Aniket Kaushik

BUSN 6710 – Strategic Management 001

Performance Review – Sister Team - Baldwin
Professor: David Chandler

Performance Review – Sister

Team – Baldwin
Aniket Kaushik
BUSN 6710 – Strategic Management 001
Performance Review – Sister Team - Baldwin
Professor: David Chandler

During the course of the simulation the team eventually revised their mission from being a

broad cost leader to be a broad differentiator, which led them to revise the mission statement

to:

To have a combined goal of presenting the lowest reasonable cost to satisfy customers’ needs

in low-end and traditional segments while achieving the best superior customer responsiveness

and innovation for performance, size, and high-end segments.

Although their strategy rapidly transformed early into the simulation away from the initial

strategic plan to be a Broad Cost Leader, the team continued to weigh costs and increased

automation in our lower cost segments, Low End and Traditional. The intention was shifting

the strategy to provide the most reasonable cost to satisfy customers’ needs in all segments in

order to capture the optimal market share. Initially, the intent was to keep R&D, production

and material costs at a minimum level to ensure a high margin. They also planned to operate at

a sustainable level of profit using competitive pricing to generate sales growth -- which can be

simply known as introducing relatively low-cost products to improve our competitive forces.

One of the major mistakes was that they overproduced inventory that cut into what had been a

significant lead over the competition, giving their competitors the chance to catch up and even

pass us during almost all the rounds. They also allowed Low End and Traditional to drift out of

their segments main circle cuts into their rough cuts, which hurt the sales because they lost
Aniket Kaushik
BUSN 6710 – Strategic Management 001
Performance Review – Sister Team - Baldwin
Professor: David Chandler

some of the sales accessibility advantages and customer scores. In addition to this, they ignored

the Size segment allowing it to turn into a dog. In retrospect, this may have been a mistake, or

it may have been a necessary cost to succeed elsewhere, which was I guess their logic in

spending less on it.

Question:

1. If given four more years to manage, what changes if any would you make?