Strategic Innovation Simulation: Back Bay Battery

Review

Innovator's Dilemma: Introduction: (Why Companies Need to Understand and Manage the Forces of Disruptive Innovation)

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Creating Project Plans to focus Product Development  

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Strategic Innovation Simulation: Back Bay Battery

            a) Each student play as an individual 1 time

            b) Each team (3 people) play (maximum of3 times) with score submitted on final run

Description:

This online simulation allows students to play the role of a business unit manager at Back Bay Battery Company who faces the dilemma of balancing a portfolio of investment strategies across products in the rechargeable battery space. Players have to manage R&D investment tradeoffs between sustaining investment in the unit's existing battery business versus investing in a new, potentially disruptive battery technology. The student must also decide which market opportunities to pursue, each of which offers varying levels of market intelligence and differing short- and long-term payoff prospects. Students manage the investment portfolios over eight simulated years. Throughout the simulation the student is forced to address a number of challenges including timing and level of investment across both mature and new businesses, choices regarding market opportunities and inherent product performance characteristics, requirements to meet constraining financial objectives and constant trade-offs between investment options, all in the context of uncertain market information.

Questions:

1) What was hard about playing this simulation?

2) What did you struggle with the most as you thought about how you would allocate your R&D dollars?

3) What specific information did you concentrate on during each decision making round?

It is recommended you keep a journal or notebook during the simulation so you can summarize in class if your simulation is chosen for review in class.