CAPSIM SPREADSHEET FOR DECISION MAKING
So, you want to win the CAPSIM competition. First, when I competed during my Policy class
at the University of North Florida, I searched the Internet for any tips,
tricks, or tools to help my team win the game.
Yes, there is a lot of useful information out there. However, there isn’t many useful tools
available. So, I decided to develop a
spreadsheet application to assist my team with the research and development,
and production decisions. During the 4
practice rounds and 8 competition rounds, I developed several spreadsheets to
help analyze the market. After the
competition and class was complete, I decided to combine the different
spreadsheets into one.
The downloadable spreadsheet is a tool to help your team
make better decisions than your competition.
It is not designed to give you a winning strategy, nor is it designed to
give you the best decisions to beat the competition. It is designed to present the available data
in a way to make it easier for you and your team to evaluate each sector, the
overall market, and the health of the company.
Your team will still have to decide on a strategy, evaluate the data,
and make decisions in-line with your strategy.
Now for the harsh reality.
All the tip and tricks other teams used to win their competition applies
to their competition. Each competition
is different from all the others because the competing teams make different
decisions. Some competitions have teams
that really put in the effort and ferociously competes. While in other competitions some teams just
give up and no longer try because they chose a strategy they did not understand
and made bad decisions. With this said,
there are pearls of wisdom to be gleaned from the available advice. Look for tips that are repeated by various
teams. Also, if the team providing
advice has a lessons learned or a “What Went Wrong/What Went Right” section,
READ IT. In those sections is where I
found most of the pearls of wisdom that helped my team win our
competition. And, more importantly, make
sure the tips your team follows are consistent with your team’s strategy.
Now for my advice:
To win the competition:
My spreadsheet features:
Recommended Links:
Quick Start for Capstone Round 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjKTzfaR3No
Capsim 2 - Research and Development Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDhrQmCGWPE
Capsim 3 – Marketing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VawiU4pllHs
Capsim 4 – Production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUI4-QAQkxY
Capsim 5 – Finance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQdjTC_YLPQ
CAPSIM R&D: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUgrYFfTbwY
CAPSIM marketing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDWppBNPQ0w
CAPSIM production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W38fyQnnIZ4
To win the competition:
- Read and understand the “Team Members
Guide!” Refer back to it often during
the competition. The spreadsheet is
based on the guide, the Industry Condition Report, the Situation Analysis guide,
Analyst Report criteria, and a few added touches I found useful.
- Pick a strategy and make consistent decisions
that support the chosen strategy. Don’t
change the strategy unless it is not working and you understand why it is not
working.
- Use a spreadsheet, or some other tool, to help
organize the data. If you do not use my
spreadsheet, make one yourself.
- Download and use the CAPSIM Excel application
from the CAPSIM website. After making
your decisions, review the Proformas, the Balance Score Card, and the Annual
Report against the Analyst Report criteria.
The CAPSIM Excel application can save the team decisions to the hard
drive. My spreadsheet is designed to
import the saved file. This will save a
lot of time reviewing and typing data from the CAPSTONE Courier into the
spreadsheet.
- Read the CAPSTONE Courier every round. Download it and save it for trend
analysis.
- Forecasting industry demand is critical. Every team in my competition, and the other
class, struggled with forecasting. The
guide states that the customer survey score drives demand. The higher the score the more demand for the
product. Reading the guide and
understanding how the score is increased will give the team a competitive
advantage.
- Understand how your team will be scored will
give the team a competitive advantage.
The Capstone Simulation Analyst Report evaluates your team in ten
categories of management performance; (1) Margins, (2) Profits, (3) Emergency
Loans, (4) Working Capital, (5) Market Share, (6) Forecasting, (7) Customer
Satisfaction, (8) Productivity, (9) Financial Structure, and (10) Wealth
Creation. Decisions should be evaluated
against the scoring criteria. Decisions
consistent with the team strategy, and which improve the scores on the Analyst
Report should be made.
My spreadsheet features:
- Import data from the CAPSIM Excel application’s saved
file.
- Products automatically reposition themselves on
their revision date as the perceptual map’s date is scrolled through the year.
- Choose which companies you wish to view/compare
your products with on the perceptual map.
- Customer Buying Criteria automatically updates
with each round.
- Print a Situation Analysis Report.
- Trends key indicators of the company. (Useful for the making PowerPoints.)
Recommended Links:
Quick Start for Capstone Round 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjKTzfaR3No
Capsim 2 - Research and Development Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDhrQmCGWPE
Capsim 3 – Marketing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VawiU4pllHs
Capsim 4 – Production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUI4-QAQkxY
Capsim 5 – Finance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQdjTC_YLPQ
CAPSIM R&D: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUgrYFfTbwY
CAPSIM marketing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDWppBNPQ0w
CAPSIM production: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W38fyQnnIZ4