- Tailored simulations designed to meet your unique requirements
- Created through a collaborative design and development process
- Built to accurately reflect your specific business context
Tailor-made business simulations
Develop a simulation tailored to your requirements
We offer a diverse portfolio of simulations that explore key areas like strategic thinking, financial acumen, and change management. For clients with unique challenges or the desire to replicate their own business environment, we provide a collaborative development process to create custom simulations aligned with their specific goals.
Who this is for
Choose a tailor-made simulation when your need is specific to your own business, industry, products, data, or terminology, in a way no off-the-shelf simulation can capture. It particularly suits:
- L&D managers who need a simulation that speaks their organisation's own language, built around their real business and terminology rather than a generic scenario
- Senior leaders and executive sponsors commissioning a flagship event or programme, where a bespoke simulation makes the learning unmistakably theirs
- Organisations with a recurring, company-specific challenge, who want a reusable asset built around their own business rather than a one-off session
- Teams who have outgrown an off-the-shelf simulation and want the same subject rebuilt around their own industry and figures
If your need fits one of our signature simulations more closely, start there: a tailor-made build takes longer and costs more, and is worth it when nothing off-the-shelf will do.
The development process
We follow a structured process to design and build simulations from the ground up. Each phase plays a critical role in ensuring the final product is engaging, effective, and aligned with your learning objectives.
- Learning & delivery – Clarify the core learning outcomes the simulation must achieve, and determine how it will be delivered, accessed, and packaged for learners.
- Logic & feedback – Establish the decision-making rules, outcomes, and feedback mechanisms that will drive the simulation experience and support learning.
- Interface & experience – Design the user interface and participant experience to ensure usability, engagement, and alignment with the simulation logic.
- Story & testing – Craft the narrative arc that guides participants through the simulation journey, and conduct testing to validate the experience against the learning goals.
- Refine & repeat – Use feedback to iteratively improve the simulation’s logic, design, and experience. Repeat the previous steps as needed to optimise effectiveness.
Once the simulation has been built we will train facilitators and delivery teams to ensure effective rollout and ongoing use.
The impact of tailor-made simulations
Working closely with Business Simulations we have developed a powerful business simulation that allows our managers to run one of our convenience stores for four months in a single day. The pressurised, realistic and highly competitive nature of the game brings a unique dimension to the learning.
Sam Davidson, Group Human Resources Director, Hendersons SPAR
The business simulation we developed gives people an experience that calls for them to develop and deploy competitive strategy. The learning people derive from the experience is very powerful and because it is theirs the transfer to the workplace is so much easier. We have been able to use the same business simulation over and over again with different groups within the company so the return on investment has been exceptionally good for us.
Simon Brocket, International HR Director, Twinings
The biggest compliment I can pay these simulations is that after half an hour the participants are no longer playing a game they are running a business! When we follow-up with participants 3 months after one of these simulation events we are always amazed to see how much their confidence has grown and the bigger impact they are having in their businesses.
Des Pullen, Group HR Director, Associated British Foods
Allied Mills
The Wheat Game: a tailor-made simulation built around Allied Mills' own flour-milling business, used to sharpen managers' strategic and financial decision-making.
Twinings
A bespoke team-based simulation built around Twinings' own business, used with their high-potential managers and reused across cohorts for a strong return on investment.
SPAR
A tailor-made simulation that lets SPAR managers run one of their own convenience stores for four months in a single day.
Associated British Foods: a bespoke simulation for global talent
A tailor-made simulation built around ABF's own business, now a recurring part of its global talent programme for financial literacy and strategic thinking.
Associated British Foods: a senior HR conference
Twenty senior HR managers ran two of our bespoke client simulations, Twinings' and Allied Mills', as the centrepiece of ABF's own three-day strategy conference.
Frequently asked questions
These are some of the most common questions we are asked about our simulation development process.
How long does it take?
The timeline for building a simulation depends on the project's complexity and scope. New in-house tooling has cut build times substantially, and a custom simulation now typically takes six to 12 weeks from scope to delivery.
How much time will I need to commit?
Creating a simulation is a deeply collaborative effort. We provide the expertise in simulation design and learning alignment, but your ongoing input is crucial. Regular consultation ensures the final product meets your specific needs and accurately represents your business environment.
How complex can the simulations be?
Simulations can range from simple to highly complex, depending on your needs. Through our consultative development process, we help refine and target the learning objectives to ensure the experience is focused and effective. We recommend prioritizing clarity and impact over unnecessary complexity, as overly intricate simulations can dilute learning outcomes.
Talk to us about a tailor-made simulation
Tell us about your business and your objectives, and we will talk you through what a bespoke simulation could look like. No obligation, and we will come back to you within one working day.