FINANCE & DECISION-MAKING

The Finance & Decision-Making Simulation provides financial acumen training. Participants gain valuable planning and analysis skills and build practical experience in budgeting, forecasting, and measuring performance throughout the 12-hour simulation. This corporate finance simulation is perfect for building financial acumen for non-financial managers and empowering employee decision-making.

FOCUS ON EFFECTIVE PLANNING
In this simulation, teams manage their company through “a year” of operations. They must pay close attention to both short term-results and long-term financial goals. This requires forecasting and consistent decision-making regarding pricing, capacity, borrowing, R&D, cost structure, and cash flow. Participants and their teams must think one step ahead of their competitors.

TRACKING COMPANY PERFORMANCE
Participants learn to track company performance through the tangible gameboard. The gameboard defines the income statement and the balance sheet while demonstrating the difference between cash and profit in addition to key ratios. Tracking the position and performance of the company is made easy with a visual display of finances. Non-financial managers will be able to easily understand financial concepts after the simulation.

GAINING PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
Learners gain practical experience throughout the simulation that can be transferred to their real-life responsibilities. They will use various financial planning and analysis tools, including cash flow forecasting, budgeting, and ratio analysis. Participants will face numerous business challenges with production efficiency, niche markets, and quality improvements. They must establish a strategy to combat these issues while maintaining a competitive market position.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

In the Finance & Decision-Making simulation, participants are decision-makers in all areas of the business. They gain hands-on experience in financial planning and analysis tools. Help your employees improve their financial acumen and decision-making skills!

Management uses of financial statements
Separate management of cash and profit
Cost structure and capacity utilization
Control of working capital
How market conditions dominate business decisions
Implementing change and measuring results

The value of budgets and cash flow forecasts
Unit cost analysis
Break-even analysis
Income Statement analysis
ROA, ROI, and other metrics for management
Your company’s specific financial metrics

“I can contribute better to the conversation my clients are having and can better understand the business decisions of the company.” — Jr. Attorney, Dorsey & Whitney

COURSE OUTLINE

How it Works

The team-based simulation runs for six business cycles. During each cycle, teams are accountable for their business and financial results and have the full decision-making power to influence them. Each team must develop and implement a business strategy that incorporates the dynamics of a real business, including production capacity, customers, prices, and financing.

Teams will develop their business and financial acumen in each business cycle through the following activities.

Examining market drivers: supply and demand, niche marketing, quality
Competitor awareness, setting prices in a competitive market
Ongoing strategic analysis, updating the strategic plan in response to changes in the industry and in the marketplace
Budget and cash flow exercises
Monitoring cash flow
Maintaining the ‘books’ of the operating company (Income Statement and Balance Sheet)
Performance measurement and analysis
Posting, comparing, and discussion of results

Other activities include competitor analysis, Break-Even analysis, Income Statement analysis and cost-benefit analysis.

Application to Real-Time Experiences

In our financial and decision-making training, we use visual finance to teach these complex concepts in our corporate financial acumen training workshops. Our simulation game board is a graphic representation of your corporate financial position or industry analysis. It uses color, placement, and volume to represent key financial statements, metrics, and ratios. The visual aspect of our simulation makes it easy for non-financial managers to understand and assess their financial position at a glance.

When the business cycles are complete, we connect participants learning from the classroom to the real world with a tieback discussion relating their experiential learning from the simulation to your company’s concerns, KPIs, and financial goals.

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