Starting From The Bottom

(1) Be a Sunny Face – Everyone loves the person who wanders around the office with a smile. Every time you meet a new person, greet them with a firm handshake and a smile. And every time you bring the boss those papers he needed copy, smile (though not creepily) and ask him how he’s doing. People want to be around people who are pleasant to be around. People in the office are more likely to spend more time with you, giving you an opportunity to learn more, or even to consider hiring you in the future if they like you. And always, always, be polite.

(2) Do your Research - Spend your off time learning everything you can about the industry and the company itself. The more knowledgably you can talk to a person, the more likely they are to be impressed by you and trust you with more important assignments. You will also be able to learn more during your internship if you are fully informed about the background of the work you are doing.

(3) Write Down Everything – Every tiny, petty thing you do needs to be written down. Every time you call a person, even if you have called them before, write down their number. Every time you talk to a secretary in another firm write down her name. No matter how small it seems, there needs to be fully accountable for everything done in an office. You never want to be caught later saying that you don’t remember when you last handled a file that has gone missing, or that you can’t understand why someone said you told them something you swore you didn’t. Also, this way, when you ask for a recommendation, you can bring up specific accomplishments, since they will all be written down. Suggesting to your boss that she might want to mention in a recommendation something awesome you did that she already forgot can be helpful to the both of you.

(4) Be Professional – Dress at the same level as everyone else in the office. Don’t get caught gossiping, don’t hook up with coworkers, and don’t waste your time (and the company’s time) on Facebook. This way, you prove to your supervisors that you can handle tough assignments and can be brought along to important meetings without embarrassing them.

(5) Ask Questions – While your boss doesn’t want to be harassed constantly about the minutiae of her work, she will be impressed by your initiative and interest if you take the time to ask insightful questions. As an extra bonus, not only will you learn more, but you will do a better job! Especially if an assignment is a little over your head, ask. Better to be a bit of a nuisance now than screw everything up later and have everyone have to do extra work to fix it later.

And, a bonus sixth tip! (6) Play the CEO Game and other business simulations. This way you can get more business experience when you’re at home in order to wow your bosses at work. The CEO Game is the most realistic business simulation out there — it an essential tool to a successful internship.

Tamar.

The CEO Game.

Today I want to discuss few of those myths.

Understand the Myths.

Myth #1: Work hard and you’ll be rich

Many of us believe that having a high-level position in a company or a company of our own assures us that we are on right track for financial wealth. With so many cut-backs and financial recessions, anybody can find himself out of job at any given moment. Working hard doesn’t assure you that you’ll ever be rich.

Myth #2: Saving is good

From the first day that we got our first nickel, we were taught that saving enough money will mean that one day they will gain financial wealth. Can saving assure a financial wealth?

Although saving might assure that you’ll have some money one day, it is definitely not the way to reach a true financial wealth. You should learn how to invest your money in different routes to achieve better and faster rates.

Myth #3: Being in debt is bad

Another myth we grow up on is that being in debt is bad and we should avoid it in any cost. Well, the truth is that not all debt is bad. It depends on what you do with the money you borrow. If you invest the money you owe in ways to gain more money then you actually use the debt to cover itself and even return an income, which is not bad at all.

Myth #4: Investments are a dangerous business

Many people live under the false assumption that investing in the stock market is equal to gambling in the casino; this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Investments are not as dangerous as long as you how to manage your risks.  If you truly understand the investment that you’re about to make than the risk is far lower and you know more or less what to expect.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

The answer is: All of the above. The CEO Game is a management business simulation in which you play as the CEO. Your job is to increase your wealth and get rich but also to promote your company. At first you need to create your own company, analyze the market, and decide in which country you’ll build your HQ. This is a major step as once you build your HQ you can’t move it. The location of the HQ will give you some benefits in your home country and will determine the currency you mostly do business in. After this you’ll need to chose the city in which to build your stores—every city and region has its own unique population. Regions vary in the age, political leanings, and socioeconomic status of its citizens, so make sure you are selling the right products to the right population. For example, a luxury product will sell well in a region with high income and almost not at all in a low income region.

You will also have to deal with the storage and shelf life of your products. Managing the storage of your stores and factories will be easier over time after you collect some data on the sells rate. You’ll also need to manage the HR department by hiring the best employees at the lowest possible cost, as well as arrange the financial reports. If you manage to create a successful company you will be able to go public (sell your shares in the stock market) or take over other companies by hostile takeovers. As a creditor or as a major share holder you will also be able to develop new products and import and export foreign products—or even go global and start selling your product in other countries, or maybe just to move the production line to low cost manufactures contraries

You as a CEO can harvest much information from the newspaper and internet about your competitors’ stats and on macro data such as average income or interest rate. If you want to be successful you’ll need to utilize every bit of knowledge.

In summary, in the CEO Game you will aim to become a leader in the global market, a highly profitable company. You will be playing in a highly nuanced and sophisticated world more realistic than any other business simulation around. And, you will be competing against people who want it as bad as you. Good luck!

Serious Business Game

Omri.

The CEO Game.

For instance, in the real business world, in order to earn more than normal profit (which is zero) you need to do something better than the other competitors. Otherwise, you’ll simply maintain your position, instead of earning a real profit.

Price Wars- Who Will Win?

It is easy to describe this problem in a simplified economy. There are two stores selling the same products in the same place to the same customers, who have complete information on the store prices and there is no additional cost to produce aside the cost of the product itself. So people will go from one store to the other to bargain until they get the minimum price of one store. If the product has the same manufacturing cost to both stores, the stores will end up selling their products in the same price. Their profit will be normal profit rate, a little higher than the interest rate.

How do you get to a normal profit rate?

Well, if you don’t have anything unusual like a unique product or services, trademark, patent or even knowledge that you’re other competitors don’t have, eventually you’ll get to normal profit rate. Because if you are selling a commodity and if your store is in a certain region that makes lots of money by selling a product that every one of your competitors can sell at the same price, they will. So they will start to sell the same commodity in the same profitable region and slowly decrease your profit rate. Eventually, one store will start to lower its prices in order to be more attractive to the customers and that will lower your profit rate of both stores even further. Then you will lower your price and so on and so forth–this is called a “Price war“. The only ones winning here are the customers, while you and your competitors’ loss profit until you reach the normal profit rate.

How can you avoid a normal profit rate? As mentioned before, you need something that your competitors don’t have, such as a patent on a product or trademark, which your competitors can’t use, and therefore you can charge how much you want because you are the only one that can supply the certain good. Even a source of knowledge can be a barrier to competition, but not as strong as patent or trademark. For example, if you know in what region the demand to your product is the highest you can open the store there and sell it at high prices. But after a while your competitors will find this profitable region and start selling the same product and once again you will have a price war.

This is just one of the key economic concepts you need to understand to succeed in the business world. In the CEO Game, as a realistic business simulation , these concepts are just as important. Good luck, with setting up your business tycoon!

Omri.

The CEO Game.

Tycoon Online is a browser-based business simulation game based on the concept of other well-known tycoon games such as SimCity, Rollercoaster Tycoon and Transport Tycoon Deluxe.  The game was  developed by Capitalist Games, and was first released in 2007. Today it includes six virtual games where each game is based on its own country: Sweden, Portugal, Turkey, Netherlands and the United States.

At the beginning of the game the player constructs his own company at the location he chooses.  After creating the company the player can produce goods, build factories, import or export goods bought from other players or sell products on the local markets and shops. Tycoon Online also offers a virtual stock market that allows you to purchase stocks of other players’ companies and even take the over. Inside the game a player can manage production, calculate financial costs and manage human resources. The game itself has a pretty simple and easy to understand interface and allows a quick start for joining new games. Capitalist Games take great pride that their game would be fun for the whole family.

Tycoon Online is unlike the CEO Game puts it main focus on being a game and less on being a simulation. Tycoon Online offer only basic educational values and focuses more on being an entertaining game. So enjoy it, but don’t forget to sign up for the CEO Game beta — more bang for you (free) buck!

Industry Masters.

IndustryMasters is an online, multiplayer, business strategy game, brought to you by Tycoon Masters, a Brazilian business education software firm and is intended to replicate real world economy. This business game first saw light in 2007, subsequent to Tycoon Masters’ additional simulation game IndustryPlayer which was launched in August 2006. In IndustryMasters, players assume the role of a company’s CEO and battle one another in real time for profit and in order to rule the market and have the highest share price. Generally, the concept behind the game is allowing the players to experience the results of their actions in this real-like situation of ongoing financial strive.

The novice CEOs (and maybe next-generation executives) who consist of business and engineering students, corporates’ trainees and amateur users; engage at running their company and must deal with all the aspects of their corporations’ business including planning strategy, financial investments, product branding, pricing, quality assurance, research and development, HR and even ecology. The game contains approximately 250 industries which are divided into 16 categories. The goal is to constantly increase the share price by making smart investments. Each week a new tournament begins, where you start out as a low level manager and get promoted with time. With each promotion the challenge and rewards gradually increase as well. The tournament consists of 100 participants hourly rounds, which represent sixty business months. Therefore, each month is one minute of game time, which in the end of – scores and market data are automatically updated. The players can play individually or group up and in the end can get analysis on their performance.

The game is available in few editions customized for different usages:

• Single User Simulations – Self paced study while competing with specific business scenarios.
• Real Time Simulations – The public RTS where you compete with players worldwide.
• Simulation Workshops – Single seminary class, lasting 1 – 2 hours, for 10-50 players.
• Simulation Seminars – A longer comprehensive 2 days simulation.
• Competitions Events -The game also provides a solution for extensive business competitions and events.

Since the game was first released in 2007, it continually grows and has expanded to Facebook, the widely renowned social network, where it has nearly 3500 active monthly users. Here in the CEO Game we tackle relatively similar issues to the ones IndustryMasters deals with, with micro and macroeconomics concepts such as product life cycle, economies of scope and scale, benchmarking and much more. Moreover, we strongly believe in creating and providing a real world business environment, influenced by day-by-day events and trends, thus creating a new, addictive, easy to learn, fun to master challenging simulation which will help predict and maneuver the global economic markets.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Well, how does it work?

Using the virtual stock market, the business simulation allows players to predict the success of the video game/console or what reviews a video game might get. The players create these predictions by using a global stock market in which they can buy or sell stocks of the upcoming video game. Using those stocks the game tries to forecast the how one video game might succeed or fail. The trade inside the game consists of three types of contracts: Stocks, NPD Futures (Assuming Sales) and Metacritic Futures (Assuming critic reviews).

Who uses this game?

The simExchange business simulation has been noted to be used by real-world investors who seek data that will assist in analyzing the future of the market. Also the data received from this business simulation was noted to be used by Wall Street analysts such as Michal Pachter.

The idea behind the CEO game is based on the same concept: Allowing the wisdom of the crowds to predict the success or failures of management process or products. This is way using the CEO game as business simulation might assist in improving your business management skills.

Console Sales Prediction

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Tropico. Management Simulation Game.

Tropico is strategy simulation game with a philosophical approach, developed by PopTop Software and published by Gathering of Developers. The game was first released in 2001 and is considered one of the finest construction and management simulations ever made and is influenced by other business game masterpieces, such as the aforementioned “Sim City” and “Railroad Tycoon”. Tropico packs up addictive construction-oriented game play combined with Latin American politics and economics, which together make an easy to learn, hard to master habit-forming package.
In Tropico, the Cold war is in full throttle, as the player takes on the position of the all mighty one “El-Presidente”, the newly-installed ruler of the obscure Caribbean paradise island country of Tropico, whose rise to power is doubted to be, how can one say, oh yes, democratic.

Once the game begins, the player must design the characteristics of the island’s leader: how he inherited the mantle of power, if he is allied with the Soviet or Western bloc,what are his strong points and on the contrary, his flaws. You may select a predefined character from a list of real life personas including America’s sworn enemy Fidel Castro, his comrade Che, Argentina and Hollywood’s sweetheart Eva Perón and many more. This phase of the game is a tradeoff, where each decision that the player makes influences the entire course of the game and the leader’s relations with the different factions of the island, so one should carefully plan his strategy if he wants to last in power. This is similar to a small business or entrepreneurship, where much relies on the CEO’s characteristics.

Enough messing around, leading an island is not a child’s play, as the governor you will have to take on all fronts, both domestic and international. Altogether, you have very few resources when you start (like most ambitious startups have in the beginning) and choosing priorities is the name of the game. You must decide whether to play out as an unscrupulous dictator and use brute force to secure your regime, or turn your island into an economic powerhouse bringing in tourists from all around the world, or perhaps become a modern industrial nation marketing yourself as an export giant. No matter which path you take, you must remember that as a leader, you are on constant trial and the jury is the people.

In order to last long, you must please that jury, or find ways to eliminate it if there is no other way. Your style of rule is entirely up to you. Running the island, is much like dealing with HR, finance and management issues that every CEO must take into account. The developers of the game did a fine job of creating balanced political, religious, economic and social factors in the island who spark up tensions all the time, that delicate balance (allowing victory when playing right) is a very complicated accomplishment, that each business game much deal with.

Furthermore, you must struggle to shape your vision, fight off and outlast your political rivalries either by “re-education” or by honest means and secure the people’s happiness by providing food via farms and fishing, housing, jobs and careers, human services like hospitals and schools, building island infrastructure, entertainment and even churches and cathedrals. Tropico provides over 100 of these structures, and many edicts and policies you can choose from and as the population grows and gets scattered around the island you must issue more and fast.

Don’t let your lust for Yankee dollars or a fat Swiss-bank-retirement account, fool you. You shouldn’t let your guard down; you must keep a sharp eye out because danger is always seeking you out, whether it is a coup d’etat led by militant guerilla forces or the private ambitions of the Uncle Sam or the Soviet Union for the island. It’s important to point out that game is not a real time strategy (RTS), at least not in the classic way, but the game is influenced by real historical events such as the Cuban missle crisis, earthquakes, visits from the Pope and more.

In short, the name of the game is cleverly plan ahead to stay in power. Ultimately, the CEO will be held responsible for the success of the company, because he is the one who dictates the way. The question for each CEO is whether he can play that role in history. Can he make the right decisions and invest heavily when needed in the right place and on the right time or cut short bad investments, before it’s too late? In a sense running a business resembles running a Banana Republic, just like the Caribbean island simulation shows; plan your growth well and lead a thriving stabile enterprise to gain your people’s favor, or plan your growth badly and watch as your resources decrease and your opponents get richer while they fantasize about teaching you a lesson in mob justice. Remember, if all fails there is always martial law.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Most Profitable Business Simulation.

Computer-based business simulation games have a long history. From the classic Pizza Tycoon to today’s Rollercoaster Tycoon, these business simulation games had a thought us valuable educational lessons as well as entertaining us for years to come. Today as we are preparing the release of our upcoming online business simulation game (The CEO Game), we thought it would be nice to list few of the leading business simulations of all times:

• Lemonade Tycoon – which is also known as Lemonade Inc was an online business simulation game based on shockwave. The goal of the game was to simply sell lemonade. This game, developed by Hexacto, quickly became popular and even won “The Best Pocket PC Strategy Game” Award by PC Magazine at 2002. Lemonade Tycoon was the first popular online business simulation game and opened up the way for further successful games and even our own game, The CEO Game.
• Pizza Tycoon – also known as Pizza Connection in certain places. Might be the most famous classical business simulation game ever. Pizza Tycoon, released in 1994, offers its players the opportunity to act as a local pizzeria manager. The game was both serious and humorous and quickly caught on, becoming very popular. After the games initial success two sequels called Fast Food Tycoon/Pizza Syndicate and Pizza Connection 2/Fast Food Tycoon 2.
• Rollercoaster Tycoon – Released at 1999 by Hasbro Interactive. It might be the most profitable business simulation game ever; in the years after its release the game made over 180 million dollars. The game simulates the management of a theme park. The game allows you to manage almost every aspect of your theme park. Rollercoaster Tycoon was much more entertaining than similar games such as Sim Theme Park and therefore succeeded where other have failed.
• Second Life – Although many people might not consider Second life as a business simulation game but as a Multiplayer online game, the fact is that the Second Life’s economy rolls millions of US dollars every year proves that it is in fact an online business game.  Second life was launched at June 2003 and allows its player’s or a.k.a “Residents” to live in a virtual world in which everything is possible. The game itself has no “Winning goal” and allows its community to drive it anywhere they like.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.