Navigating Screens

How to Navigate the Screens in the Online Edition of The Business Strategy Game

All screens inside the BSG program are accessed via the BSG Main Menu screen when you first enter the program or else via a menu of icons located at the top of every screen when you want to change screens. There are seven menu/icon selections:

1. Decision Entries. This selection includes the Sales Forecast screen and 8 regular decision screens — Plant Capacity, Branded Production, Branded Distribution, Internet Marketing, Wholesale marketing, Bids for Celebrities, Private-Label Operations, and Finance and Cash Flow. These are shown down the left side of the screen. Clicking on any of the decision menu items will take you instantly to that screen. You can move from one decision screen to another with one click. You can also move to any other part of BSG using the icons at the top of the screen that are described just below. Any time you have questions about anything on the decision screen, click on the “?/Help” icon on the top right part of the screen for a full explanation of each decision entry and what you need to think about.
2. FIR (Footwear Industry Report). This menu option can be accessed as soon as you are notified via e-mail that the results are available. Clicking on this menu item takes you to a 7-page report — a scoreboard of company performances (3 pages); an overview of the athletic footwear market (page 4); comparative financial performances of all companies in the industry (page 5); benchmarking data (page 6); and the results of celebrity bidding and assorted graphs (page 7). When you click on the FIR menu, a submenu for each page will appear that allows you to move from one page to another with one click. Any time you have questions about any of the numbers on a page of the FIR, click on the “?/Help” icon on the top right part of the screen for a full explanation of what’s on that page and what use to make of the information being reported.
3. Competitive Intelligence Reports. This menu option consists of (1) Market Snapshots showing the competitive efforts of all companies in each geographic region, strategic group maps, and lists of company competitive strengths and weaknesses (there’s 1-page for each region) and a 1-page Company Analysis that gives you the capability to review any company’s decisions on each competitive effort measure (price, advertising, S/Q rating, models, and so on) for all years to date. With a couple of clicks, the Market Snapshot pages show any company’s competitive efforts compared to the industry-averages in any geographic market of interest, provide strategic maps showing the market position of rivals in that region, and lists of the company’s competitive strengths and weaknesses in that geographic market. You’ll find this menu selection exceptionally valuable in diagnosing the actions of rival companies, understanding your own company’s competitive strengths and weaknesses, and spotting opportunities to improve your company’s competitiveness and financial performance. Next to the Decision menu, the Competitive Intelligence menu will/should be your most frequently used menu selection. You are strongly encouraged to click on the “?/Help” icon on the top right part of the screen for a full explanation of how to be a “power user” of the information provided in the Competitive Intelligence Reports.
4. Company Reports. Clicking on this menu item takes you to a 5-page series of reports displaying every aspect of your company’s operations for either the past year (actual results) or the upcoming year (projected results, given the most current entries on the decision screens). The Company Reports consist of a Plant Operations Report (1 page), a Distribution and Warehouse Report (1 page), a Marketing and Admin Report (1 page), a Private-Label Sales Report (1/2 page), a Branded Sales Report (1/2 page), and complete financial statements (1 1/2 pages). When you click on the Company Reports menu, a submenu for each Report will appear that allows you to move from one report to another with one click. Any time you have questions about any of the numbers on a particular report, click on the “?/Help” icon on the top right part of the screen for a full explanation of what’s on that page and what use to make of the information being reported.
5. Print Decisions. This selection allows you to print the current screen or all screens for whatever main menu item (Decisions, FIR, Competitive Intelligence Reports, Company Reports) you are in at the moment.
6. Save All Entries. Clicking on this icon will save all of your work to the BSG server even if you are not finished with your session. NOTE: If another simultaneously logged-on co-manager clicks on the Save icon and uploads new decisions to the BSG server, you will be notified the next time you press the Save icon to save any decisions you have made — the notification gives you the choice of (1) overriding the co-manager’s saved decision entries by saving your own decisions to the server or (2) importing the co-manager’s decisions onto your decision screens and overriding your own entries or (3) canceling your Save and leaving the co-manager’s decisions on the server. The last decisions saved to the BSG server at the time of the decision deadline will be the ones used to generate the results. Coordination and consensus on the decision entries is strongly urged but is left as a matter for you to work out with your co-managers.
7. ?/Help. This selection takes you to a comprehensive section describing all facets of the screen you are on. The ?/Help sections are a valuable ally in helping you answer any questions about what you are seeing on the screen. These sections explain all the numbers on the screen (for either decisions or reports), provide you with a handy reference for looking up cause-effect relationships relating to that particular screen or report page, tell you all about important cost relationships and how costs are allocated, and explain the exchange rate adjustments how the costs of certain items. The are Tips and Suggestions to guide your entries on all the decision screens and the sales forecast screen. And there are suggestions about how to use the information provided on each page of each report to good advantage. Thus you are strongly encouraged to be an active user of the ?/Help icon.
8. Exit. This selection is used to Exit the program and end your session. If you have changed any entries during your session without clicking on the “Save all entries” icon at the top of all screen, you will be prompted by a query of whether you wish to save any of your unsaved work.