Simulations - Commercial Awareness -

"Congratulat!ons ... you're on the Board"

This popular business simulation offers teams - acting as a Board of Directors - the opportunity to make all of the commercial and operational business decisions that impact on the performance of a business organisation.

Capabilities developed:

Business and commercial awareness, team working and decisions by consensus, understanding how decisions in one part of the company impact on another and in turn the overall performance of the business.

Suitable for:

Junior to middle management, young professionals.

What the simulation does:

"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board" is a very flexible, dynamic, computer-based simulation where participants act as a board of directors of a manufacturing company. The specific industry and products can be customised to suit the client company.
Participants play in teams (up to five people is ideal as it allows team members to take on different decision-making roles). Decisions are made over a number of trading periods, which enables swapping of roles for optimum experiential learning.
The simulation is a true learning experience for all teams who participate because it helps participants improve their decision-making skills. It has been used across a wide range of industry sectors: financial, manufacturing and professional services, because of the capabilities it develops.
The simulation helps participants develop their team-working abilities and increase their business knowledge and commercial awareness of key business areas such as: Finance, Marketing and Human resources.
"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board"enables participants to improve commercial awareness, try new management techniques, appreciate the importance of working in teams, test their strengths and identify their weaknesses - in a safe yet competitive environment" - David Schofield, Leadership and Management Development, Lloyds TSB.
For the duration of '"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board" teams work together, making the key decisions which will ultimately determine the success of the business. Teams will be working in an existing company that has a reputation in the marketplace, a workforce, manufacturing facilities, suppliers and an outstanding bank loan amongst other things.
The decisions made throughout '"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board" will require teams to balance management controls, such as cost reduction, with more creative investment decisions, perhaps in product development or marketing activities. It is a challenging environment and quickly enhances commercial awareness.
Specific exercises can be developed for areas a client wants to concentrate on.

Duration:

"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board" is based on a chosen number of trading periods. Depending on the learning objectives and surrounding exercises, such as understanding and analysing team roles, reporting back, etc, this can be (i) a residential one day or two day event with teams competing and getting results on the day, or (ii) run on-line over a number of weeks.

Numbers of participants:

Our experience is that the maximum number in each team should be no more than 5. Within the simulation, you can have any number of teams. Development programmes which use "Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board" get very competitive and are extremely stimulating!

The simulation is dynamic:

The decisions taken by each team affects the marketplace, so that the simulation is dynamic. The relative performance of each team can change between trading periods and the event becomes highly competitive.

Delivery Options:

There are three options for the delivery of '"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board" each with different cost implications:

Option 1: Delivery by the Learning Dynamics team

This option covers face-to-face delivery by the Learning Dynamics team and includes: introduction to the simulation via Powerpoint presentation, briefing on judging criteria, ie. profit, ROI, customer satisfaction, share price, briefing on company scenarios, question and answer session, number of trading periods, adjudication of winners and presentation.

"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board" can be run over one or two days. There is a choice of four market scenarios: food manufacturing, brewing, computer games, and a champagne house - and customised scenarios can be designed for your particular need. Participant's Manuals are included and would be distributed ahead of time so that they can be read.

Option 2: Delivery on-line (e-learning)

"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board"can also be delivered on-line via the internet. The package is as follows and is all electronically downloadable from the Learning Dynamics website, once a password has been provided:

Tutor briefing (Adobe Acrobat pdf format)
Introduction and Participant briefing (Powerpoint presentation)
Participant's Manual (Adobe Acrobat pdf format)
FAQ's (Adobe Acrobat pdf format)
Decision Forms (Word document format)
Helpline (for the day/s of the event)

Participants submit decisions via the on-line decision form at the end of each trading period. Participants and/or tutors have access to simulation website to input their decisions and pick up their results for each trading period.

Client team members are trained to introduce and facilitate the simulation on the day. This training is not as intensive as is needed for Option 2.

Credentials and Track Record:

"Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board" is one of the most popular business simulations in the UK. Literally thousands of managers have learned and enjoyed the experience since the simulation was developed in 1995.

Companies who have participated in "Congratulat!ons ...you're on the Board":

Lloyds TSB
Procter & Gamble
Fujitsu
Safeway
BMW Ireland
HBOS
Siemens
Vodafone
RHM
BAE Systems
National Grid
Halfords
Natwest
Barclays
Securicor
Grant Thornton

Academic Overview:

This simulation requires participants to think about both Business Strategy and Operational Strategy decisions across a wide range of business functions: marketing, finance, human resources, customer service, production and logistics.

Business decision-making:

Questions teams should be asking themselves are:

What markets should we be in?
What is happening to them?
How should we compete in them?
How do decisions in each function / area impact on the rest of the business?
How are our competitors achieving success?
How are we measuring our success and how is this impacting on our decision-making?

For additional product information sheets and further discussion on your needs, please contact us by clicking the button below or telephoning our sales team on
00 44 (0)20 7520 9288