Using the lessons
1. You could explore the different personalities of the project team
by using role play and some of the students as observers. Assign
characters and give students five minutes to develop their character alone
outside the room. Brief the students who are observers on how to sit quietly
and make notes on how different characters improve decision making or block
discussion. Provide all players with an agenda for the meeting.
Give the students 15 minutes to run the meeting. Wrap up the role play with a
discussion on how the different personalities worked together.
2. The role play could be run again, but this time brief the student who plays Clare Morgan, to adopt a particular management style, ie authoritarian, laissez-faire or democratic. At the end get students to reflect on the different leadership styles, how they personally feel about them and how it affects their motivation.
3. Careers education can come out of this Case Study. There are the obvious roles of the Accountant, the Technical Manager, and the Marketing Manager etc. But there are also roles in market researchers, personnel staff, and so on. Students often complain that they do not know what jobs there are. Use this as an opportunity to highlight all the workers involved in providing a service to the consumer.
Marketing
1. The concept of product portfolios could be explored.
2. Market research methods and reliability can be developed.
3. The role of discussion groups and interviews in market research could be explored. Get students to discuss in pairs the contents of their bags, why they bought particular items, how those items make them feel. Then stop the paired work and ask the students to sit alone and to write down whether they were honest in their answers to their partner. Students should pick one item they discussed and write down why they presented a not totally honest picture to the interviewer. Reflect on how this affects market research.
4.The discussion groups can also be usefully used to explore the appeal to schools of different sports games.
5. A decision tree can be developed from the data in the case study. Even if your class are not at this level the problem of uncertainty in forecasting the future should be explored.
External factors
1. There has been considerable discussion about the health benefits of consoles like the Oi and whether or not people should be encouraged to use them. This is a factor that the project team will need to take into consideration.
2. The whole of the media industry is changing quite rapidly especially with regards software development and production. The team will need to consider the changes carefully.
3. Is the concept of the “long tail” and the success of Amazon in selling a few of many books something which a companies such as Shinkendo and Digital Arts could capitalise upon?
Finance
1. Simple costing exercises could be performed by students on what they think
should be the gross margins and then identify the factors that will reduce the
net margins, e.g. overhead costs, rent
2. Gives the class the opportunity to appreciate what a broad range of possible outcomes there are and what a gamble the whole exercise is.
3. To simplify the accounts do not try to introduce depreciation charges for fixed assets, write offs or amortisation of research costs in your calculations.
4. The company's financial guidelines could be highlighted, emphasising that all well-run businesses have detailed guidelines on anything to do with finance. This safeguards the shareholders' resources and protects employees from inappropriate financial behaviour.
5. Contribution costing and break-even point can be introduced to pick up on the comments that all products must make a positive contribution to the company's overall profit.
6. The opportunity cost of capital could be explored in more depth, highlighting the need to make competitive returns to shareholders.
7. Students could also consider how companies in general raise finance for new projects. Could it be from internal or external sources and which ones? Would it be long, medium or short term finance?
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