Business Success is a brilliant new business game which has been developed by PIXELearning in collaboration with Edexcel. The software simulates the marketing, production and strategy decisions over a product's 3-year life cycle. Users can choose between five exciting products: a 3G mobile phone, an MP3 player, a diamond ring, a laptop or a set of alloy wheels. It has been designed for Level 2 business students, and would suit anyone following a GCSE, Applied GCSE, BTEC First or equivalent qualification. It would also enliven every Enterprise Day, making a terrific whole-school activity for Enterprise Week.

The game is challenging and fun, with enough decisions to keep things interesting, but not so many as to cause confusion. Business Success has been developed for Edexcel by PIXELearning, with help and advice from Ian Marcousé.

Key Benefits:

Game player(s) make production, pricing and marketing decisions within a dynamic, changing market

All decisions cause logical business outcomes, e.g. falls in market share when prices are increased sharply

Fun to use in small groups, individually, or as a whole-class activity on an interactive whiteboard or data projector

On-line updates mean the game is constantly kept up-to-date; Business Success will never date

The game forces students to think about the connections between marketing, finance and production, and the role of uncertainty in business

The game's underlying equations have been based on a sophisticated model derived from a University student's PhD thesis. This gives the game-play an 'intelligent' responsiveness to the marketing decisions made by the user. Because the results are logical, the game is surprisingly easy to use, yet there's enough complexity to keep people interested; there are no simple solutions.

Gameplay - What Does The User Actually Do?

1. Decide which of the 5 products to choose, based upon market research data provided on-screen

2. Decide which distribution channel to use. As this could be difficult first-time through, hints are provided as to the best bet, given the product selected.

3. Make decisions about where to position the product in the marketplace. Should the strategy be high-feature/high product quality but high price, or cheap and cheerful? All competitor information is provided, plus the unit costs of production.

4. Once the game is started, production decisions are needed based on an initial sales forecast provided by the computer. The user can make capacity decisions (new factory) or increase output gradually using overtime.

5. Throughout 36 months of game play the user will need to consider pricing issues, product positioning, sales and marketing budgets and keep an eye on stock levels to try and balance production with the levels of demand in the marketplace. (Importantly, there is a button for controlling the speed of play; first-timers will want a gentle pace, but it is great to speed it up once familiarity starts to set in.)


What will Students Learn?

Probably the most important outcome will be fun and enjoyment in a focused, competitive classroom situation. Yet there will also be key academic benefits. The game will help to get students to think 'out of the boxes' in which they place the different aspects of the subject. The game is about running a whole business, and therefore getting marketing decisions in alignment with production and cash flow. There will also be enrichment of student understanding of these key areas:

Finance	Marketing	Operations	External Influences
Cash Flow	Mix	Capacity	Market Size & Growth
Profit	Mapping	Stock	Competition

Will I Struggle To Master It?

The simple answer is no. It is highly intuitive. But, before purchase, you can try the game by requesting an access code (see above). When the game is purchased it is backed-up by a full user guide, and half-day training sessions which are run regionally during November, February and July (starting in November 2006). These will be free to those who have purchased the game. There will be a fee of £75 for those who have not purchased, refundable in full if the game is subsequently purchased.