Market Driven Strategies

The Market-Driven Strategies Course using the SABRE business simulation (SABRE = Strategic Allocation of Business REsources) weaves together the core plenary sessions outlined later with the SABRE business simulation. The plenary sessions strengthen the components of strategic marketing and planning while the SABRE business simulation provides the participants the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a realistic competitive market place.

At the start of the course participants are divided into teams, taking over as the management team of a company. These teams must manage their portfolio of products competing for market share and profit. Facing a competitive environment in which several other similar companies operate, each management team must develop and execute a marketing strategy.

SABRE simulates a real market place and has all the idiosyncrasies of a real market. Each team is vying for the customers represented in the simulation. Results are given in market share and profit. Each run of the simulation (eight in total) represents one year of business activity.

Since the results are almost immediate, teams can compare their market results, execute strategic initiatives and make adjustments each period. Teams can develop new products in R&D, commercialize these products and build market awareness through advertising. They must align their sales-force with the channels where their products will be selling, and plan their inventory and pricing appropriately to gain market share and profit. Finally, teams can purchase up to twenty- four market studies that can assist them in their decision-making.

As is often is the case in real life, there is no one specific strategy or solution to a problem, however some alternatives are clearly superior or inferior to others. In order to be successful team members must use sound judgement and exercise their knowledge and their wisdom.

Benefits of Using the SABRE Simulation

The immediate feedback on strategic decisions provided by the simulation accelerates learning and provides an experience unparalleled in executive education. The simulation compresses the time between making a strategic decision and seeing the result. In reality this time lag can be six months to one year or even longer, which makes learning marketing strategy from experience extremely difficult, time consuming and costly.

Secondly the SABRE business simulation allows participants to practice and test their skills before applying them in real world situations. Like in reality, participants must make their decisions in the face of uncertain market conditions, including competitors' moves. Strict discipline and adherence to the marketing principles must be applied in order to be successful - the same skills needed back on the job.

The intensely competitive nature of the SABRE simulation program leads to an exhilarating learning environment. Participants leave the program highly motivated to apply the concepts practiced during the week. The goal of using the simulation is to ensure that the Strategic Marketing tools and concepts can be applied to real life issues once the course is complete. In effect each participant leaves with eight years worth of marketing experience.

The SABRE business simulation is the only true fully configurable business simulation in the world today. It can be designed to reflect key aspects of any market including the market position of key competitors. In fact, the simulation market scenario can be changed depending on the group using the model. The simulation is very realistic and is based on algorithms from market research done by professors worldwide who continue to input into SABRE's development.

The SABRE simulation is used at noted business schools including the London Business School and Ivey Business School and by professors at Stanford, Harvard, INSEAD and IMD.

Core Plenary Sessions

The following sessions are the core plenary sessions that are woven between decision periods in the SABRE business simulation. The sessions focus on the strategic marketing principles and tie back into the simulation. For example after the session on portfolio analysis the participants can view their portfolios in the SABRE simulation

Day 1

• Introduction and Market Orientation:
  This introductory session explores different corporate orientations and how it drives their businesses. We discuss what it means to be market driven and introduce the tools used by outstanding corporations to stay close to their customers' needs.

• Introduction to the SABRE simulation:
  This introductory session sets out the market conditions into which the participants will be entering. It discusses the current situation including products currently in the market, sales-force channels, customer segments, market and segments sizes and growth rates and introduces the various market research studies available. This session ensures there is a common understanding of the situation and demonstrates the SABRE software.

  SABRE Simulation Decision I

• Overview of the Strategic Marketing Planning Process:
  This session guides the participants through all the stages of the Strategic Marketing Planning Process, effectively providing an overview of the agenda for the balance of the week. The components of marketing strategy are discussed with an emphasis on Market Analysis. In the market analysis stage of strategic planning the goal is to marry your company's SCA (sustainable competitive advantages) with Gaps or Unmet Customer needs. Once completed, the task of developing the market strategy begins.

  SABRE Simulation Decision II

Day 2

• Market Segmentation Strategies:
  It is often said, "if you're not segmenting, you're not marketing". This session explains why market segmentation is such an integral part of any strategic plan. Segmentation is defined and a framework is provided to assist in segmenting industrial markets. Successful segmentation strategies from other corporations are analyzed demonstrating how they gained a competitive advantage in their market places.

  Once this session is completed, participants can evaluate their market segments in the simulation using the information available through the market studies and reports provided. A segmentation evaluation tool is also built into the simulation, which shows participants the segmentation evaluation process.

  SABRE Simulation Decision III

• Market Positioning:
  Once a company has completed their segmentation strategy they need to make their business and products stand out in the minds of their target segments.

  This session first defines what positioning is and then explores positioning strategies employed by various companies. The perceptual map and the conjoint analysis tools are discussed in class and are available in the simulation for the participants to use. These tools offer strong clues to the participants about how the market place perceives their products.

  SABRE Simulation Decision IV

Day 3

• New Product Introductions:
  Introducing new products into a high-tech market place is difficult. This session discusses some of the stages that a product goes through before it is accepted by the market place and sheds light on why so many technically sound products fail. To be successful in the SABRE simulation, participants must constantly introduce new products to keep pace with ever changing customer needs. How these introductions are implemented is critical in the simulation as they are in real life.

  SABRE Simulation Decision V

• Cost Behaviours:
  This session explores the behaviour of costs and discusses learning curves and overlays this onto pricing options. Other important issues such as what drives experience curves, what they can mean to your organization and how to manage them are discussed in this session.

  SABRE Simulation Decision VI

Day 4

• Portfolio Analysis / Resource Allocation:
  Every company is faced with the dilemma of how to allocate resources across product lines and geography markets. This session covers portfolio theory and moves quickly to more complex matrixes and the PIMS studies (Profit Impact of Market Share).

  In the SABRE simulation, the participants can view their own portfolio on a growth share matrix. From this information they can develop their product strategies. Participants are also encouraged to examine their competitors' portfolios and attempt to understand their strategies so they can better predict competitors' moves and their subsequent market impact.

  SABRE Simulation Decision VII

• Implementation session:
  In this session participants are grouped into their strategic business units and asked to tackle a specific issue or problem they are facing within their business unit. They try to solve the problem using one of the marketing tools discussed during the course (segmentation, positioning or portfolio analysis). The primary objective of this exercise is to give the participants an opportunity to apply the strategic planning tools.

• Implementation session presentation:
  Each team will be asked to present their findings to the rest of the group, focusing on their conclusions and further recommended steps. Since this session will often be used as a starting point for a larger strategic plan the group will also set a timetable for tackling the key issues.

  SABRE Simulation Decision VIII

Day 5

• Strategy Integration:
  This session integrates all the levels of marketing strategy development, used in the course and simulation. The session also demonstrates how marketing strategies at various organizational levels link together to build a cohesive corporate strategy.

• Final result: course conclusions and wrap-up