BSAD 102 1
St. Francis Xavier University
Mike’s Bikes Simulation Term Project Guidelines
BSAD 102 - Business Decision-Making - Winter 2011
Description:
The major assignment for this course is based on an online business simulation called Mike's Bikes. In
groups of 3 or 4 students, you will take on the role of managers of a firm that produces bikes in a
competitive industry. Your major assignment includes several parts: your group will write 2 reports;
deliver 1 mini-presentation; 1 major presentation; and one final written report to the board. You are
responsible for assessing information about the industry and making financial, marketing and operations
decisions to maximize your firm's performance.
Throughout the course of the term and as you progress in the business simulation, you will make a series
of decisions that pertain to some aspect of your simulated business. In Mike’s Bikes ‘language’ these are
called ‘roll-overs’. The reports that you construct, are in many senses a reflection on and an assessment
of the various decisions that your group makes throughout the term. It is important to note that once
decisions are ‘rolled-over’ on the dates specified below, they are final! Deadlines for decisions (roll-over
dates) are listed below, followed by the full term project guidelines.
Roll-over Dates
 Practice Round & Game Reset
o Practice Round: Monday January 24th, 11PM
o Game Reset

Decision #1: Pricing and Promotion
o Due on: Friday, February 4th, 4PM
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Decision #2: Distribution & Branding
o Due on: Friday February 11th, 4PM
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Decision #3: Capacity and Quality
o Due on: Friday March 4th, 4PM
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Decision #4: New Product Development & Launch
o Due on: Friday March 11th, 4PM
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Decision #5: Overall Ongoing Operations
o Due on: Friday March 18th, 4PM

Decision #6: Overall Ongoing Operations
o Due on: Friday March 25th, 4PM

Decision #7: Overall Ongoing Operations
o Due on: Sunday March 27th, 11PM
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Full Term Project Guidelines
Due Dates:
The various parts of the term project are to be submitted are as follows (due dates are listed in MOODLE
& your course schedule at a glance):
 Report 1: Financial Statement Analysis
o Due Monday, February 7th, 2011
 Report 2: Marketing Management Analysis Mini Presentations
o Due Monday, February 14th, 2011
 Report 3: Operations Management Analysis
o Due Monday, March 7th, 2011
 Individual Management Reflection Journal
o Due Monday, March 21st, 2011
 Report 4: Mike's Bikes Written Report to the Board of Directors
o Due Monday April 4th, 2011
 Major Presentation – Report to the Board of Directors
o See course outline at a glance / MOODLE for details
Report 1: Financial Statement Analysis
 Report 1 focuses on financial statement analysis of your company and your direct
competitor(s). Your report will include:
o Title page (1 page)
 Names and ID #’s of group members
 Company Logo and Company Name
o Analysis of Results
 Summarize your findings (2 pages, MS Word)
 Provide an overview of results your firm’s price strategy
 2-3 key points from your Vertical Analysis
 2-3 key points from your Horizontal Analysis
 2-3 key points from your Ratio Analysis
 Sales, cost and profit findings

-4 pages, MS Excel)
 Vertical Analysis of Income Statement
 Horizontal Analysis of Income Statement
 Ratio Analysis of Balance Sheet
 Financial statement analysis of your direct competitor(s)
 Comparison to industry norms and averages
o Appendices of reports (3-4 pages)
 Industry Benchmark report
 Market Summary (All Product Details)
 Financial Management Overview
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SEE MOODLE for EXAMPLE of financial statement analysis:
o MB SAMPLE Report – Financial Statement Written
o MB SAMPLE Report – Financial Statement Quantitative
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Report 2: Marketing Management Analysis Mini Presentation
 Delivery:
o Report 2 will be delivered as a mini-presentation to the class. You should follow these
guidelines in preparing your mini-presentation:
 Submitting the Presentation: You MUST submit a copy of your power point
slides to the instructor before you deliver your presentation. You should also
bring updated financial statement analysis, marketing and operations analysis.
 Time Allocation: Each group will be given 5 minutes to present an analysis of
their project. Please keep in mind that this is a very short period of time
therefore each group should prepare their presentations carefully highlighting the
main points of their project.
 Participation: Each group member must be physically present and involved in
the presentation.
 Question and Answer Period: Be prepared to receive and answer questions after
you have completed your presentation.
 Organization of the Presentation: Presentation should be well organized and
have a title slide (Names; ID #’s of group members; company name) a main body
of slides, a conclusion slide, and a Q&A slide.
 Content:
o Report 2 focuses on the analysis of your marketing decisions made by your company
and your direct competitor(s) and how these decisions have influenced your company’s
sales. In particular, you will assess three components of the marketing strategy: price
(price per bike and volume), place (distribution decisions of margin and retailer support)
and promotion (product advertising, public relations advertising and branding). Your
presentation will include:
o Summary of findings
 An overview of your firm’s financial results including sales, units sold, costs,
profits, SHV and Earnings per Share and a synopsis of your firm’s overall and
marketing strategies.
 You will have four main sections in this report; price, promotion, place and a
general conclusion about sales. For each of price, promotion and place,
describe how your current marketing results compare to:
 1) your firm’s previous results (e.g. price increased by 20% from $550
per bike to $660)
 2) the competition (e.g. price remains the highest in the industry and $50
above the next highest price)
 3) industry averages (e.g. the price of $660 is $80 above the industry
average price of $580)
 4) targets if applicable (e.g. the price of $660 is $60 above the suggested
premium price strategy of $600)
 5) describe how it (price, promotion or place) is related to sales (e.g. our
pricing strategy appears to have a strong, negative correlation to unit
sales, that as price rises our unit sales decrease from 20,000 units to 17,
500, especially in comparison)
 In your general conclusion, look at the big picture of your firm’s sales
performance and based on your analysis, identify the key reasons for your sales
o You should prepare a marketing analysis report and have these statements on hand:
 Income Statement history with horizontal analysis
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Market Summary (All Product Details Report) history including competitor
results and incorporating selected consumer information from the Market
Research report including target ratings
Selected competitive information from Industry Benchmark Report including
relevant industry averages
SEE MOODLE for EXAMPLE of marketing management analysis:
 MB SAMPLE Report – Marketing Statement Quantitative
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Report 3: Operations Management Analysis
 Report 3 focuses on the analysis of your operations decisions made by your company and how
these decisions have influenced your company’s costs. Specifically, you were asked to make
decisions about capacity (capacity level and inventory) efficiency improvement (wastage and idle
time) and quality. Your report will include:
o Title page (1 page)
 Names and ID #’s of group members
 Company Logo and Company Name
o Summary of findings (2 pages)
 An overview of your firm’s financial results including sales, units sold, costs,
profits, SHV, Earnings per Share and inventory levels.
 You will have four main sections in this written report, including production
capacity and inventory, efficient operations (wastage, idle time), quality
performance and a general conclusion about costs. For each of production
capacity/inventory, operations and quality, describe how your company’s
performance compares to:
 your firm’s previous results
 the competition
 industry averages
 targets if applicable
 describe how it (production capacity, operations and quality) is related to
costs
 In your general conclusion, look at the big picture of your firm’s cost
performance and based on your analysis identify the key reasons for your costs
 Provide a synopsis of your firm’s overall operations planning including
forecasted sales and production and how your firm’s capacity and quality
decisions relate to your future strategy. Do you have capacity in anticipation of
adding a new bike(s) next year? What do you anticipate your competitors will
do?
o Appendices of operations analysis and reports (4-5 pages; Excel)
 Income Statement history with horizontal analysis
 Factory Report history including your firm’s results, competitor results, averages
and targets (see sample below)
 Selected competitive information from Industry Benchmark Report including
relevant industry averages
o SEE MOODLE for EXAMPLE of operations management analysis:
 MB SAMPLE Report – Operations Statement Quantitative
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Individual Management Reflection Journal
 Purpose: The purpose of the management reflection journal is twofold. First, it is meant to help
you develop your management style through reflecting on your interpersonal relationships to date
with your fellow group members. Second, it is meant to help you learn, practice and apply some
key management concept discussed in the course textbook and in class to your own interpersonal
relations with colleagues in your group. Management reflection journals are not only meant to
help you learn and internalize the material discussed in the text book and class but also help you
apply your knowledge by using theories discussed in class to explain various events you
encounter.
 Maximum Grade: 5% of your total grade for this course
 Nature of the Assignment: individual assignment
 What to do: Your management reflection journal provides an opportunity to use theories and
concepts learned from chapter 8 or 9 of your course textbook to describe your encounters and
experiences with colleagues in your groups. To begin the assignment, you should familiarize
yourself with theories and concepts from the textbook. As you do so, take note of the concepts
that apply to you and your interpersonal relationships to date in your group. Once you’ve
constructed a list of relevant theories and concepts, you will use those to explain your
observations and yourself as one of a group of managers working on the course group project.
The document should have an introduction (small paragraph telling me what you are about to tell
me), a main body and a conclusion (small paragraph where you tell me what you have told me –
outline what you want me to remember the most from your findings). In the main body of your
text, you should lay out observations using academic references to support, explain and theorize
the observations. Theorizing the observations means describing your thoughts and observations
and then using the theory from the selected references to explain what the thoughts and
observations mean. Theorizing the observations also means using the selected academic
references to make sense the observations. Please note that you are not to regurgitate what the
academic references have told you about management – or simply describe the relationships you
have with your group members – but apply the theories to explain your interpersonal group
dynamics.
 Length: 600-850 words
 Title page: The title page should include the following information: your name and student#, the
title of your assignment, date, course & course section, my name.
 References: you will need to draw on and reference (APA format) 2 academic references.
Though one of the references can be the course textbook, the other must be another academic
source.
 Misc: Management reflection journals are completely confidential and are meant to reflect your
thoughts, interpretations on the subject matter discussed in the course.
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Report 4: Mike's Bikes Written Report to the Board of Directors
 Report 4 report should include the following sections:
o A statement of the firm’s strategy
o Analysis of Results; present information covering each of the following:
 Quantitative analysis of sales growth (horizontal), COGS (horizontal and
vertical) and profitability (horizontal and vertical) for your firm, direct
competitor and industry average
 2-3 points regarding your firm’s marketing results
 2-3 relevant points regarding of your firm’s operations results
o SWOT Analysis
 Draw conclusions based on your analysis regarding your firm’s strengths and
weaknesses with reference to your results above
 Identify Opportunities and Threats facing your firm with reference to:
 Opportunities like new product options, failure of competitor, unmet
demand, market space, strategic re-positioning
 Threats like competitor’s positioning, product launch and/or
performance, clustering of competitors).
o Recommendations for the Future
 Set objectives and make recommendations
 Objectives should be based on historical trends (horizontal analysis of sales
increases in last three years), management's expectations (plans for new
product launch connected with big advertising campaign and an increase in
quality) and identified opportunities (market demand with little in the way of
supply/competition). For example, “increase unit sales of road bikes by 5%
over the next year”. Objectives should be SMART – specific, measureable,
attainable, realistic and time bound.
 Recommendations are actions management plans to use to achieve their
objectives and consequently need to be directly linked to the objectives. For
example, to achieve the goal set above, the firm may “increase price to
$1,275”. Objectives may require multiple recommendations, such as public
relations and quality expenditures.
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Mike’s Bikes Major Presentation
 Description: An end of term power point presentation to the class on your Mike’s Bikes
experience will be used to evaluate your overall performance in the simulation. This major
presentation will focus on the analysis of your strategic, financial, marketing and operating
decisions and the future operations of your company. You must integrate your understanding
of markets and the broader environment (demand, supply, competition, factors affecting the
industry) with your understanding of firm-related decisions (strategy, finance, marketing,
operations). You need to analyze your firm's performance, provide a summary analysis, set
objectives for the future and provide recommendations. The content of the major
presentation is the based on and will largely stem from your Mike's Bikes Written Report to
the Board of Directors.
 Date of Major Presentation: See MOODLE schedule.
 Maximum Grade: The major presentation is worth 10% of your final grade for this course.
 Submitting the Presentation: You MUST submit a copy of your power point slides to the
instructor before you deliver your presentation. You should also bring updated financial
statement analysis, marketing and operations analysis.
 Time Allocation: Each group will be given 10-13 minutes to present an analysis of their
project. Please keep in mind that this is a very short period of time therefore each group
should prepare their presentations carefully highlighting the main points of their project.
 Participation: Each group member must be physically present and involved in the
presentation.
 Question and Answer Period: Be prepared to receive and answer questions after you have
completed your presentation.
 Organization of the Presentation: Presentation should be well organized and have a title
slide, a main body of slides, a conclusion slide, and a Q&A slide.
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Tips for Creating Effective Presentations
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Use a consistent layout and design throughout your presentation
Use colour and graphics to create an attractive and professional presentation
Use font sizes that can be read in the room in which you are presenting
Title each screen
Ensure you have used consistent spelling, punctuation and capitalization.
Try it out before, e.g. can your slides be read?
Have a backup and paper version in case of technical difficulties.
Tips for Delivering Effective Presentations
 Dress appropriately for the occasion, and consistently if presenting with team members.
 Use an attention-getting introduction by employing a device such as a quote authoritative
statement, using an anecdote, asking a rhetorical question, or describing a relevant
scenario
 Clearly introduce your topic, the presenters, and the agenda for your presentation.
 Smile, make eye contact and speak to everyone in the room
 Do not read from the screen, and use speaking notes only to refresh your memory. Pause
if you become lost or forgetful; do not use “uhm”
 Avoid distractions like swaying, saying “uhm”, playing with your hair, etc.
 If presenting with team members, remain interested and alert when another team member
is speaking.
 Summarize your presentation with an effective conclusion by using one of the attentiongetting devices.
Source: Queens University; modified by Mark Fuller and Neil Maltby