Looking into the future, the simulated industry will rapidly differentiate. Nothing you can do will stop it. Given time, the industry will evolve into a state where competitors occupy defendable strategic positions. There are two important questions. How long will the process take? Will two or more competitors attempt to occupy the same position? Lets use an analogy. Picture a flat landscape. Now imagine several hills placed on the landscape. Each of the hills represents a strategy. Your success depends upon how quickly you can identify a hill, and how high you can climb it. Your hope is that you will choose a hill that nobody else picks, and that you can defend it against competitors. Complicating this is the fact that some hills are more attractive than others. Further, the more companies trying to climb a particular hill, the more difficult it is for each of them to successfully climb it. Are there methods and techniques that will help you identify and select these strategic hills? Yes, the general topic is widely discussed. Lets look at one of the most commonly referenced, Michael Porters Generic Strategies. Read the description offered on The QuickMBA website at http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml (A quick search of www.google.com for Porter Generic Strategies will turn up hundreds of alternate references. The QuickMBAs one page summary is an excellent overview of the topic, but feel free to examine others.) Next, review the short tutorial on the Capsim website titled, Strategies and Mission Statements. Tutorials are in the section titled "Resources" on your "Welcome" page. With this as background, select or develop a strategy you would like your team to pursue. Prepare and post an argument for your strategy. The argument should address these issues:

1. Segments. Which segment or segments matter to you? How much share of those segments must you achieve to be an average competitor in the overall industry? For example, if you choose to play only in Low Tech, you would have to command a higher share of that segment to achieve average industry sales. 2. Profit potential. 3. The speed at which you can create a defendable position. For example, new products typically take two years to bring to market. Significant productivity improvements could take several years. 4. Priorities. Which products are most important to you? Which are least important?