Are You Kidding? Let Students Conduct a Simulation Of A Firm? Or a Case Study of a Capital Investment Simulation

Abstract

The instructor of an MBA class was asked by an analyst for a major forest products firm to analyze a large scale plant expansion. After some thought, it was suggested to the firm’s management that this problem was extremely complex and should probably be simulated. It was further suggested that the MBA class should conduct and carry out the simulation study. The initial response of the company management was, “Are You kidding--let students conduct a simulation of this firm? What do they know?” After some additional discussions and persuasion, management began to realize that many students do possess considerable expertise similar or better than that of employees in the firm. In this particular case, many of the students had been employed in managerial and analyst positions in industrial organizations prior to returning for an MBA. With convincing arguments, the firm’s management, suffering some anxiety, agreed to the use of students as consultants to evaluate a multi-million dollar expansion of plant and equipment.