COMPUTER SIMULATED MANAGEMENT GAMES: A BUSINESS
CHALLENGE
Management Games are simulations where participants are confronted
with business issues. They are asked to take management decisions
and see the business effect of such decisions, soon thereafter.
Participants play to win, and in seeking to win, they imbibe new forms
of competitive behavior that are ideal for today's highly chaotic
business conditions. The competition urges participants to learn willingly,
and the in-built interactivity enhances the pace of learning.
The frustration and excitement of managing a company from top downwards
ensures that the learning elements are retained with the participants
longer.
The Computer Simulated Management Games are available
in two forms:
National
Competition
In-house
Management Simulations Learning / Training
There are two major competitions conducted:
National
Management Games (NMG)
Student
Management Games (SMG)
NMG is meant for Corporate Managers and Executives as a National Championship,
the top two winners of which get to represent India at Asian Regional
Management Games (RMG).
SMG is meant for students of Business Schools as National Championship.
As a business challenge, management games are conducted in-house within
organisations or institutes as a learning tool:
Corporate
Management Games (CMG) for the benefit of corporate
executives and managers
Management
Institute Games (MIG) for the benefit of students
of specific management institutes
Smaller competitions are also conducted for and at the specific request
of the corporate or institutional organisers or Local Management Associations.
Ever since AIMA first launched the National Management Games (NMG)
in 1992, it has become a platform for corporate managers all over
the country to display and test their decision making skills against
each other on a national scale. It is a team-based competition and
covers a diverse set of business issues that are both relevant and
topical for the development of skilled managers. Since then, more
than 10,000 managers from over 500 organisations have participated
and benefited from these annual Games. Some of the country’s
most competitive and progressive organisations from both public and
private sectors have regularly participated in these Games. It has
recognised its unique value in delivering business management skills
and enabling peer learning under competitive conditions with a high
degree of interaction amongst participants.
These are organised primarily for students of business schools to
help them hone their decision-making skills in a realistic simulated
business environment. These Games are computer-based simulations that
imitate market and economic reality. Students get the opportunity
to augment the management methodologies, tools and techniques learnt
at their B-School.
Since SMG was first launched in 1997, over 2,400 students from 150
B-Schools have benefited from this unique learning experience in a
competitive environment.
In 2001, over 600 students from 79 B-Schools participated in this
unique competition.
In 2002, 147 teams participated all across the country. FMS-Delhi
got the first prize while 2nd and 3rd position prizes went to GRD
Institute of Management, Coimbatore.
In 2003, 166 teams from 80 business schools participated. The 1st
position was bagged by SIIB, Pune while 2nd and 3rd positions went
to MSRIM, Bangalore and ICFAI Business Schhol, Mumbai.
In 2004, 166 teams from 78 odd business schools participated. The
1st position was bagged by IIFM-Bhopal, while both 2nd and 3rd positions
went to Institute of Finance & International Management, Bangalore.
These games are now held in association with Infosys, the title sponsor.
The other students / executives play the part of
Directors representing Production Marketing and Finance functions.
In order to familiarise participants with the game, a copy of participant’s manual is provided
before the game is played. Chanakya demands a team-based approach to
encourage consensual decision making amongst the participants. Each
team represents an enterprise and has four managers, each with different
functional responsibility. The team elects a CEO to communicate decisions.
Each game scenario is run across a 5 quarter period, each period corresponding
to a calendar of 3 months. The game needs 2 days of 7-8 hours each,
including a briefing session of 2-3 hours. Participants are encouraged
to use electronic tools like calculators, PCs, laptops etc. although
many participants have also won the Games in the past without such tools. To extract the maximum value from the game, it
is recommended that there are around 8-10 teams.
The decisions are captured and processed using software that churns
out results in the form of business reports. The participants respond
to business cases and industry scenarios designed by the Games Administrator.
Every Game event along with its related situations and problems is
quintessentially Indian. This acknowledges the fact that the participants
are essentially Indians, though the business concepts and arguments
remain global and timeless.
FEATURES OF CHANAKYA
AIMA’s Chanakya is multi-disciplinary and multi-functional, and reflects
interactions between functional decisions and their inter-linkages
as vital elements of corporate reality. Every Game incorporates situations
covering problems in raw material sourcing, capacity planning, warehousing,
manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and finance. Decisions would
demand knowledge of pricing, production, R&D, expenditure, economics
and financial cost though prior knowledge about finance is not necessary.
Unusual problems like strikes may also occur during the Game that
alerts the participant to be risk aware.
Chanakya has specifically created scenarios that focus on developing
the skills of people. Conflicting situations induce the student /
manager participants to take decisions under predetermined rules of
behavior. These situations closely resemble business events and are
indistinguishable from real life events. For the participants, the
objective of playing the game is to understand complex business situations
and solve problems. He learns to take operative and strategic decisions.
At the Game, he experiments and makes mistakes, which would
otherwise have been costly in real life situation. Competition enhances
the manager’s abilities not merely to survive, but also to emerge
on top, for his organisation. A major learning gain is that students
learn to co-operate with each other and work in teams.
LEARNING VALUES
For executives and managers, the Game is more effective than other
forms of learning such as conventional class teaching, a case study,
role play, OJT or assignment, because of its wide coverage, unique
delivery and swift learning capability. For business school students,
the Game is a 2-year MBA compressed into 2 days. It transcends their
usual syllabi, and is a fun way to learn by extending their imagination.
It tests the participant's understanding of concepts, forces him to
study decisions, and provides instant feedback. Just right for any
management student or business manager who wishes to learn, quickly!
The Simulation Game is recognised to be the fastest and most cost-effective
technique to train and test large numbers of learners, simultaneously.
The Game has the additional feature of being able to cater to a wide
cross-section of managers, and can be customised to accommodate a
broad range of complexity. It delivers a wide range of business concepts
and practices to the participants, keeping them away from work or
school for only a short spell of just 2 days.
AIMA has conducted the Games for over 12,000 participants in 300 corporates
and 120 Business Schools across the country during the last ten years.
Some of the most recent beneficiaries of the Games are Indian Oil
Corporation, Eicher Motors, Crompton Greaves, Tata Consultancy Services,
Hotel Oberoi, Siemens, Nicco Corporation, Philips, Coal India, Bharat
Heavy Electricals, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Larsen & Toubro,
Indian Aluminium, Motor Industries Company (MICO), and Tata Steel.
Similarly as many as 2,500 students from 150 odd business schools
have benefited from these games conducted for students of business
schools.
All
India Management Association
14, Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003
Te: 011-24635960, 24617354-55 Ext.332
Fax: 011-24626689
Email: managementgames@aima-ind.org
