Business News
Another CeWe Color corporate planning game
Tuesday 03. February 2009 - Pupils take up the position of manager
Future professional careers offer huge chances and at the same time they raise just as many questions: “What will I do later? Which is the right job for me? Which challenges am I confident enough to take up?” For the 11th year in succession, CeWe Color is offering school pupils the chance to find answers to these questions and to assert themselves in everyday working life. In the “Management Information Game” (MIG), a corporate planning game, young people attending the Liebfrauenschule in Oldenburg have the chance, for a whole week, to act as directors of a fictive company.
The period from 9 to 13 February will be all about businesspeople of the future. Girls and boys from the Liebfrauenschule will be divided into three fictive competing companies and will deal with all the genuine, practical management issues of a public limited company. Their task here is to define targets for their particular company and then to implement these targets in appropriate plans and decisions. For example, sales prices set are to be in line with the business and staff requirements and relevant further vocational training is to be determined. Naturally, a vital aspect is to establish the best-possible corporate image and to achieve a positive market value for the fictive company.
The planning game is being organised by Europe’s leading photofinishing company CeWe Color, the Employers’ Association of Oldenburg and the Bildungswerk der niedersächsischen Wirtschaft (BNW, the educational institute of businesses in Lower Saxony) in Oldenburg. Dr. Michael Fries, Managing Director of the Neumüller CeWe Color Foundation and responsible for all the German operations, human resources and logistics, knows how important it is to be well-prepared for the professional world: “As an employer of just over 2,800 employees and more than 100 apprentices, it is important for us to support young people in choosing a profession. The MIG gives those participating a unique insight into the exciting world of a company listed on the stock exchange.”
The management of CeWe Color is pro-active in ensuring that the planning game turns out to be beneficial for each individual player. The management itself prepares those taking part in the game intensively to be able to deal with issues such as corporate strategy, balance sheets, marketing, human resources, research and development and information technology. Participants then actively implement the knowledge they have gained in the planning game. A computer-aided simulation model evaluates the success of each concept, so that the members of the Boards of Management of the planning game companies can deliberate on any changes to strategy, organisation or targets.
The crowning finale of the MIG is when the teams all present the results of their work to a large audience made up of parents, brothers and sisters and the CeWe Color Directors. In the past, the game has seen some pupils already finding a job in the company.