Biz Cafe Simulation Analysis

In our Business Connections class, we used a simulation called “Biz Café”. This simulation activity took place in groups of three or four over the span of the semester. The simulation was a coffee house that the group made decisions on. Every week the group makes decisions regarding what should happen at the coffee house, i.e. hire/firing employees, wages, insurance, marketing, etc. Three days later the results of these decisions are posted and the group sees the results of the decisions they made, and the cycle continues. In my group specifically, as we progressed through the simulation, our decisions became more precise. We realized what decision triggered what result. Our group realized that to build a strong customer base we needed a good quality product, with low prices. When customer satisfaction started to decrease we chalked that up to not having enough workers. Therefore; we hired more workers and managers so that they would not have to be worked as hard. This simulation had some aspects that seemed very similar to real life business and other aspects that seemed almost the opposite. The overall concept of the Biz Café is sound, but when you break it up into individual pieces, not so much. For example, in
Some people may think that is the easiest part but for my team, just getting together was fairly difficult. We also really had a hard time analyzing the results and deciding what caused each specific result. It was almost as if we were guessing what was going to happen when we made decisions. We needed to know why things were happening instead of just results. By far the best part of the simulation was seeing how business worked. Yes, this was just a game, but it gave the illusion of a real business. That is what was most important I think, for all of us to see what making decisions was all about was what was important and I think that is what was the best part of this