Is GLO-BUS suitable for courses in international business?

GLO-BUS is eminently suitable for those international business courses at the senior/MBA levels where the instructor wants to put strong emphasis on “global strategic management.” Incorporating GLO-BUS can enrich an international business course from several angles:

• It mirrors the increasingly global nature of today’s competitive markets.
• There are four distinct geographic market segments—Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. The four geographic markets plus the two product segments (entry-level digital cameras and upscale, multi-featured digital cameras) create a virtual market-space with 8 market segments.
• Companies start the simulation on equal global and financial footing but have different beginning market shares in different geographic regions—each region contains from 1 to 3 companies with 40% of their sales in that region, from 1 to 3 companies with 30% of their sales in that region, from 1 to 3 companies with 20% of their sales in that region, and from 1 to 3 companies with 10% of their sales in that region. Because each industry is structured with 4, 8, or 12 companies, “geographic balance” among the market positions of competing companies is preserved.  But what happens is that the different market shares of company rivals in each region unleashes a powerful competitive dynamic where rival companies find themselves in the midst of an ongoing contest for global market leadership.  The contest is not just one of market leadership worldwide but one where companies contend for leadership in one or more of the 8 market segments.  This contest gives students powerful insight into the dynamics and nuances of a globally competitive marketplace.
• Furthermore, the structural feature of the GLO-BUS marketplace setting makes GLO-BUS “country and region neutral” so that students in Europe or Latin America or Hong Kong or Australia or South Africa do not see themselves as playing a United States simulation or managing a U.S.-based company. GLO-BUS is just as appropriate for use in international business courses taught in Switzerland or Great Britain or Mexico or Singapore or South Africa or Australia or Brazil as in the United States.
• GLO-BUS incorporates the use of import duties (which can be raised or lowered for either entry-level or multi-featured cameras).  There is no geographic differential in import duties (to avoid advantaging and disadvantaging companies with smaller/bigger market shares in areas where duties or raised or lower—such would undoubtedly produce shouts of “this is unfair” from the students of companies whose financial performance is injured (since their grades are affected).
• GLO-BUS puts fluctuating exchange rates into play. The revenues a company receives from cameras shipments to Europe-Africa are tied to real-world fluctuations between the euro and the Taiwan dollar; revenues from shipments to Latin America are adjusted upward/downward based on real-world fluctuations between the Brazilian real and the Taiwan dollar; revenues from shipments to retailers in Asia-Pacific regions are subject to upward/downward adjustment based on the latest exchange rate changes between the Singapore dollar and the Taiwan dollar, and revenues from shipments to North America are subject to upward/downward adjustments based on exchange rate changes between the U.S. dollar and the Taiwan dollar.  GLO-BUS automatically captures the pertinent changes in exchange rates from one decision to the next and presents the sizes of the latest upward/downward adjustments per camera on the relevant decision screens for company managers to utilize in their decision-making.  Thus, students will experience first-hand the business risks and impacts of exchange rate fluctuations.
• GLO-BUS provides you with a “live case” that you can use in your lectures to illustrate the application of key concepts in international business.
• Further, the quarterly decision update option introduces an even greater “real-time” element into the GLO-BUS exercise, since company co-managers are able to act and react from quarter-to-quarter and then make more sweeping changes annually. The unique quarterly update feature makes “the GLO-BUS experience” even more of a live case.
• GLO-BUS can serve as a full or partial substitute for the use of cases on international business cases.
• We think you’ll discover that GLO-BUS will inject enormous energy and emotional involvement into an international business course from a student standpoint.  Plus, it will provide a pedagogically effective way to connect the material in the textbook to the strategy-related problems of managing cross-border business activities in the real world.