Commercial Realism
One of the first questions organisations might ask when considering a business simulation is: "Will it feel like our business?"
In answering this question, we've found that what matters most isn't whether participants recognise their products, terminology or organisational structure. It's whether they recognise the commercial decisions, the tensions and the trade-offs. In other words it’s, commercial realism that matters, rather than industry realism.
We’ve illustrated this with two very different examples.
Example 1: FMCG, Leadership Programme
A global FMCG organisation wanted to use a business simulation as part of a senior leadership development programme.
The simulation was to provide an environment where participants could explore strategy, apply decision-making tools and experiment with new leadership behaviours.
We chose to begin with Bissim rather than develop a bespoke simulation. It was felt that the hypothetical, future-based scenario removed preconceptions that participants may have had about their own organisation. It also provided an obviously ‘safer’ environment in which to be ‘exposed’ and to experiment.
The simulation was then heavily tailored. Working alongside the client's specialists, we re-aligned the marketing model, adjusted the relationship between marketing and R&D, and integrated the organisation's value creation model into the simulation outputs.
The simulation formed the spine of a 5-day programme with both independent and integrated inputs, activities and reviews.
Example 2: Helping lawyers be more commercial
Here the aim was to help participants (in-house lawyers) walk in the shoes of their commercial colleagues.
Again, we began with Bissim and worked with the law firm and a few of their key clients to develop integrating scenarios. These were a series of commercial opportunities and threats disguised as legal problems. An in-house role was included within the management team, a regulatory framework was built and the simulation program itself was tweaked slightly.
The review process then explored questions such as:
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How does it feel to be, and to not be, the lawyer within the management team
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How did in-house counsel behave when given the legal problems
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How does in-house balance the tensions between business aims and compliance with the law
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How can legal contribute to better commercial decisions?
When does industry realism matter?
This matters when the commercial dynamics are different and don’t fit. Commercial property is a good example. Both property investment and development are significantly different to most businesses. And so this is an example of when a client wants a commercial property simulation, a bespoke simulation becomes the better answer.
Where next?
Commercial realism creates an environment that participants can believe in. What happens within that environment depends heavily on facilitation →