SAM2WIN SIMULATION OVERVIEW
Prof. Soltero’s Objective: Go from theory to practice and apply what the students learn in class. I call
the process the “gamification” of Key Account Management! If you can have some fun while learning, it
pays and the feedback I get from the students is very good.
SAM2Win Simulator:
• The simulation is based on the global staffing services (e.g. recruitment) industry
• There are five fictitious suppliers per game: HRX, Staff Solutions, Total Team, Personnel and
Workforce One. The students are part of the strategic account team of one of these suppliers.
• All the above suppliers are competing for the business of a global account: Globalman PLC
• The winner will be the company that makes the most profit in the final period. In other words,
everything depends on the final period profits.
• Each Team must:
o Work together not against each other
o Agree different roles within the team
• The simulation starts halfway in the first year (Period 2) and will continue for 5 periods that will
require each team to make a set of decisions about how to increase their penetration of this key
account. The final period of Period 6.
• The simulation requires the Teams to make decisions for all the regions, so this is a global
simulation.
The Customer: Globalman PLC:
Globalman plc was established 20 years ago with the merger of Global Components Ltd and Component
Manufacturing plc. The customer’s base is in the United Kingdom and all the financial information is in
British Pounds.
Globalman manufactures a wide range of industrial components including hoses, pumps, connectors,
valves, fasteners etc. Their products are around the world in a wide range of sectors including
transportation, construction, oil and gas and military industries.
They have grown significantly over the past 15 years through a combination of organic growth and
acquisitions. They now have sales of $10billion (8billion GBP) and around 30,000 employees.
Although they operate in a global market, their headquarters has always been in London, UK.
Like many component manufacturers, the recession of two years ago hit them hard and their CEO
resigned following some disappointing results.
A new CEO was appointed a year ago. He immediately set to work reorganizing the company away from
its large number of product divisions into four key regional areas: North America, Latin America, EMEA
and Asia Pacific.
Globalman PLC Organization:
Each region is headed up by an Executive Director, who also sits on the overall Board of Directors
reporting to the CEO.
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SAM2WIN SIMULATION OVERVIEW
The most powerful of these Executive Directors heads up the Latin America region. He has been a close
ally of the CEO’s throughout their working lives and is likely to take over the CEO position in the future.
The CEO has also set about turning Globalman into more of a true global business. He expanded the
Board by appointing a new Executive Director of Global Excellence (EDGE). In the last six months, this
EDGE has appointed a new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief
Procurement Officer (CPO). These report directly to him and are in charge of leveraging the company’s
global capabilities to improve its overall efficiency and effectiveness.
The CPO is forming a Global Procurement team and has already appointed two Global Category
Managers (GCMs). One GCM will manage the direct spend (directly related to the manufacture of the
products) and one GCM will manage the indirect spend (other spend which supports the business
generally).
Globalman Needs at the start of the simulation:
Globalman has always been keen to choose those suppliers with the lowest prices for recruitment
services. This has been true across all the regions. Traditionally there has not been much in place to
monitor the value of recruited staff recruitment and so the, level of contract performance required has
been relatively lower. Other performance requirements are also low although Asia Pacific is looking for
suppliers with a good spread of offices across their region.
In preparation for the simulation, students need to prepare a response to a request for proposal (RFP)
by Globalman PLC sent to all potential suppliers. Once the response is submitted, Globalman will issue
(or not) a green light to proceed to provide services.
Changing Trends:
The new leadership team is clear about gaining greater advantage from their global operations and the
appointments over the past six months demonstrate this clearly.
Each of the new functional heads will need to work with the business units and the Board to identify and
deliver these ambitions.
As the new Global Procurement takes hold, we can expect tougher times ahead for all suppliers. Given
the need to deliver cost savings, we can expect this new team to focus on delivering improved cost
performance from suppliers in the short to medium-term.
However, the regional businesses have a long history of local autonomy and it will not be easy for them
to go down the globalization path.
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