Pulling in the same direction

"Making key people understand how and why their decisions influence the entire organization."

Six capital-intensive companies are competing for customers in a highly competitive, rapidly changing marketplace. Participants take on the role of the management team – comprised of finance, production, marketing and corporate intelligence. Their challenge is to make the right investments at the right time – and to get the required return.

Teams manage the strategic, operational and financial variables that will help lower costs and penetrate new markets.

Tough investment decisions lie ahead:

  • Invest now…or later?
  • Pursue all markets… or just a few?
  • Take the lead… or be an early follower?
  • Build efficient assembly lines… or flexible flow shops?
  • Borrow money… or earn it first?
  • Stick to the basics… or pursue the cutting edge?

Teams learn to better utilize financial statements and financial ratios as planning tools to boost productivity and profitability over a 10-year period. Working together, they increase their awareness of the complex nature of inter-departmental financial relationships.

And in the process, they understand what it takes to pull in the same direction – as well as how to bring their new skills and insights into reality.

Who benefits?

  • All personnel with financial responsibilities in manufacturing, production or other capital-intensive companies can build cross-functional insight and align with a common vocabulary of performance measures.
  • Sales people, service providers and consultancies gain a better understanding of their clients’ business conditions.
  • Companies that are implementing new IT architectures can use Celemi Decision Base® to identify hot buttons.
  • Business schools, corporate universities and academies can use this as part of their management development track to introduce and apply strategy, business economics and finance competencies.

Key results

  • Improved productivity through better teamwork, communication and coordination.
  • Alignment around the “big picture” and a deeper level understanding of strategy and tactical initiatives.
  • Better decisions for optimal allocation of limited resources.
  • Increased responsiveness to internal and external customer needs.
  • Heightened business literacy and financial acumen.
  • Deep understanding of the overall business impact of financial decisions.

Key concepts

  • Market share
  • Profitability
  • Return on capital employed
  • Cash flow
  • Cost of capital
  • Return on investments in markets, products and
  • production
  • EVA™ (economic value added) optional
  • CVA™ (cash flow value added) optional
  • NPV (net present value) optional
  • ABC (activity-based costing) optional

What clients say

“You know the program is effective when people from manufacturing, sales and marketing become sensitive to each other’s needs and understand how the other operation works.”
– Manager, 3M
“We found Celemi Decision Base® to be profoundly valuable. By experiencing the positions of senior management, our sales people gained a newfound appreciation for what our customers experience in their jobs and developed a greater ability to talk the customer’s language.”
“We required every Oracle USA sales representative to take this training. It was exceptional.”
– Sales manager, Oracle
“I better understand my personal impact on financial results and hope to find ways to make things better… I hope everyone takes this. It’s good material for developing increased understanding of financial terms and interactions in the business environment.”
– Participant, Hewlett Packard

Quickfacts for Celemi Decision Base®

Material
Board-based business simulation.
Participants
Six competing teams, 12-24 participants in total.
Multiple seminars can be held simultaneously.
Participants
Managers and other employees in decision-making positions.
Time required
2-2,5 days, corresponding to 10 years of operation.
Facilitator
Facilitators certified by Celemi.
Languages
This business simulation is available in Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Portuguese (Europe), Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Europe + Latin America), Swedish and Turkish.