After you have read the Player's Manual for The Business Strategy Game, you and your co-managers should come up with brief 1- or 2-paragraph answers to the following three questions prior to entering your first set of decisions. While your answers to the first of the three questions can be developed from reading the Player's Manual, the second and third questions will require a collaborative discussion among the members of your company's management team about how you intend to manage the company you have been assigned to run.
1. Where are we now? (Is your company in a good, average, or weak competitive position vis-à-vis rival companies? Does your company appear to be in sound financial condition? What problems does your company have that need to be addressed?)
2. Where do we want to go? (What goals do you have for your company? How fast do you want to grow the company's business? By how much would you like to increase total profits of the company by the end of the simulation exercise? What kinds of performance outcomes will signal that you and your co-managers are managing your athletic footwear company in a successful manner?)
3. How are we going to get there? (What basic strategic and competitive approach do you think makes the most sense to pursue? What are the 3-4 key elements of the strategy that you and your co-managers intend to employ? What kind of competitive advantage over rivals do you intend to try to build?)