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TIA Simulations & Serious Games Project of the Year: Accenture
November 20, 2008
By Margery Weinstein
Vendor: BTS USA, Inc.
Project: Enterprise Senior Manager Core Program
Challenge: New financial reporting obligations and standardization resulting from going public, plus the need for senior managers to understand the new business strategy. Global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company Accenture has a corporate functions workforce division called "Enterprise" that provides services to support its client teams, outsourcing units, and other businesses. Enterprise senior managers needed to understand the complex and interconnected facets of Accenture's business. For example, what is the impact of mis-forecasting sales? What is the impact of reducing annual training budgets?
Solution: The Enterprise Senior Manager Core Program computer simulation designed by BTS USA, Inc. The outcomes are generated from an Excel-based mathematical model that replicates how Accenture operates. The game's scale and effects of decisions mirrors the size and complexity of the company's business. Hire too few people, for example, and learners not only can't get work done, but attrition increases as their existing people are overworked. Participants form management teams of five to six people, which compete against each other over the 2.5-day simulation. Each team is responsible for a company and its financial performance for three simulated years. They make long-term strategic decisions and short-term operational decisions to improve the business. They react to events that happen in the marketplace and world. The impact of decisions is immediately visible through company financials and other metrics such as revenue growth, controllable income margin, and employee engagement and attrition. In this way, the measures in the simulation are tied to real measures Accenture's business unit leaders are evaluated on. When they make bad decisions, they watch their profits or their employee engagement plummet and draw the necessary connections between the complex business levers. Know-how sessions provide a deep dive into company-specific processes, issues, and content, and help participants transfer learning to their jobs. Participants also meet peers from other business functions and expand their professional networks. Teams attend feedback sessions at the end of every "year" of play, and after the third year, the participants from all five teams discuss the impact of decision-making on the business, and trade lessons learned.
Results: To date, two-thirds of Accenture's Enterprise senior managers have completed the course, and the remaining third are slated to complete it in the next fiscal year. In terms of learner satisfaction, the course is one of the 10 highest rated courses the company offers (out of 22,000 learning assets). Before and after surveys show an increase of 18 to 20 percent in achievement of learning objectives (understanding the key drivers of the organization's growth and profitability and knowing the key metrics used to monitor and make business decisions). In addition, three-month follow-ups with participants provided strong evidence that participants are transferring what they have learned to their jobs. After completing the course, one participant applied his new understanding of the business to save Accenture $1.2 million, a 150 percent ROI for the first year of the course design and delivery. On a 5-point scale, the overall satisfaction of participants who have completed the course is 4.55. Other survey results showed scores rising in these areas:
• Explain the key drivers of Accenture's growth and profitability—(score went from 3.11 to 4.00)
• Describe the key metrics used to monitor and make decisions about Accenture's business (2.97 to 3.92)
• Explain the ramifications of client group decisions on Accenture's business and people (2.85 to 3.85)
As a result of employee feedback, Accenture packaged the classroom simulation into a four-hour, single-player, self-study learning asset. To date, 1,122 employees have completed the single-player game online.
Judges' Comments:
• The game was developed in a flexible way and is engaging and challenging.
• The game effectively models extremely complex business situations.
Lessons Learned
• You need the right subject matter experts to get the right data or a complex simulation like this will not be realistic enough, and, therefore, compelling to learners.
• Choose your learning strategy and technologies to support the learning goals, not for their "wow" value.
• Hire a business partner who brings business and simulation expertise to the table.
• Partnering a senior executive from your business with a learning professional from your vendor creates a good model for the classroom, where each can speak and deliver to their own expertise. The vendor runs the simulation, and can coach on decisions teams need to make, while your own instructors can relate simulation decisions to your company's real decisions and structure.
• Provide ample opportunities for participants to internalize the lessons of the simulation through analysis and discussion with peers and faculty.
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