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Boardgame Exercises to Build Financial Acumen
Finance is the language of business. Whether your high-potential leaders actually work in the Finance department or whether they work in HR, IT, Operations, or Legal, financial terminology is used to describe the performance of the business. But finance can be complex, confusing, and hard to understand. We’ve developed an approach to help participants in…
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Create an Unfair Advantage During a Recession
Could any rational company actually look forward to a recession? Here’s an article from the Associated Equipment Distributors that outlines how you can prepare for, rather than dread, an economic downturn. The article describes how Caterpillar actively planned for the 2008 recession and was able to produce a profit and advance its financial condition –…
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How Jelly Beans Can Change The World
It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: it’s rude and inconsiderate to show up late to a meeting. And while it shouldn’t need to be researched, you’ll find lots of data to support the negative impacts of tardiness, such as this article and this one. Think about it: ten people waiting six minutes…
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Accelerating the Learning Curve of Business Simulations
Computerized business simulations can be complex. Ours are. To match our experienced audience, our learning objectives need to be complex. But this creates a challenge. How do we quickly get participants past the learning curve of the simulation so they can transition to the learning curve of strategic, financial and business acumen? For the past…
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The Three Critical Questions of Business Planning
(This article first appeared in the CED Magazine) As a business leader, your job is to successfully move your organization forward and improve business performance. This requires a continuous process of reflection, analysis, and planning during which you’ll have to answer the following questions about your business: What is your business’ current condition? Where would…
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Net Promoter Score – Promoted or Demoted?
The uses and interpretation of the popular metric Net Promoter Score (NPS) are still being explored and debated. Intended to measure “customer experience”, the metric has exploded over the last 5 years, with companies using NPS scores to assess and improve their products and services, to make investments, and even tying it to executive compensation. …
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Google’s Leadership Test – 5-minutes and 13 questions
What if you could identify in 5-minutes whether or not someone had the potential to be a great leader at your company? It might sound far-fetched, but when Google thinks they can do just that by asking only 13 short questions, it’s worth paying attention. Identifying leadership talent and putting that talent in the right…
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Lemonade – Making Insurance Cool and “Socially Impactful”
Apparently technological disruption can make any industry trendy and cool – even insurance. Startup company Lemonade is being described by users as “instant,” “fun,” and contributing to “social good”. All this about a company that sells renters and homeowners insurance online. Launched in 2016, Lemonade is based on an artificial-intelligence platform and describes itself as…
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Pen and Paper Exercise – Moments of Truth
As business people, we are naturally focused on business results: profits, performance, market share, and the KPI “flavor of the day”… But we also realize that satisfied customers are our most important business result. In the words of Peter Drucker, “…the purpose of business is to create a customer.” Here’s a pen and paper exercise…
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Fun and Games at Work
Fancy coffee bars at work are a nice touch, but to build employee morale while also boosting business productivity, consider bringing games into play. Research has confirmed that adding play to the workplace can actually improve productivity by 20%. Playing while at work unites team members, helps blow off steam, and fosters innovation and creativity….