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The Boardroom

Integrated Business Strategy — 4-role C-Suite Team

About This Simulation

The Boardroom is Vanguard SIM's hero business simulation. Teams of 4 take distinct C-suite roles (CEO strategy, CFO cash + pricing, CMO growth + brand, COO inventory + suppliers) and operate a DTC brand — skincare, snacks, apparel, or pet products — for 25 cycles across 5 weeks (M-F). Every real week = 1 in-sim year, and the last active weekday of each week is the Board Meeting where the year closes. Each role submits per-cycle decisions in their functional dashboard; a nightly engine reconciles pricing, inventory, ad spend, competitor moves, brand equity, and a fixed 3-competitor market to produce the next morning's P&L. Teams communicate through a built-in Slack-style chat. Company value at end (brand-tilted 4×–8× TTM EBITDA + cash + inventory + brand equity − debt) sets the leaderboard. Depth over cleverness — leans on visuals, interactivity, and team-role realism.

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/the-boardroom

Learning Objectives

Play a distinct C-suite role and own its decisions end-to-end
Coordinate cross-functional strategy under per-cycle pressure
Read a per-cycle P&L and translate metrics into next-cycle levers
Balance short-term cash discipline against long-term brand equity
Manage inventory, pricing, and marketing as interdependent systems
Compete against AI competitors AND other student teams in a live market
Communicate + negotiate across roles using in-sim team chat

Week-by-Week Overview

Year 1 — Foundation

5 daily cycles Mon-Fri. Pick brand positioning, set launch prices, stock inventory, learn the per-cycle rhythm. Real P&L, real competitors, real inventory pressure. Friday closes Year 1 at the Board Meeting.

Year 2 — Optimize

Data starts to tell a story. CMO tunes channel mix; COO negotiates suppliers and reorders; CFO revisits pricing and can raise capital (equity, debt, credit line). Coordination events start hitting cross-role.

Year 3 — Scale

Board challenges, R&D pipeline, and Specialist hires unlock. Competitor pressure intensifies. Teams that ignored brand equity or cash discipline start to fall behind.

Year 4 — Consolidate

Market events swing harder. Turnaround gate activates if cash + margin slip below thresholds. Strategic bets (subscription plans, buyer deals, capacity capex) start compounding.

Year 5 — Endgame

Final stretch. Company Value crystallizes (brand-tilted 4×–8× TTM EBITDA + cash + inventory + brand equity − debt). Composite leaderboard blends Company Value, IRR, recent EBITDA, peak share, team health, coordination, board challenges, and forecast accuracy.