The 2024 MikesBikes World Champs brought together the top MikesBikes Introduction and MikesBikes Advanced students from around the world. These competitors tested their expertise in the MikesBikes Advanced business simulation. After weeks of intense decision-making, fierce competition, and strategic pivots, the top contenders emerged victorious—showcasing innovation, resilience, and leadership in the ever-evolving business landscape.
In this article, we celebrate the 2024 MikesBikes World Champions, Imranur Rahman (pictured on the left in the featured image) and Matthew Lane (pictured on the right in the featured image) from Saint Mary’s University. They share their journey to the top, the challenges they overcame, and the key strategies that set them apart from the competition.
Hello future competitors, thank you for your interest in reading about our experience of the MikesBikes World Championship Competition! We’ll walk you through our strategy, the challenges we faced, how we overcame them, and the key factors that led to our success. You’ll find a lot of valuable insights here to help craft your own business strategy within the MikesBikes Advanced simulation. – Imranur and Matthew
Can you walk us through your journey from the Qualifying Rounds to becoming the 2024 MikesBikes World Champs?
Our journey began with the qualifying rounds, where 77 firms and 136 participants competed across 11 worlds, with 7 firms per world. We knew that securing a top 10 spot to advance to the finals would be highly competitive.
The qualifiers consisted of five rollovers, with the final one being a double rollover. Knowing that the time was limited, we focused on optimizing internal systems efficiency and rapidly expanding our market share. This approach was essential to maximizing shareholder value in such a short timeframe. We secured first place in our world, and 8th place overall in the qualifiers, earning us a position in the finals
The final game consisted of 10 firms in one world competing over 7 rollovers and ending with a double rollover. The competition was intense in the finals, and every firm put up a strong fight and captured significant market share. Shareholder values were exceptionally high across the board, and most firms’ shareholder values were very close to ours throughout the game. This left little room for error, making every decision critical. We knew that to secure victory; we had to stay vigilant and execute our strategy flawlessly.
Our early, middle, and late game strategies
Our strategy in a nutshell was to gain as much market share as possible by building strong awareness and offering competitive, well-rounded products at the best cost for consumers. All the while paying very close attention to competitors and incrementally improving our internal systems efficiency to maintain a strong competitive edge.
In the early rollovers we aimed to maximize market share and carefully balance investment into areas that gave us the best cost-benefit for both the short- and long-term, while still aiming to maximize current profits and prioritize maximum share repurchasing while our share price was still low.
In the middle to late rollovers, we continued to aggressively increase our market share. We shifted focus to heavily investing in all internal systems to minimize factory wastage and reduce COGS. This ensured that in future rollovers, we could produce high-quality products at lower costs.
In the final rollovers, all segments were saturated and highly competitive, and we had excess factory capacity, so we allocated this factory capacity to product specifications to further increase demand for our products and attack our competitors’ market share.
In the double rollover, we were able to cut our internal systems costs in half while maintaining the same level of efficiency, this allowed us to maximize profits while maintaining the company’s long-term financial health. (We also made sure to forecast for the demand of the second double rollover which gave us an edge as many competitors did not do this, and we were able to capitalize on their missed sales).
What were the most challenging aspects of the competition, and how did you overcome them?
One of the most challenging aspects of the competition was accurately predicting how many units to produce in each market segment, especially given the uncertainty of how many new competitors would enter each segment with every rollover. Overproducing led to high inventory storage costs that cut into profits, while underproducing was even worse—it allowed competitors to take our market share and meant we didn’t fully capitalize on our cost of sales. To navigate this, we spent a lot of time analyzing the market summary reports, historical market summary reports, market research reports, and industry benchmark reports, all of which were crucial for forecasting our product’s demand. We would also use these reports to identify competitor trends which helped in predicting their next moves and plan for ours. More importantly, studying these reports helped us determine the optimal level of product improvements required to meet our high sales targets at the lowest cost.
A huge aspect of our success was launching a product into segments that had little to no competition and predicting how many new competitors would enter into each of our segments. It’s challenging and is truly unpredictable, but calculated guesses can be made. For example, we noticed a trend of which segment firms would enter into first, the majority of competitors would always launch into the Road Bike segment on the second rollover. This was always the case when we did the simulation at our university and in the qualifiers (yet again this was true in the final round). So we knew this segment would be crowded from the start and avoided it. On paper, the Road bike market has a slight advantage over the other segments in terms of potential profits (if you have a market leading bike), which is probably why competitors decided to launch into it first, but the immediate saturation makes it difficult and expensive to grow your market share in the segment, which diminishes the profitability advantage that the Road bike has.
Entering segments that we predicted to have few to no competitors allowed us to sell significantly more units than if we had competed in crowded markets. We were able to take advantage of the fundamental economic principles—high demand for the product and low supply of it. Because of this, we were able to spend less on initial marketing, charge a higher price, and still have high sales due to the sheer excess demand that was not being fulfilled. This made it easy to grow our market share and establish market dominance before competitors arrived.
Did you experience any pivotal moments when you realized your strategy was working?
We learned the best strategies early on when we did the simulation at Saint Mary’s for not only MikesBikes, but for all businesses. This is a snippet from a slide in our final interim presentation from when we first did the simulation in our university class. All of these aspects have stood true throughout every simulation we competed in:
- We learned that the best ways to increase shareholder value is to maximize market share, maximize profits, minimize shares outstanding, and once the shares outstanding are low enough, then prioritize paying dividends.
- We learned that cost reduction on products, increasing factory efficiency, increasing employee productivity, and decreasing supplier margins while incrementally increasing supplier support were the most important in deriving more profits from our gross margin.
- We learned that it’s extremely important to keep track of your competitors by paying close attention to all marketing related reports, and that high consumer preferences & sensitivities have a major impact on increasing sales. Offering well-rounded products in relation to competitors while marketing heavily is the most important factor in gaining high market share, which consequently maximizes profits.
How did you divide responsibilities and make decisions as a team?
One of our greatest strengths was our synergistic teamwork. Both of us would brainstorm and come up with different plans of action after each rollover. We dug deep into the reports to find the best strategies based on the current market situation. Whichever strategy was the strongest was the one we would put into action. With both of us actively working on it, we were able to compensate for each other’s weaknesses, build on each other’s strengths, and keep each other accountable, driven, and sharp.
We were in constant communication identifying potential problems, opportunities, competitors weakness, forecasting demand, and crafting future strategies in every rollover. We would always test these strategies in single player mode many times to figure out what worked best and what didn’t. This in of itself really helped us develop a deep understanding of how the simulation, and how companies themselves, operate.
We prioritized spending money in the most advantageous areas that would yield the highest profits in the next rollover while also investing in key areas to position us to maximize profits in future rollovers. The key was allocating funds to areas that increased sales the most and improved internal efficiency for the lowest cost. Finding the perfect balance between minimizing costs and maximizing sales, profits, and shareholder value on a rollover-by-rollover basis was our joint priority. Above all, we dedicated as much time as possible to fully understanding how each aspect of the simulation worked and how they interconnected, this was the primary factor in achieving success.
Overall, running a company with two people in the driver’s seat can be challenging. We both played an active role in analysis and strategy, but when it came to decisions, we found that having one final decision maker to make the changes and optimizations was helpful, and the other to check the decisions and make sure everything was in alignment with our goals was the best way to do it. Sort of like having one CEO to make the final calls and one Board of Director to guide and oversee.
If you could give one piece of advice to future competitors, what would it be?
If I was to give one piece of advice to future competitors, it would be not to underestimate the power of marketing. Market awareness of your product and brand can make or break your sales. If consumers don’t know about your product, then they won’t buy it.
Like many elements in the simulation, market awareness compounds with every rollover, so it is crucial to invest heavily from the first rollover and continue to build on that investment over time. We prioritized marketing from the start and never cut costs in this area.
Another key takeaway was the importance of delivering products that align with consumer preferences and sensitivities. If you have the overall best product based on what consumers actually want in a segment, and you have high awareness & branding of the product, then the market will naturally gravitate toward you. “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”.
The most apparent piece of advice is to use your capital wisely. In a real-world environment, investors would not be too happy to see the business they’re invested in misuse their capital. Capital needs to be allocated to the most advantageous areas with both short-term and long-term profitability in mind. You need to show your investors that every dollar you spend will bring back the most return on their investment.
Personal insights and growth
Matthew Lane:
The MikesBikes Advanced Strategic Management simulation has had a deep impact on my understanding of business strategy and decision making. Throughout my life I’ve always been very interested in business, which sparked my passion to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree in the first place. During my time at university and with outside research, I’ve built a strong foundation in the subject. But throughout my learning and research I’ve never had a more pivotal learning experience than MikesBikes. It’s hard to explain simply, but the simulation connected the dots of everything I’ve learned about business and made it into a picture that I can see clearly now. What was so crucial was that it allowed me to leverage everything that I’ve learned about business strategy and apply it to manage a company in a real-world highly competitive market environment.
What are your future aspirations, and how does this achievement align with them?
This achievement aligns perfectly with my future aspirations of working in a strategic role within a dynamic and competitive business environment, and in becoming a successful business leader. The experience has reinforced my passion for business strategy and inspired me to continue seeking opportunities where I can make impactful decisions and drive growth.
How has this experience impacted your understanding of business strategy and decision-making?
Being a MikesBikes World Champion is a significant personal accomplishment. It has helped me perfect my skills in strategic decision-making, analytical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork. It has also allowed me to further refine my skills in strategic business management, market research, competitor analysis, internal & external analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. I’ve also gained hands-on experience interpreting key reports, financial statements, forecasting, market data, and other company reports to identify trends, uncover inefficiencies, and identify opportunities. Overall, this achievement has given me confidence in my ability to navigate complex business environments and make strategic decisions that lead to success.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to my team member Imranur Rahman for his dedication and collaboration throughout the competition. I would also like to thank professor Hendrikson for creating such a wonderful university course encompassing the MikesBikes Advanced Simulation at its heart, allowing us to gain a deep understanding of the simulation from the start, which helped pave our way to success in the World Championship. Lastly, I extend my thanks to SmartSims for reaching out and inviting me to compete in this intense and deeply fulfilling competition that tested my abilities and pushed me to new heights. It has been an honor to compete, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was such a defining moment in my academic journey and has provided me with invaluable knowledge and experience that will guide me to success in the future.
Imranur Rahman:
Winning the 2024 MikesBikes World Championship has been an incredibly rewarding experience. Representing Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada, on this global stage has been a source of immense pride. This competition has not only validated the countless hours of dedication and strategic planning but has also underscored the importance of teamwork and applied learning in achieving success
How do you plan to leverage your experience as MikesBikes World Champs in your career?
Furthermore, this experience has increased my confidence in dealing with complicated business circumstances, developing adaptability and resilience—characteristics required for a successful career in today’s ever-changing corporate scene. The practical insights learned from this competition have not only enhanced my educational journey but have also equipped me to make important contributions to future professional efforts.
I have gained a variety of skills from competing in the MikesBikes competition that I can use immediately in the workplace. The simulation provided an engaging setting for developing vital skills including effective communication, problem-solving, and strategic decision-making. My business awareness and professional abilities have improved as a result of participating in this experiential learning method, which offers a secure environment for experimentation and decision-making without the consequences of real-world outcomes.
Acknowledgements
I want to express my sincere gratitude to a few people who have helped me along the way: my teammate Matthew Lane, whose dedication and teamwork were essential in overcoming the challenges of the simulation; and our course professor Andrew Hendrikson, whose wise advice served as a foundation of our strategic approach.
Check-out the past winners here.
Learn about MikesBikes World Champs here.