Understanding the post-COVID bigger picture
Develop insights into the rapidly changing market environment your organisation operates in. Learn about practical organisational strategy, alignment and stakeholder requirements.
Business acumen simulation
Advanced business acumen simulation with integrated leadership and interpersonal effectiveness
Teams run competing companies quarter by quarter, make the decisions a real board would make, and see for themselves how leadership drives the bottom line. Fully customisable to your organisation's strategy.
- Quarter by quarterdecide, calculate, debrief
- Five market segmentsone shared, competitive market
- In person or onlineor a blend of both
Quarter 6
Market overview
Illustration
Revenue
R 18.24 m
+12.4%
Net profit
R 2.12 m
+6.1%
Market share
22.8%
-0.9 pts
Share price by company
Q1 to Q6
- Baobab Industries
- Blue Crane
- Karoo Components
- Summit Works
- Fynbos Mfg
Units sold by segment
this quarter
What managers take away
Three things every modern manager needs
Customer experience and the agile environment
Managers need to understand what drives success with demanding customers and the rapid development of new products and services.
Making sound decisions
Analytical skills and sound decisions that create a planned business impact have become critical parts of modern business acumen.
Why Comsim
Unique in the world: business acumen with integrated leadership
We help managers make sense of why and how leadership influences the bottom line.
The Comsim advanced business acumen simulation shows managers modern experiences of workplace innovation, the importance of changing with our customers, and why high levels of leadership and interpersonal effectiveness deliver powerful outcomes for organisations.
Comsim empowers your staff to
- Understand the bigger picture post-COVID and how to adapt to the new world of work
- Understand and experience how and why leadership directly influences the bottom line of an organisation
- Understand the market environment, its changing demands on the business and how to respond appropriately
- Acquire practical business acumen skills to drive business objectives and achieve the required results in an agile manner
- Pursue strategic alignment and organisational objectives
- Support business improvement as an innovation process
- Learn the importance of taking sound business decisions
- Avoid silos and embrace collaboration
- Work as an effective team
Our business acumen programmes are aligned to international best practice, with key outcomes customised and aligned to your organisation's strategy.
How the simulation works
Run a company. Quarter by quarter.
Teams of participants each run a competing company over a series of quarters. Every quarter, each team makes the decisions a real board would make: what to buy, how much to produce, whom to hire, what to charge, how much to advertise and how to fund it. Because all teams sell into the same market, one team's price cut or advertising push changes everyone else's results.
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1
Decide
Each team agrees its decisions for the quarter: buying, production, people, pricing per market segment, advertising and funding.
-
2
Calculate
The facilitator runs the calculation. The simulation works through the quarter in a fixed order, the way a real business experiences it. Each step depends on the one before: no machines, trained staff or raw materials, no production; no stock or sales people with cars, no sales.
-
3
Results
Every team receives a full set of financial statements and management reports, a balanced scorecard and debrief graphs.
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4
Debrief
Teams reflect on what happened and why, link it back to leadership and teamwork, and react in the next quarter.
What happens when the facilitator presses Calculate
- Contracts and tenders
- Machines available
- Staff available
- Raw materials
- Production
- Depreciation
- Cars and sales staff
- R&D and investments
- Market and sales
- Service division
- Stock
- Finance
- Reports and scorecard
The decision areas
Raw materials
Units to order, from which of two suppliers and at what price. Spot prices move every quarter.
Production
Buy new or second-hand machines, or lease them; day and night shifts, hours, overtime, wages and maintenance.
People
Recruit through advertising or an agency, retrench or transfer; salaries, commission, training and incentives.
Sales and marketing
Price per product per segment, the advertising mix, sales staff per segment and cars for the sales force.
Products
A standard product from the start, and an advanced product unlocked by research and development.
Finance
Overdraft, revolving credit, long-term loans and repayments, call deposits, debt factoring and dividends.
Market research
Buy reports on market potential, market share, competitor prices, competitor staffing and strategy.
Other deals
Contract and tender sales, and buying or selling stock between teams.
One market, five segments
The market is split into five segments. In each segment, a team's sales depend on its sales people (and whether they have cars), its price, its advertising, the quality of its product and how loyal its customers are. The market grows with the industry's production and advertising, with a small random element so results can never be predicted exactly.
- Corporate
- SMME businesses
- Upper individuals
- Middle individuals
- Mass market
Events that test the team
The facilitator can switch on events during the course: a currency crash, a credit squeeze, a general or media strike, a distribution-agent strike, new labour legislation, a Reserve Bank warning, a supplier or competitor failing, raw-material shortages and trade sanctions.
Set to your group
Three levels (Introductory, Standard and Strategic), a difficulty setting per module, and ready-made industry versions. The facilitator can adjust the market, the economic scenario (prime rate, inflation and growth) and how strongly each sales driver counts.
What every team receives each quarter
- Financial statementsIncome statement, cash-flow statement and balance sheet
- Management reportsManufacturing, stock holding and HR, plus a general information page of warnings
- Balanced scorecardPerformance against targets such as gross profit, net profit, return on equity and cost to income
- Debrief graphsAbout 70 graphs: profit, cash flow, ratios, share price, market share, productivity and risk versus yield
- Facilitator summaryA comparison of all teams for the debrief
Comsim online
The same simulation, now in the browser
Teams log in on a laptop or phone and enter their decisions in a guided online form that checks for errors before it is submitted. No spreadsheets, no memory sticks.
- The facilitator sees which teams have submitted, runs the calculation with one click, switches events on and releases results when ready.
- Everyone sees their reports and live graphs straight away.
- Courses can run in person, remotely or blended.
- The same proven engine: the online version is tested against the decisions and results of real past courses.
Blue Crane Holdings
Quarter 7 decisions
Due Friday 16:00
Selling price per segment
CorporateR 1 450
SMMER 1 380
UpperR 1 520
MiddleR 1 290
MassR 1 140
All checks passed
Leaderboard, quarter 6
- Baobab IndustriesR 44.10
- Blue CraneR 41.20
- Fynbos MfgR 38.75
- Karoo ComponentsR 33.60
- Summit WorksR 29.90
Teams submitted
Wide industry experience
Customisable for your sector
We have customisable programmes for these sectors, and ready-made versions of the simulation for several of them.
- Financial services
- Insurance
- Banking
- Wholesale and retail
- Pharmaceuticals
- Telecommunications
- Food
- FMCG
- Automotive: manufacturing, suppliers and retail
- Food processing and agriculture
- Logistics
- General manufacturing
Target audience
Built for every level of leadership
- Strategic
Executive and senior management
Strategy, alignment and the stakeholder view of the whole business.
- Tactical
Middle management
Turning strategy into plans, budgets and results across functions.
- Operational
Supervisors and team leaders
How everyday decisions and leadership show up on the bottom line.
- Support
Support functions
Strategy and planning, marketing, finance, IT, admin, HR, operations, logistics and distribution.
- In personfacilitated in the room
- Onlineteams play from anywhere
- Blendedthe best of both
Get started
Log in, or request access
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For participants, facilitators and administrators.
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For organisations, teams and individuals.
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