Easy for you. Competitive fun for them. The Green Business Lab is the comprehensive experiential learning simulation you ve been searching for.

Transcription

1 We keep it real. The Green Business Lab teaches all the things other business simulations teach and adds sustainability to it. And it does this in an integrative and smart way. Plus, it is fun. The students love it. They have a blast with it! ANNE YORK, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy, Creighton University Easy for you. Competitive fun for them. The Green Business Lab is the comprehensive experiential learning simulation you ve been searching for.

2 The Green Business Lab is an incredible tool for teaching strategic leadership. I think sometimes my students learn as much about strategic leadership as they do about sustainability and that is great, and they actually do it together. STEVE OLSON, Faculty Director, Innovation Programs, Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University A student team performing their commercial jingle What is The Green Business Lab? The Green Business Lab is a comprehensive business simulation that gives participants hands-on experience running a sustainable company. In The Green Business Lab, we simulate a realistic business environment so that participants learn about sustainable business while they are engaged in business. Participants remember and can better apply the lessons they have learned because they experience them in a realistic and relevant context. Scenarios are based on real company case examples from manufacturing and service industries. Topics are fresh, relevant and pressing because they are based on thought leaders and industry best practices. Participants are immersed in running a company, and each member plays a key functional role. This new Executive Team shapes company strategy and is accountable for performance. While making manufacturing, marketing and management decisions, executives real time with stakeholders including customers, employees and suppliers, government representatives and NGOs all played by Green Business Lab instructors. The Board of Directors has expanded company performance to include triplebottom-line metrics. Companies use dynamic, detailed financial reports to monitor their performance both as they make decisions and as they compare their results to competitors at the end of the cycle. In the final cycle, executive teams present their strategy and outlook for the future to a Board of Directors (meeting in-person or virtually). Participants learn to craft the story of their strategy, field tough questions, and gain experience in how to develop a skilled Board Room presence. T H E G R E E N B U S I N E S S L A B P A G E 2

3 Cornell Dyson School students building SphereMovers T Business simulations and experiential learning are so valuable to students. If they don t have a chance to practice in realtime, the learning doesn t cement for them and they can t connect the dots. DEBORAH MANN, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University he Green Business Lab delivers the learning potential expected from a great simulation. What sets us apart from other available simulations is our individualized, dynamic and tangible approach. Individual attention. Our instructors will work with you to understand your overall course content and learning objectives in order to draw connections to simulation topics. And they will work real-time with individual participants giving feedback or coaching as needed. Dynamic stakeholder involvement. Our instructors roleplay stakeholders via so that communication with participants is specific and creative rather than generalized and tightly-scripted. Tangible Product. Participants use both creativity and analytical reasoning to design and manufacture a physical product. This product is central to their business strategy and mission, and participants quickly identify with it much more strongly than if it were simply a virtual product in a computer simulation. Rio Tinto participants and their SphereMover Participant listening to ideas from her team T H E G R E E N B U S I N E S S L A B P A G E 3

4 The Green Business Lab was a really powerful experience for them, which they will carry forward to their workplaces in the future. JIM VOLCKHAUSEN, Assistant Director, Cornell Team & Leadership Center Participants evaluate their SphereMovers on a test track Our Laboratory fosters Experimentation, Creativity and Learning The Green Business Lab is adaptable to both business and non-business students at various levels of education including: l Executive Education l MBAs/Graduate Programs l Undergraduate Programs And integrates with many different courses including: l Business Strategy l Leadership l International business l Marketing l Capstone l Sustainability/CSR/Ethics l Entrepreneurship l Interdisciplinary l Engineering l The Sciences T H E G R E E N B U S I N E S S L A B P A G E 4

5 10 Reasons to Use our Sustainable Business Simulation The Green Business Lab is actually a microcosm of what students are going to experience in real life. AL GONZALEZ, Founding Partner, GIVE Leadership Institute 1 Easy to use. The Lab fits into new or existing courses. And Green Business Lab instructors deliver the Lab with you so you decide your level of involvement. 2 Tailored learning. Our instructors emphasize your course learn- ing objectives and work real-time with individual participants giving feedback or coaching. 3 Easy to grade. The Lab has all the tools to easily put together a grading rubric that fits your learning objectives based on quizzes, company progress reports, debrief questions, team effectiveness surveys and company presentations. 4 Flexible format. We offer classroom, virtual or blended formats that fit into your schedule. And we can adapt Lab lessons to suit undergraduate, MBA or corporate business programs, as well as, Engineering and Interdisciplinary courses. 5 Engaged participants. Participants love the competitive fun cou- pled with realistic, relevant lessons. They get hooked by the pace and compete for success. 6 Fresh, updated topics. The Lab s unique design makes it easy to update in order to stay current. For example, instructors or participants may add to the application web-links to relevant research, headlines, and expert opinions. Or stakeholder comments may include the day s news. And quizzes, surveys and GE participants discussing the options assignments may be added while the Lab is in progress. 7 Real-time stakeholder involvement. Participants engage real-time with stakeholders via an internal application and meet directly with the Board of Directors 8 Connecting the dots. Because members of the executive team have different roles and information, students observe how issues cut across the company and this helps them to connect the dots between different disciplines. 9 Physical product. Companies design and manufacture a physical product that engages them more actively than if they were making decisions in an application with an imagined product alone. 10 It s scalable. The Lab can be used with classes as small as 15 participants or as large as several hundred. T H E G R E E N B U S I N E S S L A B P A G E 5

6 For 20 years or more, we have recognized that the way we do business has serious impacts on the world around us. Now it is increasingly clear that the state of the world around us affects the way we do business. K P M G R E P O R T, Expect the Unexpected: Building Business Value in a Changing World. T H E G R E E N Participants learn to work collaboratively Is Green Business Really that Important? In a recent hard-hitting report, the chairman of KPMG cautioned that if we don t make significant and sweeping changes toward sustainability, things will begin to go badly. KPMG isn t alone in this opinion. Even a cursory review of business sustainability literature produces hundreds of similar reports from credible, thoughtful sources. But change isn t easy and the way forward is a bit uncertain. A 2012 survey of sustainability experts (conducted by SustainAbility and GlobeScan in preparation for the Rio +20 Earth Summit) found that the complexity of sustainability issues makes changing or improving practices difficult. The report explains B U S I N E S S L A B that business sustainability issues require a systems perspective as well as knowledge of the drivers and leverage points for change. It further points out that some topics may be so politically charged that they are not even up for discussion. This is where the Green Business Lab helps participants look broadly at sustainable business practices, identify leverage points, and discuss solutions in a realistic and safe setting. The Green Business Lab is not about tree-hugging or adopting unrealistic or over-simplistic solutions. Instead, it takes real-world challenges and frames the issues in terms of business value and measurable results. P A G E 6

7 Staying on Top of the Trends It is important for students to learn about sustainable business as a fundamental aspect of creating value for a company, and this is particularly well-illustrated in The Green Business Lab. In addition, it is very rare that students get the chance to look at all aspects of business in one simulation. BRUCE HUTTON, Piccinati Professor in Teaching Innovation, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver The field of sustainable business is constantly changing and growing so The Green Business Lab is designed to keep up to date. Here are a few examples: l Debrief materials include the latest subjects from your syllabus or today s news. l Information links throughout our application connect participants to current best practices. Meeting the Need for a Practical Sustainability Simulation Students mirror roles found on a real management team l Instructors or participants may add web-links to the application about relevant research, headlines, and expert opinions. l Updatable business challenges are patterned after real issues facing companies today. Given the complex and integrated nature of green business topics, Susan Svoboda saw the need for a practical tool that was comprehensive, yet hands-on. After getting her MBA at Michigan s Ross School of Business and working at the University of Michigan for several years in what is now the Erb Institute, she developed The Green Business Lab. During her time at the University of Michigan, Susan had the opportunity to work with Professor Stuart Hart, a Susan Svoboda pioneer in the field of sustainable enterprise. He, too, saw the need for practical tools, and together they spent many hours discussing ideas for what would later become The Green Business Lab. Auspiciously, a third colleague, Richard Duke, known to many as the founder of simulation and gaming as a scientific activity, joined in the early conversations, offering instruction in simulation design concepts that proved invaluable. Today, the Green Business Lab is used in university and corporate programs. Past clients include: l Cornell University l Georgia State University l Central Michigan University l Denver University l University of Michigan l Georgetown University l General Electric l Rio Tinto l Chrysler Financial T H E G R E E N B U S I N E S S L A B P A G E 7

8 Ready to learn more about how your students can participate in The Green Business Lab for the per-student cost of a textbook? We invite you to explore The Green Business Lab today: l Request a demo. Contact Realia Group at (313) or Info@GreenBusinessLab.com. We keep it real. l Visit Watch video interviews with those who have experienced The Green Business Lab firsthand.