An Individual Reflective Analysis: Online Business Strategy Game - Essay Example

Individual Reflective Report Table of Contents Introduction 3 Online Business Strategy Game 3 Belbin’s Typology 4 Business Strategy Integration 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction The report is an individual reflective summary of my understanding and learning the course and my work life. During the discussion I will be covering the keys aspects of my learning in the BSG online games. The positive and the negative effects will be discussed in the summary. Once I am done with that I will then move on to understanding and placing myself according to the Belbin’s typology theory. I will in this part also try to highlight my team members and how they participated in relation to this theory. Next in the assignment will the business strategy that I used to enter my business and why I thought this would be helpful. During the discussion I will also use the theories that I had learnt while completing my degree at the university. Online Business Strategy Game The BSG online game or better known as the business strategy game online is a simulation game played by students as well as experts to enhance their business operating knowledge. It involved the accurate prediction of the stocks, taking up realistic decision and at the same time incurring profits for the virtual firm (Johnson Jr. and Stappenbeck et al., 2010). The Business Strategy Game is a no holds barred rivalry: organization against organization. Each one organizations group focused exertion opposite adversaries is essential to market victory. Your group is in as practical an organization and intense market setting as would be prudent and are dealing with all parts of the organizations operations. This MBA level on the web, PC-based certifiable reproduction has been utilized by in excess of 500 business schools in 25 nations and has had 500,000 players. It is a demonstrated testing ground for vital hypothesis in an experiential taking nature (Johnson Jr. and Stappenbeck et al., 2010). The positive issues while playing this game was it helped me gain knowledge practically and I could also apply my learning skills without the fear of losing in real time. It gave me the idea of what are the possible threats and how to overcome those while running your own business. Earlier I had the notion that once I have enough money to setup a company of my own, I will be hiring different people for different sections who will be running them and reporting to me. My job would be to listen to them and give them targets that need to be achieved by their team. Once I started playing this game, I had a face a whole different reality all together. It was not just sitting and going through progress reports but I had to run the show. Without me taking up important steps it was becoming very difficult to survive in the game. It helped me draw together the data and lessons of former courses, combine your learning about the distinctive parts of running an organization, and give a capstone to your business school instruction. The Business Strategy Game joins an abundance of material secured in prior business courses. Grappling with bookkeeping and fiscal information, generation operations, workforce payment and preparing, deals and marketing issues, thus on every choice period wont just provide for you a stronger understanding of how all the diverse utilitarian bits of a business fit together additionally show you the criticalness of taking a gander at choices from an aggregate organization point of view and bringing together choices in a mixture of useful zones to make a strong strategy. You will see why and how choices made in one region overflow to influence conclusions in different regions of the organization. BSG is really a capstone taking in encounter that ties together material from other centre courses and provides for you a finer feel for what running a business is about. Belbin’s Typology In this section I will be discussing my role and my team member’s role from the perspective of the Belbin’s typology approach. As stated by this approach all the members have a role to play in the team (Belbin, 2004). This part is structured by a synthesis of particular character and abilities and depicts the trademark way somebody helps the group in conjunction with different parts. This group part changes throughout the years as an individual creates and is not an altered develop, (for example, identity attributes which are thought to be pretty much stable about whether). The destination of a Belbin group part test is to focus the trademark parts that people have and to discover the qualities and shortcomings in the group synthesis. An alternate goal is for allies to increase an understanding of and have regard for the group parts that other individuals play – which maybe is the fundamental profit from this approach (Belbin, 2000). The fundamental thought is that each one group needs its mix of diverse group parts to perform effectively and there necessities to be equalization in the parts the allies play (Royston, 2010). On the off chance that a group is uneven conceivably the accompanying manifestations could emerge: * Not objective situated enough and a lot of freewheeling, * Re-creating the wheel a lot of and not making enough utilization of the accessible data, * Insufficient keep tabs on interior association and completing of exercises began, * Being so pleasant it is not possible one another and not by any means handling and taking care of issues, * Too much planning and not by any stretch of the imagination beginning. A test like Belbins can give an understanding into the group parts typically played by the colleagues and what the parity of the group is similar to – and in this manner clarify a few parts of poor group execution. Lamentably the thought that one can plan groups is a dubious one – and open to much talk about. A few years once more as a feature of a test practice inside a significant organization in Europe I was a member in an administration diversion where group association was conceived dependent upon Belbin and we needed to perform over a long weekend running a virtual organization being focused with various kinds of issues? There were clearly control assemblies set up together at irregular and the result of the test was measured dependent upon the survival of the virtual organization and benefits made. Not surprisingly little distinction was seen between the planned and irregular gatherings regarding results was seen despite the fact that I felt at the time a superior understanding of individual colleagues was a convenient result. Generally there is little background research done that such approaches are fruitful (Royston, 2010). As far as my team members are concerned, they have been cooperative through our studies together and as well as while setting up our business and running them together. If I have to place them in Belbin’s typology approach, I feel they would fall under the role of team worker. Everyone including me would be considered as a team worker (Changingminds.org, n.d.). All throughout our career together we tried to ensure that we remain equal among each other. The reason for placing us in this category is because each one of us has a feeling of togetherness. We have cared for each other and ensured that everyone would look after each other’s back. We are also eager to listen to one another and solve the problems with a joint decision which is supported by each one of the team members willingly (Changingminds.org, n.d.). This helps us in taking difficult decision as one person can take wrong decision without the support of others and then he can be blamed for the whole consequences. But when a joint decision is taken, there is no chance of a blame game. Each one is equally responsible and hence all of us try to rectify it as a team. Business Strategy Integration We learnt many strategies and theories during our master’s degree. At the end of the course and before starting with our own business we tried to apply some of the strategies and theories in order to start our business successfully (Volberda and Elfring, 2001). Business improvement includes creating new markets for the companys current product offerings e.g. by moving into new nations. For instance, organizations like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s have moved into China and other new developing markets. Item market improvement includes the firm keeping up its existing markets however creating new item markets inside them. Broadening procedures include the firm entering new item markets outside its available business. By and large there are eight principle sorts of systems that most associations are included with at whenever. We kept this brain while creating our strategy and thought of the accompanying methodologies for our crusade: 1. Development includes the extension of a business, its markets, items, size and so forth. Effective development methods are dependent upon: having the assets to help development distinguishing the markets that bring about a noticeable improvement than the opposition in these development markets 2. Solidness includes a combination strategy for the association, regularly before a time of development. The association needs to create clear techniques and frameworks throughout this period before proceeding onward. 3. Benefit. Looking for benefit is a critical business strategy, especially in associations where shareholders have respectable impact. 4. Effectiveness. Effectiveness is concerned with how well assets have been utilized as a part of gathering hierarchical goals. It is a vital strategy for open area administration associations where it is paramount to show that citizen’s trusts have been utilized well. 5. Market authority techniques are about being number one in your market. The market pioneer has the capacity to addition respectable expense focal points over opponents on the grounds that by definition different firms will have a more modest market offer and consequently fewer chances for economies of scale. 6. Survival is a crucial business strategy. In an exceptionally intense business environment survival is the way to generally associations. By surviving them, we have been able to create new different methodologies. 7. Merger and procurement empowers organizations to profit from the points of interest of integration. Though we have not been able to apply it but plan to do it the near future. 8. Globalization methods includes stretching universally e.g. by creating assembling or distribution/sales offices in different nations. Horizontal integration includes joining with an alternate business at the same phase of processing e.g. two dessert makers joining together (Zuckerman, 2002). Vertical integration includes incorporating with an alternate phase of handling e.g. the dessert producer assumes control retailers (forward integration) or purchasing up a group of dairy bovines (regressive integration) (Harrigan and Harrigan, 2003). Parallel integration includes assuming control over an alternate kind of firm yet where there is connected profits e.g. joint marketing or appropriation of items. There have been instances in our business when we thought that a might be helpful. A change in the business strategy can sometimes help with a better outcome. Changing business systems ordinarily includes investigating the current business practices and figuring out where and when changes are needed. Adjusting your plan of action includes chances, so arranging ahead and inspection choices before making any move to alter your organizations key arrangement (Murray, 2004). Present changes gradually and be ready to come back to your past techniques if your new methods dont work out for your business. Likewise there have been instances in the past when our business had come to a stagnant point. In order to further grow it, we changed our operational strategies and also came up with new ideas that could be integrated with our business (Salaman, 2001). Next time when I plan to do business I will thing of an industry from the global point of view. It will help me to expand the organisation throughout the world. I will not necessarily set up my business in my parent country. If required I will start my operation in a country which has more favourable conditions for that type of industry or services. Conclusion Throughout my career I learnt many things that have been reflected in this essay. Firstly I would not have been able to reach in this position without the help of my team members. We learnt how to cooperate and work as team. The support is very important in achieving sustainability in business. During our days when we were pursuing our master’s degree, our faculties taught us many theories which we applied in our daily business practices to come up with good outcomes. The theories and the ideas used by us have been discussed above. Another issue that really helped us in our learning with practical knowledge was playing the online business strategy game; it was a great experience for me especially as I had to face so many challenges that eventually helped me to be aware of the problem that can arise while running our own business. It helped me in facing the situation that arrived when we first started our business. Then it helped in taking sensible decisions which would have been possible without playing that online game. References Belbin, R. M. 2004. Management teams. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Belbin, R. M. 2000. Beyond the team. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Changingminds.org. n.d. Belbins Team Roles. [online] Available at: http://changingminds.org/explanations/preferences/belbin.htm [Accessed: 2 Apr 2014]. Harrigan, K. R. and Harrigan, K. R. 2003. Vertical integration, outsourcing, and corporate strategy. Washington, D.C.: Beard Books. Johnson Jr., A. A., Stappenbeck, G. J. and Reidenbach, M. A. 2010. The Business Strategy Game COMPETING IN A GLOBAL MARKETPLACE. [online] Available at: http://www.csun.edu/~jds29757/BUS497A/BSG_PlayersGuide.pdf [Accessed: 2 Apr 2014]. Murray, B. H. 2004. Defending the brand. New York: American Management Association. Royston. 2010. Team Role Testing : Belbin Typology. [online] Available at: http://roymogg.com/2010/06/26/designing-an-effective-team/ [Accessed: 2 Apr 2014]. Salaman, G. 2001. Understanding business. London: Routledge in association with the Open University. Volberda, H. W. and Elfring, T. 2001. Rethinking strategy. London: SAGE Publications. Zuckerman, A. M. 2002. Improve your competitive strategy. Chicago: Health Administration Press. Read More