Capstone®
Business Simulation Strategy Workshop
Faculty: Prof. S. Manikutty, IIM Ahmedabad & Mr. Dharam Pal, SansRisk Business Solutions
At IIM Ahmedabad
On June 17-20, 2009, November 09-12, 2009 & February 17-20, 2010

About Capstone Business Simulation

The CAPSTONE® is a laboratory business strategy simulation course involving decisions on all the functional areas of a business enterprise. The participants, as part of a management team, own a business and play the role of its managers and engage in an experience that integrates all functional areas of business. It is a web based simulation.

The CAPSTONE® was created by CAPSIM® Management Simulations, Inc. USA in 1986. The CAPSTONE® simulation is a world leader in simulation software which is extensively used by managers from several Fortune 500 companies including GE, GM, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Citibank, AllStateInsurance, Motorola, etc. The CAPSTONE® users in India include Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Pepsi, Dell, Genpact, Asian Paints, L&T, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IIM-A, IIM-B, etc.

It is used extensively by Business Schools worldwide. IIMA uses this as a credit course in its one year PGPX program for experienced executives. Now IIMA offers you this experience in association with SansRisk Business Solutions, Hyderabad, who are the franchisees of this software in India.

How It Runs

In this exercise, the class is divided into competing teams of about 4 to 5 members, each setting out their business' financial objectives and coming up with a coherent business strategy, which is to be implemented through decisions to be inputted into the system. In this process, they acquire a strategic / holistic mindset towards business. They come to understand entire business process and its nuances in a simple and unforgettable manner.

The simulation is cross-functional. Teams get to run a $ 100 million company for 8 'virtual' years. They make decisions relating to inventory / cash / capacity management, R&D, equity / bond / short term financing, production, sales / promotion, TQM, HR etc. Teams would compete against each other for Profit, Stock Price, Market Share, ROA, ROE, ROS etc.

Delivery of the Program

The program is web based. The teams figure out what is happening in the industry including the competition, and feed their decisions into the software. At the conclusion of each round, the inputs of all the teams are processed and the results, in terms of financial performance and other parameters are given to the participants. A short debriefing is done at the end of each round. Usually two to three hours are needed for each round.

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