Workplace Live Simulation Reflection

Over the course of a few weeks I have achieved all the personal goals I have set myself at the start of the course, that is to say I have developed team working, marketing, brand management and marketing research skills, and have developed an overall understanding of marketing and business while still managed to keep workload manageable and have fun. In this reflective report, I shall reflect upon how those skills were developed through course lecture materials, the Marketplace Live Simulation and through our team working dynamics and frequent reflection upon our progress.

In complete honesty, I chose this course due to an attractive benefit of having no exams as I believe traditional type of assessment does not capture one’s true knowledge.

We had no problems deciding upon team roles, norms, nor with initial strategic goals. Rather than having specific, in-depth knowledge about an individual department, all of us started with a general overview of business. Although at first, we struggled to find interest in our own agreed departmental functions and responsibilities, I was really proud of each of us as during the course of a few weeks we were able to efficiently work interdependently and have developed interest in our fields. Looking back at the set team norms, we have taken into account all of the selected, including respecting consensus vote of the entire team, mandatory attendance at meetings, preparation for meetings and giving honest feedback to fellow team members. Strategic board reports helped us to incorporate strategy into all our decisions and reflect upon those at different points during the simulation. Through writing all the three reports, we came together as a group and adjusted our initial strategy to keep up with the dynamic environment within the simulation. Although towards the end we shifted away from the initial strategy, I feel this reflects our agility and ability to cope and respond to sudden pressures and

I adopted a marketing oriented approach, as I have decided to invest in marketing research and monitor customer needs and patterns of usage. The overall market was segmented into three segments with different levels of expertise. Provided marketing research informed my decisions in terms of brand design, pricing, place and promotion. By incorporating feedback into our decisions our team was able to produce high rated offerings. Within the three provided segments, we saw the opportunity to microsegment into more and less demanding users. Micro segmenting and creating 6 products (2 for each segment) lead to increased sales, profit and overall performance.
I saw how important communication was during every aspect of the simulation. I had to prepare in advance, research my field and communicate those decisions and my reasons behind them to the team. Without integrated communication channels our overall performance would not be as good as it was. For example, I had to talk to the finance department when setting prices, to the sales department when deciding on place, and to the manufacturing department to ensure sufficient production to meet the demands of the