pay off their initial loan of $8,000,000.

• Loan Management: Did you pay back extra on your loan or just let the automatic payments take care of the loan for you? Why did you choose the strategy you did?

Team N decided to pay back their original loan as soon as possible. Team N’s thought process was that if they were able to payback their loan as as possible it would increase their credit rating. This theory did not hold true and only increased their initial debt.

Environmental Scanning

• Competitor Pricing: Did you use competitor pricing as a part of determining your prices? What were your prices like compared to those of your competitors? What impact did that have on your performance?

• Competitor Financial Results: How did your financial numbers compare to those of your competitors? What impact did that have on your performance?

• Industry Monitoring (news, price changes, significant events, etc.): What impact did the news and other things going on in the environment have on your strategy?

1. Strategy Execution: Monitoring plan’s execution and development of alternatives required for success during the course of game play.

*Your report should use not only words but also graphics, etc. to tell the story of your game play and why you were/were not successful in running your muesli company. Editing, spelling, and grammar count, so be sure to collaborate not cooperate on the final paper (check each other’s work and provide feedback).*

TEAM N REPORT

Donaji Oregel will be in charge of the Production Section. Kyle Hanlon will be in charge of the Reporting and Monitoring Section. Talal Ahmad will be in charge of the Marketing Section. Lastly, Connor Quigley will be in charge of the Financial Management Section. The team all agreed that we could not appoint a single group leader because all of us took on leadership qualities while carrying out our specific task within the team.

Team N was able to communicate efficiently and effectively. Each team member had an individual task to perform and communication was a key component in carrying out each of these tasks. Donaji was required to be alert and in direct communication with Kyle about what items to buy. Connor was required to communicate with Talal about what products need to be marketed better possibly with advertising. All members were able to communicate successfully and work together due to the team’s ability to congregate in one area and due to the team’s strong verbal skills. No single team member communicated more than another. The communication within our team was constant and consistent. Everybody was communicating with each other sharing reports, purchase orders, and financial positions with each other.

Everyone of us contributed to the leadership role in some way for our team. We all realized the importance each of our individual roles within the team was, and that allowed us to step up and all take on leadership as a whole. This is why we were not able to appoint one member as the team leader, but instead we appointed every member of our team as a leader. This really allowed us to stay on task and stay focused with no problems.

Team N’s prices were comparable to the market average price for the product being sold. Team N determined their price by two main variables; the supply of the product, and the demand for that product. When determining prices, we let market forces play a substantial role. Market forces served as our main determinant due to the fact people will not buy a product from you if your neighbor is selling the exact same product for substantially less. We were able to keep a close eye on what products were selling easily, and what products were not such hot items. Our strategy was to focus on producing the goods that were selling the best on the market, and sell them in places where the quantity was low. By doing this, we were able to target the market into buying our products. We found this to be an extremely useful and effective tactic. We sold a lot of the 500g Blueberry, and the 500g Mixed Nuts. Those two items were our hottest sellers because we avoided selling them in places where there was a surplus of them. Once we saw how many raw materials we had left over, we were able to change up our recipe a little bit in order to use all of those excess raw materials. We did most of our marketing in the West and the East. Those two locations seemed to heed the best results for us. The first round, we didn’t target a specific location, but soon after realizing the areas that needed certain kinds of product, we targeted the West and the East. Compared to the other teams, our prices were slightly lower. Kyle was able to look at what price each good was selling at and communicate with Talal as well as Donaji and Connor to determine how much lower than the market price we should go. In order to determine our price, we actually looked at the market price for a certain product, and how well that product was selling, and made our price accordingly. For instance, if the product was selling for $4.50 and it was selling really well, we would have matched that price. However, if the product was not selling well, we would have dropped our price slightly and watch it perform. We definitely used market forces to determine our prices.

Team N used the advertising and marketing sector to its full advantage. In the practice run, the marketing and advertising costs are what put our team in so much debt. It was extremely beneficial that this happened because it served as a learning experience for us as a team. We now knew that we would still have to advertise the appropriate products, but we now had a more conservative approach on how we would do our advertising. Instead of just advertising every product, we looked at our list of targeted products, and formed a watchlist. Using that watchlist, we were able to determine what products needed to be advertised more heavily. Doing this really allowed us to maximize our advertising, and make the most out of the cost it took to advertise. We used this tactic very effectively, and believe that this is the major reason our team did so well. Some of the products we were advertising we would raise the prices on, but others we would not. It all depended on which items were selling well and which ones were not. The one thing we tried to avoid doing was advertising products that we did not have in our stock. We viewed this as a waste of money and time and therefore chose not to do it. Team N was able to gather most of their sales due to their giant marketing presence during the simulation.

Team N’s credit rating was middle of the road compared to it’s competitors. Team N was not able to reach the height of Team M’s A+ credit rating but did not seep so low to be given an A- or BBB+ credit rating. Team N’s final credit rating was a modest A. Team N was able to finish middle of the road once again with a final net income of -$658,024.28. Team N was close to becoming profitable like Team M $997,001.70 was able to achieve but managed to stay out of crippling debt such as Team P -$1,316,073.45. Team N finished middle of the pack in respect to sales with a total sales amount totalling at a vast $2,379,819.62. Team N finished with a modest ROE% of -3.402.

Team N was able to successfully manage its money. Team N’s credit rating did initially decline when first production occurred but was able to surge back to its original position following the Team’s first sales. Throughout the entirety of the simulation Team N did not borrow any money and was able to pay off their initial loan of $8,000,000.

Team N decided to pay back their original loan as soon as possible. Team N’s thought process was that if they were able to payback their loan as as possible it would increase their credit rating. This theory did not hold true and only increased their initial debt.