by some of the world's best companies. They can be incorporated into a wide range of training and development programs creating dynamic, interactive and engaging learning experience.
Capstone® and Foundation® are used in live, online or hybrid designed seminars, requiring a minimum of two days for a live seminar and two weeks online.
CompXM® and Blazing Trails® are new-generation business simulators. CompXM® is the evolution of the business simulation from a training tool to an assessment tool. Blazing Trails® allows you to customize a simulation-based training program to focus on any specific business discipline (such as human resources or business law) or any individual industry.
Foundation® Business Simulation
Foundation® is our basic business simulation designed to teach all the essential elements of running a business: finance, the cause and effect relationships between functional areas, satisfying customer demands and competitive analysis. A great tool to provide executive education and training.
In Foundation®, participants run a $40 million company for five to eight years. The company they start with has no clear direction, is not meeting customer demands and has sub-par financial results. The goal is to create a successful business in the face of tough competition.
Foundation® operates in two market segments: low tech and high tech. At the start of the program, each company has one product but can develop a portfolio of up to five. Each simulated year, the management team shapes the company's future by making decisions in Research and Development, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources and Production. In later rounds, decisions in Total Quality Management are added.
Because the goal is to build a successful company with its own strategic direction, each management team has the opportunity of selecting their own benchmarks for success. They choose from two or more measures including Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Investment (ROI), Market Capitalization, Market Share (in Dollars), Cumulative Profit, Return on Assets (ROA), Asset Turnover and Stock Price.
Foundation® is ideal for associates, newer hires, supervisors and functional managers. It can be offered in a face-to-face seminar (minimum 1.5 days) completely online (flexible time frame with a minimum of two week span) or as part of a hybrid instructional design, part face-to-face and part online. Foundation® can also be used in more senior corporate training programs, where time is limited.
For complete flexibility in satisfying both learning goals and work schedules, the simulation can be managed:
· as a team competition: four to six teams, each running a company and competing head-to-head, or
· as a Footrace®, in which you run your company as an individual, competing against five computer-generated companies.
Capstone® Business Simulation
Capstone® is a rich, complex business simulation designed to teach strategy, as well as advanced business finance, cross functional alignment, competitive analysis and the selection of tactics to build a successful, focused organization.
Capstone® Managers face a complex and rapidly evolving scenario in which business acumen is tested and enhanced through modeling, analysis and strategic planning.
In Capstone®, participants run a $100 million company for five to eight years. The company at the beginning of the program is unfocused and performing poorly. It is trying to support five products in very different market segments and faces constant customer demand for better, faster, cheaper products. There is immediate pressure for the management team to develop a strategy and implement it thoroughly with every decision.
Each simulated year decisions are required in Research and Development, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources and Production. In later rounds, Labor Negotiation, Advanced Marketing and Total Quality Management modules are added to continue building complexity and the opportunity for competitive advantage.
Shareholder value, financial control and operational excellence are the keys to success-but they are difficult to maintain against fierce competition. To ensure every company, no matter what its strategy, can be assessed on its merits, management teams select the benchmarks that will best reflect their strategic goals. They choose from two or more measures including Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Investment (ROI), Market Capitalization, Market Share (in Dollars), Cumulative Profit, Return on Assets (ROA), Asset Turnover and Stock Price.
Capstone® is ideal for all managers, for business people with some years of experience and for senior management and executive teams. It can be offered in a face-to-face seminar (minimum 2.5 days) completely online (flexible time frame with a minimum of four week span) or as part of a hybrid instructional design, part face-to-face and part online.
CompXM®
Comp-XM® is the evolution of the business simulation from a training method, to a testing method. Comp-XM® is a business simulation tool used to test and assess business acumen. It can be used by human resource departments in succession planning, reassignment and hiring.
After participating in a business simulation seminar, selected candidates enter the Comp-XM® simulator which takes from five to eight hours to complete. As participants run the simulated company in their exam, their 'Board of Directors' presents them with questions about their actions, competitors, financial statements, margins, strategy, competencies, opportunities and threats.
No two Comp-XM® examinations are the same, as the board questions relate to the individual decisions made by each individual participant. Results can be presented to our clients as an overall score, benchmarked against all participants who have taken that edition of the exam, or presented as a written evaluation in five general areas - finance, accounting, marketing, business strategy, and tactical execution. With Comp-XM® it is possible for a Human Resources team to tailor examinations and scenarios to develop an examination unique to their organization.
Blazing Trails®
Blazing Trails® superimposes real business issues and case studies on a business simulation platform, providing a vehicle for experiential learning in the topic area of your choice.
In each round of the simulation, participant teams are presented with a series of case studies for them to discuss and decide a course of action. Consequences follow each decision and results are reflected in the company's financial reports at the end of the round. The rounds become a series of action/consequence cycles that engage teams in a competitive experience to drive home the learning.
The simulations may be based on a particular topic, or a particular industry. For example, a Blazing Trails® simulation based on the topic of Operations Management might include a scenario in which teams are forced to decide between several inventory management systems. One team chooses a system that unintentionally causes bottlenecks in the supply chain, resulting in "bullwhip" supply problems. Those problems interrupt delivery to customers and decrease sales revenues.
A Blazing Trails® simulation based on a specific industry, for example the cable TV industry, might include a scenario in which teams have to determine whether to invest in a satellite transponder. If they decide to invest, they also need to decide how to finance the purchase. Their decisions will impact the company's cash flow, capital budgeting and profitability.
Each round includes several decision sets in different areas. The outcomes of each choice are covered in individual and market wide financial reports, plus a debrief session during which all the scenarios and their implications for business in the real world are discussed.
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Capstone®, Capstone® Simulation, Capstone® Business Simulation, Foundation®, Foundation® Simulation, Foundation® Business Simulation, Capsim®, Comp-XM®, Management Simulations, Inc.® and MSI® are among the many trademarks of Capsim Management Simulations, Inc.®. The term "capstone simulation" never should be used to describe a simulation in what sometimes is known as a "capstone course." A simulation used in a capstone course is not a capstone simulation unless it is our Capstone® Simulation.
