Business Strategy Simulation: Strategic Thinking and Impact

“Everyone gets something different out of this business strategy simulation. If you work with purchasing, you learn about brand image, and if you’re in marketing you learn about finance and strategy.”

Simon Eade | Senior Leadership Development Specialist | Volvo Car Group

Description
This proven and highly experiential Business Strategy Simulation can be delivered live or virtually. It immerses leaders in the complexities and implications of strategy design and strategy execution. Participants experience realistic business outcomes based on their choices of running an enterprise in a competitive and ever-changing environment.

The goal is to effectively build and sustain shareholder value by strategically acquiring new clients while simultaneously expanding and retaining current accounts.

Teams of 4 compete with other teams for the same clients in the same markets. Leaders learn how to offer the right product or service mix and how build a profitable and high performing organization with the right talent supported by efficient processes.

Leaders must make high stakes strategy decisions to help their company stand out in a competitive market, be willing to adjust when circumstances change, and embrace data to meet changing client demands. The highly experiential simulation allows participants to see the big picture of their organization and understand how to make a greater business impact.

Objectives
In this proven business strategy simulation, participants elevate their business, operational, and financial acumen for commercial strategy by:

Targeting and selling to preferred ideal target customers.
Developing and maintaining an attractive and profitable product portfolio.
Investing in people and processes for optimal strategy execution.
Creating a strong and sustainable brand.
Communicating company strategy.
Building a common understanding of the big picture in each employee.

Target Audience
Available in over 10 languages, this proven business strategy simulation is for high potentials and leaders (e.g., Directors and above) who want to enhance their business strategy skills, decision-making capabilities, business acumen, and financial acumen.

Business Strategy Simulation: Improve Strategic Thinking and Business Results

Key Concepts
Customized to meet your unique situation, typical decisions participants face involve understanding and applying concepts related to main business drivers such as:

Business Area	Key Topics
Customer Behavior	Purchase decisions Customer needs, values, and preferences
Customer Segmentation	Targeted customers Market positioning and brand value
Business Finance	Income statement and key financial indicators Cash flow and the cost of capital
Key Performance Indicators	Balanced scorecard Capacity utilization and benchmarking
Strategy	Unique value proposition and pricing Disruptive technologies, plus red and blue oceans
Intangible Assets	Knowledge management Shareholder value
Operations Efficiency	Good and bad costs Optimization
Forecasting	Product lifecycle Rolling forecast
Growth and Profitability	Creating long-term value Building investor confidence

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

Related Information

We reviewed the top Leadership Development offerings and selected LSA’s 12-month Leadership Program based upon the value and systemic approach.

The feedback on the program, approach, and results was phenomenal. While other programs may be better known, the other options were more theoretical and did not compare in terms of LSA’s practicality, quality, and results.

We could not be happier.

Stacey Porter
Senior Manager Learning and 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

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

We partnered with LSA Global to help us invest in our people. LSA custom designed an impactful management curriculum to help upskill our key managers and leaders.

We consider LSA to be our trusted learning and development partner and a valued extension of our team as we rapidly scale. Thank you LSA!

Lisa Bruun
SVP Human Resources

We contacted LSA to help us design and deliver customized management development programs. LSA worked with us to meet our exact needs. We started at the top with our executive team. It was such a great success that we rolled it out company-wide. We look forward to a long-term partnership with LSA Global and their team of experts.

Barry L. Byrd, SPHR
Human Resources Manager

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

After a difficult search to find a partner that could address a very specific leadership development need, we chose LSA Global. They were responsive to our needs and created a highly customized solution that we continue to see results from. It is nice to know we have access to their expertise with a simple phone call.

Valerie Blackburn
Director of Business Operations

LSA worked with our Executive Leadership Team to help create strategic clarity and alignment as we look to increase our growth rate and unlock innovation. They masterfully handled very complex, challenging, and high stakes leaders, decisions, and cultural nuances to help us identify what matters most and move toward one unified direction.

Their practical, straightforward, and client-centric approach to strategy was refreshing. I highly recommend them to any executive team looking to get aligned to create even higher performance. They are lights out awesome!

Patrick Resk
Chief Financial Officer, Partner

LSA’s approach has certainly brought value to Knight Ridder Digital. They were laser focused on our goal and determined to meet all of our Leadership development program needs. Their flexibility and commitment were keys in making our program successful.

Dipik Rai
Director of Marketing

LSA is an excellent sales and leadership outsource partner! They listen to our needs, are responsive, and work at a pace that keeps up with our rapid speed.

We have found LSA to bring strategic, innovative, and practical solutions to meet our business priorities by partnering effectively with our key staff. I consider them to be an important external extension of our team.

Thank you!

Wendy Chinn
Sr. Director, Global Sales Enablement

The customized leadership program was very practical and achieved our goals. LSA adapted very well to our group and the situation and helped us build trust and awareness of successful leadership styles. We look forward to the next steps.

Erik Okholm
Director of Software Development

We selected LSA Global over 5 other companies to help our key executives improve their overall communication and executive presentation capabilities. LSA exceeded our expectations.

I highly recommend LSA to any executive team looking to better organize and more effectively deliver key executive-level messages — especially when the stakes are high.

Todd Power
Office of the CEO

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

Thanks for your incredible patience and passion working with our leadership team to create alignment.

Your leadership and executive coaching services have been one of the most effective I’ve ever known.

Debbie Von Raesfeld
Director and HR Business Partner

At a time of change in our marketplace, LSA Global did an exceptional job helping our executive team create strategic clarity by helping us to define, clarify, and prioritize our corporate vision, mission, values, differentiation, target clients, strategic priorities, success metrics and key roles.

They beautifully navigated a very difficult and fuzzy situation, respectfully cleared out all of the cultural elephants, and shared impactful insights and leadership development theories along the way. They have transformed our business.

Laurie Sewell
President & CEO

FAQs

A business strategy simulation is an experiential learning exercise where participants manage a virtual company and make strategic decisions in areas such as pricing, marketing, operations, finance, product development, and investment. As market conditions and competitors respond, participants experience the business consequences of their decisions in a realistic, risk-free environment. Unlike traditional classroom learning, simulations accelerate strategic thinking by allowing people to practice making complex business decisions under competitive pressure.

Business strategy simulations are ideal for executives, directors, managers, high-potential leaders, cross-functional teams, sales leaders, finance professionals, operations managers, and anyone responsible for making decisions that affect business performance. They are especially valuable for organizations seeking to strengthen strategic thinking, improve business and financial acumen, break down functional silos, and help leaders understand how decisions in one area affect results across the enterprise.

A business strategy simulation helps participants build the practical skills required to make better business decisions. Participants strengthen strategic thinking, financial and business acumen, competitive analysis, cross-functional collaboration, risk assessment, resource allocation, and data-driven decision making while experiencing the real-world consequences of their choices. Because they actively apply these skills in a realistic competitive marketplace rather than simply learning concepts in a classroom, participants retain the lessons longer and gain greater confidence in leading their organizations to stronger business results.

Traditional strategy training often focuses on concepts and frameworks. A business strategy simulation requires participants to apply those concepts by making real-time decisions in a competitive marketplace. Teams experience how changes in customer demand, competitor actions, operational constraints, and financial performance interact over multiple business cycles. This immersive approach helps participants connect strategy to execution while building confidence in making complex business decisions.

When aligned with business objectives, a business strategy simulation can help organizations improve strategic alignment, increase financial literacy, strengthen cross-functional collaboration, accelerate leadership development, increase accountability, and improve the quality and speed of business decisions. Participants leave with a broader enterprise perspective, a deeper understanding of value creation, and practical experience balancing growth, profitability, customer satisfaction, and long-term competitive advantage.