JUNE 2021

DEAR KUMBIRAI
Letter to futre self

The goal is to be
shepard not sheep

Running a business has always been on the list of

achievements. A business that has results has always been the
type of business you want to run and that was achieved through
this simulation. This simulation has shown me the aspects that
have to be looked at when running a business. The most
important factor I learnt that you are not a one man team,
along with other hardships of dealing the administrative work
of setting up meetings of when we are going to meet and
setting objectives that you want to achieve with your team.
 JUNE 2021

Discoveries

Humans

The most interesting discoveries I made this semester in this

whole unit is that humans are astonishing creatures we really
can be selfish if we choose not to care and apply ourselves. I
made this discover some what the hard way because one of our
group members was just blatantly ignoring our efforts to
communicate with them and delegate tasks. The purpose of
having a strategy is so that there is a game plan when handling
a task. The strategy is supposed to be aimed at implementing
the said plan. However, if the team members are not on board
with the strategy things don’t move as smoothly as they are
supposed to be moving for instance the start of meetings
because we don’t have confirmation from team members that
had been contacted 24 hours before the said meeting.
 JUNE 2021

Discoveries

Work ethic
The new strategy implemented was to move forward without the
group member who chose not to get involved at all. The new
strategy was to work as four man team and here is when I
made another important discover that accountability is great
for team spirit if everybody does
what they are meant to do and they own it when it doesn’t go
according to plan not only when
the task is successful. This four man team was driven and focus.
We set our target and goals as
we were still in the practice rounds that we wanted to be the
best of the best when it came to
the simulations.

Business/simulation
What did it mean to be the best we aimed at achieved the
greatest profit after every simulation round, have the highest
market share and lastly have a good share price. This was
achieved when the numbers you were inputting into Cesim made
sense. The production output had to meet the demand figures
that we would have input through the expected demand and
market share tabs of Cesim. Once the demand figures are there
the output now needs to satisfy the market. In satisfying the
market you don’t want to have too much left over inventory as
this could increase your holding costs of the inventory. Not
having excess left over inventory is good because that means
you have cash on hand rather than stock making the business
more liquid.
 JUNE 2021

What I would I do differently if presented

with a similar problem

I would firstly try to select the team I want to work with so that
we cut on the time of getting familiar with each other, cut on
the time taken to figure out how we work best and our
weaknesses. However, if it is the same setup as we had for this
unit were your team members are just given randomly I would
encourage every teammate to be honest about their
strongest characteristics and weakest. I would also encourage
my teammates to be vocal about the mental health, if the work
load is too much we should be able to assist each other when
someone feels over whelmed.

In relation to the simulation I would have developed more

technology features for our vehicles
however the simulation we ran with the strategy we used was
very successful with the number
of features we had compared to our competiuon and the price
we were offering on our
vehicles.

The last thing I would have done differently is to get other

people to try presenting the reports we gave at the end of each
round. Yes I was the giving the reports in class for Team Grey
they were good as the presentations were about the information
that the speaker was able to relay back to the class in five
minutes to explain how the team went about their decisions.
There’s a saying I once heard about “If something is working
don’t change it” however it would have been nice to have a
back up presenter incase the was a day I couldn’t make it.
There was a particular Monday I had to run from res in the
morning so I could connect to the Wi-Fi campus.
 JUNE 2021

Key lessons useful for

the future

Communication- It would have been

easier if I had communicated that we
needed a back
presenter just incase.

Openmindedness- I learnt that everyone

should be given a chance to speak and be
heard
because the way we approach problem-
solving is very different.

Collaboaration- I am not an island I cant

do everything by myself.

Proactive- thinking and palnnijg ahead

is important

Teamwork- This is important and works

hand in hand with collaborative
 JUNE 2021

What I learnt from making decisions

when facing an eethical problem.

The ethical problem I faced was cutting down cost and by

cutting employee salaries. This was in order to to keep costs
low which is achieving every businesses objective however to
another human beings cost. The cutting of salaries to allow the
owners to cash in more profits. In the future I hope to be able
to apply what we did here as Team Grey that we put peoples
emotions and realities into account when deciding where we
were gonna cut costs from.

The other ethical issue faced were just choosing to skip the
class and go day drinking but I persevered and attended every
single class.

Future Kumbirai I hope when you read

this letter you have achieved all of your
goals you have
set out for the next 5 years #2026.