Competing with Giants — Defend Sari Wangi Nusantara

A four-round, advanced emerging-market strategy simulation set at Sari Wangi Nusantara (SWN), Indonesia's home-grown leader in home and personal care (Rp4,2 triliun revenue, 13% EBITDA, 34% national laundry share, 480.000 warung relationships).

On 4 May, a top-three global multinational, Continental Brands (≈USD 70 billion), announces full-scale entry into SWN's core laundry and haircare categories — a national modern-trade listing, a USD 120M (≈Rp1,9 triliun) launch war chest roughly 6× SWN's A&P, and a mass brand priced 12% below SWN. SWN has just Rp350 miliar of deployable capital and 120 days before the modern-trade launch.

Playing the CEO and board, you apply Dawar & Frost's 'Competing with Giants' framework: (1) map each category on the two axes — how globalised the competitive pressure is and how transferable SWN's local assets are — and honestly mark the warung network and local product fit as the non-transferable moat; (2) choose a competitive posture per category (Defend the local stronghold, Dodge into defensible niche/value space, Partner/Contend) and set the laundry pricing response, resisting the price-war trap of matching the giant where its scale is strongest; (3) allocate the scarce Rp350 miliar across protecting warung distribution, local R&D, a modern-trade beachhead and at-risk talent — and decide a go/no-go on Continental's lucrative co-distribution partnership that would arm the rival inside SWN's one moat; and (4) interpret the 18-month outcome and pitch the board a survival-and-growth strategy that institutionalises local advantage and expands the playbook into adjacent categories and ASEAN.

The math rewards concentrating force on non-transferable local advantage and punishes the five classic errors — fighting the price war, defending everywhere, abandoning the warung moat, arming the rival via partnership, and ignoring the talent raid and modern-trade slotting squeeze. Final KPIs track National Share %, Moat Strength, EBITDA Margin % and Capital Committed against the Rp350 miliar cap.

An advanced simulation for participants used to working with the main frameworks and trade-offs of the subject, designed for executive education and experienced professionals.