Business Analytics course powered by a business simulation at the MSc in Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship at emlyon business school

Business Analytics is a course offered by many business schools to show students how to examine data, identify insights and make data-driven strategic decisions. emlyon business school takes this course even further. By adding a business simulation to the course, students not only get meaningful sets of data to analyze but also gain entrepreneurial experience. This is very much in line with the school’s teaching philosophy – “doing to learn, and learning to do” – which interweaves theory and practical application within the context of an entrepreneurial experience.

EMLYON BUSINESS SCHOOL

The history of emlyon business school dates back to 1872, making it one of the oldest business schools in Europe. This highly ranked business school (#11 best business school in Europe – Financial Times European Business School 2024 Ranking, QS World University Ranking 2024 Business & Management Studies: #4 in France) hosts almost 9,260 students representing 130 nationalities in all programs across 4 campuses around the world: Lyon, Paris, Shanghai and Mumbai.

The school’s main teaching philosophy “We are makers” highlights the importance of merging the academic knowledge with experience and experimentation – “doing to learn, and learning to do”.

BUSINESS ANALYTICS IN PRACTICE

In order to learn how to analyze data and draw meaningful conclusions, students need a set data to work on. Data comes in many forms, formats and contexts. The course could have used random sets of data but Professor Rickie Moore, Course Leader and Director of the MSc in Global Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program at emlyon business school, decided to go a step further – give students a role and an entrepreneurial context.

He decided to use a business simulation that will provide the students with plenty of data to analyze as well as the managerial perspective. Feeling responsible for their virtual business, students understood the need and the value of the data analysis for their operational and strategic decisions in the business simulation.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE

The 4-week course was conducted online. The sessions were organized once a week. Professor Moore comments on the course idea: I wanted to take a different approach to Business Analytics that combined theoretical constructs and a practical approach in exploring the topic. My goal was not to teach the students how to code, but how to develop a strategic approach to generating and interpreting data within an entrepreneurial context.

REVAS Business Simulations was the perfect platform, robust, well developed, ergonomic and challenging. With every round, students were able to increase their product portfolio while generating an increased dataset. This allowed them to come to terms with the four foundational principles of business analytics…describe, analyze, predict and prescribe appropriate action for the development of the firm’s performance.

At the beginning of the course, Professor Rickie Moore introduced the key business analytics concepts that students need to run their own analyses. The focus was on implementing the 4 types of analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive) into the decision-making process in the simulation. Then, students in their teams, ran virtual digital marketing agencies with Revas Business Simulations for 8 rounds, representing 8 virtual months. Every round, they were provided with a variety of data from the various business areas (e.g. finance, HR, sales, competitive environment) to support their decision-making.

Their task was to answer a set of questions connected with the descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics to help them understand their company’s situation and improve their business strategies. The course was finalized with the team’s presentations of their virtual businesses results as well as lessons learned on how business analytics helped them make informed business decisions.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BUSINESS SIMULATIONS

COURSE RESULTS

The aim of course was for the students understand the value of data analysis in business decision-making and give them practice in analyzing business data. How did this work out?

“I think what students learned in this course was how to translate the theoretical concepts into real-actions. The 4 types of analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive) introduced at the beginning of the course may have sounded a bit abstract and scary at first. But then, students had a chance to iterate this organized analysis process several times in the business simulation. And being in the role of a business owner, competing with groupmates for customers added realism and proved practical application.” – comments Ela Szczepaniak, who facilitated the business simulation on Revas behalf.

But let’s give the floor to the student to tell us what they think:

“The Revas simulation was an enriching experience. This comprehensive software provides a unique opportunity to manage a fictional company, addressing various cross-functional aspects essential to business management. This immersive experience allows for a deep understanding of the implications of each decision on all stakeholders. Revas promotes a holistic and strategic approach, offering a clearer understanding of the dynamics and challenges of business management.” – Arthur Morel, Student in the MSc in Global Innovation & Entrepreneurship, emlyon business school

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT BUSINESS SIMULATIONS

Published on

03/12/2024

Who won the Business Olympics for Secondary Schools? Find out!

News

BOSS Competition is a business competition popular among students from secondary schools around the world. This is already the 2nd edition and it gathered a total of 95 teams from 35 different countries. For 5 weeks teams competed for the title of the best virtual managers in the world. Read the article to find out who managed to win the place on the podium.

Elite American Certificate for Revas Simulations

News, Simulations

We did it! Business Simulation Games are now part of an elite group of barely 32 institutions from the entire world with the ISTE Seal of Alignment certificate.

Revas in the Caribbean? Coming soon!

News

In July, Revas starts implementing a project for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States OECS. Elżbieta Szczepaniak, who is responsible for international projects at Revas, talks about how it happened that a start-up from Rzeszów will be training entrepreneurs at the other end of the world.