STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF THE PRODUCT PORTFOLIO WITH THE COMPETE PPA PACKAGE: A STRATEGIC MARKET PLANNING TOOL Developments In Business Simulation & Experiential Exercises, Volume 23, 1996 STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF THE PRODUCT PORTFOLIO WITH THE COMPETE PPA PACKAGE: A STRATEGIC MARKET PLANNING TOOL Aspy P. Palia, University of Hawaii at Manoa ABSTRACT The COMPETE Product Portfolio Analysis (PPA) Package (Version 4.00) is used by competing participant teams In the marketing simulation COMPETE (Faria, Nulsen, and Roussos 1994) to formulate a coherent marketing strategy. This package simplifies data entry, saves the input data for future use, and uses the relative market share (RMS), industry growth rate (IGR), brand growth rate (BGR), and regional sales revenue (RSR) of each user-defined strategic business unit (SBU) to generate the growth share matrix (GSM) and growth gain matrix (GGM) used in product portfolio analysis developed by the Boston Consulting Group. The SBU display can be (a) color-coded by product, by region, or by SBU, (b) resized to avoid extensive overlap, and (c) output to a laser/dot matrix printer. These enhanced features facilitate analysis and strategic market planning. INTRODUCTION The COMPETE Product Portfolio Analysis (PPA) package is a pc-based marketing decision support tool that facilitates strategic market planning. This package enables competing participant teams in the marketing simulation COMPETE to use Product Portfolio Analysis developed by the Boston Consulting Group in strategic market planning (Palia 1991, Palia 1994). The primary purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the use of the revised COMPETE PPA package (Version 4.00) in static, comparative static, and dynamic analyses of the firm’s product portfolio. The COMPETE PPA package is designed for use by competing participant teams in the COMPETE marketing simulation. This graphics application package has been tested and integrated successfully into the marketing curriculum at the University of Hawaii since the Spring 1995 semester. STRATEGIC MARKET PLANNING The PPA model developed by the Boston Consulting Group assigns strategic roles for each product based on the product’s market growth rate and market share relative to competitors (Day 1986; Kotler 1991). COMPETE PPA PACKAGE The COMPETE PPA package (Version 1.00) generated GSM and GGM displays for both the year 1-2 and the year 2-3 periods (Palia 1991). The RMS, IGR, and BGR axes were auto-scaled for each of the two periods. In addition, the circle sizes were auto-scaled based on the data entered for the RSR of each SBU. The COMPETE PPA package (Version 2.00) graphics application disk generated GSM and GGM displays for both the year 1-2 and year 2-3 periods with comparable RMS, IGR, and BGR scale anchors and comparable SBU circle positions and sizes. This inter-period RMS, IGR, BGR scale anchor comparability and SBU circle position and size comparability facilitated comparative static analysis of brand trajectories over the three years of operation (Palia 1994). The revised COMPETE PPA package (Version 4.00) graphics application disk generates GSM and GGM displays for the year 1-2, year 2-3 and year 3-4 periods with comparable RMS, IGR and BGR scale anchors and comparable SBU circle positions and sizes. Further, this package has a substantially Improved user interface. Specifically, this package simplifies data entry, saves the data entered on the disk for future use, and uses the RMS, IGR, BGR and RSR of each user-defined SBU to generate the GSM and GGM displays for the year 1-2, year 2-3, and year 3-4 periods. The SBUs can be color-coded by product or region to facilitate analysis by divisional or regional managers. Overall company product portfolio analysis is facilitated by coloring each SBU differently. In addition, the SBU circles can be resized as needed to avoid extensive overlap. These enhanced features facilitate analysis and strategic market planning. Hardware and Software Requirements The COMPETE PPA package (Version 4.00) graphics application disk requires the following system components and characteristics: * a 386+ computer * MSDOS 5.0+ operating system * at least 450k of CPU RAM memory * a VGA color monitor * the COMPETE (Borland Turbo C) Product Portfolio Analysis graphics disk * output data from eight or more decision periods of the COMPETE simulation * an IBM-compatible laser, deskjet, inkjet, or dot matrix graphics printer for printing the graphic display generated 93 Table of Contents Volume 23, 1996 Modeling Advertising Effectiveness Simulation as an Aid to Learning: How Does Participation Influence the Process? Administering Business Simulations in Transitioning Economies: The Introduction of Simulation Gaming to Estonia Business Simulation Games: Current Usage Levels. A Ten Year Update The Relationship Between Interpersonal and Task Cohesiveness and Performance in a Business Simulation Game The Design of an ITS-Based Simulation: A New Epistemology for Learning Correlates of Learning in Simulations How Do We Know where we're going if we don't know where we have been: A Review of Business Simulation Research Making Cash Flow Come Alive and Sensible in the Classroom Enhancing Simulation Learning through Objectives and Decision Support Systems An Analysis of Deliberate and Emergent Strategies Relative to Porter's Generic Differentiator and Cost Leader: A Bias and Variance Modeling Approach Introducing Ethical Dilemmas into Computer-Based Simulation Exercises to Teach Business Ethics CEO Strategic Locus of Control Effects on Game Performance and Playing Behavior The Relational Database As a Link between Operations and Cost Accounting Goal Setting over Time in Simulations Computerized Business Simulations: A Workshop Exploring the Tutor's Role, Task & Needs Strategic Analysis of the Product Portfolio with the COMPLETE PPA Package: A Strategic Market Planning Tool Draft Standards and Registration Procedure for Assessment Instruments Perspectives on a New Generation of Business Games An Economic Multiple Regression Case In Experiential Learning Changing Institutional Norms and Behavior, Not Culture: Experiential Learning Comes to Myanmar Strategic Management and the Case Method: Survey and Evaluation Individual Differences in Internet Attitude and Use Long Live the Plan - or Should It? Examining the Impact of Detailed Strategic Plans on Organizational Performance Do Your Students Really Read the Manual? A Computerized Contextual Tool As A Surrogate for the Traditional Student Manual Pilot Analyses of Self-Peer Evaluations in an Experiential-Exercise Human Resources Management Course Leader Behavior Feedback: A Learning Exercise Dilemma-Dilemma: An Exercise for Teaching Significance Of Communication Computer Mediated Conferencing: Technology and Classroom Learning Multimedia in the Workplace: Who is really using it and where is it Headed? Using Experiential Exercises for Collecting Research Data: Integrating Teaching and Research Interactive Distance Learning as a Tool in a College's Theory and Practice The President's Decision: An Experiential Exercise in Decision Making Integrating Computer Literacy Skills in the Undergraduate Curriculum: The Advanced Accounting Experiment Imperatives for the Transfer of Experience-Based Training Deciding How to Decide The Internet as a Pedagogical Tool Internet Scavenger Hunt Two Management Exercises Based on Committee Work Multimedia in the Year 2000: How Will It Affect Our Lives? Bootstrap Benefit Segmentation: Finally A Way to Teach Benefit Segmentation without Primary Data or Those Fancy Statistical Methods Multimedia and Learning: Is There A Connection? A Changing Business Policy Collaborative Learning Through Real-Life Assignments in Accounting Classes The Necessity Of Incorporating Local Cultural Aspects Into International Business Experiential Exercises Utilizing Cultural and International Landmark Constructs to Assess Business Student's International Awareness Legal Issues related to the Use of Application Blanks: An Experiential Exercise The Family in the Classroom: An Experiential Exercise for Teaching Issues Related To Expatriate Assignments Using Internet Resources to Enhance Teaching of Information Systems Courses: A Demonstration Proposal Chalkboards to Chipboards for Teachers and Consultants How Do We Measure The Learning In Experiential Learning and How Do We Best Simulate It?