Instructions for the Commodity Purchase Team Exercise

Overview of the Exercise

The exercise portrays a spot-market transaction in which a wholesaler is offering 100,000 pheasants eggs that were bought on speculation. In prior years, the eggs have been sold as a commodity, and the wholesaler expects this to be true of this year’s market, too. This exercise includes roles for one seller and five buyers.

The role-play is conducted with one wholesaler and a set of buyers taking the different roles referred to above. The role-play itself takes about 35 minutes and should not exceed 45 minutes.

It is important that the parties not know each other's role going into the meeting. Thus, in the typical scenario, the meeting begins with six team-members wondering who is who. The buyer identifies him or herself and begins some sort of process of trying to sell the eggs.

Simulation Instructions

1. Please go to Role pages . This page lists the teams in your cluster, and the roles for each member of each team. Find your name and click on your role title to obtain your role.

Read you role over in preparation for the simulation. Role preparation typically takes less than 15 minutes.

It is very important that individuals assigned to different roles not disclose any information about their role, even in a jesting way, prior to the meeting.

2. Your team will then need to meet, prior to session 4, in order to carry out the exercise. Your team will role-play for 35 to 45 minutes. At the end of the role play, the broker must have sold off the eggs. It is imperative that you stop the exercise exactly 45 minutes after it started.
   
   
3. At the end of the 45-minute exercise, the person who plays the broker role in the simulation is responsible for filling out the form, for their team the day prior to session 4, by 5PM.
   
   
4. Each member of the team must also write a two-page, double spaced individual memo describing what happened during the exercise and what he or she learned from it. The memo is due at the beginning of session 4.
   
   
5. In class, we will compare how the various teams performed and draw conclusions.

The best-performing team and individual in the cluster will receive an award.

Commodity Purchase Outcome Sheet

Broker : You are responsible for ending the negotiation after 45 minutes and filling out this sheet and posting the information on the sheet.