Single-Player Multi-Player Click your left mouse button to progress through the demo

When MB-I starts you will be able to see the Change Firm Name screen. This is your opportunity to change the name of your firm. After the first decision period (one year) you can not change your firm name again.

The second decision tree item is the Year Ahead. The first page of the report is a news update on the scenario, explaining what it is that you should be trying to achieve in MB-I. Pushing the right arrow takes you to the next page.

The Strategic Company Planning report gives you a reminder of the key steps involved in constructing a strategic company plan. Check your textbook for a more detailed discussion of strategic planning.

The Scenario Information reports give you a reminder of the market information that you need to consider when making your decisions in MB-I. Read the manual for a more detailed discussion.

The Industry Reports give you reports detailing what is happening in the MB-I industry. The first page of this report is a summary of the key results and an explanation of what the other reports are. In MB-I Single-Player you are competing against Mountain Top Cycles and they start in a similar market position to you.

Firm Results gives you reports detailing the financial performance of your firm. The first page of this report is a summary of the key results and an explanation of what the other reports are. Here you can see that your firm is failing to meet its profit forecasts.

Financial Management gives you reports detailing the likely cash position of your firm. The first page of this report is a summary of the key results and an explanation of what the other reports are. Here you can see that your firm has enough cash to implement its current decisions

Product Marketing gives you reports detailing the performance of your products. The first page of this report is a summary of the key results and an explanation of what the other reports are. Here you can see that actual sales of your RC_RockHopper were only just under their sales forecast.

The All Product Details report is on the second page of the Product Marketing tree item. It gives you key market research about all of the products in the MB-I market.

Clicking on the plus sign next to your RC_Rockhopper and then clicking on Pricing & Promotion opens this decision screen. On the Pricing tab you can set your products retail price and sales forecast. In this example we have decreased the price to $545 and increased the sales forecast to 21,000 units

On the Advertising tab you can set your products TV, Newspaper and Magazine advertising budgets. In this example we have increased the TV budget to $600,000

On the Public Relations tab you can set your products TV, Newspaper and Magazine PR budgets.

The Firm Marketing tree item gives you reports detailing the performance of your distribution and branding strategies. The first page of this report is a summary of the key results and an explanation of what the other reports are.

The Operations Management tree item gives you reports detailing the performance of your capacity and inventory strategies. The first page of this report is a summary of the key results and an explanation of what the other reports are. Note our sales forecast shows as 20,198 and not 21,000 because we are not producing enough bikes to sell 21,000.

Clicking on the Production Planner opens this decision screen. Here you must decide how many bikes to produce of each of your products, any existing inventory is automatically added to your units for sale. In this example we have 198 units of inventory, and we are ordering 21,000 more bikes. If the sales forecast is completely accurate then we will have 198 bikes left in inventory.

Note our forecast closing inventory has updated to show that we are anticipating having 198 units left in inventory.

The Forecast Results tree item gives you reports detailing the forecast financial performance of your firm for next year based on the decisions that you have entered. The first page of this report is a summary of the key results and an explanation of what the other reports are. Note that given the decisions we have entered, we are forecasting a small decrease in profit.

Pushing the Rollover button closes the decision screens and brings up the screen below. Pushing OK will process our decision, pushing cancel takes us back to the decision screens.

After the rollover we decide to check our results. Our net income was $1,978 higher than our forecast. Our sales were lower than forecast so the extra income is due to the pro forma expenses being slightly over estimated.

In year 2, the firm marketing decisions are made available to you. Clicking on Distribution and Branding opens this decision screen. On the Distribution tab you can set your retailer margins and sales promotion support budgets for each of the retail channels.

On the Branding tab you can set your corporate branding budget. Having a strong corporate brand makes your product advertising more effective.

Pushing the Rollback button closes the decision screens and brings up the screen below. Pushing OK will process our decision to rollback to last year, pushing cancel takes us back to this years decision screens.

Now try playing MB-I yourself. The first time you play, it is best to take 15 to 30 minutes to go through all of the screens that you have just been shown so that you learn what information you have available to you. We also suggest only making a few decisions to begin with and then rolling forward to see the effects and then rolling back to improve them. This incremental approach will allow you to quickly gain an understanding of the underlying MB-I simulation model and its sensitivities.