Resource Wars
You are a rookie Associate Consultant at Meridian Strategy Advisory, and a private-equity client wants to know which of three Indian companies it should back. You judge which resources give a lasting edge, a temporary one or none, choose what intelligence to read, and name your pick. The three firms look almost equally strong, a market shock lands halfway through, and a senior partner is waiting to test every claim you overstate. You are judged on the quality of your analysis and how well your recommendation survives her questions.
Academic Partner:
LEVEL
Undergraduate, MBA, Executive Ed, Graduate
TYPE
Single Player
DURATION
90 mins
DISCIPLINE
Strategy & General Management
Introduction
You are a rookie Associate Consultant at Meridian Strategy Advisory, and a private-equity client wants to know which of three Indian companies it should back. You judge which resources give a lasting edge, a temporary one or none, choose what intelligence to read, and name your pick. The three firms look almost equally strong, a market shock lands halfway through, and a senior partner is waiting to test every claim you overstate. The shock strips some advantages and leaves standing others that only look exposed, so redrawing your audit in a panic is penalised just as ignoring it is. You are judged on the quality of your analysis and how well your recommendation survives her questions. You learn that advantage is a question of how long it lasts, not how strong it looks today.
Learning Objectives
- Apply the VRIN framework to classify 30 resources across three firms as sustained, temporary or parity advantages.
- Rank resources and firms by quality of advantage rather than by the number of valuable resources held.
- Prioritise two of six intelligence reports under an attention constraint, balancing company-specific and cross-cutting evidence.
- Recalibrate VRIN judgements after a market disruption, separating resources that genuinely erode from those that only look exposed.
- Construct and defend a single investment recommendation under probing questioning from a senior partner.
Key Features
- Players act as a strategy consultant advising a private-equity client on which of three Indian companies to invest in.
- Players judge whether each company's resources give a lasting advantage, a temporary one or no real advantage, then rank the resources and the companies.
- An intelligence marketplace offers a set of research reports, but players can open only two, so they must choose carefully what to read.
- A surprise market disruption hits one company partway through, and players must update their analysis without overreacting to resources that only look at risk.
- Players commit to one investment and defend it in a live interview with an AI senior partner, and are scored on both their analysis and their judgement.
Educational Outcomes
- Ability to audit a firm's resources through the VRIN lens and judge which advantages are durable, which are erodable and which merely deliver competitive parity.
- Ability to translate a resource audit into a single investment recommendation that stays consistent with the analysis and holds up under a partner's scrutiny.
- Recognition that a valuable resource does not confer advantage when rivals can buy, copy or substitute it, and that calling every good resource rare is the costliest error.
- Recognition that a disruption does not erode every resource it appears to threaten when advantages rest on socially complex relationships rather than on technology or a single star.
- Players come away understanding that competitive advantage is a judgement about durability rather than strength, and that the firm that looks strongest today may rest on resources one shock can strip away.
Topics Covered
Resource-Based View (RBV)
VRIN Framework
Sustained Competitive Advantage
Private Equity Due Diligence
Resource Erosion Under Disruption
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