Let’s face it: our work environment has changed forever. The pandemic has inevitably changed the way in which we will work as we come out of lockdown and businesses open up again. Organisations must adopt a new flexible approach to working in terms of staff availability, resource capability, collaboration and location.
All Game designs consist of two structural elements; game mechanics and gamification techniques. The more successful the combination of these components, the more successful the game will be. These core aspects can be described as follows:
A business simulation is a business game, employees play to learn about the business they work for, key concepts within core business functions, how they are interconnected and how their individual roles all impact business success. Players move from passive learning to experiential learning as they run their own virtual company. Business simulations come in the form of an e-learning educational training solution which is delivered via the cloud offering businesses complete flexibility as to how they want to run the simulation.
Google "business acumen" and numerous sources, from reputable researchers across the globe, provide a variety of definitions; ranging from learning business intelligence in higher educational facilities, to a natural occurring business savvy, to the understanding of how to successfully inspire all aspects within an organisation, to the strategic execution of collaboration to reach a common goal: achieving the highest potential within the business.
Pulling it all together – just what does it actually mean to operate a business? This last simulation of our new series enables students to run their own business. As with any businesses, internal and external influencers are given to students, requiring them to test their growth strategy but also deal with anticipated and unexpected market changes.
A further key element in delivering a complete business management course will cover the topic of leadership. Once students have gained a thorough understanding of business management & strategy, have been provoked to develop their entrepreneurial spirit, course directors will need to develop student acumen and leadership capabilities to be effective in business.
A new year inherently brings about new ideas, which can range from anything to changing a small element of one’s personal life to more major changes, such as an awakening of the entrepreneurial spirit and starting a new business. Ideas often thought of perhaps for numerous years may suddenly start to take on a realistic meaning.
Truly understanding how to turn ideas and spirit into a successful business is, however, a challenge many entrepreneurs face. Many business courses offer this subject as a unit offering students the complex theories behind this task.
There are many different proven theories on how to successfully operate a business. Professors and course leaders all agree that teaching a variety of theories is vital – as is experience. Without experience of operating a business, students will not be able to truly understand the impact of internal & external influencers, as well as the outcomes of their decisions on the business. Having the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them without damaging a real business is essential when providing an all-round education.
The Business Management Course is all about understanding exactly what it means to be a manager in today’s business world. What are the key units within a business? How do they work together to achieve common success? These any many other questions are posed during this multi-channel learning experience. What are the benefits of collaboration? The pitfalls of working in a silo?
Our business simulations immerse students into challenging real-life scenarios in a constantly changing business environment. An exciting, fun and interactive range of simulations especially designed to provide not just business and commercial knowledge, but also to quickly build student networks, break down barriers and form cohesive teams.
Businesses are looking for the most suitable candidates to help grow their business. Historically recruiters were looking for academia and personality tests to provide the most suitable new hire. Times have changed.
Dedicated targeted development simulations will focus your future leaders on growing your business in line with board strategy and will engage them from the outset through challenging and fun simulations using gamification techniques.
Employee Engagement is high on the corporate agenda, however running a truly innovative and engaging programme is challenging. This case study illustrates how this can be achieved.
Identifying leadership skills is one challenge. Developing business acumen within your future leaders another. Retaining leaders yet another. This pdf explains how simulation games can help you find leaders within your business, develop their acumen and keep them loyal & engaged.
Sales targets and corresponding performance are easy to understand and analyse. Individual salespeople are given a number and timescale. If they meet or exceed that number in that period they are fine, if not questions are posed and adaptive measures taken. Their impact on the business is immediately clear. The more sold the greater the overall income. What about more complex metrics; such as skill/knowledge sets and gaps; for each employee in your organisation? How those gaps relate directly to the overall business performance? How much importance is attributed to each skill or knowledge set?
Easier said than done. Finding key characteristics through day-to-day observations can be quite time consuming and my guess is, most business leaders simply do not have enough time in the day to observe every one of their junior team in hopes of finding a future leader. Then, once identified, sending individuals to an outside training agency can provide some core skills, but won’t necessarily develop the acumen best suited for the individual business. Following on, once the recognised individuals have been nurtured, it is of utmost importance to retain them, otherwise time, money and effort will have been wasted and will inevitably need to be repeated. What can be done?
First impressions matter. Loyalty is key to employee retention. Engaged employees are strong business advocates as they see themselves part of the bigger picture and will help your business grow. This pdf explains how simulation games can supercharge your new hires.
Businesses spend a lot of time, money and effort on recruiting the right person for the right job. Sadly, this becomes wasted when employees do not last beyond their probation period. To all of us, first impressions matter, whether we are aware of it or not. Businesses expect their employees, in particular new hires, to be excited loyal advocates who present 'their new employer' as a great place to work with a great offering to others; regardless of business type or sector.
As part of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles group Maserati is one of the world's most iconic automotive manufacturers, rich in tradition and sporting successes. The head of HR, Finance and the European Sales Director recognised the need for their teams, which are spread across multiple sites across Europe, to develop their commercial acumen, the inter-connectivity of their actions to the business profitability and the and the importance of multi departmental collaboration.
You may be currently involved at some stage of your personnel review process – either right in the middle or, the lucky ones, having completed it. You will soon be collating the information to assess the results, match to performance related awards and collating lists of talented individuals for leadership development.
2018 will see an even greater need for building and developing employee engagement for ambitious businesses looking to generate growth. Primary focus will be on employee experiences, both day-to-day and longer-term. No surprise here really, as long-term relationships are the most beneficial and profitable ones all growing businesses focus on.
So, what does employee experience mean?
Let’s face it we are all working more years than ever before. The challenge to ensure every employee is focused not only on their individual role, but also excited about the wider business objective, is quite a tricky one. Today’s workforce will typically include several ‘types’ of employees, each with their own understanding and response to technology.
When employee engagement drops, business revenue drops. A 2017 report by AON HEWITT demonstrated that a 5-point increase in employee engagement can turn into 3% business revenue growth in the following year. With business uncertainty such as BREXIT, the need to engage employees has become more important now than ever before.
Six months into the year is the ideal time for HR professionals to take stock of employee engagement and development programmes. Have any deadlines lapsed? Has the overall company staff development programme been followed? Have identified in-house talent been retained? Engaged? Developed? Believe it or not, once plans have been created and signed off early in the year, identified key individuals are left to find development opportunities themselves; rather than HR creating and monitoring development opportunities for them.
Get your onboarding right and new employees will fit in seamlessly, by understanding the business culture, language and the part they need to play in achieving the common goal – meet business targets. Get it wrong and you will have given them a rather negative impression, which will inevitably result in lower employee engagement levels and eventually require retraining down the line.
Graduate recruitment is quite a complex task; once you have identified the target graduates you are looking for – either by Degree topic or University you need to ensure you provide them with the right engaging stimulation to drive their desire to want to work for you. Then you need to ensure you have the right fit of grads based on their personal characteristics to ensure they will integrate seamlessly into your business.
One of the dilemmas faced by HR Directors is the ability to demonstrate ROI to the Board from employee engagement activities. HR Heads continue to turn to Business Simulations for all aspects of employee engagement; such as recruitment, onboarding, talent nurturing, team building and management training.
At Business Smart International we couldn’t agree more. Both are directly linked. Any HR VP/Director worth their weight in gold will know that driving business growth, as demanded by the board, means they need to have a solid employee engagement strategy in place. This must include both individual skill development and tailoring their skill development to drive business growth whilst mitigating risk.
Let’s face it – we are all hooked to technology & games. Whether traditional board games or the latest in online gaming. Whether played on an actual board or on the wide ranging options for mobile devices. So it’s no surprise really that businesses seek games to introduce, train, or reinvigorate employees to their business goals.
Deloitte recently released a report which outlined the complexities of modern workforces with ‘multi’ everything. From multi-generational, to multi-cultural, multi-gender, multi-functional and more.
Looking after customers and employees is crucial to successful growth. Research has shown that increasing the lifetime value of both are the key factors businesses MUST include when creating strategies to achieve their long-term goals. Yet astonishingly, many businesses are only beginning to consider the true implications and potential of employee engagement.
Management teams from some of the best companies in Cyprus competed against each other in managing a virtual company. Over 4 rounds, teams made the difficult strategic decisions made by everyday business leaders in order to deliver maximum business value.
TrainingIndustry.com has announced its Gamification Companies Watch List, as a part of its mission to continually monitor the training marketplace for the best providers of gamification services/technologies in support of corporate learning and development.
On a full day event 500 graduates from around the world used a banking simulation customised to highlight HSBC's global challenges to jump-start their on-boarding into the company.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the seventh-largest automaker in the world, whose brands include Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Fiat Professional, Jeep, Lancia and Maserati, approached Business Smart International to become a partner in delivering their commercial acumen talent programme.
In June, 230 MSc Business students from Warwick Business School came together to apply their academic learning in our luggage simulation. Business Smart International facilitated the event, which was equipped via BYOD — Bring Your Own Device.
After decades of traditional management and leadership development, organisations are starting to create the next generation of programmes by introducing and integrating realistic business simulations.