Why BusinessGame?

A century ago, the pioneer passengers in the early flying machines carried a crazy risk of just one-in-ten. The transition to one in ten million is explained by the “miracle of compounding” – halving the failure rate twenty times – but how is that actual

A chance meeting with the author of a business simulation programme from a similar background (now retired) opened up the enthralling prospect of sharing best aviation practice with a much wider business audience.

Here, the annual failure rate has been stuck in the crazy “one-in-ten” territory for decades, so long that it is mostly seen as unavoidable. But what if decision-makers in organisations had the equivalent of the flight simulators used by airline pilots? What if the progress made in the aviation sector could be replicated?

Business simulations dramatically shorten the timeframe between action and consequences. Normally, this is measured in months or even years. With online applications, it’s just a few mouse clicks.

That allows decision-makers to experiment with different scenarios without having to put real-world customers, shareholders, employees or financial assets at risk. They soon learn that failure is the essential ingredient of success. They also discover the primary, contributory and (critically) root causes, in a fraction of the time.

If business experts are asked how many root causes can lead to company failures, the consensus is about ten, all of which are well understood. In the UK, there are over 300,000 business closures every year.

This can only mean that avoidable mistakes are being repeated at a mind-boggling rate, producing eye-watering losses, not just for those directly and indirectly affected but for the economy as a whole. It’s hard to imagine a better time to be launching this new resource!