Conscious Capitalism® - Bikes Simulation

A collaborative effort between the Conscious Capitalism, Inc and the makers of Marketplace simulations.

The Conscious Capitalism® Bikes simulation challenges participants to operate a conscious business in contrast to the traditional profit-maximizing business paradigm. Students in the simulation must consider all of the firm’s stakeholders, including customers, stockholders, employees, suppliers, and the community. They must deal with ethical, environmental, and sustainability issues in addition to the usual management challenges of running a business.

While participants encounter the challenges of starting up a fully-functioning entrepreneurial firm, they are also exposed to the tensions underlying Conscious Capitalism, including employee morale, reputation, product reliability, as well as environmental and health concerns.

The Conscious Capitalism problems and opportunities are presented within the context of a new enterprise with demands on the players’ time, attention, talent, spirit, resources, and livelihood. These CC issues represent dilemmas to be resolved, starting slowly and growing as the business matures.

Participants must choose between the path of least resistance or working hard to build a conscious business.

Content

The decision making content includes:

marketing
product development
pricing
promotion
sales channels
human resources
production
finance
accounting

Players will design brands, as well as advertising and internet marketing campaigns. They will open up distribution channels and build a production facility. They will hire workers and decide on the compensation packages. They will forecast demand, schedule production, and have complete accounting responsibility.
This simulation takes students through a wide range of business components and decisions while addressing the Conscious Capitalism issues that will emerge.

Storyline

In this simulation, players are provided with the seed capital to start up an innovative, new product line, 3D-printed, carbon fiber bikes. These bikes are light, strong, and very affordable. And, they can be customized to each customer’s physical and performance requirements. Bike riders are very intrigued by these benefits but are waiting to see what the players will bring to the market.
A big game changer for the industry is that 3D printers enable made-to-order production. This breakthrough eliminates the need to hold inventory anywhere in the supply chain, and the costs to finance and store inventory are eliminated.

Related Subject Matter

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Triple Bottom Line
Sustainable Global Enterprise
Environmental Management for Business
Business Ethics
Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME)

Time frame

6 decision rounds, with each round taking 2 to 3 hours per team.

Grading

The simulation will provide you with two types of metrics to grade your students or employees:

Business metrics (balanced scorecard) measure profitability, customer satisfaction, reputation, market share, human resource management, asset management, preparedness for the future and wealth.
Conscious metrics measure how well the actions of the firm satisfy all stakeholder values.