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Should participants go through a Business Simulation multiple times? – Third Times a Charm!
We’ve been building business simulations since 1994. We have long-term clients who we’ve worked with for 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. In several of our clients we are used for 101, 201, and 301-level curriculums that build business, financial, and leadership acumen. When we have a longer-term client “relationship,” occasionally individuals will show up…
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Silver Pens and Motivation
At the conclusion of PriSim’s business simulation exercises, we recognize the winners of the competition with a prize. Our trophy of choice for the winning team is an inexpensive solid silver magic levitating pen. But is this simple prize what motivates participants to stay focused over multiple days of number crunching, lectures, decision making, and…
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Special Weapons And Tactics of SWOT Analyses
At PriSim, we always include a SWOT exercise (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) as part of our business simulation classes. SWOT is a simple yet powerful framework to assess the current “as-is” condition of a company, forming the foundation for future “to-be” strategic planning. So what could possibly go wrong with such a timeless, well-tested…
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Leadership Amid Chaos
If you thought business decision-making was already hard, how about decision-making when there is no actual solution – yet a decision still has to be made? Yes, that’s VUCA again, tying back to our blog post last month about a “VUCA world” (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous). In the book Leaders Make the Future, author…
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VUCA Rising
The pace of change in today’s business world is moving at hyper-speed. Add to that rising complexity and unpredictability, and it can feel overwhelming. The military coined a label for such a world, calling it “VUCA”: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. The business world has adopted the term and many books and articles have outlined…
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Finance 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…