The aim of this paper is to reflect on the individual and collective roles that we played in Icarus Inc., a business Simulation where we were in charge of running a strategically struggling airport for the next five years

1. The SFP Final Project – Reflective Piece.
Prepared by:
Client, xx
Nov. 2020
Prepared for:
MSc in Professional Accountancy (MPAcc), University of London.
An individual reflective piece on Icarus rationale.
WORD COUNT: 1079

2. REFLECTIONS PIECE
ICARUS RATIONALE
2.1 DESCRIPTION
Being able to sit back and reflect on a past project or task that you accomplished, and relive that
experience can help any professional better develop his communication and conflict resolution
skills and also improve his performance for future projects. Looking back on the simulation task
that was conducted as a group project these past 5 weeks has allowed me, as well as other students
to gain many practical skills in our industry. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the individual
and collective roles that we played in Icarus Inc., a business Simulation where we were in charge
of running a strategically struggling airport for the next five years. This paper will comment upon
the team dynamics, communication style, as well as suggest possible improvements in any future
simulation activity.
There were three people overall in my team, we were supposed to have five people initially, but
one was transferred to another course, and another was allocated to another team. I was the Chief
Financial Officer in the first round, and Chief Executive Officer for the rest of four rounds. The
other two teammates were the Chief Financial Officer and Human Resource director. While
running the simulation exercise as a team, we brought different opinions every week, in the
beginning I was using the approach to follow the majority, but later learnt that I needed to stand
by my decision if I had a strong conviction that it was right, so I learnt to convince them by using
my analysis, and rationales.
Some decisions made on costs (eg. Increases in overheads) were not in line with growth of revenue.
(eg. Not enough analysis done in pax growth before making decisions on other related costs). On
our first year and second year, car parking price was way too high, and it ended up with lots of

3. empty parking spaces, the thought about being “environmental friendly” and airport reputation and
global brand affected our strategic decision, and resulted in hurting our profitability.
2.2 FEELINGS
As the CEO and apparent leader of the team, I initially felt the need to take certain decisions that
I felt would be beneficial to the success of the project, however, I also realized that as a team,
everyone’s opinion is important and useful, whether they’re correct or not. Therefore, I listened to
everyone’s opinion of the different segments of the simulation task, and we took a vote on every
decision. I noticed that not just were we behind schedule, we were also making series of errors and
costly mistakes during the course of the simulation exercise, hence, I took on another approach to
stand by my decision if I felt it was correct, and sell it to my team members. Once I convinced
them on a certain opinion, they reasoned with me and we got to a decision, however, there were
also times that I may be wrong, and they would not follow my opinion.
From this task, I learnt a very important lesson about teamwork, how being a leader is not about
giving instructions, but more about listening, being inquisitive and understanding that you are a
part of the team first as a teammate, and then as a leader. During the simulation task, I felt more
like I was a business analyst, and less like a Chief Executive, as I was actively involved in strategic
thinking and analysis. One important take home from this exercise is that just as the world is
constantly changing, so is business, and a carefully thought-out plan might be very brilliant on
paper, but will be fruitless when implemented. Therefore, it is not enough to be an outstanding
business strategic thinker, it is equally relevant to study the constantly changing customer needs
and learn how to reposition your business as their needs change, to avoid going out of business.

4. 2.3 HONEST EVALUATION
Some choices we made during the simulation exercise were surprisingly very productive, but there
were also a few that gave very bad results. An example was in round four, some decisions we made
on costs (e.g. Increases in overheads) were not in line with growth of revenue. (E.g. Not enough
analysis done in pax growth before making decisions on other related costs). In addition, the car-
parking price was excessively high for our first and second year that we ended up with lots of
empty parking spaces. We wasted a lot of resources by opening terminal two too early when there
weren’t enough passengers to fill the terminal one’s capacity. There were some other decisions we
made that hurts the firm’s profitability, nonetheless, we have amassed enough knowledge, and
learned from our mistakes.
Cost control and increased profitability should be every business manager’s prime goal. It is not
enough to optimize your business to generate more profit by enhancing customer satisfaction and
loyalty and generating more quality products, being able to cut little pounds from the daily/monthly
cost of production can equally increase the firm’s revenue. We failed woefully in this part of the
simulation, as we were not able to reduce the cost of production for Icarus Inc., we even wasted a
lot of resources that would have been used for more important segments of the business. These
and a few other decisions cost us significant profit.
2.4 ANALYSIS
An unexpected discrepancies in our analysis happened between years 3 to 5, In year 3, the actual
Short-term car park utilization last year was 12% and was lower than our forecasted value of 40%,
when we made strategic decisions in the fourth year to increase our forecasted short and long-term
car park utilization to 50% and 40% respectively, it didn’t coincide with our actual values which
skyrocketed to 21% and 75% respectively. In the final round (year 5), our strategic decisions

5. predicted another increase in short term car parking to 75% and a reduction in long term to 50%,
however, the actual values were 23% (short term) and 75% (long term) respectively.
2.5 CONCLUSION
I have learned from this simulation task the interrelationships between the market climate,
stakeholders, company functions and logistics, and their effects on financial forecasts and results.
In order to assess strategies and financial results and learn lessons for the future, I have also built
the skills and abilities to evaluate my predictions against the 'real-world model. Most importantly,
I have learned that “uneasy is the head that wears the crown”, it is not an easy job to make strategic
business decisions, and it is also not a guarantee that after making these decisions, and simulating
your results, that the actual outcome will be exactly as you have simulated it. Hence, a good
business manager should understand these dynamics, and be willing and ready to compromise and
be flexible to change.
While doing this task, we understood that customer satisfaction is extremely important for any
successful business, and improving customer satisfaction would definitely enhance customer
loyalty, hence, we made a strategic business decision in round 3 to build a hotel for customers to
take advantage of the new terminal and rail link. This move was very profitable for growth of
Icarus Inc.
2.6 ACTION PLAN
This business simulation project has been a very insightful and innovative one, I have gained a lot
of skills and experience, I have also understood that a business forecast does not always occur in
reality as we have simulated it; hence we should learn to be dynamic and open to changes. What I
would do differently in this simulation if given another trial would be to avoid some costly
decisions that resulted in hurting the firm’s profitability, and not waste a lot of resources by

6. opening terminal two too early when there weren’t enough passengers to fill the terminal one’s
capacity. I would understand that slow and steady growth is key in a business, and that resources
should first be channeled to business opportunities with low risk and quantifiable reward, before
investing or making decisions that have high risk but with huge profitability. Slow and steady is
the backbone of a successful business. We did not do this during the simulation task, as many of
our decisions came with huge risks, and subsequently resulted to wastage of resources and loss of
profit. The most important take-home from this simulation task is the leadership and team work
skills I gained, these skills will remain with me, and I will build on them to be better in business
and enterprise management.

7. REFERENCES
Gibbs, G (1988). Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further
Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic