Managing a GLOBAL BUSINESS

This 3-day workshop targets company leaders including senior managers, strategic planners and executives. This financial training for senior executives involves strategic complexity across a global organization where leaders develop and strengthen their financial acumen.

FOCUS ON GLOBAL THINKING
All business decisions are interconnected, especially at a global level. A decision made in one area will have an impact on other areas. Leaders will experience the all too real problem of limited resources. If you free up resources, other departments can use them; if you tie up resources, other departments have to adopt a different strategy. The team must navigate the challenges of managing a global business to create and implement a winning strategy.

STRATEGY IMMERSION
Teams are given a small manufacturing business with incredible opportunities. They have the freedom to introduce change in process and quality improvements, products, differentiators, and global markets. Introducing new global markets brings even more challenges, with new market drivers, requirements, and currencies. Leaders must tap into their business acumen to manage this level of complexity.

MOST CHALLENGING!
Managing a Global Business is our most challenging and comprehensive simulation. Teams must navigate rapid business expansion to a global scale. The business environment becomes destabilized by competitors themselves. The leading team of the simulation is the company which operates most effectively as a team. They must use their business acumen to execute and develop a clear yet flexible strategy.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The Managing a Global Business Simulation introduces all leaders and managers of your company to financial planning and analysis tools. In this senior management training, participants navigate a rapidly changing industry by constantly analyzing their situation and revising their strategy. Leaders will apply the business acumen learning throughout the simulation to remain competitive in new and existing markets.

International variations in financial statements
Separate management of cash and profit
Cost structure and capacity utilization
Control of working capital
How market conditions dominate business decisions
Planning with budgets and cash flow forecasts
Unit cost analysis
Break-even analysis
Income Statement analysis
The need to monitor industry (it will change!)

SWOT analysis
Strategic Opportunities and Financial Constraints
Foreign exchange and hedging
Valuation methods
Discounted cash flow
Product Life Cycle and International Product Life Cycle
Cultural variations in doing business internationally
ROA, ROI, and other metrics for management
KPIs used at your company to gauge performance

“Cash is King – the business needs cash to run. Debt can be used strategically, and the business will fall behind if debt is not utilized for growth.” — Engineering Supervisor, Woodward

COURSE OUTLINE

How it Works

The Managing a Global Business simulation runs for six business cycles. Teams have full decision-making power and are accountable for their results throughout the simulation.

In each business cycle, the team-based companies develop and implement a global business strategy that incorporates real-world processes, including a strategic review of the industry, cost-benefit analysis, and new market development.

Each cycle of the executive training includes:

Market Analysis (with global variations in market drivers)
Doing business in a competitive global market, repositioning by product, price, reputation and geography
Ongoing strategic or SWOT analysis, updating the strategic plan in response to changes in the industry and in the marketplace
Finding a competitive edge through quality, niche markets, cost control, etc.
Sourcing and analyzing different kinds of information, communicating within the team, building a coherent plan of activity, implementing the activity in a time-sensitive environment, monitoring and responding to ongoing changes in the industry.
Performance measurement and analysis
Posting, comparing, and defending financial results

Other Activities

Foreign exchange
Forming strategic alliances
Discussion of net present value (NPV) and discounted cash flow (DCF).

Optional Discussions

Product Life Cycle and International Product Life Cycle
International Variations in Accounting Formats
Cultural Issues in Global Marketing
Other topics by request

Real-life Applications

Our Managing a Global Business simulation is made easy to understand through Visual Finance. Our gameboard simulation utilizes visual learning through a graphic representation of your corporate financial position or industry analysis. It uses colour, placement, and volume to display financial relationships. The visual aspect of the simulation makes it easy for learners to understand complex financial concepts at a glance, making it the perfect way to train all executives and leaders.

After the business cycle portion of the simulation, we connect the experiential learning back to your company’s concerns, measures, and goals through a tie-back conversation. We can also include additional exercises, including planning and analysis and a discussion of key performance indicators (KPIs) to enrich the real-world learning of senior managers and executives.

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