Friday, August 26, 2016

Axiata ULDP 2016 (Part 3)

BUSINESS SIMULATION 3

A very fun and interactive game, but if you don't know how to plan your finances, you'd always be stuck in the 'rat race', possibly facing a bankruptcy suit in the near future. Again, you have to take calculated risks in order to succeed. But the problem is, we didn't know how. 

Our group was afraid to take risks in the start, but we eventually expanded our operations, and our salesmen Gary and Noah sealed some pretty good deals towards the end of the games, which enabled us to generate a positive cash-flow in the last year. A huge leap from 45M loss in the previous year.

Karishma was the CEO, and I sensed her stress and anxiety because people always asked her what are her plans for the company. She wanted to hide, but there was nowhere to hide. And she be like:

No, you've got the wrong person. Karishma is next door!
And then, she turned to me, "So, Yin Chien, what are your production plans?" And I be like:

Buddy you askin' me?
Again Vincent was the finance guy, and he went berserk when Gary sold off our assets to get cash (to sustain our failing company) and disrupted his holy grail projection. \(@_@)/

What I learned from this sim: 
  1. The person who owns the "money-generating assets" first will dominate the market. 
  2. If you want to win, you have to play big or don't play at all. By this I meant taking calculated risks and act on them.
  3. Quoting Vee (was that you?): "Business is war!" No hard feelings guys, it's just a game. Honestly, though it hurt some people's feelings, that move was so unexpected I actually felt impressed. That's probably how the acquisition and mergers are initiated in real life. 

BUSINESS SIMULATION 4

This is by far the most stressful one, giving you a little more than 12 hours to get everything done including sleep time. 

Our team is hands down the sleepiest one in the battlefield. We treasure sleep more than anything else because if we don't sleep enough we automatically shut down. 


Vincent is pretty much a walking-dead after 1am. But give him sleep (and a sprinkle of fairy dust), he will come back with a super brain.   
When the clock strikes 3 (am), Emily: f**k this, I'm going to bed! (albeit still in a very soft, polite manner) - at this point, everybody reached a consensus to rest our bloodshot eyes, but the finance team was still going strong (Karishma and Gary).

When the clock strikes 5 (am), Karishma:



Yi Xin, Noah and Adi came up with a really nice design for our brand. They got nominated but sadly didn't win. Still proud of you guys! I witnessed so much change in Yi Xin as she totally transformed into a different person in this challenge. She became so much more confident and comfortable in her own skin. *hugs*

Even though we didn't win anything, it was cool to see many amazing end-products from other teams! In such a short time, they managed to produce masterpieces! So much creativity and humour - fantastic job guys!

BUSINESS SIMULATION 5

Gary repeated 3 times (something along the lines of), "Guys, this company has no future. Let's tell the CEO to sell this company, donate all the money to the kids in Somalia and spend the rest of his life playing golf in Zimbabwe."

It was hard, even without the scandal. 

We asked for financial reports, but what we got were pieces of loose information here and there. Turns out you have to be very precise when requesting.

In the end, Gary had to ask for help from Suriah for additional information. You can always count on him to call in favours because he is such an excellent PR guy/friendly competitor. (Thanks, little Sunshine for the data!)

I was in finance with Karishma this time round, but I was doing the expense-cutting and generation of cash flow with Adi while Karishma did the projection with Gary's help. I have no idea how he managed to come up with rational numbers when Karishma and I were both stuck - you really have to give him credit for quick grasp of things.

Vincent was the CEO, and he regretted handling back the docs to PA that he started to retreat into his own imaginary world, thinking of things that might have been different if he chose another method. Actually the best way is to do what Hamsya did: doctrine of separated equity.

Emily became very efficient in identifying the important parts and planning for the future. She told me she's beginning to get used to this. She is very smart and opinionated but very humble and polite, which is why I heart her even more.

The switch wasn't entirely unexpected but it hit close to home. You feel like you're being torn apart from your ohana, like till death do us meet (even though they're just moving next door). We were almost in tears. (ಥ_ಥ)

John and Shu Yuan are so nice, helpful that accepting that I regretted not smiling to them more when we first met. I was still railing from shock and sadness to see my kakis gone that I had forgotten to be kinder to them. Sorry! I love you guys! ٩(♡ε♡ )۶


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To be continued...

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