USING THE INTEGRATIVE INTERNATIONAL SIMULATION INTOPIA MARK 2000 IN A CONCENTRATED MBA CURRICULUM Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 USING THE INTEGRATIVE INTERNATIONAL SIMULATION INTOPIA MARK 2000 IN A CONCENTRATED MBA CURRICULUM Ronald S. Barden. Georgia State University ABSTRACT This paper chronicles the development, conduct, and initial evaluation of a course, which used the play of the formidable integrative international simulation INTOPIA Mark 2000 as its primary learning tool. This case study provides concrete examples what worked, what did not, and the inevitable “surprises” which arise when using business simulations and experiential learning. INTRODUCTION This is a never-ending story of the quest for creating meaningful learning. Like many other examples, it is a tale of discovering something magical on the way to do something else. This is a case study describes the initial curricular use and evaluation of the results of students’ and the professor’s experiences with the integrative international simulation INTOPIA Mark 2000 (Thorelli. Graves and Lopez 1995a 1995b). The simulation was a key component of a special Concentrated Master of Business Administration (CMBA) Program. This learning environment may be different from yours. However, discussion of the factors which make it different can be useful. BACKGROUND The Concentrated MBA Program provides the opportunity for a select group of superior students with at least two years of business experience to challenge an intense collection of integrative classes on a full-time basis. Students are able to receive their MBA degree in one calendar year. The CMBA Program involves a complete set of new and integrated courses with team teaching and combinations of disciplines not normally joined. Some of the specific combinations include marketing and microeconomics, finance and macroeconomics. Legal/ethical and human resource management, organizational behavior arid communications, strategy and operations management, and information systems and decision sciences. For these courses and a special combined financial accounting and management control course, the content within individual disciplines had to be cut by roughly one-third to one-half These changes were necessary in order for students to be able to complete the program within a year and to have enough electives to complete a concentration or major GOALS AND OBJECTIVES The integrative International Business Simulation course is designed so that upon completion of the course the student will have practiced, refined, and enhanced all of the abilities and desirable personal characteristics which were goals of the MBA program. The course provides students repeated opportunities to practice and integrate the functional skills learned in prior core and elective courses and to see the results of their decisions in managing a simulated global enterprise. Student teams develop business plans for manufacturing and selling microcomputer chips and/or personal computers in the United States, the European Union, and/or Brazil. The reader is directed to a review of INTOPIA by Palij (1995) for a reasonably detailed description of the simulation. KEY ISSUES Key issues in managing a complex simulation include selection of the right simulation, preparation for administration, assignment of teams, play of the simulation, evaluation of results, and plans for improvement. Each of these are discussed in the full paper and will be covered in the presentation. 220 Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Learning, Volume 24, 1997 WHAT WORKED. WHAT DID NOT WORK. AND THE “SURPRISES” In the limited space of a condensed paper I can provide only a few examples of what worked, what did not work and the “surprises” Personally. I believe a description of one or two of the "surprises” presents the best chance to whet the reader’s interest to encourage attendance at the presentation. One specific example of an unexpected event in the 1996 simulation follows. One team which was a personal computer (PC) technology follower became fearful of failing too far behind in terms of technology. It entered into a contract with the PC technology leader to purchase an unrestricted license for a generation-behind PC patent stating explicitly that it would not engage in research and development activities for the next two periods. They had hoped to establish a long-term relationship with the technology leader, but the technology leader wanted to license PC future patents on a royalty basis only. Thus, in the period following the original agreement, the PC technology follower entered into a contract with its chip supplier that they (the PC technology follower) would reimburse their supplier for the “chip supplier’s research into PCs plus 10% interest. The chip supplier agreed to spend a minimum of 500,000 Swiss Francs until it achieved the PC patent desired by the PC technology follower and agreed to issue them an unrestricted license for 1 Swiss Franc. Were there any ethical issues involved here? The PC technology leader sued in the World Trade Court both the PC technology follower and the chip supplier, which by the way, was also the PC technology leader’s chip supplier. We had a trial with the judge in his Ph. D. robe AND LEARNING OCCURRED. This learning experience along with others will be modeled for future classes in order for students to (1) identify the skills they thought they knew and to practice what they have learned: (2) identify those things they thought they knew, but need more practice; and (3) to identify those things that they did not even know they did not know and to strengthen their competence. ONE MORE EXAMPLE Alas. I must admit that there was one more “surprise’ which really soured my teaching evaluations. There was to be an award for the most outstanding company. There were three companies, which had a real chance to win it. The leading company during its last few quarters began to get greedy and was not treating its trading partners very well. One of its Board members wrote that he would hold the stock for three more quarters and then sell it all. This insightful analysis lead to a second company receiving the award. However, I made the mistake of reporting the overall averages of stock purchased by class members with their “pension assets.” This allocation clearly showed the company I selected as the winner, but the third company in the running for the award was tied for last. One person from that third company was terribly angry and stated that there was no way that they were the worst company. I countered that the rankings were all very close and my determination of the best company was independent of their allocations. But then a representative from the initially first place company which in the end finished second announced that his team had allocated their pension assets to the companies they thought were the losers, so as to make their position look that much better. What’s a fella to do? REFERENCES Palij, P. (1995) [Review of INTOPIA Mark 2000]. Simulation & Gaming, 26(4), 524-527 Thorelli, Hans B., Graves, Robert L., & Lopez, Juan-Claudio (1995a) International Operations Simulation: INTOPIA Mark 2000 -, Executive Guide. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hail. Thorelli, Hans B., & Lopez, Juan- Claudio.(1995b). International Operations Simulation: INTOPIA Mark 2000 - Compendium for the Administrator. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice- Hall. 221 Table of Contents Volume 24, 1997 Incorporating Computer Telephony into the MIS Course A Learner Oriented Infrastructure for videoconferencing Based Distance Education Courses The Identification of Temporally Related Structural Elements of the Experiential Component of Electronic Spreadsheet Tasks Does Involvement Influence Learning from Simulation Participation? Some Relationships with Helpfulness and Performance Outcomes Musings on Business Garne Performance Evaluation Performance on a TE Simulation: What does it represent? The Business Policy Game: An International Simulation - An Assessment Tool Students in Free Enterprise as Experiential Learning The Role of Computer Models in Wargames: A Practitioner's view Using Focus Groups as a Tool to Research Learning: A Demonstration and a Discussion Using Medical Simulations to Teach Multi-Cultural Diversity Using the World Game to Internationalize International Exchange Game Community Services Needs Assessment: An Innovative Approach Introducing Students to Potential Total Quality Management Ethical Dilemmas Privacy in the Workplace: A Situational Analysis Antecedents of Learning in Simulations Demonstrating the Learning Effectiveness of Simulation: Where we are and Where we need to go The Use of Computer Simulations as a Pedagogical Aid in Teaching Management Information Systems Evaluating Simulation Learning in a Distant Learning Instructional Model Financial Engineering of Global Investments The Labor History Game: Playing with the Past Perks Participation Assessing Negotiator's Proficiency with a Negotiation role-play The Art of Negotiating Enhancing Learning and Employee Development through the Assessment of Learning Pedagogy Preferences across selected Dimensions of Culture: A Preliminary Investigation Cooperative Learning: What are we Learning? Effective Use of Mastery Based Experiential learning in a Project Course to improve skills in system analysis and Design Simulations and Learning: Can we prove a relationship? (Seminar) Predicting and Reviewing NYSE Stock Prices by use of Basic Statistical Analysis and Logic Toy Car Depreciation Exercise ABSEL as Home Community: An Interactive Exploration Service Learning: Linking Academic Study to Community Development and Business Enhancement Ability of Efficient Evaluation of Knowledge-Based Management Strategies Corporate Ethics Training Programs Modeling Attributes in Demand Functions of Computerized Business Simulations: An Extension of Teach's Gravity Flow Algorithm Expert Systems Combined with Neutral Networks: Tools to Benefit the Marketing Researcher Computer Game Design: New Directions for Intercultural Simulation Game Designers Consistency in Simulation Performance over Time and Across Simulation Games The Impact of an Artificial Market Leader on Simulation Competitor's Strategies Business Plans, Case Studies, and Total Enterprise Simulations: A Natural Co-existence An Exploration into the Non-Use of Business Simulations The Market Game: Interactive Learning Through Market Simulation Plotting Brand Trajectories with the COMPLETE PPM package: A Market Segmentation Analysis and Positioning Tool Me and Mine Inc: An Exercise in Management Theory Learning to Differentiate Leadership from Managerial Position Business Ethics Survey: A Perspective from the Retail Industry Experiential Learning in Demand Analysis for an Agricultural Commodity Marketing on the Internet: A Pedagogical Exercise College Students Need Simple Computer Simulations, Especially for International Business Courses An Analysis of Student Attitudes, Performance, and Strategies in a Simulation Competition Based on a Controlled Product-Market-Entry Game Structure The Crystal Enterprise: Application of a Non-Computerized Simulation Model in a Process of Organizational Change Threshold: A Windows-Based Behaviorally Oriented Total Enterprise Simulation Coaching Business Game Teams Using a Decision Variable Optimizer Rock and Roll is here to Stay: Enhancing Experiential Pedagogy with Musical Exercises An Example of Business Process Analysis Simulation for Customer Software Support The Use of Business Gaming in Hong Kong Academic Institutions Using the Integrative International Simulation INTOPIA Mark 2000 in a Concentrated MBA Curriculum A Group Experience as an Integrated Part of the Core Management Course Empowered Learning in the Classroom The Inter-Group Interaction: An Innovative Approach to Cooperative Learning Courses that Utilize Student Team: An Approach to enhancing their Effectiveness Thoughts about the Measurement of Learning: The Case for Guided Learning and Associated Measurement Issues Measuring Student Learning Using Business Simulations: A Theory Based Perspective On the Use of PC Fingame in an Undergraduate Finance Course How Managers get Things Done: A Virtual Soundbite Internet Experiential learning in the Principals of Marketing Classroom: A Pedagogical Approach Current Student Perceptions Relative to Business Simulations Beyond Capitalism: Designing Business Policy and Social Justice The Use of Boards of Directors to Evaluate Reports and Presentations in an Undergraduate Business Policy Course Beacon Lumber: An Experiential Introduction to Financial Accounting The Application of Organizational Motivation Principles: The Experiential Business Simulation Motus Manufacturing Avoiding a Bogey: Grading Case Discussions Scientifically Communicating Consumer Behavior II: A Modified Exercise Using Personal Consumption Journals in Condensed Courses Designing Instruments for Assessing the Effectiveness of Simulations, (Seminar) 360º Performance Feedback: Appraisal vs. Assessment The Cafeteria Approach to Managing an Academic Career: Remaining Non-Perishable while Doing Your Own Thing An Experiential Exercise Related to Person-Organization Fit and it's Consequences For Today's Dynamic and Changing World, Business Simulations need to be expanded to encompass Much Greater Complexity: A Demonstration The Incident Process: A Case in Reverse Contextually-Anchored Business Simulations The Energy Factor: Building Motivation in the Simulation Gaming Environment The Design of an Internet Game