2022-23

[BUST080312022-3SV1SEM2 Business Simulation]

[Individual reflection essay]

[B180518]
Business simulation module has taught me a lot throughout this semester. It gave me an
inside looks on businesses and the factors that needs to be considered while making decisions
for investments. This course showed me the challenges and outcomes which is involved in a
business. The Marketplace Stimulation project has been one of the most difficult teamwork
experiences I've had, and the overall influence of the project has been vital to my progress as
an effective team member. One of the skills me and my team have developed in this module
is to listen to each other. Every decision we made is after considering everyone’s suggestion
and worked together. Apart from decision making to build an effective company, required us
to write reports on our progress as a team and as a business. Over this semester I have been
able to gains skills or organisation, team leading, managing online meetings due to my
restricted timetable, while identifying deficiencies and building stronger communication,
problem-solving, and tolerance abilities.

The biggest challenge I have faced during this group project was time management. Despite
having a very busy timetable after having a full-time job as a waitress and finding the time to
follow up with my own education, during this whole semester my mom injured her leg and
was unable to walk for months which lead to me having to take of the house and my siblings.
It was very hard for me to manage everything on my own. I was unable to do regular meeting
with my team and often miss tutorials as well. I also had to fit in with my team member’s
schedule was very difficult. We did however manage to do a few online meetings to help me
catch up. The team was amazing and very understanding towards my situation. They would
take the time out of their life to repeat everything done during tutorial to help me make
equally decisions with them and not feel lost. To obtain the best outcomes in whatever we are
working on, every team requires a very robust communication system. Poor communication
will only result in poor job quality and can sometimes be unfair to specific team members
who will feel pressed to do more work than the rest of the team. Fortunately, my team and I
had an excellent communication strategy. Due to our inability to meet in person due to our
hectic schedule, we would arrange regular team meetings. During such meetings, we would
discuss our progress, any issues we were encountering, whether someone needed additional
assistance, and what needed to be done.

We also set up a WhatsApp group conversation where we would discuss things on a regular
basis as an alternative to the team meeting because not everyone needed to be available at the
same time and could respond to messages whenever they were available. It helped us to be
more open to each other and begin to feel more at ease in the communication process, where
we not only talked about the projects but also made jokes about various topics, which brought
us closer as a group. This also brought me relief when working on the project because we
were able to speak openly to each other and ask for aid from each other, resulting in a strong
team. As said by Lehman-Willenbrock, Allen and Kauffeld (2013), it allows for the important
information to not get lost in the messages on chats and have things more organized.

The first project was simple and straightforward for us but We did not properly start the
project until we were very close to the deadline which raised a lot of stress between us and
rush all the work, which had led us to have a lower quality of our work. Also left us with very
little time to make any improvements. Putting out life goals and tracking your time are some
important techniques for effectively managing your time said McCkay(1959).As a group we
should’ve considered making a to-do list to help monitoring our work (Brigitte J.C.
Claessens, 2005) which allows us to have a limit to the influence of distractions by others
(Brigitte J.C. Claessens, 2005) . Which means if i monitored my work and set out the plans
before starting my project, it would give me enough time at the end to go over all my work
and not leave everything in a rush. If I were to do this course again, or for the upcoming
course I would follow these steps to ensure better quality work and have a better use of my
time. We soon realised that we only have 2 weeks between each submission date and were
determined to do everything on time. We were great with dividing our roles which prevent us
from having a lack hierarchy and helped us make effective decision for the business and not
just go with the majority.

As of quarter 1 and 2, the issue

of irresponsible team members
persisted. With one member
refusing to communicate and
the other deciding to prioritise
other work,
The issue of irresponsible team members remained throughout quarters 1 and 2. With one
person refusing to communicate as often. The team member would do the coursework and
her part and help us make decisions, but it was only when we would ask her to. The main
issue behind this was language barrier as she is an international student and often not
understand what is going on until we break it down to her again. Luckily, she was quick with
understanding and didn’t make us fall behind for the assignments.

After the first 2 quarters we were very successful in our project and our company XYMK was
holding the largest market share of computer sales. We possessed 67% of the total
Workhorse market share, 31% of total Traveler sales, for a grand total of 44% of all sales.
We have accomplished this through a strong business plan. We sold out of inventory due to
our high demand, so to rectify that and to ensure all potential customers are brought on
board, we have tripled our production.

We have continued to work strong and well communicated as a team and our business plan
was getting stronger and stronger. By quarter 5, we possessed 40% of the total market
share. Over half of the Workhorse market share belongs to us, coming in at 57%. Our
PortaTech 2.0 commanded 28% of the Traveler market share. Finally, our debut Mercedes
model earned 35% of the market share. This success is due to our high-quality, low-cost
philosophy that meets the needs of our customers.
Despite facing many personal issues and trying to catch up from home while helping
international teammate with overcoming language barrier, I've learned about the
manufacturing, sales, marketing, and human resources areas, as well as devised tactical plans
that allowed me to identify my own capabilities. Despite the educational parts of the project, I
have noticed a difference in my development as an effective teammate.
Bibliography

Brigitte J.C. Claessens, W. v. E. a. C. G. R., 2005. A review of the time management

literature.
Availble form https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00483480710726136/
full/pdf?title=a-review-of-the-time-management-literature
[accessed 29/11/2023]

Darling, J. and Beebe, S., 2007. Effective Entrepreneurial Communication in Organization

Development: Achieving Excellence Based on Leadership Strategies and Values.
Organisation Development Journal [online], 25 (1). Available form https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/docview/198008754?pq-origsite=primo&accountid=10673
[accessed 30/03/2021]