Business simulation means better senior managers at Heinz

Citation

(1999), "Business simulation means better senior managers at Heinz", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 23 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.1999.00323aab.009

Business simulation means better senior managers at Heinz

Business simulation means better senior managers at Heinz

Keywords Efficiency, Management, Simulation, Training

H.J. Heinz Company is using a business simulation system developed by Simulation Training Associates (STA) to create senior managers who can operate at maximum efficiency in a European marketplace.

The Heinz company is creating a unified European structure and decided to give its managers the opportunity to experience working in an international environment. For a week, 25 managers from seven European countries stayed in Maastricht and took part in a simulation programme called Bissim, created by STA to enable teams of participants to run simulated companies over a set period and experience the results of their decisions.

During a simulation, each "company" put together a mission statement, set its objectives and decided on how they would be achieved. They drew on three years' historical information as well as annual market summaries, financial results and performance reports covering such issues as staff morale and customer satisfaction. When the simulation was complete, the teams were given an evaluation summary. They also presented their results to the other participants, as if to shareholders, and the results were compared with those of the competing companies.

Says Kim Walsh, European employee development manager at H.J. Heinz Company: "We already had in place an international affiliate event for senior managers from all the European affiliates which was previously a non-assessed training event. We decided we wanted to go down the assessed route so we needed an exercise that would be stretching and very much business focused."

The company chose Bissim because it enabled participants to learn and could be adapted to match the Heinz competency criteria. While the managers were undergoing the simulation exercise, observers were able to monitor behaviour and competencies. Participants were given roles different from their existing position within Heinz, divided into groups and asked to ensure the company made a profit.

"When managers working in a certain discipline are taken out of their normal role and asked to look at business from another perspective", says Kim Walsh, "they gain a broader understanding of the company and of the other players in the organization. For example, when a marketing manager has to think like an accountant, he appreciates why there might have to be restrictions on a marketing budget if the company is to remain profitable."

The exercise is paper-based with the outputs fed into a PC for analysis. The main benefit of the Bissim package is that it is assessable and measurable. Because the company is focusing on an international environment, it is not necessarily looking for what a manager does but how that end result is achieved.

Managers are not only assessed on whether they met their objectives or hit their targets, but this was done with particular emphasis on an individual's interpersonal skills.

After the event, reports were prepared which highlighted a participant's strengths or opportunities for development. They would then be given any training necessary to ensure they had the skills required to operate as effectively as possible in their senior position within a growing international organization.

For further information on Bissim, contact Simulation Training Associates Ltd, 2 Crow Lane, Rochester, Kent ME1 1RF. Tel: 01634 407659; Fax: 01634 826040; E-mail: info@Simulationsuk.com