Rival Markets
The Classroom Business Strategy Simulation
What students do
Every team runs a drinks company in the same market, against the other teams’ companies, with the same customers and the same starting cash. Round by round, a team:
- sets a price and decides how many units to make;
- decides how many people to employ and how much to spend training them;
- chooses how much to spend on marketing to win customers;
- manages cash and operating costs, and borrows or repays when the market demands it;
- responds to changing market conditions, such as a cost shock or a shift in customer spending;
- reads the results, sees why they happened, and changes strategy for the next round.
Ideas the simulation practises
How a class runs
Host and share the code
Create a session, put the join code on the projector, and students join from any phone or laptop with a nickname.
Teams decide each round
Each team agrees one plan and submits it. You lock the round, calculate the market and reveal the results in stages.
Discuss what happened
Every result comes with its reasons. After the last round, teams reflect and you can export the class results.
Class length: 3 rounds, about 50 minutes · 4 rounds, about 70 minutes · 5 rounds, about 105 minutes.
For teachers
- A live, multiplayer class. Teams compete in one shared market, so every decision affects everyone else’s results.
- Real-world decisions, visible consequences. Prices, costs, staffing, marketing and cash all show up in the results, with an explanation for each number.
- Strategy and financial literacy. Students see the difference between revenue, profit and cash, and what borrowing costs.
- Easy to run. No student accounts: students join with a code. A student who loses their place can recover it.
- Evidence you can keep. A results dashboard and exportable class results.
Simulated values are for learning. They are not real prices or forecasts. Back to Kingshire Labs