The Search for the Golden Ticket: A Value Chain and VRIO Experiential Exercise

While the benefits of experiential learning are well established throughout management and business courses, they are used less often when teaching strategic management. Yet, many concepts in strategy, such as the value chain, are difficult for students to understand. The abstract nature of these topics, coupled with the limited real-life exposure to strategy, make these topics difficult for students to understand and apply. The Golden Ticket exercise is designed to help students correctly apply the VRIO framework and conduct a value chain analysis. This exercise uses redirection as a learning tool, incorporating several independent myopic parts to create ambiguity, where students are initially unable to see how the exercise connects to the “big picture.” It is not until the end of the exercise that students can see how these parts connect (creating the big picture perspective), as they are able to identify the firm’s value creating activities, core competencies, and create the value chain for the firm. This exercise can be used in undergraduate and graduate-level strategy, marketing, and management classes, and can be taught face-to-face or online. Student feedback suggests that this exercise is engaging, practical, and an enlightening way to learn about value chain analysis and core competencies.