2. What is Mike’s Bikes? Single-player version (SoloMike)
Stand alone single player simulation
Ideal for teaching students the Mike’s Bikes interface quickly
Multi-player version (NetMike)
Multi-player online simulation
Students able to connect from anywhere
Used predominantly in Marketing, Strategy, Management Accounting, Organizational Behavior, Intro to Business & Capstone classes
Has also been used in Engineering Management, Business Communication, Entrepreneurship, Managerial Economics & Operations Management.

3. It works for ..Team competition
..Leadership development
..MBAs
..Undergrads
..Management Development

4. Why Mike’s Bikes? Fun to teach. Fun to learn.
Interactive learning environment.
Complete environmental control.
24 hour customer service.
Fun to learn.
Learning by doing.
Competitive worlds.
Cross-functional management experience.

5. Overall Strategy Shareholder Value BUSINESS STRATEGY Current Profit
operating
decisions
investment
Current Profit
ECONOMIC
CONDITIONS
COMPETITORS’
ACTIONS
Demand
Supply
BUSINESS STRATEGY
Marketing
Strategy
Operations Strategy
Finance Strategy
Product
Development Strategy
Future Profit
Accounting
Shareholder Value
Overall Strategy

6. MARKETING DECISIONS Marketing Strategy Pricing Strategy
Decide on a Marketing strategy (target segments, niche marketing, price/differentiation strategy, etc)
Pricing Strategy
Develop a pricing strategy (eg, high price/low volume, low price/high volume)
Decide on the price of your bikes based on an evaluation of your manufacturing costs and industry standards.
Advertising/PR expenditure
Recognise which advertising media your market segments respond to (all these data can be found in the Help manuals).

7. MARKETING DECISION SCREENS
Marketing Strategy

8. MARKETING DECISION SCREENS
Advertising/PR Expenditure

9. OPERATIONS DECISIONS Managing Plant Capacity Quality Systems Labour
Balance demand with supply and ensure that you have sufficient capacity (note: capacity purchase takes two rollovers to complete)
Quality Systems
Invest sufficiently in Quality systems to complement your marketing strategy
Labour
Try to ensure that your workers receive salaries and get sufficient training.

10. OPERATIONS DECISION SCREEN
Managing Plant Capacity Quality Systems

11. FINANCE DECISIONS Financing your Firm Investor Relations
Decide on how you wish to finance your firm’s operations, what percentage of debt/equity
Investor Relations
Investing in Investor Relations will ensure that your investors are in the know and do not sell your shares hastily, thus causing fluctuations in your share price.

12. FINANCE DECISION SCREEN
Equity Financing Debt Financing

13. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT DECISIONS
Developing New Products
Identify potential synergies (eg, distribution channels) and plan the expansion of your product lines carefully
Investing in R&D
Be sure to invest sufficiently in Development Projects
Consult the Perceptual Map for data on segments
Any projects that have less than 90% success rates will be scrapped

14. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT DECISION SCREEN
Developing New Products

15. REPORTS Financial Reports
After each rollover, flick through all the reports to find out how your firm performed.
If you require further information, the Help files are the best source.

16. Overview of Single-player version
Two manufacturers
Two market segments
Two distribution channels
Adventurers
Bike Stores
Real Cool
Cycles
Competing through
For control of
The SoloMike environment has two manufacturing firms, two distribution channels, and two market segments.
Bike manufacturers:
Real Cool Cycles - you,
MountainTop Cycles - Mike (ie your computer).
Distribution channels:
Bike Stores
Department Stores
Market segments:
Adventurers
Leisure
More details on all of these follow ...
Leisure
MountainTop
Cycles
Department Stores

17. EXAMPLE OF REPORTS

20. Single-player version Perceptual Map
100 80 60
Adventurers
Tech Specs 40 20
Leisure
This “Perceptual Map” shows the “ideal” levels of Style/Design and Technical Specifications required by each segment. (We assume that we can measure the levels of Style and Technical Specifications on a 100 point scale.) There is a region surrounding each point which corresponds to acceptable levels. A bike with levels significantly different (say units) from a segment point will probably not sell.
Over time the requirements of each segment can be expected to change, sometimes considerably. 20 40 60 80
100
Style/Design

21. Multi-player version Course Overview
World
Firm
Users

22. Overview of a Multi-player version World
Five manufacturers
Five market segments
Three distribution channels
Competing through
For control of
The environment is richer than SoloMike but has the same basic features - market segments, distributors, and firms.

23. Multi-player version Perceptual Map
100
Racer 80 60
Adventurers
Tech Specs 40 20
Commuter
Leisure
Kids
This “Perceptual Map” shows the “ideal” levels of Style/Design and Technical Specifications required by each segment. (We assume that we can measure the levels of Style and Technical Specifications on a 100 point scale.) There is of course a region surrounding each point which corresponds to acceptable levels. A bike with levels significantly different (say units) from a segment point will probably not sell.
Over time the requirements of each segment can be expected to change, sometimes considerably. 20 40 60 80
100
Style/Design

24. The Multi-player version Scenario (Richer than SoloMike)
Same decisions and model as SoloMike.
NetMike has two distinct phases over a period of 6-12 years
A growth phase (new products & strategy implementation)
A mature market phase (product life cycle management)
All companies start out identically.
No randomness in the model.
Offline mode allows forecasting.
The industry, decisions and model are the same as for SoloMike only richer, with more segments, distributors and firms. The firms start out identically and the goal is to maximize shareholder value creation. This is not the same as market share, profit or even earnings per share.
You are constrained to stay within the Erehwon bike industry.