Jon Nixon
General Manager - JCB
"We were aware that many of our dealer-facing team didn’t have a strong understanding of the complete dealer business (including sales, trade-ins, parts, service, warranty, financial etc), just the area for which they were responsible. Our aim was to improve this understanding and create increased empathy with our dealer partners.
We believed that simulation-based learning would not only help to retain the learnings but also to help our teams to use the learnings with our dealers (we also realised that this type of learning is very engaging and fun)
We were very impressed with the detail that PBS went into when designing the simulation with us and their trainers were eager to learn about our dealer model so that they were well-placed to deliver the training
This has achieved our aims of creating the understanding and empathy that we sought and our dealer-facing team are now much better placed to support our dealers."
Our clients
think we’re great.
Off the shelf?
No thanks.
Our off-the-shelf experiences are a great starting point but if you want something that feels more like “you” then we love nothing more than trying to turn your specific challenge into a game.
Go on, put us to the test…
Design Process
Problem
Cargill's commercial teams were lacking the bigger picture understanding of how to price for profitability. Too many deals were being sold at wafer thin margins, or even at a loss, yet sales people were typically targeted only around revenue or volume metrics. The disconnect between the commercial teams, finance departments and senior leaders was increasing, with each area blaming the other for unprofitable sales growth.
Solution
PBS took Cargill stakeholders through their generic Pricing for Profit game, and the parties agreed that only relatively minor configurations were required to address the problem directly. Changes were made to the customer markets, strategic differentiators and income statement structure to better reflect Cargill's context.
The resulting solution was branded for Cargill and enabled participants to discover the risks of "dealing in discount", the nature of fixed vs variable costs and the keys to value based selling - by understanding customers and competitors.
Impact
PBS have since trained a cohort of Cargill facilitators to deliver classroom and online versions of the experience to multiple cohorts of teams each year.
Mark van der Veen, Global Pricing Strategist, Cargill:
“Cargill has a global footprint with a global customer base across many food and feed supply chains. A dedicated training has been developed to increase the strategic pricing practices across these global businesses. The capstone event of the training is a game-based Pricing for profit where the learnings of the training are consolidated. Pricing for Profit allows learners to practice the learning content in a safe and competitive environment.
Profitability has been selected as a partner to develop Pricing for Profit as ProfitAbility are thought-leaders and experienced partners to bring the content of the course and learning behaviors together in a game to maximize the learning impact of the course.
Overall, 400+ people have been trained through strategic pricing training across pricing, broader commercial functions as well as finance and operations functions to build a collaborative understanding and strengthen of strategic pricing capabilities. The simulation is fundamental to bringing all training elements into practice.”
Bespoke
Games
Here are some experiences we’ve
created in collaboration with our
awesome clients.
Examples
Option 1
You think you’re going to need some small changes to something we already have
Option 2
You don’t think we have anything close to what you need right now, but you’d like to find out how we can help
Which statement is true?
Configure
This involves minor wording and branding changes to a generic experience.
This approach gives you an element of personalisation at low time/cost effort.
Configurations are normally a few days of work, rather than weeks or months!
1
Align with us on objectives
2
Experience generic version
3
2-hr configuration workshop
4
We complete and test changes
5
Experience configured version
Customise
Significant wording, branding, game-flow and facilitation adaptations to a generic experience to make it feel like yours.
This approach is needed when there is a unique objective required for a topic in which we already have a game.
Customisation projects can last several months.
1
Align with us on objectives
2
Experience generic version
3
Multiple configuration workshops
4
We complete and test changes
5
Experience configured version
Create
Co-create with us something incredible from scratch and leave a legacy for the future!
This approach is needed when there is a specific need around a topic for which we don't have an existing game.
These projects can last up to 12 months or even more. They are built to last!
1
Align with us on objectives
2
Multiple co-creation workshops
3
We build prototype for feedback
4
We build full solution
5
Test and optimise final experience
Problem
New starters at Nestlé were taking too long to understand how the business made money. There was no common financial language across the organisation, so decision making was often ill-informed and lacked consistency across different markets. Nestlé needed every employee to understand how their day to day actions impacted shareholder value - and how they could contribute more in light of this insight.
Solution
Nestlé wanted to make significant adaptations to PBS' core financial board game in order to bring this common language of value to life. Called ‘Value Creation’, the resulting simulation - in both classroom and digital formats and branded completely as Nestlé's - reflects the relationships between sales volume, price, cost of goods, brand support, research and the capital investment unique to their business. Specific context was created by choosing three product categories: coffee, chocolate and ice cream. As Nestlé’s managers participate in the experience, they can immediately see the commercial reality of their actions, as if it were really happening. Central to the solution was Nestlé taking ownership of the simulation themselves. We established a highly effective train-the-trainer program, managed and maintained by Nestlé themselves, which allowed Nestlé’s own trainers around the world to deliver the simulation in their own regions, and in their own languages, without the need for PBS involvement.
Impact
More than 2,000 Nestlé managers go through the programme each year, and Nestlé people now speak the same language and use the same terminology, no matter where in the world they work. To date, well over 200 Nestlé employees and associates have been successfully trained to deliver Value Creation in a process managed by Nestlé themselves.
Dominik Gerber, Head of Finance & Control Training, Nestlé:
"Nestlé works with PBS to make important learning fun – which increases learning impact and participant motivation.
Value Creation has run successfully for almost 25 years in almost every country Nestlé operates in. Whilst we still like to deliver the face-to-face game where possible, the digital version saves logistic costs and allows us to combine participants from different locations which fosters networking.
Managers who participate in this programme have a much greater understanding of the financial levers available to them and of their interdependent effect. When we talk about Economic Profit in a cross-discipline, cross-continent meeting, everyone who has experienced ‘Value Creation’ has the same understanding."
Problem
Talent management at PepsiCo was seen as an activity for HR, rather than people managers within the business. Too often, high potentials were leaving PepsiCo because leaders were not properly investing in their futures. New roles tended to be filled by expensive external hires - rather than from internal promotions - and the hiring process struggled to produce diverse candidates. Managers were being overwhelmed by engagement and wellbeing issues within their team and were not always utilising the support resources PepsiCo had invested in, either because they were not aware of them or because they did not see the benefit.
Solution
PBS had no existing solution for this talent management challenge. In line with the PBS game-based learning methodology, the full talent lifecylcle at PepsiCo needed to be re-created in a compelling game format. A game story was developed which positioned participants as leaders of a virtual team, able to make lifelike decisions around training and development, pay and recruitment. Each decision impacted individual and team KPIs such as engagement, capability, diversity and performance. A live competitive talent marketplace was integrated in the game to create an exciting centre-piece in each game round. After fact finding workshops with PepsiCo stakeholders, the first step was to produce a playable proof of concept game experience on Google Sheets. Following feedback and revisions in conjunction with PepsiCo, the full game was designed and built for the web. Within 14 months of the first workshop, the game was rolled out across PepsiCo Europe.
Impact
Andrew Collier, L&D Director, PepsiCo Europe:
"PepsiCo strongly believes in the long-term career development of our employees, so we recognise the value in fostering a high level of capability in our managers to be able make effective talent decisions for their teams.
We sought a learning solution which could simulate the types of real life, day to day talent challenges our managers face – but also be fun, engaging and provide a very different learner experience than traditional classroom training. We decided to work with PBS to co-design the game because they have a proven record in designing and delivering high impact L&D solutions.
Importantly, we knew that PBS would enter into a partnership with us and be able to design something that fit PepsiCo’s culture and unique context
The experience has already resulted in higher learner engagement scores and significantly increased our managers confidence and ability to make better talent decisions."
