For corporate learning programs, global executive education programs, building venture capital ecosystems, leadership development, developing next generation startup accelerators and changing how companies work on strategy; the strategy sims keep finding new, high-impact application areas.

Here are the top ten strategy simulations of 2022 – and their runner ups.

WHO:  C-level participants from IE’s flagship program – the Global Advanced Management Program – led by Academic Director Peter Fisk

WHERE: Blended – in-person sessions in Segovia and Madrid, combined with online sessions

DURATION: Five months from first to final session

WHY THE SIM?: Transform! is a cornerstone of the one-year Global Advanced Management Program, allowing the participants to experience C-suite level management challenges, including M&A, capital markets and  transformation journey.on itself, but the kind of bond people start to develop – it was really catalytic in building the team.” – Peter Fisk, Academy Director, Global AMP at IE Business School

OUTCOME: Excellent work, strategic thinking and the perfect combination of strategy mastery mixed with disruptive changes as teams went from passive to aggressive, from protective to innovative, from avoiding making tough decisions to embracing the opportunity to dominate their industry. The tipping point came with the M&A Shark (the ultimate M&A dealmaker), accelerating the M&A opportunities in the closing hour of the simulation.

For the C-level participants, the opportunity to experience Transform! allows them to better grasp some of the key management challenges they will be facing in the next phase of their careers, while also learning to work under significant pressure to tackle key strategic challenges in real-time.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. Innovative blended in-person/online delivery
2. Cornerstone of a global advanced management program
3. Deeply integrated into the larger one-year program

“The Transform! Simulation is an important and integrated part of the Global AMP – the best moments of the Transform! part of the program is not just the simulation itself, but the kind of bond people start to develop – it was really catalytic in building the team.” – Peter Fisk, Academy Director, Global AMP at IE Business School

WHO:  40+ senior VC, PE and angels, all participants from across the Egyptian and Middle Eastern VC ecosystem, hosted by Falak Startups and co-financed by EBRD

WHERE: Cairo, Egypt, over 3 days

WHY THE SIM?: Venture capital is on the rise in the MENA region and new fund managers with new strategies are looking to raise funds and deploy capital with new, innovative models. Falak Startups has been working to support and accelerate the development of the VC ecosystem in the region. The Fund Manager! simulation, delivered in a 3-day VC Masterclass, was the perfect tool to ignite and promote the VC ecosystem in Cairo.

OUTCOME:

40+ participants joined the VC Masterclass, led by Rick Rasmussen and Chris Rangen. Program covered introduction to venture capital, teams working closely to compete for the ultimate fund management team, a wide range of advanced level VC canvases introduced, an intense, down-to-the-wire final sprint for maximum value creation.

BONUS: The only Fund Manager! simulation in 2022 partially delivered on a Cairo rooftop.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. Truly intense, two group, in-person setup
2. Most fast-paced, engaging and intense Fund Manager! session of 2022
3. Kick-started multiple key collaborations and conversations on the maturing VC landscape in MENA

“It was a wonderful experience, we really liked how hands-on the learning was. Everyone who participated was happy, both the team and the participants. It was definitely something of great value and the best experience.” – Niahl El Chami, Head of Marketing & Program at Falak Startups

WHO:  Katapult Accelerator (Includes Katapult Climate, Katapult Ocean, Katapult Mauritius and (in 2023) Katapult Rwanda, for 4 cohorts, 40+ startups) 

WHERE: 100% online, over 3 days

WHY THE SIM?: Scale Up! the entrepreneurship simulation is now a fully integrated cornerstone of Katapult’s global accelerator programs, where it helps impact startups master investor readiness.

OUTCOME:

Katapult’s global flagship program in Q4 2022 had 24 startups from across the globe. Reflecting a more mature cohort, with some raising substantial funding rounds, far beyond normal accelerator sizes, we updated and expanded the Scale Up! simulation to cover the entire journey from “idea to exit”. Over three days the participants battled through many of the real life startup challenges they may face, including down rounds, preference rights, valuation methods and substantial investor deep dives, to eventually manage a multi-billion exit (or in some cases, just barely escape bankruptcy).

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. Pushing the envelope in global impact startups. The deep collaboration with Katapult leads to frequent updates and changes to the Scale Up! sim, in order to reflect the very latest trends and market conditions for global startups. This year was no different, as the Scale Up! sim was updated to reflect increasing interest rates, more challenging market conditions and a rising focus on revenue.
2. Delivering the 3-day, 15-hour Scale Up! program is a key highlight of our year, as we get a chance to work closely with many of the top global startups in the climate, ocean and impact space.

“The overall experience is quite different from most of the other programs out there, which are usually tedious, boring lectures around fundraising. This is extremely action-oriented, concrete and demanding – all things which help to accelerate learning,” – Markus H. Eikeland, Program Director at Katapult

WHO:  Digital strategy leaders, executive level leadership in one of the world’s leading tech companies.

WHERE: 100% online, over 3 days

WHY THE SIM?: Transform! was selected as the perfect tool to put “our people in our customers’ shoes, and let them experience many of the challenges our customers are facing”.

OUTCOME:

During 2022 Strategy Tools ran two programs, one on the mobility sector, one on the banking and finance sector. 50 senior participants went through the two programs with extensive the C-suite.

Over the three-day program, participants covered key topics like how to build the optimal business model portfolio, how to develop a long-term strategic transformation journey, how to deal with activist investors, navigate challenging capital markets, negotiating successful M&As and driving long-term value creation in public markets; all key building blocks a management team needs to handle in real life.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. A high-impact program designed to drive C-level impact for a globally leading tech firm and its customers
2. Highly experienced and highly competitive participants cracking the code on transformation.

WHO:  Duke University, and a record-setting number of students in the EGRMGMT 542 – Competitive Strategy course

WHERE: 100% online, over a 2-day weekend

WHY THE SIM?:

Professor Tony o’Driscoll has fully incorporated the Transform! simulation into his CompStrat course, and seeing a booming student interest as consequence. The Transform! simulation completely follows Professor o’Driscoll’s philosophy of strategy; dynamic, rapidly changing and highly disruptive.

The Transform! simulation is now deeply embedded within the course, up to the point where former students get certified and come back the following year as active co-facilitators alongside Strategy Tools certified facilitators.

OUTCOME:

The last cohort had 80 students split into 13 teams, divided into three Transform! groups, for a true experiential learning experience. During regular classroom hours students were gradually introduced to key concepts in strategy, transformation, business models and innovation. In advance of the simulation students were assigned a short case study to provide context. Over a 2-day weekend, working Saturday and Sunday, students competed, collaborated, went through every step of the transformation journey to emerge victorious as the one, ultimately successful transformation team.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. The chance to collaborate with one of the world’s leading universities and deeply integrate Transform! into the curriculum is a fantastic opportunity we deeply appreciate
2. Seeing the evolution from ‘just a simulation’, to now, ‘a future cornerstone of our program’ has been a great journey, that is still only just getting started
3. Working with the impressive cohort of engineering students at Duke, we are frequently stunned how quickly they grasp the key concepts around strategy and find the best solutions for moving their respective companies forward

“Tranform! is a digital internship on steroids. One where you fast forward into a role that’s beyond your existing one. It’s a stretch role and you get to feel what it’s like. Who wouldn’t want that as part of their developmental opportunity?” – Professor Tony O’Driscoll, Academic Director at Duke University

WHO:  A group of German and Swiss banking executives, taking part in a Silicon Valley study trip

WHERE: 100% online, with the participants in the same conference room in Palo Alto

WHY THE SIM?: Venture! is the brand new Corporate Venturing simulation, putting participants into the roles of a corporate CVC team. For the organizers of the Silicon Valley study trip, this was a perfect combo with the overall program for the week. 

OUTCOME:

In Venture!, participants are put into the different roles on a CVC team. For most, this is a brand new world, with both strategy, roles, targets and how to succeed being up in the air. For the participants, this was a completely new experience into the world of innovation, having to design and deliver strategies for successful corporate venturing. Teams worked together in the room, while the simulation was run 100% remotely.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. First time running the Venture! Simulation with a group of banking executives
2. Combined the experience of being in Silicon Valley, while running the Venture! Simulation 100% remote and virtually

WHO:  Corporate Strategy team at a leading energy company, 25 people in total

WHERE: 100% online, over 3 days

WHY THE SIM?:

Transform! (Energy Transition Version) is the perfect simulation for energy, utility and renewable energy companies. How the energy landscape is shifting, and how the client company should transform has been a key question for nearly a decade, leading to a number of new strategy practices in this global energy company. The strategy team at the client had mostly completed the BTC – Building the Transformational Company program, and Transform! was now the next step, bringing the entire strategy team into the experience.

OUTCOME:

25 participants were split into five teams, all selecting a company within the energy transition to lead during the Transform! simulation.

Participants quickly commented on how realistic the challenges in the sim was, down to recent market events, feedback from capital markets and challenges around M&A.

Over the 3-day program, participants worked through every key step of the transformation journey, with notable interest around corporate venturing and how to make this an even more strategic part of th larger innovation toolbox.

Ultimately, on day 3 a strong team emerged with the financial and strategic capacity to outperform the overall very strong line up of participants.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. A highly competent, globally-minded strategy team had a rich experience on the Transform! sim
2. The simulation brought out deep insights and led to rich discussions on how to evolve the role and impact of the corporate strategy team at one of the world’s premier energy companies.

WHO:  A global group of accelerator managers from countries like Vietnam, Chile, Serbia and more, all brought together under the leadership of Swiss Entrepreneurship Program.

WHERE: Zug, Switzerland

WHY THE SIM?:

The 25+ participants were spending a full week immersed in the Swiss and European startup ecosystem. Scale Up! entrepreneurship simulation was brought in to give the participants a chance to experience a globally proven entrepreneurship simulation and how it could be useful for their respective accelerator programs.

OUTCOME:

In short, the participants absolutely loved it. Here, 25+ accelerator managers and startup coaches suddenly found a tool that could help them drive growth and learning in their respective ecosystems.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. A wonderful experience to run this kind of advanced version of Scale Up! for global accelerator managers and ecosystem builders
2. Highly, highly competitive groups that were sprinting to winning the simulation at record pace

WHO:  35 employees and management at Founders Intelligence in London

WHERE: in-person, in London

WHY THE SIM?:

Founders Intelligence is ‘corporate-startup consulting firm’ working across the greater UK tech ecosystem. While some members of the team had previously worked in venture capital or private equity, the majority had limited experience with private market investing. The project team decided to run a two-day, Fund Manager! simulation to provide a hands-on Masterclass in venture capital.

OUTCOME:

This was the first-ever multi-group Fund Manager! Program. It was led by Chris Rangen, Scott B. Newton and Bulent Kotan and turned into a high-pace, high-energy venture capital masterclass.

A total of 8 teams, starting in two separate groups, quickly found the pace and competitive spirit to build and scale their own venture funds. The experience got rave reviews and multiple requests for follow-on work together in 2023.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. First ever multi-group version of Fund Manager!
2. An incredible intense, energetic and fast-paced Fund Manager! program
3. First time Fund Manager! was run with this large group, with a large number of learning for the Strategy Tools team

WHO:  15+ participant from ICT Cortex, Cluster Management development program in Montenegro

WHERE: 100% online

WHY THE SIM?:

The Supercluster! Simulation was delivered as a part of a much larger, multi-month program on Innovation Cluster Development in Montenegro

OUTCOME:

The participants quickly got the hang of the Supercluster! Sim, getting started in establishing their national supercluster, recruiting members, launching projects and designing their cluster strategies. The simulation brought to life many of the key concepts discussed during the past months and led to numerous new insights for the ICT Cortex group of cluster management developers.

WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST: 

1. Supercluster! Simulation can be a cornerstone of a larger engagement or development program
2. Participants in the Montenegro program got tons of insights and valuable take aways from completing the sim as the final workshop in the larger cluster management program

Runner Ups