Mike’s Bikes Project Reflection;Mike’s Bikes is a program that simulates an imaginary bike-selling company. It allows the user or player to make corporate decisions on situations that can either cause the success or the failure of the company.
The program’s objective is to make sure that your company monopolizes the bike-selling market. In Business 101, each student is in charge of his own company. All the corporate decisions that can make or break the company is his responsibility alone. One should make good decisions or else his company will fail its objective.
At first, the process and rules of the system may seem complicated but with the right decisions and strategies, one can make his company the best in the class.In Business 102 however, each imaginary company is no longer the responsibility of one individual anymore. Instead, the task of making the necessary corporate decisions is placed upon a group of people. At first, I thought it would be easier with groups, since more people would mean more ideas and better decisions.
I thought that having more people will lessen the pressure since all members should share the responsibilities with each other.But I have learned through this experience that having more people also means more conflicts in ideas and decision-making. Also, if your groupmates are not responsible enough, it might mean that you will have to do all the work by yourself without support..
It was good thing that I became a part of a group that was made up of responsible people. We were able to conduct regular meetings where in we discussed the different strategies that we would implement for the company, as well as problems that we may encounter in making those decisions. Although conflicts were unavoidable since the group members were chosen by the professor, we have learned to respect each other’s opinion, just the way we respect our own.Our company started very stable and successful at the beginning, and all of us were satisfied.
Despite having different beliefs and opinions, we learned how to come up with good decisions for the company. However, when the threat of competition became greater and the danger of being overrun by other companies loomed before us, we have made several decisions that may have caused the company considerable market share loss. In those times, more conflicts in decisions arose and I realized that even though the team had the same objectives, each member has his own way to achieve that objective. For example, while the main goal of the company is to become the leader in the bicycle industry, one person wanted to do this by raising our prices based on the competition; another believed that we should set short term goals for the company and work on them while another wanted to implement long term goals.
Some of us even had long discussions as to how the company should spend its budget money and how much of that money needs to be spent. It was a long time before we were able to come up with plans that are agreeable for all the members in the group. Some ideas needed to be sacrificed in order for simple but important decisions to push through. Introducing a new product was a tough time to make the right decisions.
As things got even more complicated, the more we got confused. We felt our lack of experience in dealing with the problems and that inexperience has hindered our decision-making convictions.One of the noticeable mistakes that our group did was to rush during decision-making. Because of our excitement and eagerness, we failed to consider the market’s status and ratio analysis in our decisions.
However, although we made some bad decisions, we were still able to retain control of at least 9% of the market share and I believe if we had more time our company would have showed more improvement.With cooperation we were able to work together for our class presentation. All of us were able to provide unique ideas and invest efforts for its success. I learned that in a presentation everyone should know their respective parts and each one must be able to speak convincingly in front of the class.
Also, audience interaction should not be taken for granted and each question should be answered as clearly as possible. During the presentation, we were able to tell the class about our experience as well as the lessons we have learned from our mistakes.I have learned many things through the Mike’s Bikes experience. First, I learned the importance of becoming a team player.
In the corporate world, I will be dealing with people so I need to learn how to interact with them and work smoothly with them. I need to practice diplomacy to be able to reach a compromise with other people, as well as respect their opinions even if those point of views are different from mine.Through this exercise, I also realized the importance of scientific analysis in the finances of a firm. Before making company decisions, one should have deeper insights on the expenses and how it affects the company goals.
I have learned that research plays a vital role in the outcome of decisionsMost importantly, I discovered through this exercise the importance of leadership as well as the responsibilities that go with being the leader. To become a good leader, one must be assertive enough to influence and convince everyone in the team to approve one’s decision. In our group, the team leader had a hard time in formulating decisions so most of the decisions were made other team members, although everyone was consulted. I have learned that it is vital for a leader to lead by example.
Leadership is determined by the confidence that a man has in himself and the willingness to take responsibility for his actions despite the consequences.The Mike’s Bikes simulation program was an enriching experience for me and I learned a lot because of it. I look forward for more opportunities that will help me apply the knowledge and experience that I have gained from this exercise.
