“We need to completely disrupt the global supply chain in the 2^nd year of the business simulation to see how our high potential leaders react and change their approach moving forward,” was the request from our client looking to throw a sophisticated “wobbler” at the group of 32 global leaders.

After a good conversation and the chance to work with their supply chain team, we figured out an ingenious way to create a scenario in the simulation that will lift up their Business Acumen skills in the area of creating competitive advantage through enhanced supply chain strategies. This blog shares some interesting insights into the research and some key takeaways for dealing with a supply chain that will never be the same as we once knew it.

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I can’t remember being more excited for the launch of a new leadership development business simulation than I am for our upcoming world premiere of “Practical Change Leadership” in a few weeks for one of our lead clients. Developed in partnership with Dr. Elizabeth Moran, this immersive simulation takes the key concepts of her new book, Forward: Leading Your Team Through Change and presents an opportunity to practice the skills of practical change leadership.

In today’s volatile world, every day is filled with change and everyday leaders are challenged with finding ways of being effective change leaders. That’s why practical change leadership is for everyone!

Over the past few months, our design team has been working with subject matter experts and key stakeholders to identify some of the things practical change leaders should know and think about. Here are 10 quick learning nuggets that I thought we could share and make for a nice checklist of things to do in your quest to be a practical change leader:

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Over the past several weeks the topic of “authenticity” has been showing up more and more in our work. In requests for content, within our business simulations, and in business leadership workshops more leaders are asking for help in developing the skill of authenticity. During this past weekend, I had the opportunity to start scripting a new business leadership simulation on coaching and the client has requested that we use Authenticity as one of the scoring mechanisms. Several of the other scoring metrics include Empathy, Accountability, and Developing Others.

I will transparently share that at first, I was uncomfortable with these metrics, especially Authenticity. I know you can assess authenticity, but is it possible to teach it? Aren’t you as a human being either authentic or not? How do you train for it, especially in a business environment?

So, I did some research including conducting 15-minute interviews with three Fortune 1000 executives I trust and who I think are very authentic in their approach to business leadership. They were excellent conversations and provided three interesting insights into the answer to my question.

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As the United States heads into the 4^th of July holiday weekend, the storm clouds of recession and inflation are dancing on the horizon tantalizing business leaders with a strong need to respond as they plan for the second half of 2022 and beyond.

For the first time in more than a decade, rampant inflation has become a critical business issue and something every level of manager is facing directly or indirectly.

It is impossible to predict how long this cycle will last but a majority of the experts believe it will last for several years. One indicator of the length of this cycle can be found in the meeting notes of the Federal Reserve where they continue to raise interest rates in an effort to cool off the inflation. From their actions, it doesn’t look like this is a short-term thing.

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“My biggest learning from the SaaS business simulation experience? Oh, that’s easy and something I am going to take back to the job tomorrow; the company that launches first has the most strategic advantage, and gosh darn it, we should have had that minimum viable product (MVP) before our competitors.”

The concept of using the minimum viable product approach to test a business model is one of the most important concepts to hit the business world in many years. It was a very valuable lesson for my SaaS simulation participants, so I figured it’s nice to do a refresh on the MVP from a Business Acumen perspective.

The Basic Concept: The Minimum Viable Product

In doing some research, I discovered that the concept of a "Minimum viable product" in Business Acumen is a term coined by Frank Robinson and popularized by Eric Ries, founder of the Lean Startup methodology. This is one of my favorite books as the concepts lend themselves to simulation-centric learning. Eric Ries also invented the concept of “persevere or pivot” which we use in every Advantexe digital business simulation round.

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