Reflection On How To Manage A Business

Decent Essays
Throughout the semester I have been learning how to manage a business. In order to apply some major concepts covered in class, we have been using BizCafe for practical purposes. BizCafe is an online simulation of a startup coffee store located in a college town. I was in a group of six where we managed the cafe from the beginning to the end of the semester. For this, we were able to control the management, marketing, operations, and accounting of the business. We could specifically alter the number of employees and managers, their wages, the hours of operation, and the amount of materials. During the simulation, we had to take chances on risky business decisions while attempting to make the most revenue we possibly could. Some of the …show more content…
goal which is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. The issue of efficiency arose multiple times since because we had a specific budget to work with. Soon we had to use a S.W.O.T. analysis to determine exactly what our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We determined that some of our strengths were also our weaknesses like the fact that we had the most team members and we had a lot of diverse ideas. Which I strongly believe might be the reason we won the simulation. We were able to group-think so we were constantly on the same page otherwise we would be dealing with devil’s advocates.
Halfway through the simulation we came across some competition. This was a double edge sword since it was very frustrating because it would provide an obstacle to winning, but at the same time we were pushed to perform even better. It definitely assures that Capitalism works.
One necessity that we could not have performed as well without is the performance feedback that the simulation provided for us. It depicts whether the exchange of information involving both performance expected and performance exhibited are met. Otherwise we would not know whether or not we were making the right decisions. It was a great tool to find the amount of coffee we had to purchase weekly or the degree of customer
…show more content…
We had to find the perfect price so that it would attract consumers. Nowadays consumers are constantly informed since they are technologically advanced. That is precisely why we made ourselves known since the beginning through radio ads and deals like buy-one-get-one cup for free.
Another issue that arose was what do we do with the final profits. We decided that we need to grow as a company a lot more. Once again we made an internal and external analysis. That means that externally, we could potentially become a huge competitor for similar stores and they could attempt to buy us out. Also internally, when we grow we do not want to be in the same college town or else we will be cannibalizing our business and splitting our customers.
In the end it comes down to the fact that this BizCafe simulation is a great tool to use. It is a great place to practice all of these themes of the role of a manager, the importance marketing and operations, accounting analyses, being most efficiency, dealing with competition, creating and going through with S.M.A.R.T. goals, groupthink, performance feedback, and knowing how to deal with profits and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Frosty Company Case Study

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Simon was correct to question whether or not Frosty Co. could capitalize some of the interest on the new loan. After checking with GAAP, it was determined that Frosty Co. cannot capitalize the interest on the new loan as part of the construction project on the new factory. According to GAAP, three conditions must be met in order for the interest to be capitalized: expenditures for the asset must have been made, activities that are needed to get the asset ready for its use are already in progress, and interest costs are being incurred. Unfortunately, Frosty Co. does not meet the second requirement.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Threats To REI Essay

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages

    All Businesses face threats that can hinder their growth or success. REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.) is no exception, they face external threats that can potentially impede and stunt their growth as a company. One major threat REI faces is that they neither public nor fully private. REI is a Consumer’s Co-Operative store, which in reality holds just as many disadvantages as advantages; it can also be considered quite a threat to REI. In addition, REI is considered to have very high prices steering a large part of consumers from purchasing their products.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Simulation is a flexible teaching method that can be adopted to meet both the programme requirements and students learning needs. A stimulated environment provides conducive learning that enables students to repetitively practice until competence is attained. One challenge my students had was course overload. With so much information in a short period of time they were unable to link the theory to the practical environment. As such, I have realized it was not the actual learning of the skills that was the problem for the students, it was the application of them.…

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. After reflecting on who or what event provided me with leadership influence I concluded there wasn’t one person or one event that has had the most effect on me to strive to become a better leader or person for that matter. Many of my past supervisors and present alike have been good and bad with more good than bad. I attempt to take pieces from each of their leadership qualities, use things I liked and stayed away from their “bad” leadership qualities I did not believe helped me grow as a leader or produce quality jobs or mission results. All the while, my own personality and beliefs intertwined with their leadership styles to make me who I am today as a leader.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This simulation lab activity was a varied experience for me and I was able to get new ideas after observing this session, such as; how to conduct organized simulation lab…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Simulation story is a how-to story for solving a problem or achieving a goal (214). In Cohen’s text, Cohen’s boxing coach, she was female, had stopped coaching, for a variety of reasons, so instead of quitting as well, Cohen did the following: First, with the help of her coach, Cohen and the coach contacted multiple trainers and asked if they would train Cohen, after not getting an accepting trainer…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Road to Management is tough processes of selecting someone to successfully manage a group of people. The theory that many believe is that a manager with successful performance in the past can be an effective manager in the future. However, this isn’t always the case because you will as a manager should focus on people, not just tasks. I also learned that even experience managers periodically should be given a refresher course on successful management styles and techniques.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Everyday, men and women are creating ideas to better our world. When they sell these ideas, and make a profit off of them, they are titled entrepreneurs. This unit was created to show that students could be entrepreneurs as well. The students are actually creating a product that will be used in their school. They will be continuing their efforts throughout the year to make it a successful proposition.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    We all have an idea of what we maybe want to do in life, but sometimes we think we want to do that idea that is in our mind because it is in our mind but other cases we want to do it because the idea is there for the moment. Throughout my life I have never really knew what I wanted to do for my occupation. I thought being of computer science, a writer, and a doctor but those didn’t fit well with who I am as a person. The only thing I am most capable of at this moment is being a gymnastic coach. I have always had a passion, love, and talent for this sport since I was a kid.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    • The common data quality problem in healthcare performance measurement is: First, the lack of knowledge about the purpose of healthcare performance measurement. The purpose is to: - Assessment of current performance: need to find out the strength and weakness of current process - Demonstration and verification of performance improvement: evaluate and compare whether the improvement had made any difference. - Control of performance (Joshi, Ransom, Nash, & Ransom, 2014, p.135)…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    REI Marketing Environment Worksheet List the current characteristics of each environmental factor as they relate to REI. U.S. Economy How does the current U.S. economy affect REI retail operations? 1. Thankfully, the U.S economy has historically been able to do a complete turn around during economic struggle.…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Modern office practices are designed to maximise productivity and profit whist meeting the needs and requirements of employers and employees. A massive benefit of modern office working practices is that staff use the latest technology, aimed at making their job easier and in turn more effective and efficient. Staff are trained in operating the most up to date hardware and software which not only benefits the organisation but also the staff’s personal development, knowledge and skills. The financial outlay is a massive investment in the organisation and sometimes the benefits cannot be measured quickly. This is when a detailed investigation by the project management team would have identified requirements and costs against implementation and benefits.…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    You should keep in mind that this is a capstone/strategy class; accordingly, your "reflections" may address strategic (rare, consequential, directive) issues, as well as varied authors, topics, and business functions. 4. It is appropriate for you to reflect on the simulation in relation to the MBA 5900 course overall, your MBA program overall, your other MBA courses specifically, your work and career experiences past, present and future, and other relevant constructs such as leadership, ethics, global competition, and political/legal/environmental/technological/demographic/diversity/productivity issues. 5. There are many aspects of the simulation about which you might reflect, including the decisions made, group processes, how decisions were made, reacting and adapting to simulation results, effectiveness of strategies employed, etc.…

    • 1234 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    2. Written personal reflection on operational business decisions made within the game 2.1 Introduction This game simulates the entire process of factory production. Players will plan and control the process of factory production as a manager of the plant. 2.2 Operations in practice…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Critical issues: Government The proposal developed by government says: “all the fast food chains should be overcome”. This proposal creates an issue for KFC since their food claims as unhealthy food for customers. Mainly, the advertisement about fast food will be banned, including KFC. When the government accepts, KFC will have a hard time in promoting their products in Malaysia.…

    • 1719 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays