Intro to BPG
Overview of simulation
Briefing on company organization task
BA 490C
Intro to BPG
1
Simulation overview
 A business competition among teams in your
World (section)
 Each company manufactures and sells a
consumer durable product in 4 market areas,
e.g., toaster, inside/outside thermometer, etc.
 Your product directly competes with the
products of other companies for consumer $
 Each firm makes quarterly decisions on
marketing, production, and finance
BA 490C
Intro to BPG
2
Decision form
BA 490C
Intro to BPG
3
Simulation overview--continued
 The BPG then simulates the competitive
results based on the decision input, and
 Produces quarterly reports for the industry
and your company
 Your access to the BPG program is through
Sun Global Desktop on the CBA site
BA 490C
Intro to BPG
4
Tools to know how you are doing
 Financial statements
 Summary industry and competitor data
 Your company’s financial statements
 Income
 Balance sheet
 Cash Flow
 Operating reports for industry and company
 ProScore
 Shows performance relative to other teams
 Is the basis for team scores at the end
BA 490C
Intro to BPG
5
Quarterly industry report
 Industry environmental data



Financial market data: GDP, CPI, interest
rates, RGDP,
Real GDP forecast
Exchange rate forecast
 Comparative company data


BA 490C
Financial performance & condition
Sales, market share, pricing, & product
characteristics
Intro to BPG
6
Company operating reports
A detailed report of financial, marketing, and production results for
your company--available only to you
 Income statement
 Cash flow analysis
 Balance sheet
 Production cost analysis
 Output, inventory, & sales analysis
 Standard cost per unit
 Sales force analysis
 Latest decision inputs
BA 490C
Intro to BPG
7
Your challenge
 Organize your team to be successful
Designate functional roles and overall leadership
 Assign decision responsibilities—operational & strategic
 Define team expectations of members
 Develop goals, objectives, strategies, policies for your company
 Develop supporting functional objectives, strategies, and
policies
 Plan your work flow
 Coordinate the work to successful completion
 Manage (control) your performance
 Estimate results
 Measure actual results vs. your estimate & act
 Monitor competitive position & performance
 Understand why others do things better
 Identify how you can do better
 Reassess/confirm strategy
Intro to BPG
8
BA 490C

Performance evaluation

Competency tasks—Team tasks for from 10-40 points









Management tasks—Team tasks for from 40 to 100 points




Sales order forecast
Product cost
Capacity evaluation
Justification for investments in capital
Cash planning
Operational statement analysis
Financial statement analysis
Competitive analysis
Strategic planning: mission, overall objectives, business strategy
Strategic management: hierarchy of objectives, strategies, and policies
Control: analysis of financial and operating results, determine need for
operational and/or strategic change; then, implement the changes
Competitive results


BA 490C
Multiple dimensions of financial results, many of which are driven by net income
Reported on the ProScore report annually
Intro to BPG
9
ProScore report
 Click for Sample ProScore report.
 Note the factors and their weights may be
changed before we start the competition.
BA 490C
Intro to BPG
10
Peer evaluations
 Individual grades for team assignments may differ greatly from
the team’s grade depending on peer inputs.
 Peer evaluations are confidential; they become the property of
the instructor and will not be divulged to team members.
 Additionally, the following factors may affect individual grades for
team work.



BA 490C
Non-participating team members, i.e., those whose names are
not listed by a team on the submitted copy of an assignment,
receive no credit.
Teams may terminate their association with members whose
contribution is unsatisfactory; however, they must do so
professionally and obtain the instructor’s prior approval.
Students terminated from a team will be dealt with on an
individual basis, with at least a one-letter grade penalty.
Intro to BPG
11
BPG resources—from web site
 BPG
A Player’s Tutorial and a Quick Start reference guide are
available from the Help menu in the BPG
 The printed manual is available in Support Services (Room
229) for $12
 View a pdf version of the Players' Manual at the BPG
aurthor’s website: http://www.eskimo.com/~bpg/. Select
Players Area and login: username = player; password =
swb30oss (case is significant)
 BPG simulation
 Introduction to BPG initial decisions
 Items affected by exchange rate fluctuations
 Key to history report file names
 Sales forecast blank form

BA 490C
Intro to BPG
12
Team organization & decision
Due Wednesday
responsibilities
•Team roles
CEO
VP Marketing & Sales
CFO
Position
Name
CEO
•Operational decision
responsibilities
CFO
VP Marketing &
Sales
VP Production
VP Production
Wednesday: Team roles due by email
Operational
decisions
Strategic
decisions
BPG manual
expertise
BA 490C
Wednesday: Indicate responsible person in cells on decision form
Next week: Strategic decisions for each role
Next week: Specify general and expert manual knowledge expectations by role.
Intro to BPG
13
The BPG simulation: An opportunity
 To bring together the knowledge & skills from
each CBA discipline to




BA 490C
Apply strategic management concepts
Integrate the decisions of each functional area
to achieve organizational effectiveness
See how the decisions of one function affect
the performance of others and the entire firm
Appreciate the importance of each function to
successful operation of the business
Intro to BPG
14