Educational Use

An increasing number of business professors are now becoming more aware of the benefits of low-cost computer simulations of business activities and principals. Capitalism II, the best business simulation game widely regarded by the media and the gaming public, has been used by many professors to breakthrough the dull and boring traditional way of teaching. Professor Thomas Kosnik, who teaches at both Stanford and Harvard business schools, has incorporated Capitalism as a supplemental learning tool into his Entrepreneurial Marketing class, and has included the game in a final exam. He pointed out the fact that Capitalism, filled with icons, charts and graphics, is much more appealing for the present MTV generation than a dull lecture. Let's hear why he made use of Capitalism as his teaching tool:

"Capitalism is a world class, hands-on learning experience which I've used at Stanford School of Engineering and Harvard Business School. Gamers not only learn the subtleties of growing an entrepreneurial business but also learn about leadership and team building necessary in any business situation."

"Capitalism is very realistic and will allow the dynamics to change depending on whether you're selling a cola product, which is sort of a low tech-branded consumer good, or whether your selling consumer electronics or a PC."

- Professor Thomas Kosnik,
Consulting Professor, Stanford School of Engineering, and Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Technology Today, CNBC-TV Cable

Another Professor also gave words of mouth to Capitalism as a teaching tool:

"This game does an excellent job of modeling many of the key aspects of modern business. Not all aspects of it are realistic, but enough of them are that many sensible strategies are encouraged. In particular it's gratifying to me to see that the game rewards thinking about sources of long-term competitive advantage, be it from brand recognition, low production costs gained from learning-by-doing (a nice touch!), a monopoly on high quality inputs, or a big technological lead."

- Professor Drew Fudenberg
Harvard University

Enlight Software tried to put Capitalism into battle by hosting an annual Capitalism Contest between two top business schools:

Duke Took the Gold

In January of 1996, MBA students from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina met head-to-head in the challenge of playing Enlight Software's Capitalism. Teams of students from each school competed rigorously to grab the highest score. After the smoke had cleared from the four hours of battle and balance sheets had been checked out, it was found that the Duke students had won... They were awarded a $500 check and were given the opportunity to donate $1000 to their favorite charity.

Stanford Won the First National Capitalism Contest

The Duke vs. North Carolina Capitalism battle was just the beginning! In May 1996, three teams of students from Stanford and Harvard engaged in heated battle to create the most profitable business using Enlight Software's Capitalism. The students showed their capabilities in running their billion dollar business empires in the four hours of game play. The final score was derived from each team's individual wealth, number of industries and product domination as well as their corporation's market value. Beating out the Harvard Grads and Stanford Grads was the Stanford Undergrad team who took home the top honors in the National Capitalism Contest.

Our Suggestion

We have received many e-mails from people in every corner of the world asking how they can use Capitalism II as a teaching tool. The following are suggestions we offer.

One way to utilize the game is to concentrate on one business aspect each time – for example: marketing, the stock market and finance.

Marketing

In Capitalism II, a wide range of topics about marketing, including price, quality, and brand concern, product rating, advertising and local competitors are covered.

Using the game in class, students can learn substantial amounts about marketing in an interesting way.

Suggested method:

Divide students into groups of three or so that they can discuss among themselves about what kind of strategy they intend to pursue. This will help to build up team spirit which is so necessary in the real world business. Students should then be allowed to play the game for a fixed period of time. For example, try ten years game time. This should take about one hour if the speed mode is set to normal. Twenty years game time will reward thinking about long-term strategies.

A standard setting for all students is to be preferred. The same difficulty level should be set for all participants. For simplicity, the stock market can be deactivated and not all products are necessarily to be covered.

Pause the game after 10 year game time, then their scores calculated, and game result analyzed.

a. competitor analysis
Students have to analysis each and every competitor to uncover the reasons that contribute to his or her success and failure.

b. Corporate analysis of the player
Students can have a clearer picture about the their corporate situation after a clear and detailed competitor analysis. The CAPITALISM Series are sophisticated business simulation games with astonishing depth in which a wide range of business topics are covered and it is not easy to give a nice touch of all of them in one single lesson. We therefore recommend you to analysis a single topic each time. If you decide to concentrate on the topic of marketing, then other aspects such as stock market, suppliers, human resources can be ignored; this might not give you a full picture but will be much easier to handle. Besides, concentrating on one aspect each time enable students to get a clearer understanding about that particular topic.

Worksheets can be used to prompt students in analyzing their companies.

Stock Market and Finance

Another alternative is to concentrate on stock market activities. To add to the game’s realism, Capitalism II contains an active, constantly fluctuating stock market allowing players to experience the excitement of mastering corporate mergers and takeovers. The game challenges players to explore the different workings of corporate managers – you can "brand-storm" the market with an innovative marketing campaign, conquer the market aggressively by triggering a price cutting war or even ultimately beat your rivals at the other end of the market spectrum by hostile takeovers.

Students can sharpen their stock market knowledge just by playing a couple of hours of the game. The following are the suggested steps that teachers can use:

Let students to study the stock market tutorial first so that they can familiar themselves with the stock market features in the world of Capitalism II.

Play the game for a certain period of time. Students can choose to pursue a corporate strategy focusing on stocks but they are encouraged to cover normal business activities like farming, manufacturing and retailing as well.

Analysis the result.

Although there is plenty of fast money to be made in the stock market, the real money comes only from having a long-term investment strategy and the real path to riches comes from corporate stability and steady growth. Your corporate earnings are the only means of investment capital available to you. By all means invest in the stock market, but never neglect or jeopardize your corporate health to do it.

Stock market activities in Capitalism II include buy and sell shares, issue new shares, tender offer, takeover, merger, dividend paying and stock trading regulation.

Other finance topics like bank borrowing and repaying, bankruptcy are also covered.

Your Input

Your input is the ultimate energy that driving us to go on, that's why we also invite you to give us your thoughts. The followings are some sharings of our users who have experienced using Capitalism as a teaching tool:

1. Focus on scenarios

Students should play in teams of two because in a group of 30 there are always a couple of people who have lesser computer skills than others. They would probably be more comfortable teaming up with someone who has better computer skills. This is also more realistic, because students will learn the cooperation needed in running a company.

How to do this?

Teams of two students play 3 scenarios of rising difficulty level. When the first scenario is completed a discussion between the students and the teacher should take place, discussing product quality, competition, advertising, research and other factors that may contribute to the company’s success or failure.

The teacher could even have students play the game as a group and have them print out an analysis to explain what they did in the game and why.

OR The hands-on approach of Capitalism II could be used to reinforce basic business topics thought in class. For example, after the first one or two classes in a Economics class, the professor could assign the "entrepreneurial spirit" scenario. It would help reinforce concepts of supply, demand, and pricing. As more advanced topics are taught, tougher scenarios could be assigned. (Some of the scenarios will need to be adjusted to reinforce certain aspects of business, like marketing or the stock market) As a final project, the professor could hold an in-class competition between students. The professor could judge how much they have learned in their class, by how well they do in the game.

2. Demonstration

Lecturers can use Capitalism II as a simulation tool. They can run a saved game, and to teach their students how a business should run in a specific situation. For example, with high local competition and few available raw materials.

Cap could be used to show the importance of liquidity. The teacher could use Capitalism II to show how you may have to close down a factory or something just to get some cash. Use Cap to illustrate how if works in reality, not just in theory. This will give the students a greater understanding of economics. Then let students play against each other so that they can better understand the topic and try it out on real human competition.

4. As an examination / assignment tool

Teachers can customize the ultimate goals with a time limit, say 25 years, and have students played the specified game as an exam or an assignment.

Do you agree with them? Do you have any experiences in using Capitalism II to teach? How do you use it? What difficulties have you encountered? What benefits can you get? What other new features you wish to have to help you? Please share your experiences with us through the message board or email us at education@enlight.com