Capsim Capstone Simulation – Round 3 Strategy Guide for Top Results (999 Score) Winning Strategy Walkthrough

Capsim Capstone Simulation – Round 3 Strategy Guide for Top Results (999 Score)

Winning Strategy Walkthrough

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Hello and welcome to the Capsim Capstone 2025/2026 Simulation Guide!
This video explains the winning strategy for Round 3, focusing on achieving top performance from the early rounds—without sacrificing profitability for future gains.

Unlike some traditional approaches that recommend sacrificing the first four rounds to heavily invest in launching new products, this strategy proves that you can maintain strong profits and market share right from the beginning while still preparing your portfolio for long-term dominance.

Let’s dive into our Round 3 decisions and the rationale behind each functional area: R&D, Marketing, Production, HR, Finance, and TQM.

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🧪 1. R&D – Smart Product Updates & Timely Launches

In Round 3, our strategy introduces a new high-tech product. Its specifications are:

• Performance: 11.4
• Size: 18.8
• MTBF: 20,000
• Launch timing: June

This specification doesn’t hit the ideal spot perfectly, but it’s close enough to the customer buying criteria to perform well. Launching in June ensures we can produce and sell within the same year, taking full advantage of the market window.

We also upgrade our existing Traditional and High-End products:

• Traditional product moves closer to customer expectations with minimal cost.
• High-End product is updated to 4.5 performance and 15.5 size with an MTBF of 14,000, positioning it close to the ideal customer segment.

This balanced R&D strategy allows us to:

• Keep up with market drift
• Avoid late product launches
• Maintain alignment with evolving customer expectations
• Prepare for efficient phase-out of underperforming products

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💼 2. Marketing – Competitive Pricing & Targeted Advertising

Let’s move on to marketing decisions. In this round, we lower product prices by $0.50 across all key segments to stay competitive. Pricing is based on:

• Analysis of top-performing competitors
• Customer willingness to pay
• Current market buying criteria from the Courier report

We ensure each product is priced slightly below the top competitor, while still maintaining healthy contribution margins.

Promotion and sales budgets are both set to $2,000 for all active products. This helps:

• Build awareness
• Increase accessibility and distribution
• Sustain high customer accessibility scores

However, we plan to retire two low-performing products (in the Low-End and Traditional segments). Their promotion and sales budgets are reduced to zero, allowing us to reallocate resources efficiently.

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🏭 3. Production – Matching Demand with Efficiency

Production decisions are driven by:

• Forecasted demand from the Marketing module
• Past performance
• Current inventory levels

We increase capacity for the new high-end product by 400 units to meet its upcoming launch. For the remaining products, we adjust capacity and automation levels as follows:

• Traditional products: Automation increased to 7.0 for both old and new models. This balances labor cost savings with product flexibility.
• Low-end and outdated products: We maintain only 50% of their potential demand to slowly phase them out.

We also add a buffer of 20 units to each production forecast to protect against stock-outs, especially if demand exceeds expectations.

Remember, the golden rule in production is to match capacity with demand forecasts plus inventory rollover – without overproducing.

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🧠 4. HR – Long-Term Workforce Investment

In Round 3, we invest in Max HR spending to enhance:

• Workforce productivity
• Employee morale
• Long-term capacity to handle automation

We target improvements in:

• Recruitment spending
• Training hours per worker

This prepares our company to handle upcoming automation increases while keeping labor efficiency high.

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💵 5. Finance – Stable Liquidity and Strategic Borrowing

Financial stability is key to avoiding emergency loans.

• We aim to maintain at least $30 million in cash reserves.
• Our plant improvements and capacity expansion are financed through a mix of long-term bonds and short-term borrowing to optimize interest costs.
• We avoid issuing stock in Round 3 to prevent dilution of equity.

We also ensure our cash position is strong enough to absorb shocks from competitor pricing actions or unexpected demand drops.

The goal here is simple: keep control of your capital structure, avoid emergency loans, and be prepared for strategic investments in later rounds.

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📉 6. Dropping Underperforming Products

From our Courier report, it’s clear that Product AFT and FTH are no longer contributing meaningfully to net profit.

• Their net contribution is less than $1 million
• Sales volumes are declining
• Positioning no longer matches buyer expectations

Instead of trying to save them, we gradually exit these products:

• Stop promotion and sales budgets
• Cut production by 50%
• Plan to fully phase out in the next 1–2 rounds

This allows us to concentrate on the 3 strongest segments and optimize our portfolio with 6 total products, maximizing efficiency and focus.

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📊 7. Performance Metrics – Where We Stand

By the end of Round 3:

• Net profit exceeds $13 million
• Contribution margin is around 39%
• Total sales reach nearly $200 million
• No emergency loans
• Balanced inventory levels

Although we are not #1 in all segments yet, we’ve set up a strong and balanced foundation.

• Market share: Growing steadily
• Return on Sales (ROS): Healthy and sustainable
• Cumulative Profit: Competitive and on track for a top finish

Our early investments already begin to pay off, while other teams are still recovering from cash flow issues or weak product alignment.

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🧭 8. Strategy Summary – Why This Works

This Round 3 strategy is all about balance and timing:

✅ Don’t sacrifice early profits.
✅ Launch new products strategically and on time.
✅ Focus only on high-potential segments.
✅ Gradually retire unprofitable products.
✅ Use data-backed decisions from the Courier Report.
✅ Keep financials strong to avoid surprises.

This is not a risky "all-in-later" strategy. It’s a measured, proactive approach that delivers profits early and often, allowing your team to lead consistently from Round 4 onward.

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🚀 Looking Ahead – Round 4 and Beyond

With two new products in development and a sharper portfolio, we’re now positioned to:

• Dominate three key segments (High-End, Traditional, High-Tech)
• Reinvest earnings into TQM, HR, and automation
• Push for market dominance by Round 6
• Achieve the 999 final score by Round 8 through cumulative profit leadership and top financial ratios

You’ll notice that this strategy gives you room to adapt, respond to competitors, and keep the lead throughout the simulation.

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🎯 Final Words

Thank you for watching this Round 3 Capsim Strategy Guide.

By following this refined approach, your team can:

• Optimize product offerings
• Enhance marketing effectiveness
• Cut waste
• Maximize return on investment

To get NEW Top Free Winning guide and tips to win Capsim Capstone 8 rounds = check https://capsimguide2021.blogspot.com

To get FREE support for Round 1 and Round 2, Email to: mbahelp2002@gmail.com

This is a winning blueprint built on precision, discipline, and long-term vision.

Good luck in your simulation — and aim for the 999 score!