Challenge agility

Why are business simulations particularly suitable as a further training measure to train managers in the basic understanding of business management?

Author: Daniele Kilian

Published on: December 10, 2022 Last updated: January 10, 2024

Categorie: HR Impulse

2 Min. Reading time:

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The challenge of agility

Why a basic business management toolkit is important for middle management

In today’s fast-paced world, companies face the challenge of responding dynamically and quickly to changing market demands. Changes have to be managed with a high degree of agility. This agility is necessary because product life cycles are shortening, markets are changing faster, and thus economic success is also linked to the flexibility in which companies can adapt to the shorter cycle. It is therefore important that rapid and flexible changes of direction, adjustments and course corrections can be made within the company.

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Steep hierarchies are hardly promising in this context. Flat hierarchies and short decision-making paths, on the other hand, not only save costs, but also accelerate processes in large organizations. As a result, many operational decisions are being thinned out and no longer passed on to superiors or specialized departments, but rather have to be made independently – by middle management.

Middle management is thus increasingly playing a key role, as it is the decisive link between the overarching corporate strategy developed by top management and its operational implementation. Without competent management decisions at the middle hierarchical level, every strategy fails, and this brings the importance of competencies into focus.

Designing processes in everyday operations in an agile and flexible manner and always in line with the corporate strategy can only succeed if the fundamental strategic relationships are commonly known.

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It is important to understand the controlling key figures and their drivers as well as business processes and interrelationships in order to have the overall business picture in view. Basic management know-how and business decision-making skills are therefore crucial, and it makes sense to develop them through appropriate training.

Why are business simulations particularly suitable as a further training measure in this context, in order to train this necessary basic understanding of business administration in middle management?

All business management disciplines, instruments and functions can never be viewed and taught in isolation from one another. They must always be seen in the overall entrepreneurial context.
Only a complex learning environment can realistically draw and explain an overall entrepreneurial picture to which all management decisions are aligned like a compass in day-to-day operations.
Entrepreneurial thinking and acting cannot be read about in a textbook, as they require courageous situational decisions and competent weighing of opportunities and risks. This can only be trained in a dynamic learning environment.
A business simulation introduces the participants to business know-how in a playful and implementation-oriented way, thus reducing their fear of contact and facilitating their access to a subject area that is new to many.
The dynamics and excitement of a business simulation strongly motivate learners to go deeper into business contexts, not only because they see the benefits, but also because they enjoy it.

Ein Team bespricht seine Strategie für das MARGA Planspiel

Business simulations can therefore help middle management in particular to strengthen entrepreneurial thinking and acting. In this way, decisions can be made faster and more unerringly in a working environment in which fast processes are increasingly required. A broad basic understanding of business management in middle management also forms a necessary level of communication between the decision-makers themselves, right through to controlling and up to senior management. After all, developing goals and tackling implementation require not only competencies, but also a common basis of understanding.