Every year we host a Train-The-Trainers Workshop for professors, educators, and program directors across the globe who are interested in a first-hand experience on how Marketplace Live simulations are used in schools and corporations. This fall’s 2015 TTT was held in Knoxville, TN. Some of our participants came from as far as Nigeria to experience just how effective our business simulations are and the wide range of ways Marketplace Live can be blended into a classroom curriculum or become an integral part of a corporation’s training program.
We chose to use our Conscious Capitalism® game because it requires participants to consider all of the stakeholders in a company. The simulation was built in collaboration with Dr. Raj Sisodia, the Distinguished Professor of Conscious Capitalism at Babson College. He is also Co-founder and Co-Chairman of Conscious Capitalism, Inc.
The Conscious Capitalism® simulation challenges students to operate a conscious business in contrast to the traditional profit-maximizing business paradigm. They must consider all of the firm’s stakeholders, including customers, stockholders, employees, suppliers, and the community. As well, they must deal with ethical, environmental and sustainability issues in addition to the usual management challenges of running a business.
This simulation covers all of the functional areas of a business and provides the most comprehensive scope of a full enterprise. Educators from various business disciplines such as marketing, supply chain, management, accounting, and strategy see how their role is integrated throughout the simulation.
Having joined Innovative Learning Solutions in March 2015, I wanted to experience the business simulations first-hand. Participating in the TTT Workshop was one of the best opportunities I had to get acquainted with the simulations.
Here’s what happened during the workshop:
To get started, we were divided up into 6 teams of 3 to 4 players. Over the course of an intense workshop of 2.5 days and playing through 6 of 8 quarters of the game, we were gradually led through each section of the simulation. Dr. Cadotte would pause after each quarter and reflect on the importance of using a pedagogy-based business game. He showed us how our decisions affected the game and we could see how our thought process changed as we became more involved.
Towards the end of the last two quarters, Dr. Cadotte asked the teams to conduct a briefing and present it to an outside participant who’s acting as a venture capitalist. This was quite the educational experience. We had 15 minutes to present the company from our individual roles, explain our current financial situation, and then pitch a request for investment in our company.
Performing as a student was a real eye-opener. Everyone who participated in the workshop saw the impact that this simulation has in experiential learning.
Reviews from the participants during this TTT Workshop:
“My Marketplace Live TTT experience was intense, enlightening, exhausting, energizing, disheartening, encouraging, perplexing, rewarding, and filled with a host of emotions that changed from minute to minute as our team collectively made fast-paced, decisions that had remarkably realistic and immediate effects on the outcome of our fictitious company; long sentence to represent the long days of the simulator experience. In short, I loved it.
I particularly loved the thoroughness of our coach, Jean Nkurunziza, who was always pushing us to strive for excellence. Jean’s incredible knowledge of business, and his thorough understanding of the Marketplace Live simulator, helped create a real-world experience for the entire team. As a past certified public accountant (CPA), and current business owner, business and marketing consultant, and professor of business topics, I found the Marketplace Live simulator to generate the same emotions and sense of urgency that a real-world business generates on a daily basis.
I would highly recommend the Marketplace Live TTT session to educators, company trainers, and corporate executives who want to incorporate realistic challenges into their training program. As a retired U.S. Air Force officer, I would equate the Marketplace Live simulator experience to the realistic war games used to prepare individuals for battle – realistic experience with simulated casualties. Fortunately, for our team, we improved with time and turned our “casualty” into a promising company that had a real chance at winning the simulation competition.
Finally, the authentic hospitality of the entire staff, from the ever-changing snacks to the superb meals and evening dinner and volleyball under the stars, was the best I have ever experienced in my 40+ years of attending conferences and training sessions. Overall, the Marketplace Live TTT experience gets an A+.”
Dr. Terry Kibiloski
Professor, College of Business Administration
Sullivan University
“I really enjoyed the TTT Workshop. I came back from my time in Knoxville and couldn’t stop talking about it to my manager. . . how engaging it was. I felt immersed in it and I didn’t feel like I worked for CareerBuilder anymore. That’s how involved I was in the game.
The collaboration amongst the team I was in was great. I really enjoyed the presentation part and presenting to the Venture Capitalist was wonderful. I can see how that can benefit us pulling through the program.
The program we run is called the Leadership Development Series. You go through a three year long program consisting of 3 to 4 classes each year that are taught by professors at top notch universities. You’re basically going through an accelerated version of an MBA. At the end of this MBA, we don’t have a good capstone program to apply everything we learned.
I’d like to get this simulation and pull through everything I learned from the last three years and put it to use. I went through the program and I’m in HR Leadership Development. Once I graduated from this mini MBA program, there were things I couldn’t apply and would like to use Marketplace Live for this.”
Stacey Gruenwald
CareerBuilder
All-in-all, this was a great learning experience and I’m happy to say my team was in the lead by the time the workshop concluded! The competition was, indeed, fierce. 
Thank you, again, to those who came out to visit us in Knoxville, TN! If you haven’t already, please feel free to share your experience with us in the comments below. We’d love to hear how things are going! 
If you’re interested in joining us for a TTT Workshop, our next session will be in Knoxville, TN from May 11-13, 2016.