Marketplace Community Newsletter

Vol. 1, No. 2, Summer 2005

Best Practices

In each Marketplace Community Newsletter, we will include best teaching practice tips and ideas submitted by Marketplace Business Simulation users. These best practices may range from specific applications within the Marketplace Simulation to more general topics concerning the teaching of business and marketing principles. Our main interest is that the ideas presented be informative and progressive, in keeping with our motto of making teaching easier and learning more fun. If you have a "best practices" idea or article, please let us know and we'll review it for inclusion in the newsletter.

The FORTUNO Business Magazine Prize
Submitted by TecTrain, our Brazilian Partner

In Brazil, the corporate educational market is highly specialized and increasingly concentrated. TecTrain is the leader and the national reference for training events based on international technology, and Marketplace is the most sophisticated and well-known business simulation in the country.

We have considerable experience with Marketplace in Brazil. For years, TecTrain has been responsible for providing multi-level Marketplace courses to the top three business schools, namely FGV-EAESP, Ibmec, and ESPM.

Over time, we recognized that one of our main differentials - in addition to up-to-date technology, fine web design, and efficient technical support -- is personalizing the course design and course materials.

Some of our recent improvements for Marketplace have included local email coaching for professors and students, inviting investment bank vice presidents and directors to evaluate teams' business plans, and creating virtual private equity funds with stock participation in teams from different classes, then exchanging students between these teams according to their individual performance.

But undoubtedly, our main innovation in 2005 was the creation of the FORTUNO business magazine as the final prize for best and worst performances in several areas of the companies. We developed the magazine covers for our MARKETPLACE TECTRAIN GOLD AWARD 2005. The Ibmec Executive MBA program was chosen to receive the pioneer application of the FORTUNO business magazine prizes.

Our first task was to choose the number of individual and team prizes. Just one brainstorm meeting was enough to define the categories. We used some of the default Marketplace rankings and have developed some new rules as well: top balanced scorecard, top market-share for each segment and market share overall, top brand design for each segment and top brand design overall, top ad design for each segment and top ad design overall, top manufacturing performance, top human resources performance, top R&D performance, top financial performance, and top bankruptcy.

The next step was the definition of all the mathematical formulas for measuring each performance. The challenge was to create coherent formulas for all prizes using the Business Management Marketplace level of difficulty, which does not provide detailed information for some of the categories we chose. (For details on the formulas we used to calculate the winners, contact daniel@tectrain.com.br.)

The third step was to create FORTUNO covers using the GIMP freeware (GNU Image Manipulation Program). Using some real FORTUNE covers, we replaced the nameplate with our own, FORTUNO, and substituted our own headlines and cover capsules for the originals. Then, we inserted images of the winning students using digital photos taken during the course. As a final touch, we added the Marketplace and TecTrain logos. To announce the program, we created a general FORTUNO cover (with the headline "The new most powerful people in business world") and sent it to all students.

The final step was the MARKETPLACE TECTRAIN GOLD AWARD 2005 event itself. We selected a special song to accompany the presentation of each prize, as winning students accepted their FORTUNO business magazines. In the end, students just loved it, and we are still receiving emails of congratulations for the initiative.

FORTUNO business magazine is not only an enjoyable final prize for the Marketplace courses, but a powerful marketing tool. After returning to their businesses, participants are proudly sharing FORTUNO with their colleagues and friends. At this very moment, hundreds of MBA students have their own FORTUNO business magazines displayed in their offices.

Below are examples of the FORTUNO covers:
(click on the image to view it in larger size)

Table of Contents

Marketplace Community Newsletter, issued quarterly.