Category Archives: News

Music2Go Updates for 2013

December 19, 2012NewsIan McPherson

We’ve been busy over the last couple of months making some key changes to our Music2Go Marketing Simulation. These will be put in place from January 2013.

We believe the following changes will make the simulation even more enjoyable for all students:

Improved Market Research: We have condensed select existing Market Research reports into fewer more detailed reports:

All Product Details (added Estimated Lost Sales for all firms) – students should really buy this every period as this is the minimum information set you need to see what your competitors are doing.
Pricing Overview – shows Sales Units, Price Index, Retail Price, Wholesale Price, Production Cost, and Gross Margin for all firms / products.
Distribution Coverage and Sales Promotion – Distribution Index, Sales Promotion Rating, and Promotion Mix Effectiveness for all firms / products.
Retail Performance and Stores Stocking – Distribution Index, Retail Margin, Total Retailer Margin, and Number of Stores Stocking for all firms / products.

Free Industry Market Research Reports: We have found that some students have been reluctant to buy Market Research, even with our encouragement. So what we have done is provide a few of the fundamental reports free under the Market Research menu. These contain the data which remains the unchanged over the simulation, and will be required for students to do well:

Some Product Details
Segment Size and Price Range
Segment Media Advertising Preferences
Segment Distribution Preferences
Segment Product Development Preferences (New Report)

Base Budget Upper Limit: There will be a $50m base budget maximum. This has been put into place to reduces the advantage that lead firms have, and force them to plan more carefully if they want to maintain multiple products.

Increased Demand: We have increased the demand in all segments to make it easier for struggling firms to maintain positive net marketing contribution. Also, there will be a greater initial distribution boost for new products, which will make it easier for these firms to compete with established products.

Revised Players Manual / Quickstart Guide: We have updated the Music2Go documentation, including making students aware of the upper budget limit, and the upper limit Inventory Purchases.

If you have any questions on these updates, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

– Ian McPherson

David Kitlan of Penn State and MikesBikes

September 3, 2012NewsCamille Canuto

David Kitlan of Penn State University, was a recent winner of a customer draw that we conducted for a new Apple iPad. He has been a long time user of our MikesBikes-Intro Simulation, and would like to take this opportunity to share his experiences with you all.

David teaches in area of Information Sciences and Technology, and Business Administration. He has been using MikesBikes for almost ten years in one of his courses:

“This course combines aspects of information technology with business processes and uses the Smartsims simulation as one of its main team projects during the semester. The simulation helps to provide our Penn State students with a realistic business environment in which they can compete against each other while they learn how to improve and apply their business and informational skills. I have had students who received job opportunities based in part on being able to better describe their understanding of business processes to potential employers as a result of participating in the Smartsims simulation”.

Smartsims is proud to be continuously working with David Kitlan and Penn State University.

Entrepeneurship and MikesBikes

July 24, 2012NewsCamille Canuto

One of our long-time MikesBikes Advanced users, Erik Molander, has written an excellent article on the benefits of using Simulation based experiential learning in an Entrepreneurship Course.

Excerpts from the article “Entrepreneurship Cannot be Taught, but it can be Learned” are below:

Is There A Secret Formula For Entrepreneurial Success?

Amazon has dozens of books that claim to be the secret formula for entrepreneurial success. They are all based upon a significant false premise. The entrepreneur will never face the same set of challenges, opportunities and circumstances as the author. Every new business venture is fresh and original – it has never been done exactly this way before. We don’t teach entrepreneurship as if it were calculus. We teach our aspiring entrepreneurs the first principles, latest techniques, and processes to experiment and to be able to adapt with grace and flexibility.

Since 2004, BU’s School of Management has focused on experiential learning as the pillar of our Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Concentration. Experiential learning provides students with the ability to learn by doing. Students engage in a variety of entrepreneurial ventures ranging from consulting projects with local start-ups, compete with other teams in business simulations and prototype their businesses in our classes.

Our research has identified three key reasons for the effectiveness of our approach to entrepreneurship education:

1. Reinforces Positive Entrepreneurial Behaviors

Entrepreneurs face challenges that are different than other business owners. Early in their education we begin to reinforce the personal characteristics that are necessary for success as an entrepreneur. It’s critical to reinforce the processes and attitudes associated with being able to sense and evaluate opportunities. A student can learn the need-finding process but if she doesn’t have an exploratory attitude she won’t be effective. The sword will forever remain in the case. Experiential learning is essential to inculcating the entrepreneur with the following personal traits:

Tolerance for Ambiguity
Inductive Reasoning and Experimentation
Teamwork
Perseverance

2. Has a Greater Impact on True Learning

Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. There’s solid evidence that higher levels of recall and use are found when individuals are engaged in an actual experience…not just hearing about it. Our experience has demonstrated that students have found this style of instruction to be more relevant because it is deeply personalized. Direct experiences provide knowledge in context and students remember the insights learned much longer. Eight years after we began using a business simulation called MikesBikes, our class was still able to discuss in detail their key decisions and learning from the simulation. Clearly the knowledge gained was deeply internalized because it is such a sensory experience.

In addition, experiential learning has significantly higher levels of reflection. In a classroom environment, professors often tightly program the lesson to lead students to the big aha moments. In experiential learning, random events lead to unpredictable outcomes. Stuff happens. The students then have to do their own root cause analysis, not just replicate the textbook solution. This leads them to define new approaches (theory) and create effective experiments to solve the problem. Experiential learning helps them to synthesize their experiences into a new outlook and framework.

3. Leads to Greater Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is the individual’s belief in how well they can perform in a prospective situation. Since self-efficacy is based upon the student’s experiences and is distinguished from self-confidence, it can only originate from actual experiences. Therefore, a student may exude self-confidence but have no legitimate basis for their beliefs. Since research shows that self-efficacy leads to a significant improvement in performance, using experiential learning is critical for entrepreneurs to improve their skills.

There have been a number of surprising results from experiential learning. We’ve learned that this type of learning help student survive rejection. They know that they’ve been successful in the past, it will happen again, perhaps just not at this moment. This leads to the second surprising result, experiential learning leads to greater perseverance in the face of obstacles. Having overcome obstacles in the past, they are more willing to search for solutions.

Erik Molander is an Executive-in-Residence and lecturer who teaches Entrepreneurship and Strategy at Boston University. He serves as a faculty advisor to the MBA Consulting Community and Undergraduate Entrepreneurship students. The focus of his current research is on the Creative Economy and emerging business models. Erik has over 30 years experience in Corporate Finance, strategy and innovation both as a corporate executive and consultant with top tier strategy consulting Firms.

MikesBikes Wiki

July 19, 2012NewsIan McPherson

The MGMT300 Wiki – a fantastic MikesBikes Advanced resource , is up and running. You can view the Wiki HERE.

The MGMT 300 Wiki was initially created by Darl Kolb, an instructor at the University of Auckland. The Wiki’s aim was to provide a resource for students using MikesBikes Advanced in their Strategic Management courses – where they can find and share useful information on the Simulation, and post their Learning Journals.

The Wiki was out of action for a couple of years, however Peter Smith, the current instructor for MikesBikes at the University of Auckland, has got the Wiki back up and running after a number of requests by students eager to access the valuable information.

Simulations in your Classroom

June 26, 2012NewsIan McPherson

How can a Business Simulation work for your classroom? The new Smartsims Promotional Video covers the basics of Simulation based learning, our range of tailored products for specific course types and levels, and the key benefits to Students and Instructors.Watch the video below:

For more info, or to see our Simulations in action via an Online Demonstration, contact our friendly sales team.

Thanks to Richter Media Group for their assistance in creating the video.

Desire2Learn Innovation Award

June 18, 2012NewsCamille Canuto

Bob Sproule of the University of Waterloo, a long time user of our MikesBikes-Intro Simulation, has been awarded the Desire2Learn Innovation Award. The award seeks to recognize and celebrate innovative teaching approaches in post-secondary education worldwide.

Bob has received this award for his exceptional and innovative approach to education through his integration of MikesBikes into his Introduction to Business Course, and complimentary course content. Students are placed into teams of four to manage their MikesBikes company, where they develop company strategy and implement this through our online interface.

Desire2Learn Incorporated is a world-leading provider of enterprise eLearning solutions that enable institutions and other organizations to create teaching and learning environments that reflect their vision, goals, and branding. Desire2Learn and its subsidiaries support more than eight million learners worldwide.

Another of our long-time Instructors, Darl Kolb, received the DEANZ award for Collaborating accross Distance, Functions and Institutional Boundaries.

Darl, of the University of Auckland, teamed up with Bill Smith, of the Eastern Institute of Technology, to run an inter-institutional learning experience over a 10 week period using MikesBikes-Advanced, where students from each institution competed against one another using the Simulation. The project promoted student participation, interaction and teamwork, and was a large success.

The proven experiential learning students are exposed to by using MikesBikes, is a large contributing factor to the success of these courses.

2012 Business Teaching Summit at Drexel University

May 9, 2012NewsIan McPherson

The LeBow College of Business Center for Teaching Excellence will be holding the 2nd annual Business Professor Teaching Summit (BPTS) at Drexel University on Friday, May 18, 2012.

The BPTS is a business school faculty conference dedicated to sharing innovative and effective strategies to enhance student learning across all business disciplines. The Summit will include speakers from learning institutions, as well as several key guest speakers from successful businesses and corporations.

Jodi Cataline, a long-time user of our MikesBikes-Intro Business Simulation will be speaking alongside Dennis Gain, Smartsims’ CEO, on the effectiveness of Experiential Learning in the classroom through the use of simulation. Jodi and Dennis’ presentation will include how MikesBikes can be integrated into a course, and the support that Smartsims offer throughout the course. MikesBikes has been proven to accelerate learning by reinforcing foundational business principles as students gain hands-on experience in the classroom.

MikesBikes-Intro is our introduction to business simulation. Students are progressively given control over their own company, where they compete against other student teams in their course for control of the market

If you wish to attend the conference, please register here:http://www.lebow.drexel.edu/Faculty/Centers/BPTS/index.php

Quinnipiac Winners

January 31, 2012NewsCamille Canuto

David Cadden a Cheshire resident and professor of management at Quinnipiac University, led a team of four business students to victory in this year’s MikesBikes-Intro simulation.

SWAG Cycles, a team comprised of School of Business students Matthew Golden of Walpole, Mass., Malgorzata Kielbowicz of New Britain, Spencer Mannion of Brookfield and Alison Scharr of East Granby, were honored Nov. 28 for beating 75 Quinnipiac teams participating.

Each fall, all incoming freshmen in the School of Business take the course Introduction to Business, which relies heavily on the MikesBikes business simulation software to reinforce business concepts in an experiential learning environment.

Student teams make business decisions for their simulated bike manufacturing company that get progressively more complicated throughout the semester. By the end of the simulation, student teams decide everything from marketing strategies to launching new products, manufacturing capacity, quality control and financing decisions.

Student team performance in the MikesBikes simulation is measured by the resulting shareholder value created by their company. Each year, the winners’ names are engraved on a plaque that hangs outside the dean’s office in the Lender School of Business Center.

The winning team had the highest shareholder value among the Quinnipiac teams competing. In addition, Golden, Kielbowicz, Mannion and Scharr placed 38th overall from a field of more than 6,500 teams from universities around the world.

Dennis Gain, CEO of Smartsims, the company that created the MikesBikes simulation software, visited Quinnipiac to help Matthew O’Connor, dean of the School of Business, present the plaque to the winning team.

Source: http://cheshire.patch.com/articles/qu-students-led-by-cheshire-professor-win-business-competition

2010 National Business Olympiad

December 12, 2011NewsIan McPherson

Smartsims India (iInteract) conducted Simulations across India this year as part of their National Business Olympiad.

National Business Olympiad is a business simulation competition using MikesBikes-Advanced, conducted specially for management students with an intention to test their strategic frame of mind and conceptual skills in Finance, Human Resource, Marketing, Operations and R&D.

This event was conducted across 17 major cities, with the grand finale held at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahemedabad on 26th – 28th November, 2010 during their 50th year celebration flagship summit Confluence 2010.

Confluence 2010 is the second largest Business School festival behind IIM Calcutta’s Intaglio. Over the years, Confluence has attracted participation from business schools across India as well as abroad. It hosts events from all the standard arenas of Management – Finance, Marketing, Strategy, Entrepreneurship and IT and Operations. Many distinguished speakers and industry leaders share their knowledge, and the event provides a platform to budding managers to apply their skills in various games and events organized during the meet, including the MikesBikes competition.

There were around 72 teams in the finals of the event at Confluence 2010. In addition to Business Schools, a few corporate house teams also participated in the event.

Students from Ahmedabad based “Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India” took all the 3 positions in the finals, making it a clean sweep.

The team of Ankur Joshi, Pawan Kumari and Anshul Goel showed their managerial skills and acumen to emerge as winners. The first runners up and the second runners up were the teams from FMS, Dhaula Kuan, Delhi and IMS – Noida respectively.

Dr. Kiran Bedi, Former IPS Officer was the Chief Guest at the award presentation ceremony and she presented certificates to the winning team members. The award also consists of a cash prize of Rs 1,00,000.

Some of the notable among the registered participating colleges were FMS, IIFT, Jaypee Business School, FMS – Rural Management Institute (Jaipur), EMPI, IMS – Noida, Galgotia Business School, IITM, Technia.

MikesBikes-Advanced is a Strategic Management Simulation by Smartsims Business Simulations. MikesBikes gives students the unique opportunity of running their own company, while competing against other students, within a realistic and dynamic environment.

Students form the management team of their own Bicycle Manufacturing Company, making all the key functional decisions. They will analyze real Market and Financial reports, and collaborate with each other to formulate, implement, and review their own cross-functional strategic plan.

Experiential Learning & Music2Go Marketing

December 7, 2011Marketing Simulation, Teaching Methods, Experiential Learning, Business Simulation, News, Case StudyIan McPherson

Experiential Learning is a highly effective educational tool, and a key feature that sets our Simulations apart from other teaching methods.

Experiential Learning focuses on the learning process for the individual, through observation and interaction with the subject they are learning about rather than the traditional process of learning from a textbook.

Katie Matthew recently spoke at the Annual Conference of the Society for Marketing Advances in Memphis, Tennessee about her integration of ourMusic2Go Marketing Simulation in her Introductory Marketing Course, and how this has added value by bringing Experiential Learning to her classroom. Katie is a Major in the U.S. Army and Instructor at The United States Military Academy at West Point.

Some of the key benefits of Music2Go that she mentioned included the following:

Encouraged more student engagement/involvement;
Produced better learning outcomes;
Students indicated they preferred this style of learning;
Better prepared students to make real-world decisions.

Katie fully embraced the Experiential Learning process by having Music2Go as the “Major Event” for her course. She notes that the “time tested and proven” nature of the Music2Go software, which included teaching resources and 24 hour support played a big part in adopting the Simulation. Another feature she mentions that is typical with Experiential Learning is the immediate feedback students receive on their decisions, which enables them to see what works and what doesn’t. Whether or not decisions are optimal, the results give students a clear and immediate insight into the linkages between functional decision areas – something not possible with traditional learning methods.

“It helped us apply what we learned in class; to see the how wrong or how right we were in making decisions. This experience can’t be replaced except by real life.”

From an educator’s point of view, Katie enjoys the flexibility that Music2Go gives her, with adjustable timelines that can change with course needs, and the ability to easily monitor student performance. She has adopted a “Consultant” role to students, giving teams the option of approaching her for guidance on certain decision areas, and is able to deduct a virtual “fee” from their Marketing Budget within the simulation. This further enhances the real-world feel that the Simulation brings to the classroom, while encouraging participation.

“I enjoyed it so much more because of the competitive aspect it offered. I also learned more because it is a nice change of pace to move away from the books and to see what we would be doing if we actually were in marketing as a profession.”

To be truly effective, Experiential Learning needs to incorporate the entire learning wheel – from goal setting, to experimenting and observing, to reviewing, and finally action planning. The complete process allows students to learn new skills, new attitudes and entirely new ways of thinking.

To see how you can bring Experiential Learning to your classroom via our Music2Go Marketing Simulation, or any of our other simulations, feel free to contact the Smartsims Sales Team at sales@smartsims.com

Credit to Katie Matthew, Bill Madway, and the Society for Marketing Advances – see below links for full SMA publications.

SMA Teacher-Friendly Experiential Learning Projects

Experiential Learning Projects Reference Guide for Marketing Educators

Presentation on Active Learning at the 2011 Marketing Management Association’s Fall Educators’ Conference

Teacher-Friendly Options for Incorporating Experiential Learning Projects in Marketing Courses

Strategic Approaches to Active Learning