First Shall Be Last and the Last Shall be FIRST!!

So in my Management Accounting class we had to partake in a Business Strategy Game online. We were put into groups and each week we would make decisions for our company. Our company was Elite and we were in the industry of selling shoes. It's business and shoes....can it get any better than that!!

Well we started the game towards the middle of January and I didn't have a clue in a bucket of what I was doing. Asher's whole goal for the game was just to be ahead of me. He didn't care about coming in first-he just wanted to beat me. There were so many factors that came into play. You had to look at exchange rates, employee incentives, charitable contributions, bank loans, stock sales/purchases, advertising, retail support, plant capacity and upgrades---the list goes on and on!

Does it not just scream complicated?! There were 9 other pages looking just like this one that had to be played with.

But I just didn't have a whole lot of time to sit down and figure out how everything worked. The time came for us to make our first year's decision (year 11) and, well, we absolutely blew it!! We ended up with a negative earnings per share and return on equity!! That shouldn't have even been possible!

Everyone started at 100 overall---we dropped to 25! Ouch!! (And Dash, the team in first, ya that was Asher's!)

So my competitive nature (that I got from my mom) kicked in! I figured there was no way we could bounce back from being down so low, but I was determined to not come in last! That is just not the Wood way of things! So each night before going to bed, I would get on and play with numbers and more numbers-trying to do anything that would increase our standings. By the last year, we were in 4th place with one more decision to go before the game was over. Tensions were building. Stress ran high. Groups would sit secluded in corners, wary of people trying to listen in on their trade secrets. And at 3 o'clock the results were in. It was time to see who came out on top. And obviously if I am blogging about it...you can probably guess!

Yes, the first shall be last and the last shall be first! My professor said he has never seen anyone who was in last place for so long, do such a comeback and take it all!!

So once again, I am kind of a nerd-blogging about accounting and share prices. But please bare with me. Now let's just all hope I can come up on top throughout the next 2 weeks with finals!

I also get to do the Accounting 170 and 175 Open Tutorials this week! Already I have had over 20 students sign up for each! I love doing these!