Case Study #1: Developing Financial Acumen or Finance for Non-Financial Managers

Client: Top 5 Mortgage Bank

Simulation Used: Cycloan™ (branch management simulation)

Specific Business Need: Communicate new financial reporting measures.

Solution: Our client needed to communicate to regional and area-level mortgage-branch managers the new way that business success and profitability were being measured, and the new way that revenues, expenses, and profitability were now being reported.

PriSim® customized an existing branch-level simulation, Cycloan™, to replicate the business dynamics of a mortgage loan center. Classes of 30-people divided into teams to compete running separate simulated mortgage branches. Teams received customer-segmentation data to differentiate the needs and wants of specific customer groups. Within Cycloan™, attendees practiced making the same decisions they would need to make in a real-world mortgage branch:

• train loan originators
• define products to sell to different market segments
• set rates charged for specific products
• promote and advertise mortgage products
• develop sources of leads
• manage staffing and support

Results:
Built fundamental business acumen in managers through intense, interactive training in core business skills. Took directors, managers and VPs to the “next level” of business acumen and leadership.
Imparted a holistic view of the business tying together the core functions of running a branch business and the overall fit with the parent company.

Developed and improved attendees’ understanding of the company’s business model from a perspective of “controllable profit”. Demonstrated how specific decisions made in operating a branch feed into and impact the rest of the organization. Provided a “laboratory setting” in which to practice branch-level strategies and to demonstrate the final outcomes of profitability at a corporate level.