Proposed at the end of the Master in Management Programme, the final simulation exercise took place this year on our Rouen campus from 13 to 18 February 2017. The 430 students studying for Master in Management Majors worked for six days on the following objective: to revive and develop a virtual enterprise internationally over a period of eight years in a highly competitive environment.

Proposed at the end of the Master in Management Programme, the final simulation exercise took place this year on our Rouen campus from 13 to 18 February 2017. The 430 students studying for Master in Management Majors worked for six days on the following objective: to revive and develop a virtual enterprise internationally over a period of eight years in a highly competitive environment.

To do so, the students started the week by attending a presentation of the life-size exercise, which is led by over twenty professionals and professors.

Organised in management teams by the teaching staff, each student has a different position (managing director, production director, sales director, etc.) depending on the major they are following. To make the exercise more realistic, at the start each student only has access to the information corresponding to their position. “This is the great benefit of the exercise,” explains Alexis, a student specialising in Corporate Finance, who was working in the final simulation exercise as a finance director. “Right from the start, at the beginning of the week, you realise the importance of working openly and cooperating with the others, as it is essential for the long-term survival of an organisation.”

Because that is the challenge of the exercise… Taking over a four-year-old firm that is losing market share, in competition with five other firms managed by their classmates, the students analyse the firm’s situation and its markets, and then attempt to improve its performance over eight years. And as in real life, that have to present and justify their strategy and results to their board of directors throughout the venture. “Right at the start of the week, we had to formalise our major strategic orientations and decisions for the organisation, and get the board’s approval,” continues Alexis. Each firm’s board (made up of teaching staff) met four board times during the week’s simulation.

Every day, based on the decisions taken formally by each team, the simulation software calculated customer and product demand for each firm, financial statements, and information on stock, productivity and labour relations. Based on this information the firms then took new decisions. The firms are not obliged to compete against each other all the time; they can draw up contracts with each other, either opportunistically or as part of a broader strategy.

Even more realistically, a bankruptcy court was present for firms considered in too much trouble to recover by themselves. These could be placed in administration… or wound up.

“This final simulation is a very different experience from traditional case studies our students regularly work on,” stresses François Mangin, professor of strategy, and the organiser of this exercise. “The case study is a cool analysis of a given business situations, without the recommendations being implemented, and without knowing how the competitors would react. With this simulation we put the students in companies competing against each other, with the obligation of managing the firm long-term, of reviewing their strategy if it turns out that competitors have adopted it and that the sector is over-supplied. And above all, we make them organise their work by dividing up the work so that they have to develop and maintain a team dynamic, since each member has a key role to play, and cannot be replaced by the others.”

The realism of the management situations the 72 teams were immersed in was key to the learning experience. ”During my previous professional experience, notably during internships, I didn’t always get the opportunity to work with my colleagues face-to-face; it was more often by email, which was rather impersonal. Here, that’s not the case, we are sitting round the table almost 24 hours a day, and despite the permanent pressure, we have to take decisions,” explains Alexis. “The proximity and constant pressure uncovers each team member’s personality and their emotions, all of which are parameters we have to take into account.”

The final Master in Management Programme simulation is a perfect example of the experiential teaching approach developed by NEOMA Business School. At the end of the week the students are assessed for the skills expected of our Master in Management graduates: analytical capacity, ability to take responsibility, use of management tools, pragmatism, team work, reactivity and professional attitude.