Product Updates for MikesBikes Introduction and MikesBikes Advanced: December 2016

Over this year, we have made several tweaks and improvements to our simulations:

1. Product Summary / Contribution

The Product Summary – Sales, Margin, Production report has been updated in order for students to identify the contribution of each product:

Product Summary Report Screenshot

2. Fines System

Instructors wanting to penalize firms can do so via the Firms menu of their Administrator features:

Fine Firm Screenshot

For students, this amount shows up after the rollover has been processed in the Income Statement:

Income Statement Screenshot

The fine directly impacts the firm’s profit, which feeds into Shareholder Value.

 

3. Minimum Share Issue Price is now $5 per Share

  • Struggling firms need access to equity.
  • Even bankrupt firms can issue 50% more shares at $5 / share to recapitalize.
  • E.g. A firm with share price of $0.76 and 1 million shares issued could issue 500,000
    shares at $5 / share = $2.5m (making it slightly easier for them to recover).

 4. Up to 20% Share Repurchase

In MikesBikes Introduction

The simulation now allows for students to repurchase shares up to 20% beyond original 1 million share allocation.

Eg. If you have 2 million shares issued, you could repurchase 20%, or 400,000 shares.
When below 1 million, the limit remains at 10%.
Eg. If you have 900,000 shares issued, you could repurchase 90,000 shares.

 

In MikesBikes Advanced

The simulation now allows for students to repurchase shares up to 20% beyond original 2 million share allocation.

Eg. If you have 3 million shares issued, you could repurchase 20%, or 600,000 shares.
Below 2 million the limit remains at 10%.
Eg. If you have 1.8 million shares issued, you could repurchase 180,000 shares.

5. Limit to Projects/ Products

In MikesBikes Introduction

Firms can sell multiple products in a single market segment. This can work if student plans well. But it is often unintended and market share drops due to product cannibalization.
Instructors can now limit students to having at most one product in each segment. At the beginning of your course please let your account manager know if you would like your course set up in this manner.

In MikesBikes Advanced

We can optionally LIMIT:

  • Max Projects per Period
  • Max Products
  • Max Products per Segment

6. Specific MikesBikes Introduction Scenario Improvements include:

  • Sports segment around 40% larger, meaning firms have more room to expand as well a higher chance of generating larger revenue.
  • Branding is cheaper to attain once Distribution and Branding decisions are available.
  • Efficiency is cheaper to attain once Capacity decisions are available.
  • Road segment more sensitive to Quality and Product Specs.
  • Bankrupt Firm Share Price improves faster.

 7. MikesBikes Advanced will contain IFRS Financial Statements:

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are common outside North America, therefore to ensure relevancy to all schools these have now been included. The reports have different names and layouts for Financial Statements.
The different names for financial statements can be:

  • Statement of Comprehensive Income
  • Statement of Financial Position
  • Statement of Cash Flows
  • Statement of Changes in Equity