Micromatic

The Micromatic Business Simulation Game is designed for use in both graduate and undergraduate Strategic Management courses. Micromatic allows players to experience the kinds of issues that are involved in managing a small manufacturing operation ($2 million to $4 million in annual sales). The company sells its product in three sales regions, one of which can be either the European Union or China, thereby requiring players to manage exchange rate challenges. Players managing Micromatic must have a coordinated strategy that synchronizes their marketing, operations, and finance functions to achieve success. Each decision round requires players to make approximately 100 decisions.

Micromatic allows students to decide their company mission, goals, policies, and strategies. Student teams make their decisions on a quarter-by-quarter basis: determining price, sales and promotion budgets, operations decisions, and financing requirements. Students can play in teams or play alone; competing against other players or against the computer. You can use Micromatic for practice, tournaments, or for assessment.

Because of the number and type of decisions the student users must make, Micromatic is classified as a medium to complex business simulation game. This helps students understand how the functional areas of a business need to work together as an integrated unit, not as silos with little concern for the performance of other units of the business. Micromatic's general manager perspective, combined with built-in online support, provides students with an excellent capstone experience in decision-making.

Micromatic is a flexible and robust simulation that has been used world-wide for decades in a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate business courses. Instructors have the flexibility to adjust game variables such as costs, industry demand, importance of marketing factors that impact market share, and the introduction of technology changes to accommodate a variety of course learning objectives.

Micromatic helps students increase their comprehension of course concepts and feel connected to the course. They develop bonds within their team and with the instructor. Students often tell us the simulation was one of the most fulfilling pieces of their business education.

Courses particularly conducive to Micromatic include:

• Strategic Management -- MBA
• Strategic Management -- Undergraduate
• Entrepreneurship and Small Enterprise
• Principles of International Business
• Principles of Microeconomics

Don't Take Our Word For It

An extensive, independent review of large number of education focused business simulations has been completed by Joe Wolf and has been presented for academic study.

• Micromatic's Solo Review Page in the Typology Project