I have to do this business simulation called capsim. Anybody ever do this and have any tips? also how much preparation time does it take to do each round?

thanks

I have used it (went to McMaster University) and I wish I could tell you I paid attention to what our group was doing to give you some tips. We did terribly.

I did this in my final semester of college. I think my team won or got second place, but I really don't remember much about it. My roommate was on my team and he was really dedicated about the project. The reason we did so well was solely because of him.

I would suggest reading the manual and getting the basics down, then take advantage of the simulator if you have it available. I messed with the simulator every round, but my roommate played through it several times each round. Trial and error helps... hopefully you have the practice simulator available.

Ya I did Capsim a few semesters ago. We had to make models in excel, if I can find mine I'd probably send it to you. As far as tips go, it totally depends on how the teams in your class go about the simulation. It's all situational dependent, you just have to adapt to what they're doing.

My group ended up doing really bad and got 2nd to last, seems as if my opinions where always overrode by my other group members. They finally realized in the last round that are decisions need to be based on our success measures that we set at the beginning of the sim.

Not sure if your professor is offers it or not, but towards the end of the semester there is an individual simulation you can do that competes with students all across the nation. I recommend doing this as it you could probably put this on a resume if you do half decent in it.

I did this about 1.5 years ago. My team won! I'm not sure how hard my professor was compared to others, but I'd say my group generally met about once per week for about 1 hour. I agree though, it's all situational and based on what the other businesses (groups) are doing. In a sense, it's just a big guessing game. Especially in the first week (round). But you can anticipate certain tendecies that a "standard" group might make. A lot of it actually reminded me of beating the game of poker. You have to anticipate how your opponents will act, and adjust accordingly. sorry though, after I recieved my college diploma, i proudly threw every single paper and book related to college in the dumpster.

I guess it's just personal preference but to me that seems like a terrible, terrible idea.

/derail

We also did the individual SIM at the end of the Term. Was pretty easy iirc.

hahaha I was in the same group as Chris that did terribly. We did improve near the end though. I would suggest reading the manual at the beginning and calling the CAPSIM support people. They gave some pretty sound advice.

Just started it this semester. My class is doing 8 practice rounds and our team is in 2nd place so far, but a lot of teams have just been messing around and trying dumb stuff. It's actually a pretty interesting program though and the class is definitely interesting.

As for preparation, after the first couple rounds which took maybe an hour and a half just to get used to everything, my group has been working on each round for about 45 mins to an hour.

Round 1 of 8 for us is starting shortly (4th year student at McMaster University).

I start this on wednesday.

Hopefully my group just lets me do it because I usually dominate these types of simulations, already won two supply chain ones and a marketing one. Checked out the other groups were competing against (class is split into two separate games of 6 groups each) and it looks like we got a nice draw imo.

update: done 5 rounds, this game is easy. im first in every metric by a lot. other people are dumb

You are funny!!!

Would you mind sharing any thoughts about how you managed to keep on the top? I'm a very strong competitor too... just as you are.

On the other side:
I just finished another simulation game during my MBA Strategic Management class, and I finished in the 2nd Position (stupid me, I thought the simulation will end in 10 years, and it was only 8). I made a bad decision where I ran out of capacity, and from 5 consecutive years of 1st Position, I ended up in the 2nd (previous to last year I went straight to the bottom (last position), and I managed to come back up in the 2nd place). If I knew I'm limited to 8 years, I would have won the 1st place.