Strategic Decision Making Simulation that Works

“Whether it is a Strategic Decision Making Simulation or executive coaching, LSA Global focuses on understanding our business situation and helping us succeed.

I would highly recommend LSA Global as a top quality resource to anyone looking to greatly improve the skills of their leadership, management, and project teams.”
Bonnie S. Olson | VP Human Resources | Lutheran Social Services

“The best simulation for giving a birds-eye view of operations.”
Magnus Aniander | Senior Leadership Development | Toyota

“We required every Oracle USA sales representative to take this Strategic Decision Making Simulation. It was exceptional.”
Sales Manager | Oracle

“You know the program is effective when people from manufacturing, sales, and marketing become sensitive to each other’s needs and understand how the other operation works.”
Manager | 3M

Description
This proven 1.5 to 2-day Strategic Decision Making Simulation workshop helps team to pull in the same direction, build cross-functional alignment, and develop a big picture understanding for more effective strategic decision-making.

In this highly experiential strategic decision making simulation, teams manage their own capital-intensive companies and compete for the same customers in a rapidly changing marketplace. Participants act as finance, production, marketing, and corporate intelligence.

Teams of 4 to 6 must take over a company, grow with scarce resources, battle for positions, and improve profitability — in good times and bad. It’s a customizable and dynamic challenge of analysis, strategy, execution, and navigation to collectively make the right investments at the right time.

Most leaders call this comprehensive simulation a “micro-MBA” for their decision-making teams in the areas of strategic planning, teamwork, and business finance.

Strategic Decision Making Simulation for Leaders and High-Performance Teams

Objectives
With hundreds of operational and strategic decisions to make under heavy competitive pressure, teams are challenged to make tough choices with limited resources and demanding time constraints. In this proven decision-making simulation, participants gain:

Functional expertise of how financial decisions impact overall business — and how business decisions are reflected financially.
Higher productivity through better teamwork and communication.
Deeper understanding of strategy and tactical initiatives.
Improved decision-making and problem-solving for optimal allocation of limited resources.
Increased responsiveness to customer needs.
Stronger business literacy and financial acumen.

Typical decisions participants face include when to invest, how many markets to pursue, whether to develop new products or maintain existing ones, if it makes sense to be a market leader or an early follower, and when to enter markets.

Target Audience
Executives, senior leaders, high-potential managers, cross-functional teams, and emerging leaders responsible for driving business results who want to develop their business strategy skills, analytical thinking, decision-making, and financial acumen.

To speak with an LSA Expert and learn about business simulation program customization and delivery options onsite at your company, please contact us.

Related Information

The quality of LSA’s Leadership Training Programs and facilitators is always top notch. We recognize and appreciate the hard work LSA always goes through to align to our unique culture and meet our specific requirements. Thank you for regularly going above and beyond. Your support and dedication, both on the strategic and tactical side, have been outstanding!

Anna Meyer
Leadership Development

We have had a very beneficial partnership with LSA. Their recent Leadership Development Program helped us to identify, develop, and retain top leaders. It was instrumental in helping take our company and our key people to the next level. I would recommend them to anyone looking to truly develop and retain top talent.

Steve Janowsky
Vice President of Operations

LSA Global has been a great partner in helping us move toward being “the leading developer of talent in the service performance management industry.”

I have engaged LSA to help develop best-in-class programs in the areas of: Executive On-boarding, Manager Training, Sales Training and Coaching, Employee Engagement, and Instructional Design.

They have consistently met or exceeded my (very) high expectations and are always responsive to my needs to increase performance, engagement, customer satisfaction, and sales growth.

Mike Normant
Senior Director, Training & Development

At the onset of our engagement with LSA, I was skeptical that an outside firm would be able to understand and dissect our organization’s highly complex and technical business challenges.

However, through the leadership team interview and strategy retreat processes that LSA utilized, they provided a fresh, innovative, and practical perspective that created tremendous strategic value and focus for our executive leadership team.

As a result, I would highly recommend LSA Global to any leader struggling with building the strategic alignment and high performance teams necessary to generate sales growth, in a way that fits their unique corporate culture.

Robert Laudati
Managing Director

We turned to LSA to help us custom design and deliver a action leadership and management development curriculum to help drive performance across the company.

They have done an excellent job diagnosing the business situation, designing an approach that fits our unique culture, and delivering first class solutions. Thank you!

Sally Buchannan
VP Human Resources

What a refreshing change from the half-baked psycho-babble you normally get from training and consulting organizations. LSA gives you the practical and results-oriented assistance you need to define and reach your goals.

Their leadership, management, and sales expertise has been invaluable. They think strategically and provide a results driven plan – not just a temporary fix.

They are great to work with, and even more importantly, they “get it!”

David Fiano
Director of Merchandising

Thank you for a great leadership development session today. The facilitator was brilliant. The team got a lot out of it (as did I).

I believe it will help us create an even higher performance culture by ensuring we have a common understanding of how to create higher performance and work toward clear and common strategic goals.

Simon Jefferson
Managing Director

Working on our HR Strategy was so eye opening. I feel so much better prepared to be successful as a leader individually and collectively.

Now the entire HR leadership team can drive our growth strategy forward in a way that makes sense.

Kristin Talastas
Director, HR Shared Services

LSA has been a tremendous asset at my current company and my past company.

As an HR leader, I am always looking for ways to find external resources that can provide impactful leadership and management development expertise. LSA consistently does that for me.

The tools and practices are crisp, business relevant, and easy to apply on the job.

Ken Boehm
VP of Human Resources

LSA helped us with leadership development by designing a solution to match our unique needs and culture.

It was a huge success. I would highly recommend LSA to help take leaders and managers to the next level.

Karen King, SPHR
Manager, Human Resources

Having tripled in size and recently merged, LSA helped our executive team to increase our level of strategic alignment, to solidify our new direction, and to push our agency forward.

As we look to rapidly scale, the clear, actionable, and critical few strategic moves combined with how we differentiate ourselves to our top accounts and target clients has really set us on a great path to success.

This is exactly what we needed to get to the next level. Thank you LSA!

Matt Britton
CEO

For our go to training outsourcing partner, LSA provides exactly what we want and need – which is not an easy task.

As always, they design and deliver outstanding leadership development results and high quality management training programs that totally align with our unique business and talent strategies!

Elizabeth Siebert
Director, Organizational Excellence & Development

I continue to be impressed by the depth and breadth of LSA’s expertise in leadership development, and management development.

What a smart and client-centric group of great people who really know how to help leaders attract, engage, develop and retain top talent in a practical and results-driven manner.

Thank you LSA!

Tracy Esposito
Director, HR Business Partner

I’ve been associated with LSA for the last 8 years and have found them to be extremely professional and client-focused.

I’ve participated in a number of solutions ranging from Performance Management to Leadership Training. I’ve found the quality to be superior.

They are always well prepared and have definitely done a considerable amount of pre-work in order to customize to our unique culture and goals.

Duane Schroeder
Human Resource Manager

Having taken on a new executive leadership role, one of my first calls was to LSA Global to help my leadership team to design, implement, and cascade clear strategic plans. First, LSA helped our leadership team identify the strategy, culture, and talent areas that mattered most to create organizational alignment.

Then they helped facilitate the design of a strategic growth plan that is clear, compelling, believable, and implementable. We now have 100% commitment from an aligned leadership team and key stakeholders going forward.

I would recommend LSA to anyone who wants to create high levels of strategic alignment, growth, and performance.

Erik Arvesen
Vice President, General Manager

FAQs

A strategic decision making simulation is an interactive business exercise that places participants in realistic leadership scenarios where they must analyze data, evaluate tradeoffs, collaborate under pressure, and make critical and enterprise-wide business decisions. Unlike traditional classroom learning, experiential simulations allow leaders to practice strategic thinking and decision-making skills in a dynamic, risk-free environment that mirrors real-world business complexity.

Strategic decision making simulations are especially valuable for executives, senior leaders, high-potential managers, cross-functional teams, and emerging leaders responsible for driving strategic business results. Organizations often use simulations to strengthen strategic alignment, improve enterprise thinking, accelerate leadership readiness, and help teams navigate uncertainty with greater confidence and agility.

Participants strengthen a broad range of leadership and business capabilities, including strategic thinking, prioritization, risk assessment, financial acumen, collaboration, communication, scenario planning, and decision-making under uncertainty. Simulations also help leaders recognize how short-term choices can impact long-term organizational performance, customer outcomes, and competitive positioning.

Strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high- and low-growth companies. Research consistently shows that experiential learning accelerates skill retention and behavioral change more effectively than passive learning alone. Strategic decision making simulations help leaders practice applying business frameworks in realistic situations, which improves judgment, execution, and cross-functional collaboration. Organizations often use simulations to align leaders around strategy, improve adaptability, and increase organizational agility during periods of growth, transformation, or market disruption.

Traditional training often focuses on concepts and theory, while simulations immerse participants in realistic business challenges that require active problem-solving and decision-making. This experiential approach increases engagement, strengthens critical thinking, and helps leaders immediately connect learning to real business situations. Simulations also create opportunities for reflection, feedback, and team-based learning that reinforce lasting behavior change.