WINNERS Business Finance Simulation™

Do you have a need to introduce greater commercial awareness into your managers and team leaders?  Are your teams having trouble grasping the way that businesses operate?

Changescape can help with is WINNERS Business Finance Simulation™.  This is a blended learning activity based around course pre-work and a 1-day business finance simulation.  There is a strong emphasis on the practical application of financial management techniques throughout the simulation.  Due to the nature of the practical work, this simulation will be run by two facilitators and will accommodate a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 12 delegates.


Target Audience

Business managers, project managers and team leaders with a responsibility for managing a departmental or project budget.


Pre-Work

Please note that the pre-work is a mandatory part of the training and MUST be completed prior to attending the Simulation Workshop.  At least two weeks prior to the Simulation Workshop, delegates will receive a workbook consisting of factual information on how to manage a project or departmental budget along with a briefing pack for the simulation phases of the workshop.  They should study this in detail before attending the workshop and should allow 6 hours for this activity.  Anyone not completing the pre-work will not be allowed to attend the simulation.


Topics

INTRODUCTION

  • Workshop introduction
  • The business need for better financial management
  • Traditional problems with financial management
  • Traditional approaches to financial management


SIMULATION PHASE 1

Working in teams, delegates are introduced to the project simulation that forms the body of this course.  Each team size will be 3 or 4 people depending on the numbers attending the event and the following roles must be fulfilled by each team: Managing Director, Delivery Director, Finance Director, Bid Director. Some people may have to play more than one role and part way through the day, roles will rotate so that each person gets the opportunity to play each role.  Phase 1 of the simulation is concerned with the team creating their business processes to engage in the simulation, within the constraints set out by the facilitator.  Processes are reviewed by the facilitators and signed-off with points being awarded to the teams for completeness of approach.


SIMULATION PHASE 2

Teams now engage in the simulation, bidding for project work, acquiring the required resources, tracking the financial progress of each project won and reforecasting resources and costs to project completion.  Each round of the simulation equates to a month in a real business cycle and phase one will consist of three business cycles, each lasting 30 minutes.

PROCESS REVIEW AND ROLE ROTATION

Teams have the opportunity to review the effectiveness of their processes and fine tune them in the light of experiences to-date.  Roles within the team are rotated prior to starting the next series of cycles.


SIMULATION PHASE 3

Teams continue with the simulation, bidding for more project work, acquiring additional resources, tracking the financial progress of each project won and reforecasting resources and costs to project completion.  The time allowed for each cycle of the simulation is reduced to 20 minutes allowing for the team’s enhanced processes and 3 further cycles are completed.

PROCESS REVIEW AND ROLE ROTATION

Teams have another opportunity to review the effectiveness of their processes and fine tune them in the light of additional experiences to-date.  Roles within the team are rotated again prior to starting the next series of cycles.


SIMULATION PHASE 4

Teams continue with the simulation, bidding for further project work, acquiring additional resources, tracking the financial progress of each project won and reforecasting resources and costs to project completion.  Projects will be hit with typical issues relating to risk and issue management with delegates deciding how to cope with each situation as it arises.  The time allowed for each cycle of the simulation is reduced to 15 minutes allowing for the team’s enhanced processes and 3 further cycles are completed.

PROCESS REVIEW AND ROLE ROTATION

Teams have a final opportunity to review the effectiveness of their processes and fine tune them in the light of additional experiences to-date.  Roles within the team are rotated for the last time prior to starting the final series of cycles.


SIMULATION PHASE 5

Teams continue with the simulation, bidding for further support work, adjusting resources to the required levels, tracking the financial progress of each completed project and reforecasting resources and costs consumed.    The time allowed for each cycle of the simulation is reduced to 10 minutes allowing for the team’s enhanced processes and the final 3 cycles are completed.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW    

Teams review the outcome of their “year” of project activity assessing the financial situation they finished with.  The team finishing the simulation in the best business state (taking account of finances, customer satisfaction and staff satisfaction) will be announced as winner of the simulation and each team member will receive a small prize.  Each group will identify lessons learned and present them back to the rest of the group


SUMMARY & CLOSE

  • Summary of financial management techniques
  • Personal Action Planning
  • Workshop Review

Changescape can run this simulation for you at a cost of £1,750 plus expenses and for that investment, you get the the pre-work packs & a trained facilitator to run the simulation event.  VAT is added at rates prevailing on the day of delivery.

Alternatively, should you wish to license this simulation to facilitate yourself, an End User License Agreement can be arranged on a sliding scale (based on the number or people in your team who will use the simulation).   With the End User Licence Agreement option, you get a full set of the simulation components and Changescape will train your facilitators how to run the simulation.  This licence rate is inclusive of all expenses (if delivered in the UK) but VAT is added at rates prevailing on the day of delivery.