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Strategy Arena

Strategy & Competitive Advantage

About This Simulation

Strategy Arena places student teams as executives of competing companies serving the same five-segment market (Traditional, Low End, High End, Performance, Size). Every round is a fiscal year: teams set decisions across R&D (performance / size / MTBF targets), marketing (promo + sales budget per product), production, capacity + automation, finance (debt, equity, buybacks, dividends), and HR — plus a unit-sales forecast that drives inventory-carrying cost. When the professor closes the round, a fully deterministic engine reconciles every team's decisions against segment demand and publishes results (revenue, net income, stock price, ROS/ROA/ROE, segment shares) — pricing wars, R&D drift, and marketing spend directly move who wins each segment. Rounds flow open → closed → published; results only appear once the round is published. After each publish, teams can convene an LLM Boardroom: three independent personas (CEO peer, CFO, activist investor) grill the team using its actual numbers and issue one pointed question for next round. Four pillars carry across rounds: Market Position (top-2 segment share, rewarding focus), Strategic Agility (movement toward drifting segment ideals), Brand Equity (share weighted by segment price), and Profitability (ROS + cumulative profit). Total rounds are 5 in the five-week format or 8 in the eight-week / semester formats.

LMSCanvas + LTI 1.3 compatible platforms·SSO + one-click grade publishHow it works

Share this with your team— printable one-pager for a chair or procurement./for-your-team/strategy-arena

Learning Objectives

Apply Porter's Five Forces and competitive strategy frameworks to segment-by-segment decisions
Set pricing, R&D specs, and marketing spend in a shared market where every rival's move affects yours
Track segment-ideal drift (Performance customers demand more perf each round, Size customers demand smaller) and reposition products before you get caught flat-footed
Read a full income statement + balance sheet each round and translate the numbers into next-round levers
Balance short-term profitability with brand equity that compounds across many rounds
Manage inventory-carry risk through disciplined sales forecasting
Defend strategy to a skeptical LLM board (CEO peer, CFO, activist investor) using specific numbers, not slogans

Week-by-Week Overview

Round 1: Industry analysis & first positioning

Read the five segments and their buying criteria, choose an initial positioning (cost leadership, differentiation, or niche focus), and submit your first set of decisions. Every team decides simultaneously.

Round 2: Competitive response & pricing

Round 1 has published — standings are visible. Respond to pricing pressure, decide whether to match or differentiate, and allocate R&D toward whichever segment you want to own.

Mid-arc: segment drift & repositioning

Segment ideals have drifted. Performance customers want more perf; Size customers want smaller; Low End rewards older SKUs. Decide whether to chase, refocus, or defend the segments you already lead.

Late-arc: capacity, capital, and the Boardroom

Debt, equity, buybacks, and capacity buys become live decisions. The LLM Boardroom starts pushing harder on cash discipline and capital allocation.

Endgame: sustainable advantage

Final round(s). Cumulative profit, stock price, and the four pillars — Market Position, Strategic Agility, Brand Equity, Profitability — settle the cohort standings.