The Food Truck Challenge Simulation – Personal Reflection – Grade value 10%

Synopsis:

• Students play the role of an entrepreneur who tries to run a successful food truck in the city of Boomtown.
• Students work individually to achieve maximum revenue over 5 simulated weeks
• In each round, students make decisions about where to park – six possible locations – and what menu to offer – ice cream, frozen yogurt or smoothies – in hope of finding the best menu/location combination and yielding the highest sales
• They begin by analyzing market data and making a plan, but then must decide whether to:
a) Go to scale right away with the food truck
b) Conduct further research and analysis, or
c) Experiment with a low-capacity pushcart.
• In the assignment deliverable, students respond to the tradeoffs between analysis, experimentation, and scale
• Upon entering the exercise, students walk through a tutorial. From there, they enter the exercise and begin their tasks.

Learning Objectives:

• Learning by doing may have substantial advantages over formal analysis, research, and planning in turbulent, unpredictable environments.
• Prototyping has powerful benefits, because entrepreneurs and innovators can test, learn, and adapt their products and business model
• Explore challenging tradeoffs leaders face as they launch a new business, product, service, or process.

Assignment deliverable:

• Complete the simulation as instructed in the tutorial
• Upon completion respond to the following questions using the format provided

Late submissions will not be graded.

Student Name: ____________________________

The Food Truck Challenge Simulation – Personal Reflection

Part A: Results achieved– 15%

Week 1: Insert screen shot of your results here

What strategy did you follow?

Why did you choose this strategy?

What have you learned from your results?

Do you think this strategy was successful?

Week 2: Insert screen shot of your results here

What strategy did you follow?

Why did you choose this strategy?

What have you learned from your results?

Do you think this strategy was successful?

Week 3: Insert screen shot of your results here

What strategy did you follow?

Why did you choose this strategy?

What have you learned from your results?

Do you think this strategy was successful?

Week 4: Insert screen shot of your results here

What strategy did you follow?

Why did you choose this strategy?

What have you learned from your results?

Do you think this strategy was successful?

Part B: Overview – 20%

1. Provide an overview in your own words of the objectives of this simulation?
2. Describe your overall experience and results?
3. What did you find challenging about this simulation?
4. Describe Boomtown? How would you characterize the city?

Part C: Strategy utilized – 30%

1. For those of you who chose to conduct initial research, could you explain your choice for making this choice? For those who moved quickly to the Food Truck, Why did you choose to operate the food truck early during the simulation rather than conducting additional research or choosing the push cart option?
2. What are the limitations that entrepreneurs often encounter when conducting traditional market research? What mistakes might they make by relying too heavily on historical data?
3. What are the benefits and costs of moving quickly to the Food Truck option? What mistakes do entrepreneurs make if they launch their product too quickly into the marketplace?
4. Why did you choose the pushcart? What were the advantages of choosing this option? Could you have discerned these insights simply by pursuing the historical research reports?
5. What menu and location combination did you choose at the outset with your pushcart? Why did you choose this combination?
6. When did you decide to move from the push cart option to the food truck option or vice versa? What were the criteria for making that switch? How did you decide that the timing was right? How do entrepreneurs know when to move from prototyping to lean startup phase to full implementation?

Part D: Takeaways -25%

1. What are the critical takeaways you have learned from this exercise?
2. How do you believe this simulation relates to Consumer Solutions Management?
3. What has this simulation taught you in terms of owing a business? Relate as much as possible to the chapters we have covered in the Consumer Solutions Management course by providing a direct connection.

Part E: Format, Grammar, Spelling = 10%

Submission must adhere to the School of Business Policies and Procedures document available under Course Information on your Bb site.

Document uses proper grammar and is error free. APA format must be used when using work that is not yours.