Week 3

As we continue to “play” with PharmaSim we were asked to also look at the cost of the reports. In Period 1 the total of all reports was $458,920 which sounds like a lot but when you compare that to the $4.5 Million you have available it really isn’t that expensive. The first time through I actually bought every report by accident. Luckily this did not make any sort of an impact financially on the other decisions I was making. In period two the reports total rises to $482,786 and the money you have available also increases to $4.7 Million. It looks like the reports continue to rise in cost but as long as the company does well, purchasing the ones you would like should not be an issue at all.

While playing I wanted to try to create a new product to add to our line of medicine offered. I could not figure out how to do this so I assume we are not able to make such changes. I also was remembering the simulation that I used during my undergraduate degree. In that one each team in the class had a company that all started at the same point. We would compete against each other which made it challenging because you could not easily predict what our competitors would do.

I am having fun “playing” with this simulation and all of its complexities. I know I’m not ready to go live yet but I am looking forward to it.

A few other points I wanted to make from this week. In Cohen’s book the concept of tracking customer purchases came up. I immediately thought of customer loyalty card programs. Stores like Big Y and Stop & Shop give you a card that will make you eligible to certain discounts in the store and they can then collect data based and what you purchase, when you purchase items, and many other bits of information. They can use this information to make informed decisions on sales, product selections, and much more.

 

Some people are bothered by these companies having and using all this information, I personally don’t mind it.

In the class discussion this week we talked briefly about the video gaming industry. I did not realize that when Microsoft introduced the Xbox they were making very little money off of it. They had a long term strategy that they would penetrate the existing market and later see profit. In the next year they will be releasing their third system which will reportedly cost around $500. To me that seems unreasonable but I know people who play their Xbox a little bit too much in my opinion that are preparing to purchase the system and then other games to go along with. It seems that Microsoft has executed there plan just how they had originally intended.

This week I enjoyed many of the education Portal videos. Most of them brought up interesting examples that I hadn’t thought about before. The examples of market analysis were particularly helpful. I find that these videos help cement in the information we cover over the week.