The Great Resource Bake Off

Authors:

Keywords: resources, activity, interactive

Abstract: Jeff LeBlanc demonstrates the importance of a firm’s resources via a “bake-off” competition that sees students create a prototype of a product in class. In his Global Strategy class students are given a brown paper bag filled with 8 resources. Some resources are tangible while others are intangible. Once finished, students present the product to a panel. The panel selects a winner based on criteria that matches both coursework and industry practices. Ideally, students see that while most all resources can be useful, they must be used in the proper way. This is demonstrated by their explanation to the panel. One negative consequence of the competition is the realization that some groups did not utilize the resources in the best way. Like actual firms they misused their resources or wasted them. This usually is discovered by the panel (or instructor) and forces the students to re-evaluate their resource analysis.