Business Literacy and Project Management Training
Learning is Discovering
As a partner in SeeDO Discovery Learning, Leigh Farnell is proud to introduce you to these world-beating, award winning Discovery Learning Business Improvement Systems.
Run your mouse over the logos and go direct to the Paradigm Learning Web site for in-depth details.
Countdown - A Strategy Game for Project Teams
In a fun, fast paced, real life atmosphere, participants learn key tools and systems to manage and fast track projects to be 'on time and on budget.'
For more detailed information download the 21 page FREE Report The Latest Secrets on How Discovery Learning can Triple the Impact and Return of YOUR Company Training Programmes.
Paradigm Learning offers your company four smart, strategic solutions that not only keep you in the game, but help you win as well!
Zodiak: The Game of Business Strategy and Finance is the original "business literacy" game in which players run a multimillion dollar company for three years to master the fine art of high finance and organizational success. Engaging, fast-paced, time-tested and enhanced in 2001 for up-to-the minute relevance, Zodiak gets participants to think and act like business owners.
Zodiak for Service Organisations plunges players into operating a professional services company and introduces challenges such as multiple product lines, e-business, staffing flexibility, outsourcing and business risk.
Zodiak for Sales Professionals provides sales professionals with a keen grasp of their customers' financial and strategic business issues, enhancing confidence in selling products and services that fit within this expanded picture.
Zodiak for EVAŽ Companies helps organizations at all levels easily understand this critical financial measure as well as the organizational, departmental and personal strategies that impact a company's EVA performance.
A board game makes play of the idea that employees should know how their business works.
FORTUNE
Monday, June 10, 2002
By Ann Harrington
One day not long ago Jeff Tobin, C.J. Winslow, and two strangers enlisted a movie star and a restaurant magnate to help buy a $40 million business they knew nothing about. They refinanced their debt, lost critical staff to a competitor, rushed a product to market, got sued, and boosted earnings 100%.
Well, sort of. They were playing a board game called Zodiak to improve their financial literacy and better understand their roles as employees and shareholders of Sabre, the $2.1 billion travel company known for its airline-reservation systems and Travelocity Website.
The mandate came from CEO Bill Hannigan. The former SBC exec took over the Southlake, Texas, company just prior to its spinoff from AMR, American Airlines' parent, in March 2000. Employees became shareholders when Sabre left the AMR nest, but it was clear from the questions Hannigan got on his quarterly calls to employees--"What's EPS?"--that many had no idea what he was talking about. Hannigan wanted to find a way to share "the secret handshake"--how things really work in business--as a manager had once done for him. The HR staff found Zodiak, a Paradigm Learning product, and Sabre worked with Paradigm to customize a one-day session. The goal: Train all 7,000 employees within a year.
Not everyone was thrilled at the prospect of "Sabre's Financial Success and You." Tobin, a Website developer, hates games but showed up anyway. The facilitator started off by asking the group to compare their financial knowledge to things like a glass, a pitcher, or a water cooler. Both Tobin and Winslow, a software engineer, chose a straw.
The game was designed so that information would be shared by all four team members. As owners of a pretend company, teams learned to fill out an income statement and a balance sheet and to compute return on equity. At the end of a fictional fiscal year, no one had made a dime. More decisions had to be made: Should they launch the new product, or keep testing it? Should they settle the lawsuit? Outcomes were often decided by a roll of the dice. When snake eyes showed up twice in a row, which meant they'd won a lawsuit, there were high-fives all around.
The game was really a way of laying the groundwork for talking about Sabre, and things got a little quiet when people were asked how they could cut costs or increase revenue. But two weeks later, Tobin said that the questions had stuck with him--and that he now can decipher a balance sheet. Winslow keeps a copy of the annual report at his desk for reference: "I came out at least a glass, maybe half a pitcher." Another player was inspired to return to an automation project that he'd abandoned. Once implemented, it should save Sabre's consulting teams 80 hours a month.
A game can do only so much. In 2 1/2 years CEO Hannigan has had to make tough decisions--like laying off 500 employees after Sept. 11. "That's awful stuff, but I think (because of the training) our guys had more of an appreciation of why," he says. "When you can get beyond the yippety-yap, the happy talk, it makes for a more meaningful discussion."
For some employees, management decisions and financial information can be confusing. One product that claims to improve the business literacy of employees is Zodiak, which uses a board game to simulate three years in the life of an imaginary business.
In half-day sessions, employees run the business, dealing with crises, making decisions such as whether to launch a new product, and learning financial terms.
The managing director of Air Liquide Australia, Dennis Cliche, says Zodiak has helped his employees better understand how their personal performance fits into the bigger company picture. 'It condenses all the elements of a real business.' Amcor, Visy Industries and Western Power have also used Zodiak, which is distributed by VC Consulting.
Contact our SeeDo Resellers
VIC - VC Consulting - Victor Caune - 03 9876 4966
WA - AIM Senior Management Centre - Stacie Chappell - 08 9383 8092
QLD - Ripple Effect - Denis Gugliotti - 0412 378981
QLD - Carlton Consulting - Peter Carlton - 0411 128840
For more detailed information download the 21 page FREE Report The Latest Secrets on How Discovery Learning can Triple the Impact and Return of YOUR Company Training Programmes.
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