In order to help your students, you need to know where they are in the game. The following sections depict each of the key stages and explain what the students need to do.
NB! The game has in-built instructions for learners accessed by clicking the ‘i’ button at the top right hand side of the interface.
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Stage 1: Introduction and learning the interface
This stage has been designed to allow students to quickly get familiar with the interfaces within the game such as, for example, the PDA, PC and plasma screen.
When students click on the plasma screen and then click on the Stage 1 icon, they will see a series of graphical buttons which depict and give access to each of the game’s main screens.
Under each graphic there will be shown either a tick or a cross (see image below) which shows the student whether they have visited this particular interface.
Once the student has visited all of the interfaces they are then free to progress to stage 2 by simply clicking on the button (entitled ‘START STAGE 2’) from within the ‘Stage 1 interface of the plasma screen.
Although navigation is intuitive, we recommend that all students make use of the optional introduction and that teachers play through the game at least once beforehand, to ensure that they themselves are familiar with it in.
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Stage 2: Carry out market research
This stage requires the learners to review the market research results for the five different product ‘ideas’. As well as the products, the learner will see two further buttons.
The first button is entitled ‘GO TO MARKET RESEARCH’ and will take the learner to the market research folder.
The second button is entitled ‘CONFIRM PRODUCT & GO TO STAGE 3’. Once the learner has chosen the product that they wish to make and sell (by clicking on the appropriate icon in the plasma screen), they then type a short explanation of their choice.
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Stage 3: Selecting your sales strategy
In this stage the learner decides how they are going to sell their product. The choices are between using a sales agent, distributor or by trading directly. Collectively these options are referred to as ‘Sales Channels’.
The learners click on the first of two buttons (‘GO TO SALES CHANNELS’) to see information relating to the three different choices in the ‘Sales Channels’ folder.
When the learner has decided which sales channel to select they simply click on the relevant icon (in the plasma screen) and then provide another short explanation of their reasoning.
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Stage 4: Prepare to trade
The learner has now chosen a product to make and decided on how they will sell it. They now have to set their product price, decide on the product ‘quality’ and set their sales & marketing budget.
To do these tasks the learner has to use the PC and click on the MIS icon (Management Information System) and then ‘Marketing’ (from the grey navigation bar).
This will cause a drop box to appear (see image below) from which they can select the
appropriate screen.
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1. Setting price
The learner can select a price between £5 and £395 and can see competitor prices to help them.
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2. Setting Sales & Marketing budget
By clicking ‘Select SM budget’ navigation option, the learner can set their sales & marketing budget. They can also see their competitors’ budgets for comparison.
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3. Setting product ‘quality’
The learner can use this screen to determine the % rating of the main features of each product for example ‘style’ is a feature for alloy wheels.
The learner is free to change the percentage rating of each from 1% to 100%. The effect of increasing this is that the product becomes more attractive to customers but the trade-off is that the product costs more to produce.
Tip! If learners do not at least match the market research findings then the level of demand for their product will be severely affected.
Another useful screen for learners at this stage is the ‘Product Positioning’ screen (see image below).
This shows the learner’s product in comparison to their five competitors. The comparison is via a graph that uses the product quality rating on the X (horizontal) axis and price on the Y (vertical) axis.
Once the student has set these three values they can then return to the Plasma screen, click on Stage 4 again and they are then able to progress to the final stage; completing 3 years of trading.
The learners can do this by clicking on the ‘GO TO MY PC’ button.
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Stage 5: Complete 3 years of trading
This is the stage in which students actually produce and sell their product.
Several new screens are now available to the students all of which are found in the PC MIS screens and can be accessed by clicking on the ‘Financials’ and ‘Production’ navigation options as shown below.
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Financials
At first, the learners can access the Sales Charts and Cash Flow screens. These both use graphs that display the number of unit sales over time and the current level of cash over time. These graphs are updated at the start of each month.
After completing the first month of trading, another screen called ‘Financial Performance’ becomes available. This shows a simplified financial statement which details sales revenues, gross profit, overheads and net profitability on a monthly and overall time basis. See image below:
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Production
The production screen shows the learner the overall level of demand for their product in the present month. It also details the current production capacity, stock levels and the current surplus or shortfall.
The learners can adjust Production Capacity by adding or removing production lines (maximum is three) and/or adjusting the level of staff overtime (maximum is 50%).
The lower right hand side of the production screen shows the make-up of the direct (production) costs and the current gross profit per unit.
The game automatically increases the level of demand in the marketplace by a small percentage each month, however the competitors will change their pricing, product quality and sales & marketing budgets periodically i.e. they can get more competitive. These changes will be indicated to the learner via an email message.
If the learner does not respond to these competitor changes they will find that the level of demand for their product can fall significantly as they are no longer competitive.
All through the game the learner will be sent messages from various stakeholders. These messages will tell them information (e.g. that competitors have changed their prices) or give them game advice (e.g. how to use the game speed controls).
NB! Don’t forget to remind your students that they can access these emails at any time from their PDA (on their desktop) and that they can also get advice from various people by using their video phone.
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Accolades & awards
From time to time and depending upon how well each learner is doing, they will receive various accolades and awards. These are displayed in the ‘Desk File’ which is accessible by clicking on the leather and paper files on the desk in the main office interface.
