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The Corporate Arcade
If you're planning to get an M.B.A. or are about to attend a training session for work, be prepared for what you might be expected to master: video games. Major corporations have begun using the former arcade-only entertainment to train employees. Advocates say gaming helps develop new skills and enhances communication between team members.
For the companies getting real results via video-game training, this isn't play time. Teammates who experience potential work scenarios in a game environment receive valuable virtual training in preparation for the real thing.
High-tech tools -- new and unfamiliar tools -- are introduced into the workplace and our personal lives all the time. So the notion of video games being "new" and unconventional might seem absurd to dedicated players. However, using the electronic recreation for management training is an emerging market, only beginning to see widespread usage.
By the year 2012, according to U.K.-based research company Apply Group, between 100 and 135 of the Global Fortune 500 will have adopted gaming for learning. Leading the way are companies in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, including Siemens, IKEA, Motorola, American Express and BP.
Apples and oranges for businesses
Calemi is a global learning design company that creates business simulations and other learning tools to improve business performance. Their games include Apples & Oranges, for increased financial acumen; Decision Base, which leads to an understanding of business finance and operational connections; Livon/Livon Lite, which helps players distinguish business in a competitive marketplace; and Cayenne, a budgetary learning module, among others.Apples & Oranges has players assume control of the imaginary company A&O Inc. And in true video game form, players are tasked with challenges, including a large loss of market share and increasing demands from suppliers and customers.
By utilizing the game simulation, designers believe that those participating on the A&O Inc. team will learn how to monitor cash flow more closely, analyze financial ratios, and measure results in the balance sheet and income statement.
Students in the University of Iowa's M.B.A. program are among Calemi game players. They feel the video game allows them to experience developing relationships and resources that lead to their financial successes in the game, and will hopefully translate into valuable real-world lessons.
"For these first-year M.B.A.s, the simulation ties together the key functions of business and demonstrates that these functions -- whether it be finance, human resources, operations, marketing -- can't act as [stand-alone structures]," explains Colleen M. Downie, assistant dean of the M.B.A. program at the University of Iowa's Henry B. Tippie College of Business. "[The game] provides an invaluable learning laboratory in business strategy and execution."
Downie believes knowing how to put together core functions in business is the key to success in the industry. These video games are helping students understand how they work together, she says.
Perdix, a business consulting company, uses military-developed software and real-time strategy for a learning tool called Executive Command. In the game, teams of executives compete in a war and strategy simulation module.
During the game, Perdix professionals monitor how various people interact and react to certain situations that occur in game play. The company then makes assessments on how communication functions in a particular organization.
The U.S. Marine Corps relies on commercial video games also, according to General James L. Jones in his recent interview with the National Defense Industrial Association. The games provide a "great training value," said the service's commandant.
Also, the U.S. Army uses video games to increase effective communications between enlisted personnel during intense situations. They're using a commercial tank simulation called "Spearhead II," co-developed by Zombie Virtual Reality Studios and Mak Technologies Inc., which trains crews on artillery fire control. The better the soldiers are at communicating clearly with each other, the better the combat unit fares in the game.
This isn't the first time game simulations have been used as educational tools.
"It's not a new development by any means," says Jeremiah Black, producer of PlayValue.tv, an online show covering the history and relevance of video games.
In 1983, Electronic Arts released "M.U.L.E.," a multiplayer strategy game involving the supply and demand of economics. Since then, there have been dozens of other economic simulation games, including Railroad Tycoon (1990), Theme Park (1994), Capitalism (1995) and Industry Giant II (2002).
Recently, PerfectCompetition.net entered the market. It's an online, real-time multiplayer game that teaches business strategy and, says Black, "is probably the most accurate economic business simulator to date." In the game, players establish and direct companies, manage a hedge fund, recruit and dismiss staff, set up business units, and a host of other tasks. Think of it as a real-life company startup in the financial industry. Most of the players, says Black, are students.
With similar objectives, Industry Player, which came out in 2007 from Tycoon Systems Ltd., is being used in the corporate world and in various M.B.A. programs. It's become so popular as a curriculum, in fact, that the company has since released a "Campus Edition" of the game that allows up to 100 students to participate simultaneously.
Generation X workers are likely to have no qualms about training via video games, and the digital natives just entering the work force are ideally suited to excel at this kind of instruction.
So if your experience with video games ended when Pong was still a hot item, you may find yourself in need of a quick tutorial in modern gaming. Sure it will be work-related, but you might actually have some fun.
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