Your custom simulation perfectly mirrors your company's exact cost structure, client base, and current strategy. There's just one problem: it's teaching participants there's only one right answer—the answer management already chose. Six months from now, when market conditions shift or participants move to new roles, that "perfect" simulation has trained them for a world that no longer exists.

In this episode of our series on choosing the best business acumen simulation, we tackle a critical trade-off: industry dynamics versus company-specific modeling. Discover why the simulations that teach the broadest, most adaptable thinking are the ones that resist the temptation to over-customize.

Learn why strong simulations frame decisions in terms of industry-wide forces—competition, cost structures, customer pressures, market evolution—rather than prescribing your company's current strategic path. When participants explore a range of valid strategies instead of reverse-engineering management's chosen direction, they develop the critical thinking skills to understand why decisions are made, not just follow instructions.

We expose the hidden dangers of company-specific simulations: they describe known systems and predetermined solutions based on past analysis. While this creates short-term alignment, it restricts creative decision-making and becomes a liability as business problems evolve. Worse, when participants perform poorly in an over-fitted simulation, they blame the game's modeling rather than reflecting on their decisions—destroying the learning opportunity entirely.

Why Industry-Based Models Win:

• Allow exploration of multiple strategic paths, not just one "right answer" • Build understanding of the forces behind decisions, not just the decisions themselves • Remain relevant as conditions change and participants advance in their careers • Foster adaptability and creative problem-solving instead of rote compliance

Critical Questions to Evaluate:

• Is the simulation appropriate for your industry without being over-tailored to your company? • Does it encourage understanding of strategic concerns and options within the industry? • Will success depend on participants' decisions, or on matching a predetermined approach?

When participants win using approaches different from management's current strategy, that's not a flaw—it's evidence they're learning to think like business leaders who can evaluate competing options and adapt to changing conditions.

Choose simulations that build flexible, adaptable thinkers—not ones that simply reinforce today's orthodoxy. Because the best business acumen training prepares people for the challenges they haven't encountered yet.

Essential for L&D leaders who want to develop strategic thinkers, not just better order-followers.

Read the full blog post.