Center for Business Simulation
17.02.2015 
Head of the Center : Giga Giorgadze
Faculty : Business Management
Office : 311 (Administrative building 3. floor )
Contact : ggiorgadze@ibsu.edu.ge
Secretary :
About
Managers in global economy must deal with cultural diversity and different perspectives and values. Managers must be trained to acquire the qualities that challenge and alter their belief systems promote decision making and management style flexibility while ensuring that the business rules and regulations found in particular countries are understood and can be applied accurately. Business games, simulations and cases, used both singly and in combination, have the power to bring about such powerful results.
Experiential or active learning teaching technologies place learners into fairly realistic yet psychologically-safe learning situation where they can experiment with new behaviors with immediate, constructive feedback. Within those environment old psycho cultural assumptions can be challenged, perspectives can be broadened and critical reflection is stimulated.
While traditional lectures "can get out the facts" and provoke an enthusiastic response and a good video presentation can exemplify and summarize a particular situation and its accompanying dilemmas, experiential techniques go more to the "soul" of the individual while also insuring greater amount of learning transfer to the job situation.
Head of Center:Giga Giorgadze, M.A dssd
Mission
The mission of the Center is to facilitate cutting edge, data-driven behavioral research to advance the study of complex human decision-making and, therefore, influence innovation in problem solving and business model development.
Students are to attain a greater understanding of employee, manager, and consumer needs and harness their collective insights to make important changes to their businesses.
Objectives:
o The simulation center is committed to developing specific educational curriculum utilizing a variety of simulation methodologies for education, evaluation, and research purposes.
o The simulation center is to provide learning experiences that encourage positive inter-professional communication and interaction, problem-solving, decision making, and crisis management.
o Students participation in simulated business practices is designed to improve performance, reduce errors and promote competent business operations.
o The simulation experiences is to be facilitated by trained professors and experts employed by Business Simulation Center.
o The simulation center is to support faculty scholarship as evidenced through publications, abstracts, invited presentations, grant submission and grant funding.
o The simulation center is committed to prepare competent business practitioners with strong operational, management and communication skills.
Skills Acquired:
o Operational analysis.
o Decision analysis and judgmental assessment.
o Risk and reliability modeling.
o Probabilistic modeling
o Simulation methodologies
o Mathematical modeling
o Statistical analysis.
o Technology enhanced learning.
What Does it Involve?
Business Simulation Center is to provide students with a hands-on understanding of economic analysis and business management through business simulation models. Participation requires that students put into practice the tools of economic analysis they have acquired in other courses.
The combination of Business Case Learning (1)method and Simulated BusinessGames (2), is not just designed to “teach” the discipline in traditional manner but, rather encourage students to consider the application of theories and concepts in predesigned and simulated practical business environment.
1. Case Method Learning
The case learning is very much a mixture of art and skill and the whole process develops through trial and error experience with a realistic review of past experiences.
o Case method immerses students into realistic business situations.
o Case provides the reality of managerial decision making which includes incomplete information, time constraints and conflicting goals as students learn how to analyze business situations.
o The case method packs more experience into each hour of learning than any other instructional approach.
o The case method learning stimulates students thinking and encourage discussion and most importantly it's also exciting and fun.
o Case studies challenge students by bringing them as close as possible to business situations of the real world.
o Cases spark lively discussion in class and provide management lessons that students can put into practice in their professional lives.
Case Method learning covers vide variety of disciplines including: Accounting, Business & Government relations, Business ethics, Economics, Entrepreneurship, finance, Government management, Human resources, IT, International Business, Marketing, Negotiation, Operational Management, Organizational behavior, Sales, Service management, Social Enterprise and Strategy.
2. Simulations
This part of the practical learning method enables students to apply general management theories and concepts to realistic business situations through the medium of Business simulation games. Students are to be presented with realistic business situations and analyze their behavior in light of psychological and economic models. They also test the complex theories in a controlled environment, gaining critical consumer insights, and examining the completion of interactive tasks.
The single or multi-player simulations place students into variety of roles that explore the excitement of:
o Starting a new company, student role-play as a founders and potential employees who must deal with the many complexities of negotiating deals, stuffing, budgeting, etc. (Entrepreneurship Simulation)
o Define and execute a business-to-business marketing strategy or manage and analyze price setting strategies (Marketing Simulations)
o Immerse in the complex dynamics of corporation and competition where students quickly learn the importance of communications, negotiation and best-response functions (Negotiation Simulation)
o Explore the complexity of global chain operations and increase the intuition and understanding of core operational concepts such as cycle time, yield, capacity management, etc (Operational Management)
o Experience the benefit and challenges of using a scorecards to implement strategic initiatives and monitor firm performance (Strategy Simulations)