Strategy: We decided to use a Broad differentiation strategy with two products in high end, two products in traditional, two products in the performance segment and 1 product in the remaining two segments. We focus on R&D competency, having low material costs and products that our customers love because of high awareness and accessibility.
Agenda:
• Increase awareness in all segments and make sure high-end is at 100% next round
• Size segment (do we stick to strategy or keep it in there since competition is moving out?)
• Focus on maximizing performance segment profits next round with new product coming out
• Increase automation where necessary
• Keep investing in TQM
• Check capacity levels and where we want them to be for each segment going forward
Analysis of prior round:
The analysis of our prior round showed that we are still moving in the right direction. Although we didn’t make any profits, we think next round should be a profitable one since investments will slow down in round 5 as we will no longer be creating new products and wont be spending as much in TQM.
Something we could of improved on looking in hind site is our strategy for the size segment. Our team could have better planned for this segment because we thought we were going to exit it so we stared reducing capacity and our promo budget but given the conditions in that segment after this round and our product finally becoming profitable we decided to stay in it and compete with the only two competitors left in that segment. Although we know we won’t have a high market share, we want to make sure were profitable in that segment and our product is competing well with the others.
Team responsibilities and Decision process
Since we have a rather small team, we prefer to have an open communication group meeting where every member voices there opinion as we move through the decision making process. We don’t give specific tasks to members, but we expect great preparation for each meeting. Meaning, having read the courier and analyzed competitor moves in order to come up with the best possible decisions for our company. Having an open dialogue between all three of us has proved to work well and we will continue using this method for the rest of the simulation.