Managing the Dynamic Small Business Via Simulation

Authors

  • James E. Estes

Abstract

"The purpose of this paper is to describe our experience in using a small-business simulation at the University of South Carolina, with special emphasis on the students’ performance. Big business can afford to hire specialists to gather and interpret data for the manager and to perform various Other specialized services. This leaves top management free to look at the broad, total picture and to plan and act accordingly. The small-business manager has to be a jack-of- all-trades, handling total company planning like large-company top management, while coordinating more specific day-to-day problems by gathering and interpreting his own data and performing various activities himself. College graduates may be employed by a large or a small business; but in almost every case, they enter at the lower levels where they have to handle specific day-to-day problems more or less on their own while coordinating their unit with total company goals, much like the manager of a small business. Therefore, I feel that students can gain more of practical value from managing a simulated small business than they can from managing a simulated large one. I also believe most students can see themselves as top management of a small company trying to borrow $30,000 from their bank more easily than they can see themselves as top management of a large corporation trying to decide whether to put one million or only one-half million dollars into research this year. At least I have found that in handling written cases the students can relate to small companies much better than they can with big companies."

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Published

1974-03-13