Building Business Acumen - The Business Game

Zodiak®: The Game of Business Finance and Strategy

In today’s multi-faceted business environment, business acumen should not be left to the executive suite. Every member of the business makes decisions that impact the bottom line. The challenge is how to make these decision-makers see the link between personal objectives and business strategy. It is only when every level of your organisation understands the financial drivers of the business will you have a true competitive edge.

- Do your key employees understand what impacts the business P&L statements and balance sheets?
- Do your teams have financial visibility of all your operational costs?
- Do your clients pay on time?
- Do you have the right balance in spending on business growth and people development?

If any of these questions give rise to even slight discomfort on your part, then you may have issues with business acumen within your organisation.

So how do you start to build business acumen within your organisation?

The answer is Zodiak®: The Game of Business Finance and Strategy.

Zodiak® is a fast-paced, unique one-day classroom simulation that builds the business acumen of your organisation. It allows learners to experience running a business and the strategic decisions that lead to financial success. Through hands-on learning and group collaboration, participants explore developing strategy, financial concepts and, more importantly, how their own actions contribute to the top and bottom lines.

How does Zodiak® work?

A certified Zodiak® facilitator will work with the participants on creating the simulation. As new owners of the struggling Zodiak® company, learners sign for a bank loan, attract investors, purchase equipment and materials, and deliver products and services. As they do, terms such as cash flow, return on equity, working capital, cost of goods sold and assets come to life.

In just a few hours, as they handle chance events, move game pieces, answer to investors and make tough business decisions, something remarkable happens. Learners embrace new insights — not just about how the numbers work, but also about the consequences of business decisions and actions on financial success. That’s true business acumen.

Who Has Benefited From Zodiak®?

	One of the world’s best-known packaged food companies wanted its managers to better understand how their decisions affect the bottom line. Read the case study here.
	The world’s largest provider of banking and payment technologies recovered $3.1M annually. Read the case study here.
	Zodiak helped Pizza Hut turn managers into Business Owners. Read the case study here.

What makes Zodiak® so powerful?

Zodiak® is more than a business simulation game. During play, it also gives players a visible representation of what is happening and how decisions move and influence resources.

What comes next makes Zodiak® truly stand out. At the end of the simulation, your facilitator will link the activity to your business. Participants will use what they have learned to look at their own company and create a meaningful action plan that will follow through on acquired insights.

What does all this mean for your business?

After completing the business game, participants will be able to:

Align personal and department goals with the organisation’s financial objectives and strategies
Demonstrate personal understanding of company terms, concepts, and goals
Use relevant financial data and analysis in day-to-day decision making
Ask informed questions about financial and strategic issues when taking action on the job
Use financial terminology and concepts in discussions with others, including team members
Take personal action to impact targeted financial, strategic, operational, and/or customer objectives

What Are People Saying About Zodiak®?

Will Day [Director, Leica Biosystems Melbourne] – The Zodiak program has ensured that everyone understood how certain decision could dramatically change commercial outcomes. Most notably, it was clear from the discussion and questions from the groups during the program that they had grasped the concepts and gone on to make the linkages back to their roles in the business.

David Fraser [Group General Manager, Coventry Group Ltd] – Zodiak has certainly made it much easier for me to talk to people about financial matters.

Peter Morley [CEO, Coulson Tiles] – It needs to be understood that it is everyone’s role in our business to make money, not just the sales people, not senior management or someone else, but everyone at every level. Zodiak has helped all our people to really understand that and more importantly what really affects the results and how they can influence and understand the outcomes.

Getting Started with Zodiak®

The first step towards growing the financial acumen of your employees is to contact one of our Melbourne-based facilitators to see how Zodiak® can best meet your objectives.

For a FREE, LIVE 30-min Demonstration, fill out this form today!