Business Management Newsletter
Sept 2013
BCOM HONS (STRATMAN)
B USINESS S TRATEGY S IMULATION
Written by: C van Zijl, Head of BCom (Hons) in Strategic Management
We are proud to announce that one of our BCom (Hons) in Strategic Management modules,
namely ‘Business Strategy Simulation’, recently made world news. The 12 groups in this
class are globally participating in an online ‘Business Strategy Game (BSG)’ together with
45,212 students from 574 universities in 50 different countries1. During the August 2013
round, one of our groups was globally rated as the Number 1 world player. The four
members of this group are Ntobeko Makhaba, Sakhile Mkonza, Karabo Molemane and
Ndivhuwo Sivhula.
All groups operate and compete in an athletic footwear company that produces and markets
both branded and private-label footwear and competes head-to-head against footwear
companies run by other members of the class. The companies compete in a global market
arena, selling in four geographic regions, namely Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific
and Latin America2.
The co-managers of each company are responsible for assessing market conditions,
determining how to respond to the actions of competitors, forging a long-term direction and
strategy for their company, forecasting upcoming sales volumes and making production,
upgrading, compensation, shipping, pricing, social responsibility and financing decisions3.
Each company typically seeks to enhance its performance and build competitive advantage
via more attractive pricing, a bigger selection of footwear styles and models, more appealing
footwear styling and quality, greater advertising, bigger mail-in rebates, contracting with
celebrities to endorse its brand, providing more merchandising and promotional support to
retailers, shorter shipping and delivery times, and more aggressive promotion of online
purchases at its Web site. Any and all types of competitive strategy—low-cost leadership,
differentiation, best-cost provider, focused low-cost and focused differentiation—are viable
options. It can place more or less emphasis on winning bids to produce private-label
footwear for chain retailers.
Each company’s performance is based on a balanced scorecard that includes brand image,
earnings per share, return on equity investment, stock price appreciation, and credit rating.
Each week, the best-performing BSG companies are measured and honoured on abovementioned four performance variables of which the 25 top performances for each week are
posted every Sunday night at 23:59 hours, GMT on the website www.bsg-online. During the
week of 26th August our team competed against 393 teams from 44 colleges/universities and
was honoured as the best company4. Congratulations to the lecturer, Dr Kobus Malan,
Rajesh Jivan in assisting Dr Malan, Ntobeko, Sakhile, Karabo and Ndivhuwo!
The Business Strategy Game. Available from http://www.bsg-online.com/stats/adoption-list.html. (Accessed 2013/09/08).
The Business Strategy Game. Available from https://www.bsg-online.com/tour/Instructors.html. (Accessed 2013/09/08).
The Business Strategy Game: Competing in a Global Marketplace. Available from https://www.bsg-online.com/tour/Instructors.html. (Accessed 2013/09/08).
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Top 25: Overall Game- To Date Score. Available from http://www.bsg-online.com/stats/top20.html?id=1139. (Accessed 2013/09/08).
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