The CEO Game

How would you decide what is better, more important or will get you to where you want faster? How can you make your decisions better and better for you?

When you want to reach a given goal, there is usually more than one way to achieve it. There can be more than one good way to act and they might all help you to get to where you want, but for certain there is always one way which is better than the rest.

Which way to go?

You have to decide not only which ways to take, but also how much effort should you invest in each step. How would you know how to decide what’s better or more effective? Well to do so you’ll have to rank your alternatives. To rank most effectively and reach the right decisions you will have to compare the options in front of you with the main goal.

The ranking is fairly simple, the more each action assists you in reaching the main goal the more it’s important. You will have to find a link between each step and the main goal otherwise this step is simply useless. The more you will be able to connect each step to the main goal the more you will know how to rank the steps.

A right implementation of this approach will assist you in prioritizing task and in the ability to effectively choose which task or project are worth more effort and which are simply don’t. Knowing how to prioritize task is the corner stone in the CEO’s job.

Ailon.

The CEO Game.

What’s the difference between the Chairmen and the CEO?

Chairman is the highest office in the organization (company). The chairman is the head of the Board of Directors (deliberative assembly). The chairman needs to lead the board meetings and conducts the board’s business in an orderly fashion. The chairman, as a part of the board, must appoint or approve the CEO as well as set the strategic path the company is following, by setting the annual goals and long-term programs. The chairman gives these orders to the CEO; the CEO has to follow the guidelines set out by the board while achieving the highest profit possible as the chairman supervises.

The Chairman And The CEO

The chairman is, most of the time, representative of a group of shareholders or individuals in the company. In public companies there is also a Non-Executive Director whose job is to keep the interest of the public (the small shareholders) in mind. This is because sometimes the public doesn’t have enough shares to have real power and so they need someone to keep an eye on the private representatives. The Non-Executive Director job is to monitor and alert the public to any exploitative behavior of the board to the small shareholders.
The CEO, on the other hand, needs to follow the strategic path that the Board of Directors set. He also needs to inform the board on any new developments that occurred in the market that might lead to changes in the master plan or obstacles he might foresee as problematic in the future. The CEO can also suggest strategic plans to the board but he can’t force them to approve those plans.

The CEO must also deal with the day-to-day problems such as HR, financial, marketing and logistical planning. In some cases the CEO can also initiate business plans; some boards even delegate the CEO power to change the strategic plan in case of any given event such as sharp market changes.

Omri.

The CEO Game.

People have a hard time accepting changes. They hate change and usually they ignore and repress it until it surprises them.

Managing people in times of change is not easy. Here are some tips for making good organizational changes:

Change Management

1. The change is here to stay! As I stated, people don’t like changes, and because of that they are usually ignore it and deny its existence. Our employees treat organizational change as management caprice, which will vanish as soon as the big boss will come down. That is why the message must be clear, simple (no double meaning) and assertive. The earlier your people absorb the message the better the change will be accepted and managed. Let everyone (include yourself) understand that the change is here to stay.
2. Resistance to change is not true resistance Change is something that is forced onto the organization as a strategic management decision. The employees feel they have no real choice, which destabilize them and arouse emotional reactions such as anger, helplessness etc. The more one fears the upcoming change, the more one feels helpless, which makes one less likely to see the benefit of it and cooperate. It is easy to interpret those behaviors as resistance against the change and against the management. They are not. Those behaviors are emotional reactions and you should deal with them with the proper tools: empathy, patience and tolerance, understanding and open-mindedness.
3. Describe the future Saying goodbye to the past is very important in change processes. Suddenly, everyone remembers how good things were before the change. In retrospect everything was just perfect, and the management cannot understand it. Your employees are too busy to reconstruct the past. It is hard to give up on the present for a vague future. But a good, tangible, and realistic description of the future, emphasizing all the new opportunities and the motives for the change, will ease your people to accept the new situation and increase their commitment to the goals of change in the upcoming future.
4. Manage the adaptation period Organizational change does not happen once, especially when dealing with massive and complex changes, which effects firmly established habits or long-running, cross-method processes. Change requires adaptation, and adaptation takes time. Legitimate the adaptation process and don’t demand your people to achieve the most right from the start. Gradient achievement more likely guarantees that everyone accepts, understands and is willing to act toward the new order. Good organizational change plans set measured targets spread over some time (usually 3-6 months).
5. Don’t flounder- decide! Don’t be afraid to make hard decisions, even if the uncertainty that arises from them out is high. Since your people expect you to lead them to the journey of change, you rather have good decision now than Great decision later. If you’ll find out that your choice wasn’t as you’ve expected- don’t change it. Consistency is one of the principles in order to achieve stability in the process of change.

In conclusion, changes are blessed in every learning and growing organization. CEO must always be aware of the fact that it is also not that easy to assimilate changes.

Business simulations, such as The CEO Game, examine your ability to produce changes in your company. Of course, there is no simulation that 100% matches reality, but the more experienced you are the better you’ll manage the change.

Nimrod.

The CEO Game.

In the past few years, simulation games have become so popular that, no matter where you look, you are likely to stumble upon a business game or some kind of management simulation, many of them alike but each unique in its own way, with popular titles ranging from “Roller Coaster Tycoon”, to “Hotel Giant” to “Sim City”. One of the titles that really caught my attention is the widely renowned “Tropico“. Now it’s more relevant than ever, with the upcoming release of the third game in the series, you guessed right, “Tropico 3″, which is already tipped to be one of the strategy game highlights of 2009.

Tropico. Management Simulation Game.

Tropico is strategy simulation game with a philosophical approach, developed by PopTop Software and published by Gathering of Developers. The game was first released in 2001 and is considered one of the finest construction and management simulations ever made and is influenced by other business game masterpieces, such as the aforementioned “Sim City” and “Railroad Tycoon”. Tropico packs up addictive construction-oriented game play combined with Latin American politics and economics, which together make an easy to learn, hard to master habit-forming package.
In Tropico, the Cold war is in full throttle, as the player takes on the position of the all mighty one “El-Presidente”, the newly-installed ruler of the obscure Caribbean paradise island country of Tropico, whose rise to power is doubted to be, how can one say, oh yes, democratic.

Once the game begins, the player must design the characteristics of the island’s leader: how he inherited the mantle of power, if he is allied with the Soviet or Western bloc,what are his strong points and on the contrary, his flaws. You may select a predefined character from a list of real life personas including America’s sworn enemy Fidel Castro, his comrade Che, Argentina and Hollywood’s sweetheart Eva Perón and many more. This phase of the game is a tradeoff, where each decision that the player makes influences the entire course of the game and the leader’s relations with the different factions of the island, so one should carefully plan his strategy if he wants to last in power. This is similar to a small business or entrepreneurship, where much relies on the CEO’s characteristics.

Enough messing around, leading an island is not a child’s play, as the governor you will have to take on all fronts, both domestic and international. Altogether, you have very few resources when you start (like most ambitious startups have in the beginning) and choosing priorities is the name of the game. You must decide whether to play out as an unscrupulous dictator and use brute force to secure your regime, or turn your island into an economic powerhouse bringing in tourists from all around the world, or perhaps become a modern industrial nation marketing yourself as an export giant. No matter which path you take, you must remember that as a leader, you are on constant trial and the jury is the people.

In order to last long, you must please that jury, or find ways to eliminate it if there is no other way. Your style of rule is entirely up to you. Running the island, is much like dealing with HR, finance and management issues that every CEO must take into account. The developers of the game did a fine job of creating balanced political, religious, economic and social factors in the island who spark up tensions all the time, that delicate balance (allowing victory when playing right) is a very complicated accomplishment, that each business game much deal with.

Furthermore, you must struggle to shape your vision, fight off and outlast your political rivalries either by “re-education” or by honest means and secure the people’s happiness by providing food via farms and fishing, housing, jobs and careers, human services like hospitals and schools, building island infrastructure, entertainment and even churches and cathedrals. Tropico provides over 100 of these structures, and many edicts and policies you can choose from and as the population grows and gets scattered around the island you must issue more and fast.

Don’t let your lust for Yankee dollars or a fat Swiss-bank-retirement account, fool you. You shouldn’t let your guard down; you must keep a sharp eye out because danger is always seeking you out, whether it is a coup d’etat led by militant guerilla forces or the private ambitions of the Uncle Sam or the Soviet Union for the island. It’s important to point out that game is not a real time strategy (RTS), at least not in the classic way, but the game is influenced by real historical events such as the Cuban missle crisis, earthquakes, visits from the Pope and more.

In short, the name of the game is cleverly plan ahead to stay in power. Ultimately, the CEO will be held responsible for the success of the company, because he is the one who dictates the way. The question for each CEO is whether he can play that role in history. Can he make the right decisions and invest heavily when needed in the right place and on the right time or cut short bad investments, before it’s too late? In a sense running a business resembles running a Banana Republic, just like the Caribbean island simulation shows; plan your growth well and lead a thriving stabile enterprise to gain your people’s favor, or plan your growth badly and watch as your resources decrease and your opponents get richer while they fantasize about teaching you a lesson in mob justice. Remember, if all fails there is always martial law.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.