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From: Inside TVA
May 26, 1998 issue Vol. 19, No. 10
by Jim Andrews
Ordinarily, Sandra Grice is a Specialist in Business Services in
the Resource Group in Knoxville. However, for several days last month
she also was Vice President of Marketing & Sales for IMPAQ, a major
make believe company. We weren't the top company in our field,
more in the middle of the pack" Grice says. "But we were in
the black and coming back strong at the end, after being on the razor's
edge of bankruptcy at one point."
Like its simulated competitors, Grice's company was part of the
Marketplace Game, a computerized competition developed and conducted
by Ernie Cadotte, a University of Tennessee Marketing professor. About
60 members of the Resource Group took part, learning what companies must
and must not do to succeed in today's highly competitive business world.
Business Services Manager, Randy Trusley, says those who participated
can apply what they learned to decisions they make in their real work,
with TVA reaping the benefits. "Several of us had gone through the
Marketplace Game as part of the University of Tennessee's executive-education
program," says Trusley, who with Land Management Vice President Ruben
Hernandez was responsible for bringing the game to TVA.
The game compresses two business years into four days. Five-member
teams each form a computer company, select a company name, then make decision
on such matters as strategy, capital investment, market research, design
of products and brands, construction of production facilities, marketing,
opening sales offices and financial management.
All decisions are entered into the computer model, which weighs them
against computer-industry characteristics of the 1990s. "Between
the first and second `year,' each team presented its business plan to
`venture capitalists' we brought in from UT and from other TVA organizations,"
Trusley says. "The venture capitalists invested in several companies."
As each quarter progressed, the market changed based on the actions of
each company. "You could see where you were strong or weak in comparison
with the other companies and could pick up on what they were doing and
adjust your strategies and operations," Trusley says. "Most
team members had been through STAR 7 workshops, and you could see them
putting into place the principles learned there."
Each company had a president, plus vice presidents of production,
finance, marketing research, and marketing and sales. Grice says interdependence
of all the different roles was critical to success. "If you don't
know what the right hand's doing, the left hand can really foul things
up," she says. "It's all about working together, knowing our
objectives and understanding what it takes to achieve them."
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