The
"Blu Loo Pty Ltd" business unit has been thrashed
by their competitors in the first round of the simulation by
a rag-tag bunch of consultants and local business people calling
themselves "Radiant Enterprises Pty Ltd" business
unit. "Blu Loo Pty Ltd's" bottom line is looking very
sick with a loss of $88 and both managers and workers are looking
confused, frustrated and downright disillusioned with their
efforts.
The "Radiant Enterprises" business unit, meanwhile,
has managed to charm one of the two picky customers. Privately
named by them "The Customer From Hell," he has been
offered a Christmas party he'll never forget and a guarantee
of a total of 3 products delivered according to zero tolerance
specifications. The "Radiant Enterprises" business
unit has none-the-less also produced a loss of $29 despite their
intensive effort. This is the first round in the Competitive
Edge Simulation, a new, hands-on, one-day workshop designed
in Australia for Australian businesses and for public sector
organisations competing as a result of the Hilmer Competition
Policy reforms.
The simulation is designed to let organisations experience how
to create people, who are passionate about delighting customers,
increasing their job satisfaction and beating their competition.
Owen Tilbury, the facilitator and designer of the Competitive
Edge Simulation points out that "... at the first production
run stage the learning is just beginning. The business units
are discovering that they need to come up with new approaches
if they are to meet the production and profit targets. The power
is in the increased understanding this gives them of business
concepts and terminology, of the ways to gather the data, and
how to redesign everything to reduce expenses, increase productivity
and increase profits".
The preparation for Round Two begins...
"Blu Loo Pty Ltd" has given up their lunch break and
has spent the last 30 minutes in a business unit huddle in the
hallway. They reappear looking far more confident of their ability
to beat "Radiant Enterprises". The situation has changed
through...
The customers have become even harder to get on with and are
demanding penalties for non-delivery and sub-standard product,
as well as wanting a tender specifying the quality and price
for the next production.
Then comes the redesign... First, everyone learns simple financial
literacy like the role of profit (which, interestingly, both
business units had overlooked in their initial discussions),
direct costs, quality and productivity indicators, break even
and so on.
Then the business units do work process analysis to identify
ways to improve productivity. Customer research is commissioned
to find ways to go beyond simply filling an order efficiently
to totally delighting their customers. Each team develops a
strategic plan for improvement based on the data that they have
collected. There is talk of espionage, product innovation and
price fixing deals to "stich up" the customers as
both business units scramble for any sort of competitive advantage.
New production processes are agreed, break evens are decided,
profit targets are set, tenders are completed and second production
period begins...
The atmosphere in the room becomes charged with the seriousness
of meeting the demands of production, quality, and customer
satisfaction and, of course, profit.
After 30 minutes, the results are nothing short of amazing...
"Blu Loo Pty Ltd" has turned everything around and
the smiles on their faces say it all. By developing a saleable
product made from waste materials, by totally redesigning their
workplace, multi-skilling and improving levels of customer satisfaction,
by setting goals and involving everyone in the strategic planning,
their net profit has soared from a total loss of $88 in the
first run to a massive profit of $274.50 in the second.
"Radiant Enterprises" are left in a state of total
disbelief. Even after employing their secret weapon, a peice
of machinery from outside the training room, they have still
not been able to match the level of strategic thinking, team
work, and brilliant lateral thinking put together by "Blu
Loo Pty Ltd". Nevertheless, "Radiant Enterprises's"
profit levels have also soared from $-29 to a very healthy $124.50,
a 500% turn-around on their first result.
According to Owen Tilbury, the developer of the Competitive
Edge Simulation, the power of the program is in what the business
units learn and then transfer to their real life workplaces.
"The simulation is designed not only to give organisations
an experience of designing a competitive edge but to give the
participants the tools to evaluate and begin the process of
re-designing their own real life workplaces for higher productivity,
higher profits, greater job satisfaction and greater customer
focus".
The Competitive Edge Simulation has been used Australia-wide
to help private and public enterprise organisations learn how
to continuously transform themselves for success in the challenging
global economy. It has been used to help executives, managers
and work teams through major changes such as cultural change,
strategic planning, enterprise agreements and the creation of
self-directed work teams.
