Data processing: structural design – modeling – simulation – and em – Simulating nonelectrical device or system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-30
2002-06-18
Choi, Kyle J. (Department: 2163)
Data processing: structural design, modeling, simulation, and em
Simulating nonelectrical device or system
C703S002000, C705S014270, C434S107000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06408263
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to management training simulations (MTSs), which are computer programs or board games that help managers learn to manage and to understand business. More particularly, the present invention involves a computerized management training method and system that effectively teaches the development and use of knowledge and provides training in managing strategy, risk, innovation, and core competencies, as well as analyzing and correcting a manager's decision making processes and identifying a manager's unique judgmental biases and errors. It provides tailored, individualized training in managerial judgment and decision making.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
MTSs are computer simulations that teach managers how to make better informed decisions. They present a manager with a lifelike situation simulated by a computer. The manager endeavors to improve the situation. To do this, he analyzes the situation and responds with a decision. Using the model, the computer then calculates and displays the consequences of his decision. If the simulation closely approximates realistic situations, the manager learns how to confront those situations when they arise in the work environment.
MTSs are also called business simulations, business gaming, and business war games. Many business schools, corporate universities, consulting firms, training firms, and human resource departments use MTSs to teach a wide variety of subjects including marketing, finance, accounting, business strategy, supply chain management, and organization design.
There is a great need for this educational technology. People learn best from practical, hands on experience. Yet the primary source of such experience, one's business, is a difficult place in which to learn. Business experiments are not repeatable, decision consequences represent the outcomes of many influences, and the penalties for failure are potentially high. Business risks, costs, and complexity prevent a manager from engaging in the playful, mistake driven experimentation through which people learn best.
The predominant alternative to learning ‘on the job’ are books and classroom study. These methods are also limited. Applying intellectual knowledge to practice is extremely difficult. For example, no medical student is expected to move directly from Gray's Anatomy to surgery.
MTSs overcome the problems of learning ‘on the job’ and of classroom study. They are the ideal means for learning: experiments are repeatable while consequences are discernable and immediate. They condense years of experience into a few hours of study, thereby improving the learning that managers gain from their most limited resource—time. MTSs bridge the distance between intellectual understanding and practice (as cadavers do for medical students). They facilitate practical learning without risking “the patient”—one's career and company.
A manager will gain the following benefits by using MTSs to improve his management skill:
One can test his own strategies and intuitions—the student directs the lesson, rather than the lesson directing the student (as in traditional classroom learning).
MTSs provide more realistic exercises than those found in books or lectures, while still being less complex than real life situations.
MTSs can isolate critical skills. Managers can concentrate on improving these skills without being encumbered by the complexity of the real task.
The consequences of one's actions appear immediately and are easily discerned.
Unlike in one's actual job, there is no penalty for failure. One can experiment risk free.
MTSs facilitate testing ideas before real life implementation (called “what if” experiments).
MTSs increase communication by instigating discussion of strategy and operations and by illuminating business concerns.
FIG. 1
shows a most general architecture of an MTS. An MTS is composed of four parts: a display for presenting information about a simulated business situation (
103
); an input device for a person or team learning with the MTS (hereafter called a student) to input decisions into the MTS (
104
); a simulation of a business situation (
101
); and a business simulation manipulator (
102
) for calculating and producing the effects of students' decisions on the business situation. The arrows in
FIG. 1
represent the movement of information and decisions in the MTS. The movement of information and decisions is best explained by describing the operation of an MTS. This is as follows: The display gathers information from the simulated business situations and displays this information for the students. After witnessing the information, the students make decisions. The students enter their decisions into the business situation via an input device. Upon receiving the students' decisions, the business simulation manipulator calculates the effects of the students' decisions in the simulated business situation. Information from the affected business situation is then displayed for the students.
An important class of MTS within the general MTS architecture depicted in
FIG. 1
is the competitive industry MTS. In such MTSs the simulated business situation comprises a simulation of a competitive marketplace. Competitive industry MTSs teach the management of business functions where markets influence business results; for example, marketing, finance, and business strategy. For simplicity, I refer to competitive industry MTSs as MTSs and refer to the general case depicted in
FIG. 1
as the ‘general case’ MTS.
FIG. 2
shows the architecture of an MTS. The simulated business situation is a competitive industry. The simulated competitive industry is composed of at least two types of components: a marketplace model (
201
) and at least one firm (
204
) controlled by a student. The marketplace model simulates, among other things, products, customers, market segments, and technology (described below). The marketplace model influences the structure and dynamics of the simulated competitive industry. Each student manages a separate firm. Through their respective firms, students compete against each other for profits and market share in the marketplace. Each firm has several characteristics relating to business processes (for example, manufacturing capacity, the number of salespeople, operating capital, debt, and accounts receivable). The marketplace model and firm model determine the decisions required of students and the lessons learned. Depending upon the characteristics of the simulated marketplace and the simulated firms, MTSs might require that managers compete in several markets and/or manage one or more of several business functions (for example, finance, marketing, sales, customer service, and research and development).
To manage their firm and, specifically, to receive information and input decisions, students use an interface (
205
). This interface is typically an integration of the display and input devices shown in FIG.
1
. However, some business simulations are played as board games (for an example see U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,792). In such board games, the firm model and market models are comprised of a visual display on the game board and a set of rules governing play and hence the display on the board. For example, a portion of the game board might represent firms. Chips placed on this portion of the board represent the firm's characteristics, such as the amount of inventory. Rules determine when chips are added or removed from the board. Another portion of the board represents the marketplace in a similar manner. When an MTS is played as a board game, the interface is the game board itself. Making this distinction, one versed in the art will recognize that the general descriptions of MTS given throughout this document apply to both board games and computer simulation MTSs.
The arrows in
FIG. 2
represent the movement of information, revenues, and decisions in the MTS. The movement of these objects is most clearly explained by describing the operation of
Choi Kyle J.
Darby & Darby
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