So, what the hell is a monopoly? Well monopoly is a generic name for a company or individual that controls most or all of the supply of a product or services. This means that it can control the price of a product, and if a company can control the price of the product then it can easily maximize its revenue. In other words, the monopoly takes advantage of its special ability of setting the price and by doing so the customers and other small competitors are hurt by this.

More Than Just a Game

So how can a company reach the status of monopoly? Well, some companies can guard their product or service through things such as a patents or trademarks. These are very reliable tools to guard a unique product. If you have a product with a patent you automatically become a monopoly because you are the only one that can sell or manufacture it, but it’s very hard to create a product that have sufficient demand in the market and yet has a unique quality such as innovation in its manufacturing process or in the makeup of the product itself. A company can also get big enough and become a leading force in the market. It can also be that the market is too small and the first company takes over all the market. Sometimes a company can be so good in the manufacturing process or have such a uniquely professional work force that it can eliminate competition, but that’s highly unlikely. In some rare cases a country can give a company monopoly rights.

Sometimes giving patent rights can do much harm to the public and even raise ethical questions. For example, every year the pharmaceuticals industry invents lots of new medicine under patents and that’s way those companies sell them in such high prices. This medicine can be a life-saving yet the poor can’t get it because it is too expensive. But if the product didn’t have the protection of a patent and instead was a commodity in the free market, many more lives would be saved.

In conclusion, a monopoly is bad for consumers and very good for the monopoly. Sometimes monopoly status can lead to unfair consequences. In one side of the market economy there is perfect competition, which means that the consumers enjoy the lowest prices possible. On the other hand, there is the monopoly, which means that the one company sets the price and gains maximum revenue at the expense of the costumers.

While playing the CEO game, you will get a unique chance to compete against leading monopolies and even trying your own monopoly.

Omri.

The CEO Game.

We hope that in the future using online business simulations such as The CEO Game will help to predict more accurately financial crisis’s like the one were having this year.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Small Business Marketing

Internet Marketing:

Internet marketing does require a financial investment and basic technical knowledge, but there are ways that you can create a successful low cost marketing campaign. Internet presence is a must in today’s financial age and the easiest way to reach the masses.  There are many ways to create an online presence, some might be: Social networks, Targeted Ads or even Search engines. You should explore all those tools for better understanding of what each of them has to offer. Anyway the first step you should perform in your internet way is to create your own site because it gives a way to reach you (Using blogs, forums or even simple contact details).

Branding:

A small business has some advantages; two of them are agility and the ability to produce new product or services fast. When you talk about branding, being a small business is not a strong point. In order perform a successful branding plan your brand should project an image of a strong and a leading product and not a small fragile one. Those attribute are usually associated with large companies, therefore when you brand you must present yourself as if you are equal among the large companies. In today’s world projecting a strong image is a far easier task than it used to be. Using low-cost services such as: ready to go web site templates or even professional business cards is quite cheap and can add a lot to your business image.

In the CEO Game, you will start as small business owner. Knowing how to act among the larger fishes in pool will be a must if you want to eat and not be eaten. Using intelligent marketing tricks and hard work will be the keys for getting to the next level.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Well are management and leadership the same? The fast and simple answer is NO.

One thing is sure, in order to become CEO of world leading organization you will be required to be both a great leader and great manager. We invite you to register for upcoming beta of our online business simulation “The CEO Game“ and start your training on your way to become a CEO.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Searching For the Right Information.

In many cases market researches is an effective tool in getting information that supports decision making. Should you perform market research for every business call? Well, the answer is no. There are some situations that don’t require market research. To help you determine when you need market research, you should examine the following questions:

Is the research relevant to the marketing decision that we have to make? You probably should not perform market research just to satisfy your curiosity. You should only perform market research when it’s relevant to questions about your current strategic planning. Market research should supply all the information you need currently, depending on the types of decisions you have to make, and the current circumstances.

Is there any available information that can assist in the decision-making process? Occasionally you can find a lot of valuable information about the decision your about to make inside your organization. This information can be found in different kind of forms. This information can be from different market research done for other purposes, past experience of different persons, or different databases or software such as ERP, CMS and other organizational systems. You should try avoiding performing market research when it’s not really needed.

What are your time constraints? Performing market research requires time. You need time to gather relevant information from the field or even insert it into your systems. Performing the market research should be done under the consideration that it should be done before the relevant decision has to be made. Performing market research under too tight a schedule might cause inconsistent data and mistakes.

What is the Cost vs. Benefit ratio? It’s important that you first assess the value of the information that will be provided from the market research. It’s important to weigh the value of the information versus the relevant expense to see if it pays off or not.

In the CEO Game marketing research is one of the main tools in your marketing arsenal. Using it wisely can help you gain a strategic advantage over your competitors. Waiting your time on non-relevant market research will leave you behind.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

Choose Your Logo Wisely

Today’s leading companies acknowledge the importance of a well-designed logo. The days in which you would have hired a third grader to design your logo are gone. The logo’s meaning is so tremendous that it in most cases require a professional to create it.

Few words about logo colors- Since the logo is the face of the company, colors are highly important. From a design view, the main color takes a key role in the message we try to pass to our targeted market. From a more technical view, the more colors you use the more complex your logo becomes and therefore less understandable.

What about Fonts?

Well fonts also a have a tremendous effect on our logo design. We select a certain font to pass along the company’s message. The font creates the atmosphere of the logo and therefore it is important to choose one wisely as part of your marketing plan. The font type also reflects on the company’s image and therefore it should reflect the company’s values.

In the CEO Game, you will have the opportunity to design your own logo. This is another reason why the CEO Game is the most realistic business simulation out there. Design wisely. Your logo is another weapon in your arsenal—do you want a butter knife or a bayonet?

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.

Can’t you just teach people basic management and economic rules? Well, the answer is: Of course not!

Why not?

Because human nature is such that makes us interested in something only when we see it as a challenge. Some of the most fascinating novels, the most brilliant movies, and the best guide books, are not appreciated as they should, simply because they do not interact with the reader or viewer. The CEO Game offers something new: an Interactive and serious, yet fun, challenging game that is being updated non-stop.

Sounds nice, so why not play Monopoly?

Well, first of all, you should play Monopoly; fun board games may contribute to your financial knowledge. But this can’t be compared to an online serious game such as the CEO Game.

What is so different about them?

Firstly, you can play the CEO Game, whenever you would like, alone, with friends, in the morning, at midnight, anytime…

The second reason is that nowadays, using the new technologies we discover and develop, we can reach a new level of teaching that has never been seen before, simulating the market, forcing players to consider every move they make, making them face the consequences of their actions, and all of that in a neutral, peaceful world where the threat of losing their job is not over their heads.

The third, and maybe the most important reason, is that in the CEO Game one can study not merely from the interaction with the computer but as well as from observing the actions of fellow participants.

Do I recommend playing the CEO game?

Yes, indeed. The 21^st century will sooner or later dictate its own new and modern method of teaching. One must not fear it, but accept it with the understandingthat these serious games have a new capability of making people, wherever internet access is available, enjoy a modern method of studying some of the lessons that a few decades ago one would probably dismiss as a lesson “you can only learn in the real life”. Well Not anymore.

The CEO Game - Serious Business Game

Alon Cohen.

The CEO Game.

]]> http://www.theceogame.com/2009/10/playing-ceo-game/feed/ 1 http://www.theceogame.com/2009/10/tycoon-online-review/ http://www.theceogame.com/2009/10/tycoon-online-review/#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:26:30 +0000 admin http://www.theceogame.com/?p=579

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!