Corporate Marketplace testimonials

"Overall, I think the game is an excellent review of many business strategy, management, and marketing principles. It was helpful for me to go through the exercise to get a refresher on higher level enterprise thinking. In my job at Coke I was so focused on projects and managing a small piece of the business that I didn't get a chance to use those brain cells. It has helped me to think about and plan the launch of my consultancy. It was also a good refresher for all that I learned in the EMBA program."

- Bob Falkenberg, President, Concept Catalysts, Inc.

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"I have to say that my team has enjoyed Marketplace for the following reasons:
1) The business education, which is obvious,
2) They have come to understand the skills that each of their dept. members bring to the table,
3) They enjoy the bonding experience,
4) They now have the big picture as to how decisions are made across the business vs. in just their little world.

All in all a success on our end! "

- Bruce Harney, Lexmark

"Your simulation allowed me to use my real world experience, as well as applying textbook concepts in the manufacture and sale of a product. I formed strategic alliances, used these tactics to deprive my competitors of resources, and exploited their inability to service the customer.

I am now at my 4th new landfill in six years. I specialize in opening these facilities under hostile market and regulatory conditions. I use these same techniques that I learned from your simulation to successfully grow these businesses. I think anyone who wants to understand the true dynamic of modern business needs this tool for learning that you have created. "

- Glen M. Wilkinson

"A very big thank you for coming to St Moritz last week. The Marketplace simulation has been received extremely well by all the participants, they all wanted it to go on longer !! We've even heard back from a couple of General Managers, pleased that their S&M and Controllers have had this opportunity."

- Rachel Mackinnon, PA to Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Kempinski Hotels & Resorts, Geneva

"For several years, the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) has been preparing for the anticipated change to a deregulated marketplace in the electric utility industry. In 1997, we formed the EDGE group to give employees the skills to help change the corporate culture within KUB and prepare to face competition. This annual program is composed of 25 white collar professionals and blue collar workers who were chosen for an intensive business training program because of their potential to be leaders and change-agents at all levels within KUB.

Marketplace was the capstone experience in our training program that brought together the EDGE group with our 20 line managers. We could not have been more pleased with the results: Employees and managers still talk about it today and feel very positive about the experience.

Marketplace brought into focus all of the concepts and principles this group had been exposed to for the previous nine months and illustrated that teamwork will be necessary to succeed. Most important, the simulation introduced them to competition. They learned just how dynamic a competitive marketplace is going to be. It taught them to deal with uncertainty instead of certainty and that competition will speed up the rate of change and make the marketplace very volatile.

They also learned that speed often will be as important, or even more important, than deliberation. Because KUB has always been a monopoly, our people are accustomed to creating a plan and then executing and controlling most aspects of the plan. In the Marketplace game, they still went about creating a very deliberate plan when they were preparing to ask the venture capitalists for additional funding. But then the bombs started dropping: The competition attacked their marketplace and kept doing the unexpected. Our people had to deal with uncertainty and failure and the fact that there was no time to engineer down to the last detail.

We liked the fact that Marketplace was not in the utility industry. If it had been, our people would have been bogged down in utility issues. Instead, it provided higher level learning. They were able to focus on the abstract ideas, the key principles of business management. Again, Marketplace pulled it all together for our leadership team. It was a great experience!"

- Roby Trotter, Senior Vice President of Finance, CFO, Knoxville Utilities Board

"Your game allows intense, team building skills to develop. common goals and objectives to be established and achieved as well as feedback as to whether these goals or objectives were successful. Also, the game allows for the team to become involved in a process of 'natural selection' that is what a business, startup or established, faces in the real world every day. Yet, the outcome is not always exactly the same today as previously and tomorrow as today. Just like business. It requires some luck, certain amounts of timing and an overall commitment to a goal for the team to be successful. In short, I feel that the skills and abilities that your game calls out for to be successful are the very skills needed to survive in business today and that makes the entire exercise highly relevant to what we all do 40+ hours per week!

I've highly encouraged as many of my fellow Finance and Operations personnel to register for the game the next time it is offered. I've told them that they will probably never go through such a series of intense emotional events in such a short period of time as they do participating in the Marketplace simulation. I can see that any company, Rockwell included, could use your simulation as an excellent training and leadership development tool within their organization. While participation in an event such as yours doesn't necessarily imply future business success, it goes a long ways towards giving people experience in making decisions and facing the problems of business today that some people would probably never really face or experience in their daily jobs. I found the experience to be fantastic. It was well worthwhile in all regards and an experience that I feel more people should sign up for and go through for themselves."

- James Ickes, Rockwell International Corporation

"I want to thank you for the wonderful opportunity Marketplace gave me. It really got me back into the right frame of mind and applies exactly to what I am now doing for KUB. I will never be able to put into words what this has meant to me. I will remember this opportunity for a long time."

- Mitch Lister, Knoxville Utilities Board

"When we made the decision to deliver a training program to develop the Business competencies of the Key Executives of Eastman Kodak’s Health Imaging Division in Europe, we assessed several options.

We rapidly came to the conclusion that Marketplace was the most appropriate tool for us, as it included all the ingredients of the complexity of the real business life. On completion of the course, this was entirely confirmed.

All participants were absolutely amazed and impressed by the accuracy and subtlety of the simulation. An increasing competitive spirit among the teams was also observed across the seminar, demonstrating thereby, how this simulation reflects the reality.

This seminar has really contributed to strengthen the understanding of all the parameters affecting business decisions and each member of the executive team, whatever their position, have now a much better perception on how they influence the performance of the organization as a whole.

Several participants mentioned that this course is one of the best they’d ever had. This is certainly positive encouragement which will bring benefits in the way they contribute to managing Kodak’s Health Imaging Business."

- Gerard Douvre, Training and Development Manager, Europe, Africa and Middle Eastern Region,
Eastman Kodak Company, Health Imaging Division

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"I wanted to say again how impressive your simulation is. I have played simulations twice before and this one is light years ahead of those. No comparison."

- Tony McCall, BASF, Asheville, NC

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"The simulation was used for twentyfour managers within our company who were assigned into six groups. The main objectives were to demonstrate to the managers the importance of mutual communication and financial planning in business. Our company was very satisfied. The knowledge and experience gained by the participants was evident from their evaluation responses.

Our company was very satisfied with the simulation. From the responses of the participants following the simulation, it was evident that they had gained a better understanding of the importance of both of the points we wished to convey."

- Karel Palata, Personnel Development Manager, Hartmann - Rico, a.s.
Czech Republic

"We were looking for training program for our managers and salary personnel on how to plan, operate and control a business. We wanted to show how decisions by teams or individuals can have an impact on the "bottom" line results. Marketplace met our needs and exceeded our expectations in several ways. First, the simulation also provided a good exercise in team consensus problem solving and decision making. Second, we were allowed to quickly see how various aspects of our team's decisions affected the profitability of our business. This is not always the case in "real world". All team members came away from the sessions with a better understanding of how a business operates and an appreciation on how they can influence business results. Marketplace was truly a worthwhile training and education tool."

- Paul Hallet, Manager, ABB Components Division, Alamo, TN

"We enjoyed it more than we thought we would. And, the icing on the cake, we actually learned quite a bit. Doing this at the end of our curriculum allowed us to use the tools amassed to this point. Thanks for the opportunity."

- Kathyrn Inklebarger, PHR Director of Compensation and Benefits Deroyal

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