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Kaplan altior can now offer training sessions based around the Kaplan Business Challenge. This exciting and engaging training format is flexible, stimulating and fun. Delegates remember their training experience long after the session and gain skills to truly add value to their workplace.
A real-world experience
The Kaplan Business Challenge simulates a real-world manufacturing business with long lead times, contract-led sales, international operations and highly competitive markets. Delegates work in groups, acting as the senior management team of a failing business. By working through a variety of strategic and financial decisions, in competition with other teams in the room, they are tasked with turning the business around and creating value for shareholders.
Tangible training benefits
The Kaplan Business Challenge is a truly holistic learning experience, integrating strategic, operational, planning, forecasting, riskmanagement, and financial reporting aspects of running a business.
Teams bid for the right to deliver contracts and manage the production process through their business model to deliver on those contracts.
Finance lies at the heart of the simulation and the delegates learn about costing, margin management, budgeting and cash flow forecasting. They prepare the financial statements for their own businesses, and learn how to analyse and interpret these to make practical and effective business
decisions.
In addition, by negotiating with stakeholders and competitors, working within teams and leading strategic developments, delegates develop a host of interpersonal and networking skills.
Finally and most importantly, delegates will come away from the simulation realising that every business decision has a financial consequence, and that the ability to track and manage that consequence is vital. They will ultimately appreciate that they all have a role to play in delivering financial success.
Strategic thinking
Delegates can choose which global markets to operate in.
They will analyse market projections, determine corporate strategy and develop detailed sales plans. Finally, they will bid for sales contracts in competition with other teams in the room.
Creating shareholder value Delegates will prepare income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements at the end of each quarter. These financial statements are ‘bought to life’ as delegates see the financial consequence of the decisions they have made. Finally, they will need to report back to their shareholders on how much value has been created.
Operational planning
The business has a long lead time through procurement and manufacturing to finished goods.
Production profiling is critical and delegates will need to develop operational plans to deliver their strategies, deal with supply issues, and integrate production and sales plans.
Cash is king!
Profitable businesses can still fail due to a lack of cash flow. The Kaplan Business Challenge demonstrates this in a highly visible way. Delegates will manage their working capital cycles, negotiate with banks for funds, and see how cash moves around a business.
Who should attend:
Anybody within an organisation who needs a fuller understanding of business finance and the key financial decisions that any business faces. The simulation is equally suitable for operational staff within a business and client-facing service professionals. No prior finance knowledge is required, although the simulation is also useful for those with finance experience who wish to revise and broaden their knowledge, and for finance professionals wishing to understand the broader strategic finance issues facing a business.
Examples of delegates who have previously attended The Kaplan Business Challenge include :
• trainee solicitors
• fee earners at all levels (including partners)
• human resources professionals
• marketing executives
• administrative staff
• production and sales teams
• main board directors
Why choose a board game?
We have found that a board game is a flexible, engaging, interactive and fun way of delivering finance training to non-finance professionals. The nature of the board lends itself well to tailoring the simulation precisely to a client’s needs. Also, unlike computer simulations, delegates feel
connected with their businesses. They experience how the financial performance and cash flow consequences of their decisions impact directly on the board. This reinforces the key learning point that finance lies at the heart of a business.
Logistics
The Kaplan Business Challenge can be run effectively over one to five days, although the two-day simulation is the most popular choice of clients. Delegates work in teams of four to six, against three to five other teams in the room, so ideal delegate numbers range from 12 – 30.
We can run the simulation in house at your office or offsite, depending on your preference. For more information, or to book a Business Challenge session, please contact Barbara Anderson on 029 2045 1000 or email barbara@altior.co.uk
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