Capsim business simulations · Intermediate
CapsimGlobal Business Simulation
Strategy goes multinational. Teams run a domestic company that can open Germany, China, or both, and find out what exchange rates, tariffs, and plant location do to a plan that worked at home.
Seven-minute walkthrough of the starting scenario. Instructor and student support is included, and your first delivery is shadowed by a Capsim consultant.
On this pageWhere it fitsScenarioDecisionsObjectivesCompareFormatsScoringFAQ
- Level
- Intermediate
- Market
- 2 segments (Low Tech, High Tech) in up to 3 countries
- Countries
- United States, plus Germany and China to enter
- Products
- 1 to start, up to 4
- Rounds
- Up to 8 competition rounds (+ practice); each round is one year
- Round length
- 60–150 minutes in a seminar; a week in a course
- Teams
- 3–7 per company (5 ideal); 2–10 human teams per industry
- Scoring
- Stars · Success Measures
- Best for
- International business, global strategy, MBA wrap-up
Where it fits
The international strategy course, and the managers about to own a region.
In the curriculum
CapsimGlobal caps an international business sequence, or distinguishes the MBA wrap-up from the undergraduate one. Students who have already run Capstone step straight into the international questions; students who haven't need time for two learning curves, generic strategy and international strategy, so allow more rounds.
- International business and global strategy courses
- MBA capstone with an international emphasis
- Executive education
- Prework before a Comp-XM exam
In corporate programs
Executive education uses CapsimGlobal with domestic managers who are about to take on international responsibility: market entry, sourcing and supply chains, currency, and the timing of a first move. The cohort runs the company as a team and lives with the consequences of entering a market early, late, or not at all.
The scenario
A domestic company, two open countries, and one plant to put somewhere.
A government has broken up a monopoly into identical companies. Each team takes one. The company looks healthy on paper, but the monopoly hid its problems: a product that pleases no one in particular, capacity in the wrong place, a capital structure nobody chose on purpose. Teams fix what's broken while building an advantage the other teams can't easily match.
The product is a genetic testing device. As generic as Capstone's sensor, so no team arrives with an industry playbook. Customers judge it on speed, accuracy, service life, and the country kit that adapts it to a local market.
Two segments, three maps. The domestic market has two segments, Low Tech and High Tech, on a perceptual map that moves every year. Germany and China are the same two segments on their own maps: Germany is roughly a fifth the size of the home market, China roughly an eighth, and both are growing two to three times faster with no competitor in them yet. Entering means a subsidiary for marketing, warehousing, and distribution, plus shipping costs and tariffs on every unit.
One plant, chosen in Round 1. Teams decide whether production stays in the United States or moves to Germany or China, and live with that plant for the rest of the simulation. The choice sets labor costs, shipping, tariffs, and defect rates for every market at once. Exchange rates move every year on top of it.
Three forces make standing still a decision too.
- Competition. Every company starts with the same flaws, and the team that fixes them first pulls ahead.
- Industry growth. Segments grow at different rates, so capacity has to be bought before the demand arrives.
- Changing technology. Customers expect smaller, more capable products every year. A product left alone drifts out of its segment.
- International market entry. A competitor that enters Germany or China first can build awareness and accessibility there that make the market far less attractive to whoever follows.
What teams decide
The decisions, function by function.
The same four functions as Capstone, with a country dimension on every one of them. The domestic problems alone could absorb all the capital a team can raise, and that is the dilemma every team faces: fix home first, or move abroad before a competitor does.
Reposition, revise, invent, adapt
Move products toward each segment's ideal spot, raise service life, and fit the country kit each market expects.
Price and promote, by country
Set price in each currency, promotion and sales budgets per market, and the forecast the company plans against.
One plant, three markets
Set capacity and automation at the plant, schedule production, and ship to markets with tariffs and freight in the cost.
Fund it in dollars, earn it in three currencies
Issue stock and debt, pay dividends, and manage the exchange-rate exposure that a foreign subsidiary creates.
Modules that raise the stakes. R&D is built in. HR and TQM are optional departments, and the case modules (Community Involvement, Internet of Things, Technology Licensing, Management Consulting, Basic & Applied R&D, Local Suppliers) can be scheduled once teams have a coherent strategy. The nine add-in modules →
Learning objectives
What students can do when they've run it.
CapsimGlobal carries the strategy objectives of the family and adds the international ones.
- Strategic analysis. Assess the company and its industry with frameworks such as SWOT, PESTEL, and Porter's Five Forces.
- Business planning. Commit to a strategy: market position, source of competitive advantage, and where growth will come from.
- International versus generic strategy. Apply a strategy to a specific foreign market with local tactics adapted to its economics and culture.
- Market entry and timing. Weigh first-mover advantage against the cost of entering before the home business is fixed.
- Currency, tariffs, and sourcing. Plan around exchange rates, tariffs, shipping, and plant location, and see them in the results.
- Cross-functional decision making. Make the calls in every function so that they add up to one strategy, for this round and the ones after it.
- Performance measures. Choose the indicators and targets that will tell the team whether the strategy is working.
- Implementation and execution. Turn a strategy into a sequence of funded decisions, and keep executing as competitors respond.
- Project management. Plan investments that take rounds to pay back, across functions, without running out of cash.
- Team development. Work through the stages of a team under deadline pressure, and lead through them.
- Change management. Redirect a company mid-course when the market or a module makes the plan obsolete.
- Communication with stakeholders. Present the company's mission, strategy, results, and decisions to a board, a class, or a client, in writing and in person.
- Assurance-of-learning prework. Refresh and integrate the whole curriculum before an accreditation exam such as Comp-XM.
How it compares
How the four simulations differ.
Every Capsim business simulation runs on the same platform: the same round cycle, the same reports, the same cross-functional decisions. Learn to run one and you can run them all. They differ in how much market there is to read and where the pressure lands.
| Simulation | Level | Segments | Products | Global markets | Scoring | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapsimCoreFoundational, fully cross-functional | Beginner | 2 | 1–4 | No | Stars, Success Measures, Balanced Scorecard | Strategy fundamentals |
| CapsimGlobalThis pageA domestic company goes multinational | Intermediate | 2 | 1–4 | Yes | Stars, Success Measures | International strategy |
| CapsimOpsOperations in the spotlight | Advanced | 2 | 1–4 | No | Stars, Success Measures | Operations management |
| CapstoneMost usedThe comprehensive flagship, Capsim's most-used simulation | Advanced | 5 | 5–8 | No | Stars, Success Measures, Balanced Scorecard, Triple-Bottom-Line mode | Advanced strategy & capstone |
Choose CapsimGlobal when international strategy is the point. For generic strategy (differentiation against cost leadership, niche against broad) Capstone is the stronger choice, because it plays out on one map and the concepts are easier to see. For first-mover advantage, barriers to entry, and running a company across borders, CapsimGlobal is.
Formats and pacing
Formats, and how long each one runs.
Play times match Capstone for students who have run a Capsim simulation before. For a class new to both business strategy and international strategy, allow more rounds and more time in the early ones.
| Format | Length | Rounds | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-day seminar | 2 days | Practice + 5 | Corporate business-acumen or leadership cohort |
| Blended seminar | 1 onsite day + 7 online sessions + wrap-up | Practice + 8 | Corporate universities, events, exec ed |
| Semester course | 13 weeks | Up to 4 practice + 8 | Strategy, capstone, and MBA courses |
| Module or quarter | 6–10 weeks | 1–2 practice + 6–8 | Compressed academic terms; two debriefs a week |
Onsite, online, or blended, and any class size from a single team to more than a thousand participants across sections. Sizing, coaching setups, and technical requirements: how a delivery runs →
How it's scored
The simulation scores the company. Comp-XM scores the student.
Company performance
Stars give a quick read each round. Success Measures let each team weight the measures that fit its strategy (cumulative profit, market share, stock price, and the rest) and be scored on its own terms, with results reported by country as well as in total.
Every round ends with automated debriefs and reports; a custom report builder lets you grade participation as well as results.
Individual evidence, for assurance of learning
Teams share a score, so team results can't stand in for each student's learning. Comp-XM closes that gap: each student runs the same simulation again on their own, then answers the board's questions, scored against the Big 7 learning goals. Four to six hours, individually. CapsimInbox-XM is the faster alternative: students interpret their company's report through a board-meeting inbox in one to two hours.
How Capsim measures the individual →You're never running it alone
What comes with the simulation.
Questions faculty ask
Frequently asked
Do students need to have run Capstone first?
No, but it helps. Students who have run Capstone move straight into the international questions. Students new to business strategy climb two learning curves at once, generic strategy and international strategy, so allow more rounds and more time in the early ones.
How does the international part actually work?
Companies open as exporters with a domestic plant. In Round 1 they choose where that plant lives, in the United States, Germany, or China, and keep it. Entering Germany or China means a subsidiary, shipping costs, and tariffs; both markets are smaller than home and growing much faster, with no competitor in them at the start. Exchange rates move every year.
How long does it take?
The same as Capstone for experienced students: a two-day seminar runs five rounds, a semester runs eight with practice rounds in front. Each round is one year.
How is it graded?
Stars and Success Measures score the company every round, by country and in total. For individual grades, pair the team result with Comp-XM or CapsimInbox-XM, which score each student separately.
Does it work with our LMS?
Yes. CapsimGlobal runs in the browser and integrates with Canvas, Blackboard, and the other major systems: single sign-on and gradebook sync.
Playing CapsimGlobal in your course?
Log in to your simulation, get help from support, or see whether your team qualifies for the Capsim Challenge.
See CapsimGlobal in your course.
A 30-minute demo, mapped to your syllabus or program. We'll show the round cycle, the reports, and how it's scored.