Lessons learned, Part Two: Learn from others' mistakes

The 1975 Binghamton MBA lesson of the limited inventory, continued.

So if you see the competition offer a new product that produces only minute sales, what do you conclude? Our competitors thought our product was a failure and decided to not do any market test comparisons. What my team knew that our opponents did not know was that we were unable to meet demand for a superb product, and in the following quarter, after we had the needed amount of raw materials, we crushed the competition and we kept on crushing them because our competitors conceded an advantage to us that just keep on growing since we could use the profits to increase marketing and solidify our position. When those first amazing results came out, the two other teams were shocked, and they never recovered. So we learned to look closer at the data and the two losing firms learned that they needed to look closer at the data.

At one point, probably before this success, we had become frustrated with what was rumored to be manipulations of the computer parameters by the faculty administrator. In brief, we felt that the administrator could change the parameters to the advantage of one team and/or to the disadvantage of another team, just to keep the game close. The administrator did not want a team to be too strong or too weak. So we did what we thought we had been taught to do, we decided to sue. We decided that the administrator was working as a regulator with a thumb on the scales so we had the lawyer on our board put together a real legal document to force the administrator to release the codes. We thought we had a slam dunk case...until we took it to the full board before we filed it. And the board, slammed the door on that idea. Basically, they said this suit was a distraction and told us to drop it. Lesson learned? Stay focused on the basics and not on the peripherals. And don't act prematurely; that's why you have a board, to temper hotheaded youth.

The third lesson was the one attached to a Harvard case covered by Fortune magazine, where a team in a simulation did a little dumpster diving -- they claimed they stumbled across the evidence in a wastebasket -- to gain insight into a competitors strategy. When this act was later surfaced the class was divided between those who considered this to be good intelligence gathering and the other half of the class who found the act unethical. Fortune reported that the 'cheaters' were applauded when they were brought before a faculty panel in a classroom full of their classmates.

I don't remember when the article came out but I think it was right after game ended. I don't recall the outcome of the teams in the Fortune article. I think that the 'cheaters' were penalized by the faculty but held in esteem by others. It reminded me of a discussion of ethics earlier in the course where the professor was able to get a student to admit that an action described in a business case was unethical. The faculty member sighed with relief, feeling that he had made the lesson. Then the student who had acknowledged that the act was 'wrong,' said, "But ask me if I'd do it!" The teacher asked and he did not like the answer.

Of more interest to me in the dumpster diving case was that a similar scenario had occurred in our game, before the Harvard incident. In a computer lab, a team member from a competing team did just as one team had done at Harvard, she left a printout of her team's decisions/strategy in the trash. One of my team members found it and brought it to the team's attention. Only we decided that this 'inside information' was of no value to us; there was nothing in it that led us to make any changes. Lesson learned? While you might come across some information that you should not have, unless you stole it or acquired it by devious means, if you don't use the information, I do not see a problem, a crime, or an unethical lapse. Maybe we should have told the team member of her lapse in data security, but we just walked away from the entire matter.

Final thoughts in the next post....