Marketing 11 students at St. John Brebeuf Secondary School adapted the Junior Achievement (JA) Titan Program and tested their skills by running a business in the ultimate business simulation.
With Titan, students are put in command of a company selling "holo-generators" and control the various functions that it performs.
These include price, production, marketing, research and development, capital investment, and charitable giving.
Math/marketing teacher Christine Tsou integrates this business management simulation into her marketing classroom and puts the control of a company into the hands of these students, without any actual financial risks.
It teaches basic marketing skills by letting players take control of a business company and learn what it's like to run a business.
There are strategies to play the game. Players want to spend enough to get their companies going strong, but too much and they might find themselves at the bottom of the business food chain.
Players can research certain different improvements that will allow them to sell their product for more and increase their sales.
Players can also test these features to see how the market will react to them.
By playing JA Titan, students learn to recognize the booms and busts of consumerism, as well as to adjust their company accordingly.
Players can have up to eight companies in the same game, which can last anywhere from one to 32 quarters.
The companies all compete to be first on the market, using skill and strategy to find a balance between the perfect price and their unit production.
Tsou said participants gain valuable business experience, and the program can spark their interest in business or marketing careers.
"It teaches them to manage resources in a smarter, more efficient way, or a way that had not previously occurred to them," she said.