1 In the beginning of the semester, I felt a bit overwhelmed by the simulation. There was a lot of components involved and I wasn’t sure how we were going to be able to accomplish each component successfully. I did feel somewhat excited for the simulation however, especially since I was working in a group and we had total control over the decisions we made. My position in the group was to help with finances since I’m a Real Estate major and had more experience with finances. I am not as strong in this area, but I took it as a challenge and was anxious to see how my guidance would play out.
2 As the semester progressed, I became less nervous about how the simulation would turn out. The more rounds we completed, the easier making decisions became. My group members were extremely knowledgeable as well, and they did a great job at making sound business decisions. I also realized that we all knew more about finances than we thought so it wasn’t all up to me to make those decisions. It was also a great feeling to see how our decisions impacted our company, whether positively or negatively because it felt very real.
3 As we were going through the simulation, it became clear that a lot of our predictions weren’t very solid and that what actually happened set us back. Being in a position where you have to make future predictions is difficult as there are a lot of variables that are out of our control. When we would have stock outs or an excess of inventory it was due to our
The intent of clinical simulations is to provide a safe environment for students to practice and implement skills. This is a way in which to help prepare the student for the hospital setting. Enhanced confidence, clinical judgment, knowledge, and competence are factors that come from these situations. I gained further knowledge, but I did not experience the other skills during simulation. During the postpartum-hemorrhage and birthing simulation, I purposefully picked the scenarios that I felt most comfortable with. That entailed being the spouse of the woman in labor, the nursing assistant, and the patient’s family member. When embodying those roles, I felt at ease, because I was not the fixation; I was not the one in charge of the situation. During the preeclampsia simulation, I was “dubbed” the staff nurse. I was definitely out of my comfort zone. I was in the second group, and this allowed me to observe the first group. I learned and made alterations from the first group’s performance. Observing the first group helped, but my performance was poor. I made several mistakes and was embarrassed by the end result. I did not do well with the assessments, answering the patient’s questions appropriately, and when calling the doctor, I was not fully prepared. Despite all the mistakes and feelings of embarrassment, I learned. I am very thankful for the awareness of what things went wrong. With further practice and
After seeing what choices my assistant, Sarah, would have made I continued the simulation when I encountered my first obstacle. Harvey, my choice for Assessor and Advisor was running into a conflict with the other team members because he was not available to them as much as they would have liked. I met with the team members and explained that Harvey had been given the technological tools necessary so that web conferencing would be able to take place whenever
After having run through the simulation, what elements of that strategy would you have changed and/or what strategy do you intend to pursue in the group simulation?
I believe that this simulation was a great tool in helping us as MBA candidates to see just how companies succeed and/or fail to achieve their growth targets in revenue and profitability. However, an organization heightens the probability of achieving profitable growth whenever it has a clear expansion strategy and a strong execution infrastructure. One without the other impairs the probability of success. I conclude that there are two main reasons for such: 1) inadequate consideration of opportunities within the core business, adjacent to the core business or within new customer sub-segments; 2) an organizational infrastructure that cannot support successful execution.
Since quarter one was the first quarter of this simulation, I was unaware of how difficult it was going to be to make all the different decisions. Firstly, I had to choose a Company name. Because I was selling computers, I thought that the name “Dev-Tech” was a perfect fit being that this simulation was about development and technology. Next, I had to choose a target segment. I knew going into this simulation that it would be better to invest in the more expensive goods as it would benefit me in the end. The segment that didn’t care about price was Mercedes, so that is the segment that I made my first priority.
My answers were not decisive which reflect my weak critical thinking skill. For example, when it comes to medication administration, in instances where things are not clear, it should always be referred to the doctor which in this case I belatedly remembered. Nurses should also make sure that they knew how to use all the equipment that is used in the nursing care. In a medical emergency situation, every second counts. In the simulation, epinephrine administration was delayed since the nurse did not know how to use the automatic injection. Over-all the simulation had a significant impact to my learning process.
How may you apply what you learned about supply and demand from the simulation to your workplace or your understanding of a real-world product with which you are familiar?
Once the exercise was over and as the individual points were displayed a lot of things became clearer. Having experienced the system and then debriefing later on, helped in filling a lot of gaps in information that seemed to exist during the simulation. With a better understanding of ‘the rules of the game’ and some of the strategies that did work, it is difficult to introspect now without a bias. As the saying goes – “Hindsight is wonderful. It's always very easy to second guess after the fact. “– Helen Reddy
The strategy I chose for the simulation is “Niche Cost Leader." First, with the key focus being value, this strategy will challenge me to keep costs at a minimum and force me to streamline overall costs to produce a valuable commodity that, in turn, will generate financial success that can be shared with internal and external stakeholders. Second, as the success of this strategy primarily relies on the existing product line being prosperous, I will be able to practice and hone my forecasting skills based on one product. Though I eventually will produce more than one product, most of the simulation will be conducting under making the primary product as successful as it can be, and reliable forecasts are
If given the opportunity to re-do the simulation, our top priorities would be to manage the allotted time more efficiently in order to improve decision quality, provide resolution certitude and ensure that each team member is adequately informed and prepared prior to meeting. During the simulation, we were given a finite timeline in which to analyze and input decisions; however, we failed to create a sense of urgency within our group, which encumbered the decision-making process and consequently, led to rushed decisions as time ran out. A team member should have been appointed as a designated timekeeper for time monitoring purposes.
Despite the age and immensity of the Universe, we have not been visited nor been contacted by extraterrestrial beings because we are a part of a computer simulation. According to the Simulation Hypothesis, theory provided by Nick Bostrom, humans are unaware of being part of this computer generated simulation. The most compelling piece of evidence that supports this hypothesis is the fact to one can consider a sequence of possible situations which an increasing fraction of all people live in simulations becomes more accurate. (Bostrom 1)
During the simulation I had the role of the CEO and as such relied heavily on my own personal understanding of what we have learned thus far, but also did some research to be able to better assess what would best work. Over the 96-weeks I have a COR rate of 0.17 percent change rate. Although I did not effectively manage change, I was able to learn what worked well and what didn’t. Additionally, learning from our failures is crucial for long term success. In no way will anyone be 100 percent effective in all of their endeavors. The key is to learn from it and
to convince him to invest the same amount in convertible debt or preferred stock where he can choose to
Over the past three weeks in the University of Phoenix Marketing Management class, I have completed three simulations based on real life marketing situations. The first simulation was titled, "Forecasting Market Demand." This simulation discussed the importance of determining the future demand for your product in the voice commanded software industry. The marketing team for the new Listensoft software needed to accurately forecast the production capacity of the new product and the pricing strategy. This task is especially difficult because human behavior is difficult to predict. Forecasting behavior " is about generating numbers out of expectations, opinions, statements, prior patterns and a host of other subjective elements" (Forecasting
"What I hear, I forget; what I see, I remember; what I do, I understand."