Tailoring Simulations This page is explores the issues and time associated with tailoring a simulation so you can decide whether this is appropriate.

All our simulations are designed to facilitate tailoring as follows:

Change Documentation
Change Terminology
Change Language
Change the Reports
Change the Decisions
Recalibrate Simulation
Add Reports
Add Decisions
Add or Replace Models
Branded Editions

Except when adding or replacing models and, possibly adding reports or decisions, the other changes involve developing a new version. And our architecture means that all this requires is changing the simulation database (rather than changing the model). This reduces tailoring time very substantially.

Changing Documentation

We provide participant documentation in editable MS Word format. Provided that you maintain our copyright message we are happy for you to merge, integrate and reformat this documentation into your course materials.

Changing Terminology

Often all that is required to make an existing simulation fit your needs is to change the terminology. For instance in the early 1990s a training company wanted to use a simulation with a distribution company. After discussion we decided that my Retail Challenge simulation addressed the required issues. All that was necessary was to change the scenario and terminology. The senior manager participants commented on the relevance and reality of the simulation. On many occasions clients have wanted to tailor the financial terminology of my simulations to reflect the terminology used within their own company. Finally, recently a client who was running a course for the British Football Association wanted to change my Service Challenge simulation to reflect the issues facing a sports regulatory body. All these changes have been successfully accomplished in half-a-day or less.

 

Changing Language

A more radical change involves changing the language (from English). This may be relatively trivial like changing from British English to American English to more radical like changing to Spanish. To facilitate these changes, all the text used by our software are stored in editable ASCII text files. And, although we only have the capability to translate between British and American English. we can advise on translation into other languages.

 

Changing the Reports

The reports produced by our simulations are defined in a database so that it is possible to simplify (or extend) individual reports, change the reports automatically produced and the timing of these. For example for a high school conference we simplified the reports produced by the Executive Challenge simulation. On another occasion for an American client we changed the reports produced by Management Challenge to meet delegate needs. In both instances, the changes took an hour or so.

 

Changing the Decisions

Often it is possible to change the decisions and their timing. For example the simplification of Executive Challenge for the high school conference also involved eliminating some decisions. And, on another occasion, changes in client strategy meant that is necessary to reorganise the timing of the decisions for the Profess simulation. For Executive Challenge the changes took less than an hour and for Profess the changes took less than half a day.

 

Recalibrate the Simulation

Recalibration involves adjusting the numeric parameters of the simulation. This can been done at two levels - proportional recalibration and radical recalibration.

 

Proportional recalibration involves increasing or reducing all the parameters proportionately so as to better reflect the currency of the participants' country. We attempt to reduce the necessity of doing this by providing our standard version of a simulation using a universal currency (the Account Unit or AU) where the numbers are small and do not map to any specific currency. However, if it is necessary to change the parameters proportionately this can generally be done in two or three days.

 

Radical recalibration involves changing the parameters to reflect the specific margins and costs of a specific industry. For instance we were asked to Recalibrate our Distribution Challenge simulation to reflect the margins appropriate to the Electrical Distribution Industry in the USA. This involved changing the parameters, completely recalibrating and testing the recalibration. When doing this we had to ensure that the impact on revenue, profits, profitability, cash flow etc. were appropriate (neither to hard or too easy). This level of recalibration can necessitate up to two weeks work and a full pilot.

 

Adding Reports

As our simulations utilise both parameter and reporting databases, it is often possible to produce custom reports that address particular training needs. And, if the data already exists in the parameter database then no additions to the model are required. But, if the data does not exist it will be necessary to add or replace models. While developing our Challenge Series of simulations we found that several clients wanted to use them on Assessment Centres. To provide for this, we produce special versions that provided a custom set of the Team Commentary reports to the Assessor to highlighted and elucidate team results and their strengths and weaknesses. Changes that took less than half a day.

 

Adding Decisions

Often it is possible to add decisions to the simulation to address additional learning needs. For example several business process re-engineering models were added to Global Operations. Despite the fact that this required some re-programming of the model this took about two days to accomplish.

 

Adding or Replacing Models

On several occasions clients have found a simulation that is about right but require additional or different business issues to be addressed. Examples include: The Casino Challenge where the marketplace model of the Service Challenge was replaced (but the other models retained). RESERVE was developed by adding a series of decisions and associated models to the Management Challenge simulation. Typically, these changes have taken between one and two weeks.

 

Branded Editions

The above lend themselves to creating customised, branded versions of our simulations for clients. Branded versions that use different terminology, decisions and reports displayed on custom background wallpaper and copyright notices. So, rather like the waistcoat in the icon you can dandify your version of the simulation!

The bottom line is that we can usually tailor an existing simulation in hours or days - giving you a simulation that exactly satisfies your training needs.