Accelerated Learning Systems Incorporated

After a year of intensive study, several groups of business professionals spend two days devising and implementing business strategies that they think will earn them the largest share of the market and essentially wipe out the competition—their classmates, in this case—at the tables next to them.

It’s all part of the drama during a business simulation called Celemi Tango: Business From Knowledge™, which is the capstone of the University of Dayton’s Emerging Leader program, one of five comprehensive offerings at the Center for Leadership & Executive Development (CLED), a department of the University’s School of Business.

“The simulation is highly experiential, which is a critical piece of adult learning,” says Lisa Beutel, partner relationship director of CLED. “It really stirs their competitive juices, which is important to the overachievers this program attracts.”

At the start of the two-day Tango session, participants are sorted into competing teams or “companies,” oftentimes with individuals of varying professional backgrounds and perspectives. Each team manages its resources, including cash, clients and professional talent by maneuvering symbolic playing pieces along a game-style work mat as a certified facilitator guides the group through several business cycles or “years.”

Interest on loans, as well as payroll, taxes, R&D and training expenses are paid, while the teams simultaneously manage the impact these investments - or lack of investment, in some cases - has on employee retention and company image.

At the end of each simulated year, teams complete and post a P&L statement and balance sheet for their company and compare the strategic success or failure of their chosen strategy to that of the other teams. Based on the collective outcomes, shifts in direction are often a matter of survival.

“We started as a niche boutique, but ran up against another team with better luck in acquiring the right personnel for this market so we did a complete ‘about face’ and pursued a Walmart-type tactic of going for it all,” says Jim Knee, a manager with General Electric and a member of the simulation’s “Zeta Group.” “There was a challenge we couldn’t handle which was frustrating, but sometimes in the real world you staff up for a project and then when you don’t get it, you have to regroup.”

The “Beta Team,” on the other hand, had quite the opposite experience. “Our initial strategy was relatively moderate, but when we accidentally acquired more clients than we expected, it shifted to hyper-aggressive,” explains Reid Melville, branch chief of a research lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “We were grabbing for everything, trying to steal clients and headhunting talent from other tables. I really gained an appreciation for the different types of employees, especially the ‘low-flyers’ who could be put to work on a number of lower risk, yet profitable, projects.”

Each year brought new challenges and scenarios often eliciting cheers from one corner of the room and groans from another. Just as in the business world, some teams were more effective at differentiating themselves from competitors by recruiting the right know-how for the right projects, thus polishing their reputation amongst their customers.

Others weren’t so successful. “Our group focused too much on the growth of our employees, so we never made much money. It would be interesting to play again knowing what I do now,” says Roland Gordan, a risk manager with Win Wholesale.

“It is not uncommon during this segment of the Emerging Leader program for people to be up all hours of the night emailing each other with ideas until they come up with a plan they really like,” Ms. Beutel remarks.

The center’s curriculum was developed five years ago through a consortium of 18 partner organizations in the Dayton-Cincinnati area, all drawn together by a basic need for better leadership development. The partners vary from large multinationals such as Proctor & Gamble and Kodak Versamark to highly-specialized industries such as aerospace technology, banking and healthcare and even military and public utilities.

The Emerging Leader program prepares mid-level managers and high-potential leaders for future executive roles and has had over 100 graduates since its inception. The emphasis of the one-year leadership and business skill development program is on strong action learning, which is also the foundation of Celemi’s approach to developing business literacy through its simulations.

Gery Cummings, a learning consultant and President of Accelerated Learning Systems, has been facilitating the Celemi simulations at the University since the program’s inception. “The Tango simulation closely models the work environment of the candidates in the Emerging Leaders program,” he notes. “The typical candidate works in a project-driven, services-oriented, knowledge-based type of job—even if he or she works for a manufacturer. As a result, we are seeing real learning results through Tango and a higher degree of buy-in to the content of the University’s program.”

“The simulation was good at showing the top-down perspective of operating a company rather than from the middle up. It was really impressive how it could effectively incorporate so many different facets of business into a board game,” notes Dr. Liesa Rihl Stone, a technical service veterinarian at The Iams Company.

While a certain amount of academic learning is necessary, says Ms. Beutel, CLED believes non-traditional collective learning - mentoring, coaching, skills training, on-the-job learning and networking, as well as the Tango simulation - helps participants transition smoothly into executive level positions.

A recent nationwide survey of 2,000 senior executives and managers by NFI Research found that three quarters of the respondents indicated they receive their most practical business tips, guidance and tactics from conferences and seminars, with networking and interpersonal relationships a close second. The Tango experience provides all of these opportunities.

“I have to admit I was skeptical at first that a game could truly teach business principles, but it was a very impressive and effective tool,” adds Wright-Patterson’s Mr. Melville. “In the past, nearly 80 percent of the instruction I received has been lectures by professors with some side activities. This was quite the opposite with 80 percent activity and 20 percent instruction. It was rather dramatic how it tied everything together.”

Chemical giant BASF Corporation, a subsidiary of Germany-based BASF AG, finds itself changing rapidly in order to stay ahead of an increasingly competitive marketplace. New leadership within the company is relying more and more on knowledge resources like Information Technology, and asking such business units to break from traditional roles and lend their expertise to strategic discussions that influence the profitability of the company.

IT managers, now being sought after as mission-critical advisors, needed to develop stronger leadership skills. They needed to rise above their roles as service technicians, and to begin thinking and acting more like business consultants, capable of diagnosing problems and offering solutions.

Realizing nothing less than total commitment could move his division forward, BASF's Senior Vice President of Information Services (IS), Andrew Pike charged Michel Vitiello, Ph.D., manager of organizational development for the IS group, with developing a more strategic, customer-focused operation.

To begin, IS employees would need a whole new mindset, a new range of knowledge and skills, to translate Pike's vision into action. Vitiello's solution: a three-week Leadership Academy program during which IS employees did more than merely listen to executives announce a new strategic vision; they became part of the process of developing a new corporate culture to support it.

Working with consultant Gery Cummings, of NJ-based Accelerated Learning, Vitiello utilized two Celemi business simulations to help IS managers internalize new concepts and to understand how their individual actions impact their division's performance and profitability.

Vitiello's learning program was effective because it was cumulative-new information expanded on previous revelations-culminating in a clear understanding of IS priorities, obligations and performance issues.

First, the 110 IS senior professionals spent a week learning about their own interpersonal work styles through a series of individual feedback and profiling evaluations. Armed with a good sense of management styles, they were ready to listen to the needs of their internal customers, who were asked to share their business strategies and discuss IS service issues during week two of the Academy.

To get a better grasp of how resources flow in their clients' manufacturing-based units, the IS managers broke into teams to run their own simulated companies. Celemi's Apples & Oranges helped them develop an intrinsic sense of the challenges inherent in running a manufacturing operation profitably.

Once they had developed a better understanding of their styles and of their customers' needs, the IS managers were ready to reevaluate the way they do business.

Using Tango, Celemi's simulation for understanding how a knowledge-based business works, Vitiello encouraged participants learn firsthand about the rigors of the marketplace. Competition was fierce-teams competed against each other for the same customers and employees. By the end of the final week, IS managers were cleverly formulating effective business strategies and managing intangible resources to achieve their company's desired niche in the marketplace.

Chet Bhatt, an 11-year IS employee, felt the three-week Leadership Academy investment was well worth the time and effort. "We used to have a silo mentality," says Bhatt. "Now we are thinking broader." He adds, "IS has the ability to affect the profitability of the company. Now we see that information is king; and IS can help."

Before the Academy, Project Manager Jacqueline Saunders felt the IS division had no common language, no commonality in level of management skills. But after going through the sessions and simulations together, she felt they all came away with new skills for getting the best out of people.

Now, Saunders says, she understands how the data IS collects can lead to process improvements which affect the profitability of the company, and she is using the skills she developed within the Academy on current work projects. "The information wasn't all new, but you had to live it. You had to become part of the modus operandi."

The IS division's success with the Leadership Academy has been noted. Vitiello has begun rolling out the program to 800 people in BASF Corporation's Finance and Administration divisions. The company is also drafting plans to translate the program into Spanish and Portuguese and implement it in Latin America. Worldwide delivery is also being considered. At BASF, a culture change has begun.