CompXM Winning Strategy | 2025–2026 | ROUND 3
Hello, and welcome to this comprehensive guide to winning CompXM, the individual decision-making exam in the Capsim platform.
CompXM is an individual exam that includes four decision-making rounds, followed by a final Board Query. Each round simulates a full fiscal year, and your goal is to lead your company to success in terms of profitability, market share, stock price, and contribution margin.
This video will walk you through a proven strategy that top-performing students use to achieve scores from 990 to even 999 out of 1000. Let’s begin.
🧩 PART 1: Understand the Nature of CompXM
Unlike the standard Capsim Capstone simulation, CompXM is customized per student. The data, product names, and starting numbers may be different. This means:
- Do not copy decisions from other students
- Your Industry Conditions Report (ICR) is unique to you
- All calculations must be based on your own reports
So, the first thing you must do is download your Industry Conditions Report from the exam interface. This report is your roadmap.
🏗️ PART 2: Product Strategy and R&D Updates
You’ll begin Round 1 with four existing products and two additional products to be launched (usually Nano and Elite).
Start by updating your products in the R&D module. Use your Excel forecast file to:
- Identify the ideal position for each segment using Table 3 of your ICR
- Update performance and size to match segment drift
- Launch Nano and Elite with correct specs to gain competitive positioning early
📝 Tip: Your two new products often outperform legacy products by Year 2, so don’t hesitate to invest in them.
🔢 PART 3: Marketing Decisions — Price, Promotion & Forecast
Now let’s move to Marketing.
- Pricing:
- Reduce the price slightly each round (by around $0.50) to stay competitive and aligned with customer expectations.
- For example:
- Traditional: $23 → $22.5 → $22
- Low End: $32 → $31.5 → $31
- Nano and Elite should follow the pricing trend in your segment reports.
- Promotion & Sales Budget:
- Set both to $2,000 for each product to maintain high awareness and accessibility.
- Sales Forecast:
- Use last year's Courier Report to check:
- Units sold
- Ending inventory
- Adjust by adding segment growth % from the ICR.
- Add 5% safety buffer to prevent stockouts.
- Enter your forecasts in the simulation.
📝 Tip: Use your Excel tool to calculate forecasts for all six products efficiently and accurately.
🏭 PART 4: Production Decisions — Capacity & Automation
Use the sales forecast numbers to plan your Production Schedule.
- Match forecasted sales, subtract inventory, and add 5% buffer to get your required production volume.
- Capacity:
- Make sure your capacity can handle the projected output.
- Ideal cost-effective capacity is 250 units per product.
- For new products, invest in capacity early to meet demand in Rounds 2–4.
- Automation:
- Helps lower labor costs in future rounds.
- Recommended settings:
- Traditional: up to 10.0
- Low End: 8.0–9.0
- High End/Nano/Elite: 5.0–6.0 (don’t go too high or you'll lose flexibility)
📝 Important: Automation and capacity decisions are expensive, so plan your finance accordingly.
👥 PART 5: Human Resources (HR)
Your workforce affects productivity and labor costs.
In all four rounds, use:
- Recruiting Spend: $55,000
- Training Hours: 80 hours
These levels ensure a highly productive and efficient team, especially helpful when your automation is lower in early rounds.
💰 PART 6: Finance — Raise Funds Strategically
To fund your investments, you’ll need cash. Use a balanced approach:
- Issue long-term debt to finance capacity and automation
- Issue stock cautiously (avoid dilution if your stock price is low)
- Keep cash reserves of at least $60 million to avoid emergency loans
- Pay a small nominal dividend (e.g., $1–$2/share) to signal confidence to investors
📝 Tip: You don’t need to repay long-term debt during the exam — just avoid running out of cash.
⚙️ PART 7: TQM (Total Quality Management)
TQM helps you reduce costs, improve product reliability, and increase customer demand.
- Invest $1,000 in each of the 10 TQM initiatives.
- Do this in Rounds 1 and 2 — the benefits begin compounding in Round 3.
This improves your margin, increases demand, and strengthens your long-term position.
📈 PART 8: Monitoring Your Results
After decisions are entered, always review:
- Proforma Reports: check projected sales, contribution margin, and net profit.
- Contribution Margin (CM):
- Aim for 35–40% in Round 1
- Increase to 50%+ by Round 3–4
- Stock Price and EPS:
- They reflect investor confidence — driven by profitability and dividend policy
Use your performance indicators to adjust your strategy in the following round.
🔁 PART 9: Rounds 2, 3, and 4 Strategy Overview
Once Round 1 is complete, keep these goals for future rounds:
- Continue adjusting product specs to match drift
- Maintain competitive pricing and high promotion/sales budgets
- Scale up capacity for Nano and Elite as demand increases
- Boost automation strategically (but not above 10.0)
- Maintain HR budget and TQM investments
- Keep at least $50–60 million in cash
By Round 4, you should see:
- Contribution margins over 50%
- Profit margins increasing rapidly
- A leading stock price and high cumulative profit
If executed properly, these strategies lead to top CompXM performance — often above 990 points.
🧠 Final Tips
- Understand the method, not the numbers. Every CompXM setup is different — always base your strategy on your own data.
- Use Excel tools to forecast accurately and avoid time-consuming errors.
- Don’t skip TQM or HR. Many students overlook them and fall behind in later rounds.
- Avoid emergency loans. These destroy your score — keep a safe cash buffer.
- Focus on Nano and Elite. They often give the highest margins and drive your lead in the simulation.
📩 Need Help?
If you need personal guidance or help solving Round 1 and 2, you can:
- Email us: 📧 mbahelp2002@gmail.com
- Or schedule a Zoom session for detailed explanation and walkthrough
For more tips and support, check our blog:
🔗
https://compxmguide2022.blogspot.com
We also have guides for Capsim Capstone and MikesBikes simulations.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck, and I hope you achieve a top score in your CompXM exam. See
you in the next video!
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