What is the Better Business Game?
A workshop session, facilitated by BITC and using a simulation exercise to introduce the concept that business strategy must account for future change in the social and natural environment.
Groups of ‘players’ design a business strategy to deliver triple bottom line payoffs, using a full colour ‘Monopoly’ style board game backed up by online scoring and feedback.
The groups compete to design the most successful business, making investment decisions to deploy their $100 million capital on 10 dimensions, such as Marketing, Staff Training, Supplier Location and Energy Sourcing.
Our software models these choices and predicts the outcomes over a 5 year time period to identify the winning combination and provide feedback on the outcome and any contradictory choices made.
Why play the Better Business Game?
It is a thought provoking exercise and a method for opening discussion and getting the debate started.
The game highlights some of the dilemmas that businesses face to both adapt for and mitigate future longer-term challenges.
The game is about the reality of making business decisions: balancing social, environmental and economic considerations.
A simple model, but has real world applications.
Who is the Better Business Game for?
Suitable for awareness-raising among any group from secondary school to CEO and Board level.
Highly sophisticated CR practitioners may not find it challenging enough.
Best for between 12 and 150 participants, but has been run with over 200. Good for groups of various levels of seniority and CR expertise. Very effective as ice-breaker or inbetween more formal conference settings.
How to play the Better Business Game?
Groups of ‘players’ design a business strategy to deliver triple bottom line payoffs backed up by online scoring and feedback,
The primary lesson is the importance of responding to the world you are in and prioritising what is really important for the business, which involves a number of trade-offs.
Each company is launched into a specific ‘world scenario’, which presents a selection of challenges and opportunities.
Feedback
Was the game an effective way of delivering the conference objectives?
“Yes, it stimulated significant debate and discussion and encouraged delegates to look at how businesses succeed in future environments.”
Was the game a valuable use of time?
“Yes, the game was enjoyable and good to talk to people you never met before. Very inclusive because in the end we had 10 minutes when each one could say what they do and how they try to foster corporate responsibility in their job.”
