Markstrat! (June 16th, 2006)

In term 2, we use one of the most exciting learning tools ever made in the history of B-Schools. Markstrat!

Markstrat is a simulation environment in which many firms will compete to maximize their profits. We will be using this software as part of our advanced Marketing course. The entire batch has been split into groups of 4 or 5 and 18 "parallel" play industries have been created. 5 firms A, E, I, O and U compete in each of these parallel worlds. Each firm holds a different market position like in a real world. One will be a market leader, one will be a close second, one might be a player catering to a niche requirement, etc. We compete over a period of 8 years. At the beginning of each year we are expected to make a marketing decision and we will see the result of our decisions (w.r.t. those made by our opponents) at the end of the year. Various factors are in our control. We can invest in R&D, we decide how much to produce, we control inventory levels, we control the distribution channel, etc.

I love these sort of games where you get to lock horns with other humans. It is always a challenge and an extremely dynamic environment. It definitely beats playing against a computer. I have been looking forward to play this game for quite some time now. Supposed to be one of the most exciting (and also hectic) periods during the MBA program. In our case, we have the first decision for all the groups has already been made by the professor. We now take over and make the next 7 decisions. This "game" accounts for 40% of the grade, which makes it even more interesting. Our first Markstrat decision is due tomorrow morning. I think tonight will be a looong night, considering we are still learning about the industry we're competing in, our own strenghts and weaknesses and we still have to learn about our opponents.

 

Manukaran Karunakaran

Class of 2007