Best Strategy to Win BSG Online

Written by: BSG Game Guide

Updated: 6/11/2024

After nearly two years of helping students succeed in their Business Strategy Game, I have concluded that there is a specific strategy that can be used from the start and you will have a much higher chance of winning the simulation. Keep in mind, that this does depend on your competition, and no two games are alike. That being said, let's get started!

High Model, High S/Q

I’ll get right to the point. Nearly all of my clients that do this strategy from the start do very well. The only time this strategy doesn‘t work is when there are a lot of copycat teams that simply follow the leader. They don’t understand that they would be better off trying to differentiate from the leading company instead of trying to compete directly with them. Now the question is… “How do I actually do well in the High Model, High S/Q business strategy?”

Invest in long-term initiatives

Starting your game off strong with decisions like maxing our Best Practices Training and Total Quality Management can help your team take a lead in later years. Yes, you will technically be missing out on some EPS and profits during the beginning years, but you will be ecstatic when you can drop them back down to zero and watch your EPS skyrocket in years 15, 16, or 17. Another important long-term investment is opening space in Latin America and possibly Europe-Africa. Latin America facility is essential to doing well. First, it reduces tariffs by $10 in LA AND you get super cheap labor costs. Be sure to build at least 3,000 to gain economies of scale!

Get celebrities AND be sure to advertise

Celebrity and wholesale advertising is a combination that can help you gain massive strides in points against your competition. You need to make sure you have enough supply though or you will not realize the true potential of having the increased demand. Be careful while bidding on celebrities to not spend too much. For example, don’t be spending $15,000 in year 12 or if your company isn‘t making enough money to afford them. Now you can start to advertise (although you don’t NEED celebs to start advertising). Put a decent surplus in a certain area like Asia-Pacific and then start to increase advertising. Does EPS rise? Now, you can make other decisions in that area and then move the shoes to another area to do the same thing.

Don‘t be scared to raise prices

I will keep this one short. While you have a surplus of shoes in an area, try increasing the price and see what happens to EPS. Does it go up or down? The game pretty much tells you what price is best based on your competitive assumptions.

No Private Label = Lost Profits

Private Label is a great place to make extra money WHILE taking money from your competition by outbidding them. Many companies that I help tutor can make an extra $1-$3 EPS per year minimum by selling full market cap in each area. Make sure you have enough production capacity or you will have to decide between selling more or less in wholesale/internet marketing.

Final Thoughts

I have experimented with two forms in the same industry and found that the one that followed this strategy outperformed the one that choose to do the High Model | Low S/Q strategy. If you have the opportunity to start your game off with these tips you will most likely do well if you can make effective decisions on all the other pages. If you need more assistance, I have many resources available, including Zoom tutoring.

Bonus: Do option B in equipment improvement options if you are doing this strategy.