Income/Outcome considered as a war game

In an Income|Outcome business acumen workshops, team strategies may prove successful (or not) at the Market Table. :-)

But don’t get the idea that everyone is sitting around a single board and rolling dice! This is like a war game where teams are strategizing and manipulating their resources against each other.

In this simulation, each team has its own board—it shows all the line items of their team’s financial statements and gives them a “battlefield view” of their cost structure, cash flow situation, inventory levels, borrowing power, and more. Each team sits at its own table and engages in confidential strategy sessions—they may even leave for a breakout room when planning a new pricing strategy or something similar. Then they come face to face at the Market Table in the competition for customers.

And there aren’t any dice, chance cards, or spinners. All the information is available to everyone, and, as in chess, it’s a matter of how well you can plan for the future, how well you can anticipate your competitors, how much flexibility you can maintain, and how well you can respond to unexpected moves and situations (good or bad, intentional or accidental) generated by your opponents.

It’s not a zero-sum game. Usually, the winners are the people who have made the most money, but in a bitterly contested session the winners could be the team that has lost the least amount!

There are different levels of the game, which can run anywhere from 4 hours to 2-3 full days. Especially in the longer versions, teamwork is critical, and a team that has difficulty sharing ideas, sourcing and analyzing information, or making decisions in a timely fashion will inevitably post poor financial results.

In many ways, the model is an accurate representation of the real business world. Much of the learning is “stealth learning”—participants learn even without realizing it, because they are using a model for visualizing and thinking through all kinds of real-world issues, from the structure and use of financial statements to the flow of information and the need to manage separately for cash flow and profit.

They are all highly engaged, they learn rapidly and thoroughly, and they have a challenging and ultimately positive experience. Their company has developed their skills and value while simultaneously improving their job satisfaction and morale.

In that sense, it's a game where everyone wins.

Ready to boost your business acumen through an immersive online business simulation game?
Contact us today to discover how Income|Outcome can sharpen your team’s strategic insights and big picture understanding.

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