There are three reasons why some of your decisions may be marked with a symbol -
Market share is determined by many factors, and not just selling price.
Price can be the key factor, if a product is basically a commodity - i.e. difficult to distinguish from the competition. If, however, products are effectively marketed and of high quality, then price is of lesser importance and other factors (for example, delivery) can be key in determining demand.
For more detail see the Guidance Note on product marketing image.
The main problems with forecasting demand, as is often the case in the real world, are that there are many causal factors at work, and you have only a limited amount of data.
With adequate data, a technique called multiple regression might be helpful for investigating some of these factors. With only a small set of data, however, the results could be rather inaccurate and, possibly, misleading.
One simple approach is just to plot graphs of orders received for each product, in each market, on a time scale (all on the same sheet) and then try to explain the trends or variations in terms of known factors, such as price cuts, product improvements and seasonality.
The order backlog quoted in the Management Report is half of the demand that was not met last quarter. With extra deliveries, you can satisfy this backlog next quarter.
If, however, you raise the price, then fewer customers will wish to take up these potential orders, the extent of any further reduction in demand depending on the size of the increase.
Implementing a product improvement has two effects -
Note that it does not directly affect your profit, because the value of the stock that is sold is replaced by an equal amount of cash. It may, however, indirectly affect your profitability because, normally, you would have made some profit when you eventually sold this stock.
Ask yourself, do you really need to do it?
Probably, but why would you want to ?
Surely, an improved product is worth promoting, perhaps even more strongly than before. Even if you have no spare capacity, you could charge a higher price for it (and increase the profit margin) in order to keep demand subdued.
If you have spare capacity, increasing your market share is likely to be a better option.
Yes, product stocks can be 're-delivered' by entering a negative delivery amount on the decision form. However, be careful that you enter at least the same positive amount in one or more other areas. The quantity to be produced is the net total of the deliveries to all areas (see under Production scheduling - more detail)
In this simulation, as in real life, things are just not that simple. Most aspects are the result of a combination of several (and sometimes many) different factors. It is, therefore, wrong to assume that recruiting success, or failure, is determined only by rates of pay.
For more detail, see Personnel and also the Guidance Note
It may help to boost your share price - but probably by very little.
Most shareholders, and potential investors, will not be impressed by a policy of aggravating your current, poor liquidity. It signals a future lack of flexibility and investment.
Initially, this omission appears to be unreasonable, but your overdraft limit already takes account of any cash balance (see Table 18), and is included in your credit-worthiness.
If both your cash and overdraft limit were to be included in the definition of credit-worthiness, then it would be far too generous, other things being equal, to companies with plenty of cash, and unfair on companies with lower, or zero, cash balances.
Choose your team very carefully! There are several theories about teamworking, but most researchers (eg Belbin, Myers, etc.) agree that balanced roles are desirable - you need to have both thinkers and doers, leaders and followers, generalists and specialists etc.
Team members may also need to have more than one role, or change it from time to time.
Here, however, is a practical guide -
See also the guidance note on organisation.
A company's net worth is the basis for its share price, but does not determine it.
As with the answer to some previous questions, many other factors have to be taken into account, such as product quality, market share, dividend policy (past and prospective) etc.
In the real world, many companies have a share price in excess of their net asset value (NAV) per share, and some have a price well below it. Usually, the prospects for the former are very good - such as higher than average profitability, market share or growth - whereas, for the latter, the prospects are poor - for example, the company is burdened by debt, has obsolete products and/or is operating in a declining or difficult market.
A company's share price can also go through phases - for some considerable time the share price may be very stable and follow its NAV, more or less, but it then becomes more volatile and fluctuates according to new information (or rumours) both good and bad.