A recent study found that recruiters look at each resume for an average of 6 seconds (using eye tracking software). This is especially revealing given self reports of 4 to 5 minutes per resume. Online profiles get about the same amount … Continue reading
This exercise is a simplified version of the Global Alliance Game. That is, there are resource complementarities created among teams. However, this one emphasizes (to a greater extent) that the teams are in direct competition to complete the same tasks. As … Continue reading
This TED talk describes the marshmallow challenge exercise. This discussion has a nice twist to focus on team dynamics and the decision process. Interestingly, kindergarten students tend to do best on the exercise because they are more likely to iterate … Continue reading
Stanford’s Tina Seelig describes a classroom experiment (below) where students were given $5 of “seed” funding and 2 hours to make as much money as possible. The best teams made money by working outside of the stated constraints (e.g., ignoring … Continue reading
Of course, the ONN video below is silly. However, the satire may open the door to serious questions about women in management. In a recent SMJ article, Dezso and Ross found a significant positive effect of having women on the top … Continue reading
Having a paper fight in class can really shake things up. It also allows you to demonstrate some simple competitive dynamics principles in a very short exercise. I use this with evening, executive and BBA students — generally on the … Continue reading
Norman Sheehan has developed an award winning exercise to teach value chain analysis (see the JME paper). Here are excepts from the abstract: Despite its ubiquity, many students struggle to understand and apply value chain concepts. JetFighter uses a complex … Continue reading
Robert Wright offers an experiential exercise to get planning teams to think more deeply about their unstructured problems. He suggests applying his “FOCUSED” framework by having them consider a challenging problem and roll his specially designed dice (here is the pattern … Continue reading
Cultural differences can undermine M&A, alliances, or entry into foreign markets. As such, it may be important to show students how difficult it is to comprehend and coordinate with a different culture. The BaFa BaFa exercise accomplishes this beautifully. This … Continue reading
The attached documents (below) contain the instructions to distribute to students and the raw material strips for the exercise. The attached PowerPoint file contains a list of what to prepare before class (slide 1) and the slides for class, including discussion … Continue reading
The mid course evaluation or any other feedback from students (such as the culture artifact hunt) can be used as a jumping off point for an exercise on organizational change. All you need to do is take their suggestions to … Continue reading
One day, Yvon Chouinard, the enterprising founder of Patagonia, told his product design team to free the company’s underwear from wasteful plastic and cardboard packaging. His staff balked – he was told to expect failure. He pressed on with the … Continue reading
We often talk about culture as a source of sustained competitive advantage (see Jay Barney’s article on the topic). I have run a great exercise where I send students on an artifact hunt through the business school to identify strengths … Continue reading
The essence of this exercise is simple. Teams must build a device that will catch an egg dropped from 25 feet (e.g., a stairwell). The trick is that they must build it from items purchased in an auction. As such, … Continue reading
In the Global Game exercise students are placed in groups with asymmetric resources with a task to maximize “points” produced. In order to maximize output, they need to trade resources (e.g., alliances) with other teams. The resources include raw materials … Continue reading
This video shows a play one could never plan. Might it be possible to train a team to improvise when the opportunity presented? Contributed by Mason Carpenter
The Tinkertoy exercise is simple but exposes students to a variety of issues linked to formulating and implementing strategy. This deeper application of the common ice breaker has been published by Coff & Hatfield (2003) in JSME (Click here for … Continue reading
“Acquire is a box game that is easy to learn and can be played in about an hour by four players. I bought a dozen games and break the class up into teams and link the game to cases on … Continue reading
I’ve been using simulations to tie together segments in my class and to give students a better experience with the process of strategy. It is important to allocate a good chunk of time — from one to three hours — … Continue reading
“I have the students do an international JV negotiation exercise with the case “Thai Chempest” (available through Prentice Hall’s database of cases). One team plays the role of the U.S. company, one team is the local Thai company, and the … Continue reading
Carpenter Strategy Toolbox 