Marketplace Community Newsletter

Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2005

Upcoming Marketplace Competitions and Seminars

What Is the Marketplace Global Competition?

Each Marketplace Global Competition provides marketing and business students and professionals with a realistic experience in managing a marketing division or an entire international firm. With a mixture of college and business teams from around the world, the participants gain insight into other cultures’ business strategies and ways of thinking.

Past participants in the Global Competitions have included teams from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Kingdom of Tonga, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Republic of Georgia, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States.

Fall 2004 winners

Upcoming competitions. Registration for the Fall 2005 Marketplace Global Competition is scheduled for September 7-21 2005, so put a reminder on your calendar and be ready to sign up then. The start date for the fall competition is September 28, and it will last for 10 weeks.

How much does it cost? The cost is $US 100 per participant, but university students receive an educational discount. With the educational discount, the rates are: $US 40 per student for the Advanced Strategic Marketing game and $50 per student for the Strategic Corporate Management game. (Certain universities in Eastern Europe may be eligible for additional discounts. Please contact us for more information.)

Game play. The simulation is played out over the Internet using the Web Marketplace software. Teams log in to the Marketplace web site to make their decisions. All the teams’ decisions are fed into a sophisticated computer algorithm that determines market demand within the simulation by modeling real-world market actions. The computer then generates sales for each team based on their decisions, the sales are recorded, and the teams’ results are computed. These are communicated to each team. The teams then continue with the next round of decision-making. Depending upon the quality of their decisions, teams can conquer the market or lose their shirts. Just as in the real marketplace, each new quarter participants have the opportunity to learn from earlier missteps, revise their tactics, refocus their efforts, and claim top spot in the Marketplace simulation.

Anyone who has not participated in any Marketplace Business Simulation game before and has an Internet connection and a working email address is invited to participate. (Please note: Team supervisors and instructors who do not actually play in the simulation may bring teams of new players to the competition.)

Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Opera browsers, versions 4 or higher, are needed to play, and JavaScript and cookies must be enabled. Business school students, corporations, and private individuals and groups are welcome to participate. Any number of teams from the same institution can play.

Scoring. A balanced scorecard will be used to measure performance in the competition. A total score will be computed for each team based upon such factors as profitability, market share in target markets, customer satisfaction, asset management, investment in the future, and creation of wealth for the stockholders. Other measures, such as human resource management and manufacturing productivity are included in the scorecard in higher-level games. Winning teams are recognized as masters of the marketplace, inducted into the Marketplace Simulation Hall of Fame, and cited in an upcoming issue of the Marketplace Community Newsletter.

Level of difficulty. Teams may compete in either Advanced Strategic Marketing or Strategic Corporate Management. Advanced Strategic Marketing consists of eight decisions rounds, each of which should take approximately two hours to complete. The market is global, with opportunities for teams to do business in an international electronics market set in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, and the USA. The difficulty level is intermediate, with players expected to be able to make business decisions in market opportunity analysis, brand development, advertising, pricing, and sales force management. Profitability projections and profitability analysis decisions are also required.

Like Advanced Strategic Marketing, Strategic Corporate Management consists of eight decision rounds in a global market. More time may be needed to complete decisions in each round, because the marketing research is more detailed and decisions must also be made in manufacturing, finance, accounting, human resources, and e-commerce, in addition to those areas listed for Advanced Strategic Marketing. To be successful, an in-depth analysis and treatment of all of these functions will be needed. Thus, the level of difficulty for Strategic Corporate Management is expert.

Regardless of the game level chosen, all competitors will start with exactly the same resources and knowledge of the market. It is the application of that knowledge and the utilization of those resources that will be the distinguishing factors among the competitors.

Read more about the levels of difficulty , or view demos on them.

Note. Registration for the Spring Marketplace Global Competition is still open. The spring competition starts February 16, 2005, and lasts 10 weeks (view the schedule). If you want to participate, please go to the registration page and complete the form. If you are new to Marketplace, please contact Jeanine Schmierbach by email or by phone at 865-740-1776.

You will need the following information to register: your name, email address, mailing address (where award certificates will be sent), the name of your school or company, the number of students and teams you wish to play in each level of difficulty, and, if possible, the method of payment to be used. If you have questions about the competition or difficulties with the sign-up process, please contact Marketplace Technical Support via email or by phone at 865-522-1946.

Summoning Challengers to the Next International Competition for Experienced Players

If you’ve played Marketplace before, this is your chance to pit your experience and skill against other pros from all over the world in one of our top difficulty level games, International Corporate Management (view the demo ). The Experienced Players Competition was developed at the request of many Marketplace participants who wanted to play the Marketplace business game again, at a more challenging level.

Who can participate? Anyone with an Internet connection who has previously participated in any Marketplace Business Simulation game is welcome to enter the competition. Winners are admitted to the Marketplace Simulation Hall of Fame, and they will be cited in an upcoming issue of the Marketplace Community Newsletter. Scoring is the same as in the global competition.

Prerequisites. Participants must have prior Marketplace experience.

Fall 2004 winners

Registration for the Fall 2005 Competition for Experienced Players is scheduled for September 7-21, 2005, so mark your calendar with a reminder to sign up then. The competition itself will begin September 28 and last for ten weeks. The spring competition starts February 17, 2005, and lasts 9 weeks (view schedule), but registration is still open. If you want to register a team for the Spring Marketplace International Competition for Experienced Players, please contact Sean Mullins via email or by phone at 865-522-1946.

How much does it cost? $US 50 per participant (wholesale price). The entry fee may be reduced for certain qualifying participants in China, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe.

Report on the Fall 2004 Train-the-Trainers Seminar

If you are new to or currently using the Marketplace Business Simulation, Innovative Learning Solutions’ free, two-day Train-the-Trainers seminar for Marketplace instructors is designed for you. The next seminar will be held Monday, April 18, through Tuesday afternoon, April 19, 2005, at ILS’s headquarters in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. Want to know what’s involved and what you’ll learn by attending? Following is a brief report on ILS’s Fall 2004 Train-the-Trainers seminar, held in Knoxville in October of 2004, plus feedback from attendees of earlier seminars.

Led by Dr. Ernest Cadotte (the creator of the Marketplace Simulation) and the ILS development and support team and attended by 10 Marketplace instructors and partners, the fall seminar was a fun, fast-paced series of dinners, pedagogical discussions, game-play sessions, lunches, volleyball, PowerPoint presentations, other game activities, award ceremonies, and snacking. As fall 2004 attendee Professor Bonita Barger of Tennessee Technical University saw it, what was most fun about the seminar was “eating, eating, eating.”

Kidding aside, the Train-the-Trainer seminar will immerse you in an intensive practice session with the Marketplace simulator, as well as provide you with ideas on how to most effectively build the simulation into your marketing or business course. Dr. Cadotte’s intent in presenting the seminar is that “participants get a comfort level with the software. To help instructors become better prepared to run the simulation, they need some understanding of it from the student’s perspective. They need to be able to run it, to be familiar with all its capabilities and all the information it can provide.” ILS partner Anup Mody of the 3C Group, USA, who participated in the fall 2004 seminar, believes this element to be critical: “The trainer has to know all the nuts and bolts.”

Seminar contents. A central focus of the fall 2004 seminar was communicating the pedagogical theory underpinning the Marketplace Business Simulation. Significant time was dedicated to discussion and lecture on learning strategies and tactics that have proven successful with other instructors. Participants played several decision rounds in one of the more complex simulations ( Strategy and Business Policy). At strategic points along the way, play was suspended to discuss the pedagogical options available to instructors and the pros and cons of each.

At the fall 2004 seminar, a Venture Capital Fair was included as part of the play of the Strategy and Business Policy simulation. Fall 2004 attendee and ILS partner Ryno Senior, from SIG in the Dominican Republic, felt participating in the fair was especially beneficial: “The Venture Capital Fair was the greatest experience, and I was sorry we did not have more time to explore it.… I would be looking forward to similar experiences.” Other topics covered in the Train-the-Trainers seminar include:

• Choosing the right simulation for your class

• How to use the simulation and its monitoring system

• Playing your role as instructor in the simulation (it’s more than delivering course content)

• Getting the right mix on teams

• Efficient coaching (recognizing student weaknesses and suggesting improvement, inspiring team cooperation, promoting healthy competition, and more)

• Novel approaches to using the simulation

• Thoughts on grading

Each attendee takes home a complimentary seminar notebook with the full presentation notes. It also includes guidelines for the executive meetings an instructor holds with each team in the guise of Chairperson of the Board. These guidelines are accompanied by example “letters,” which instructors can periodically send out to each team. These sample letters can be used, for instance, to direct student teams on where to best focus their energies in each quarter of the simulation.

The workshop is also an excellent occasion for instructors to share ideas and experiences with other educators and business professionals pursuing innovative teaching methods and unique resources for teaching and learning business and marketing skills. Many attendees of the TTT sessions feel this is one of the most valuable aspects of the seminar. As spring 2004 participant Professor Denise Luethge of the University of Michigan put it, “It was nice to be able to chat with others in the academic community who also have been bitten by the simulation bug! It was interesting to listen to their experiences and to know that there is so much expertise available.” Fall 2004 attendee Ryno Senior is equally enthusiastic: “The seminar was excellent! I got a bunch of new, good ideas out of it.”

Upcoming. The Train-the-Trainers seminar is free. ILS provides meals and seminar materials, and participants are expected to pay for their own travel expenses and lodging. Attendance is limited, so if you want to be part of the spring Train-the-Trainers seminar, please contact us soon. The Spring 2005 seminar is scheduled for Monday, April 18, through Tuesday, April 19. For registration information and hotel recommendations, please contact Jeanine Schmierbach by phone at 865-740-1776 or by email .

If you can’t make it to the spring Train-the-Trainers seminar, start planning now to attend the fall seminar, currently scheduled for October 2005.

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Marketplace Community Newsletter, issued quarterly.