Monthly Archives: February 2016

MBA: Confirmation of Graduation

Dear Mr. Boekhorst,

The Examination Board met on Tuesday 16 February 2016 to review the academic performance of EMBA15 participants.

We are pleased to inform you that your grades have been ratified by the Board and that you have met all the academic criteria required for the award of Masters in Business Administration.

We look forward to greeting you at the formal graduation ceremony on Friday 18 March 2016 where you will receive your diploma and graduation transcript.  Please note that the graduation ceremony is the day you officially graduate and accordingly may use the degree and title conferred. For this reason we are not able to supply official transcripts or diplomas before that date.  We will be providing you with the class ranking band soon after the graduation.

With kind regards,

RSM

 

 

Category: MBA

MBA experiences: In class simulations

One of the most exhilarating activities during the MBA was the in-class simulations. The direct head-to-head challenges either between teams or individuals are very exciting, and enjoyable if you are an adrenaline junkie. During the RSM EMBA, we only had three instances where we were graded on these simulation sessions.
Sonite Sales
The first was the Markstrat marketing simulation game. A game where we competed in teams against each other for the favor of the virtual customers. Our team’s strategy, to dominate the low-end market segment by “selling a ****load of Sonites” to the growing customer segments of Shoppers and Savers, worked out brilliantly. In a later stadium, our team also succeeded in taking >50% of the market value share of the “professional” customer segment. The blue line shows how our team’s strategy dominated the market in terms of sales volume.

Supply chain simulationThe second graded simulation was the global supply chain management simulation. It was an individual effort where my ego got hurt by Pedro Iriondo who took the first place ahead of me. However, the combination of Board questions and rapid fluctuations in customer demand and product options made the simulation an intense and fun exam even when losing.

ExperienceChange model[1] The third simulation was part of the course “Leading Strategic Business Change” and was called ExperienceChange. In this intense simulation, I had the honor of leading the best team (out of 16). Important success factors were the structured and efficient preparations that enabled us to go for a nice walk around campus between the prep session and the actual simulation.

How to prepare for these events? Play a lot of RTS games. A gamer’s mindset is not only useful when engaging customers, it also trains skills in information processing, resource allocation, and decision making. In addition, it helps to have experience in programming as I found a bug in the Markstrat simulation that gave me a minor tactical advantage over the competition. Of course, I reported the bug and how it could be reproduced in full accordance with the student code of conduct (it should be fixed by now).