Online Training, 2001,
Forio Business Simulations.
Review by Michael Feldman
Rating:
In a hurry?
Recommendation
I had been thinking about changing careers so when the opportunity
to take over a small start-up producing PDAs presented itself, I
jumped at the chance. As CEO of Handheld Corp., I was proud of our
line: three models priced between $200 and $400. But now, two years
into my stewardship, I was in deep trouble.
Profits from our best-selling model were declining as new
customers became harder to find, and our newest model had yet to find
a market. I wondered if the time had come to discontinue the X-5. I
knew if I didn't turn things around, soon Handheld would become
another hi-tech casualty.
Am I playing with my career here? Fortunately, no. I am playing
PDA Sim, an online business simulation from Forio, a San Francisco
start-up. Forio designs off-the-shelf and custom business simulations
for corporate training, employee orientation, or market research and
development. It also sells simulation development tools.
PDA Sim is a free simulation game available on Forio's web site,
which admirably demonstrates both the intrinsic advantage of using
games as teaching tools (they are fun, and good ones are addictive)
and the ingenuity of Forio's programmers.
PDA Sim takes five to 10 minutes and is deceptively simple to
play. It is played in four rounds, each representing one year of the
virtual scenario. At each pass, you, as CEO, must adjust two
seemingly simple variables: the price and percentage of the R&D
budget devoted to each model. R&D investment supposedly improves
a model's performance, which together with price, make it more or
less attractive to customers. You also have the option of
discontinuing any of the products at any time (hint: picking which
product to discontinue and the optimal time to do it is one of the
keys to beating the game).
Bleeding is bad
The point of PDA Sim, which can be gleaned after playing a few rounds
and reading the ancillary material incorporated into the game
interface, is the concept of product lifecycle. Each model appeals to
a different market segment and is at a different stage of its
lifecycle. By adjusting price and R&D, a CEO can take advantage
of product lifecycle and market maturity, maximizing profit. Hang on
to a product too long, or give up on one too soon, and the red ink
starts to bleed across the balance sheet.
The value of simulations as teaching tools depends primarily on
two factors: the validity of the simulation, meaning the degree to
which it truly represents the processes or principles the designers
are trying to simulate; and its applicability, meaning the degree to
which the lessons learned can be applied to real world tasks and
situations. I'm not in a position to evaluate either, but the PDA Sim
feels well grounded in theory and practice.
Forio software can be accessed through the Forio servers or loaded
onto the client's LAN in direct server mode. In addition, according
to co-founder Michael Bean, Forio simulations can be integrated into
a wide variety of the most popular learning management systems.
PDA nicely integrates instruction and practice. During the game,
you can get helpful hints from advisors ("The X-7 has better
performance than its competitors"), check financial and market
information (sales, profit, price and performance, neatly graphed
out), and "review how your decisions affect results."
How do you rate?
At the end of a game, a player is informed of his or her score
(accumulated profits, a billion dollars being about the median),
ranking (of about 10,000 games, as of this writing), and percentile
(top 29%, for example). At that point you can check out "Suggestions
for your next game," which analyzes the strategy you took and
contains important clues for improving performance. You can also see
high and low scores and self-descriptions of the strategies that
produced them. According to the company, a web following has
developed around achieving the highest possible score.
To get a feel for using a Forio simulation in an actual teaching
situation, I tried out PDA Sim with a class of 15 foreign business
school students, who had varying amounts of business experience.
About a third already understood the underlying principles the
simulation was trying to teach and so were able to get the point
immediately.
An additional third were initially mystified until they began to
poke around the hints and suggestions, while repeating the
simulation. At some point, these students "got it" on their own and
began improving their scores. The remaining third were not able to
"get" it on their own, despite repeated run-throughs, and required my
active individual intervention in order to ferret out where they were
getting stuck and giving them the extra tools and hints they needed
to bridge the gap.
And yes, there was one student (isn't there always one?) who to
this day has absolutely no idea of what the sim is about.
I suspect a similar distribution will apply in corporate
situations. From the looks of PDA Sim and the Price Strategy
Simulator, an additional example recently posted on the Forio web
site, the simulations are ingeniously designed, functional and fun.
Of course, the actual implementation and utilization of the
simulation are key. I suspect that for optimal results and a high
percentage of successful learning outcomes, some live instructor
intervention will need to be required.
Recommendation
Simulations are not appropriate in all training situations. However,
their effectiveness and utility are well established, and many
learners enjoy them more than more didactic alternatives. The Forio
simulations I looked at are well-designed, functional, and effective
teaching tools. Especially when the lessons to be learned involve
understanding underlying principles or formulating strategies to
solve problems, Forio's simulations are well worth considering.
