International Institute for Business Development
SABRE™ Business Simulation
SABRE™, (which stands for Strategic Allocation of Business REsources), is a Windows based computer program developed by a Cambridge PhD and used on MBA programs worldwide. The computer program provides the competitive environment which immerses the participants in a dynamic competitive situation. Teams may add and withdraw products from the marketplace as well as advertise, price, distribute and design those products to best fit varying market segments.
Each decision period represents a year of business activity. At the start of each period team members receive a company report and various market studies. The company report is a detailed snapshot of the company's results while the market studies detail product awareness, customer purchase habits, customers' perceptions, etc.
Each year teams enter a series of strategic decisions into their computer - product planning, sales force deployment, R&D expenditures and market research purchases. Once the decisions are made, the team disks are collected and loaded into the administrator's computer.
The simulation is run (simulating one year in the marketplace) determining market share, product contribution and overall profit for each company. Each team has an equally fair chance of succeeding depending on the strategies and tactics they employ.
Participants must make their decisions in the face of uncertain market conditions, including competitor's moves. As is often the case in real life, there is no one specific solution to a problem but there are alternatives that are clearly superior or inferior.
In both academic and executive courses, classroom learning objectives fit well with the decision making required to be successful in the simulation. For example, after the plenary session on portfolio management, participants can immediately view their simulation portfolios on their computers. With this new information they can further plan and execute their strategy.
Given the complexity of strategic planning, the simulation offers a unique learning experience that can not be gained using traditional static educational methods:
