Decisions for Quarter Four and Final Qualitative Competitive Ranking

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, carefully review the content found in the “Suggestions for Quarter 4” pop-up screen and read any Quarter Three Internal Emails and/or Memos available through your Growing Your Business simulation. The pop-up will be available at the lower left (Blue Guidelines) of the Executive Summary Decisions Tab and the emails and memos can be re-accessed through the Help section.

As in prior quarters, you will revise and submit your Quarter 4 Decisions. If there is any quarter that requires balancing the short- and long-term this is it. You need not only to meet and/or exceed your Financial Targets within your budget/plan but are creating shareholder value for the long-term.  Reminder, if you have the ability to exceed plan as you saw in the Internal Emails, go for it.

After your fourth quarter results are returned, the first screen you will see will be your Final Quantitative Competitive Ranking.  This will be followed by Guidelines for “When Q4 Results are returned.”  The Winning Chart can always be found on the Quarterly Dashboard under “Winner.”  The ranking you receive from these results will determine your grade for Part I of the Week 5 Assignment.  1st = 20, 2nd = 18.5, 3rd = 17.

In your Growing Your Business simulation,

• Evaluate quantitative and qualitative techniques for business analysis and decision-making.
• Utilize tools from finance, marketing, information technology and human resources management to manage the profitability of overall business operations specific to Quarter 4.
• Create specific business tactics to achieve organizational survival and growth.

The Decisions for Quarter Four and Final Qualitative Competitive Ranking

• Must be completed through the Growing Your Business simulation.
• Must use the Role Play
  • It is critical you read the details of the role play very carefully and any questions should immediately be referred to the Help Desk.
  • You can gain differentiated competitive advantage through effective use of the role play.
  • Some role players only provide qualitative information, while others provide the ability to negotiate with quantitatively.
  • The role play is a scarce resource because of the limited number of calls per quarter.
• Must submit your Quarter Four Budget Plan.
  • Periodically, as you modify inputs, use the “Model My Plan” at the lower right to see the impact of your decisions on the Financial Metrics.
  • Input your financial decision and then click on the blue Submit My SRO button on the bottom right of the Quarterly Decisions screen.
• You must submit your Quarter Four Decisions prior to moving on to this week’s Annual Operating Review assignment.