I am sharing my set of powerful web-based interactive business simulations with their real-time graphs, dashboards, sliders, guages and avatars. I developed these over a number of years using the excellent ithink simulation environment as essential tools to support what-if analysis, management learning games, experiential learning, balanced business scorecards and scenario planning.

Navigate through a video which introduces ten of the simulators and allows you to see screenshots, read more info and run each of them online. Alternatively you can pick a simulation from the list below:

1. Sustainable Business Simulator (SUBS)
The Sustainable Business Simulation allows leaders to engage with a broad set of decisions about their business each of which either directly impacts their value chain or indirectly mitigates some risk around sustainability. These decisions have immediate impact and also a longer-term impact, which reflects the reality of the time needed to develop new capabilities and address capability issues. The impact of these decisions are instantly displayed on a dashboard each quarter over a 3 year period which shows their impact both on key lagging (financial) and key leading (non-financial) performance indicators.

Run Sim:
http://forio.com/simulation/ns/ken.thompson/subs1958/

2. Social Media Optimization Simulator (SOCMEDOPTSIM)
One of the biggest challenges for any Enterprise today is Social Media Optimization, defined as "a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites." The Social Media Optimization Simulator Game lets you instantly 'what-if' the effects of different social media activities (blogging, tweeting etc) on your enterprise.

More Info:
http://www.bioteams.com/2009/09/07/social_media_optimization.html#more
Run Sim:
http://forio.com/service/netsims/ken.thompson/socmedoptsim/index.html

3. The Discipline of Market Leaders Simulator (TDML)
The Discipline of Market Leaders (TDML) by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema (1997) equips the leadership of an enterprise with a choice of 3 strategies for competing in the marketplace - Customer Intimacy, Operational Excellence or Product Leadership. TDML says you must excel in one of these AND maintain minimum thresholds for the other two. Here is a little web-based management simulation that lets you to test TDML strategies virtually before betting your business on them!

More Info:
http://www.bioteams.com/2009/07/16/the_discipline_of.html#more
Run Sim:
http://forio.com/service/netsims/ken.thompson/TDML/index.html

4. Virtual Enterprise Network Simulator (VENSIM)
This simulation exposes key dilemmas in the incubation stage of Virtual Enterprise Networks. In the early stages of development of Virtual Enterprise Networks some of the key leadership decisions may be counter-intuitive. This "management flight simulator" allows monthly resource allocation decisions in the areas of business development, member development and network development, to be experimented with in a risk-free environment. It offers the user immediate feedback on the impact of their decisions on key results outcomes - bid opportunities, contracts won, new members, membership base and network capital.

More Info:
http://www.bioteams.com/2007/11/23/management_flight_simulator.html#more
http://www.bioteams.com/AManagementFlightSimulatorforVirtualEnterpriseNetworkIncubation.pdf
Run Sim:
http://forio.com/service/netsims/kenthompson/tne001_fornetsim/index.html

5. Local Government Simulator (LOCGOVSIM)
The Simulator allows you make annual Local Government Investment decisions over a 10-year period. Each year you decide the % of your budget (which can be growing or decreasing as can Demand) you wish to invest in each of 6 Key Areas and decide the Strategies to implement each of them. Each key activity is effective in different degrees in its ability to provide and support citizens with employment and healthcare.

Run Sim:
http://forio.com/simulation/ns/ken.thompson/locgovsimdemo/

Tags: balanced business scorecard, dashboards, digital dashboards, experiential learning, scenario planning, serious games, simulators

Bioteams Books Reviews

Animal Instincts in the office

May 29, 2006 | article by Ken Thompson in Book Reviews (37)

Just because we might have selfish genes it does not mean we have to behave selfishly; nature knows when to be nice as well as nasty and nepotism occurs in the biological world too with equal destructiveness as our world. This is according to Richard Conniff author of The Ape in the Corner Office and reviewed in the UK Guardian Newspaper (27 May).

Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK

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White Label Online Change Management Game (cohort) from Bioteams Design

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Bioteams readers might be interested to know that I have just launched Cohort - an Online Change Management Game which challenges players to explore different strategies to gain the support of a group of senior executives for a major change initiative. The game is designed to be used in leadership development workshops with up to 20 participants playing competitively in teams.

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15 Principles of Business Game Design for team-based learning

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I develop custom business games for team-based experiential learning workshops which usually have a significant computer element. This whole area is strewn with pitfalls, good intentions and misconceptions and there is a huge risk that the game becomes too complex or an end in itself or the graphical aspect of the user interface becomes all consuming at the expense of the learning.

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The secret to building simple verifiable business models

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Many business models used by enterprises have never been calibrated using the organisation's own historical data which seriously undermines their usefulness. This is generally not due to the lack of historical data but because of the way the models have been designed. So can you build business models which do not suffer from this fatal flaw? Absolutely!

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