Improving Enterprise Business Acumen:

Dealership Dynamics in Action

Abstract

A global leader in the heavy equipment manufacturing industry sought to improve business acumen and financial literacy among its employees and 160+ dealers worldwide. Insight Experience’s Dealer Management Simulation helps participants understand the drivers of financial performance, dealer operations, and how different lines of business contribute to company performance. The result has been a measurable increase in business acumen and leadership skills across global dealerships, and attendees have consistently praised it as one of the client’s best corporate education experiences.

Challenge

The client offers the Dealer Management Simulation (DMS) to its employees and its global dealers. Internally, it targets newly hired management trainees, dealer-facing representatives, and district managers and their teams, while dealers engage high-performing individual contributors, functional managers, branch managers, and senior leaders. Operating in the highly competitive heavy equipment market, both the manufacturer and its dealers face such myriad challenges as delivering products and services to customers, introducing new technologies to their markets, increasing market share, and growing revenue profitably. Both groups require extensive business acumen to understand evolving market needs, develop organizational capabilities, and drive financial performance. Blended classes of client and dealer employees promote collaboration and shared learning while reinforcing strategic goals.

Solution

Insight Experience’s three-day Dealer Management Simulation immerses participants in real-world business scenarios, where they must formulate and execute strategies, make financial decisions, and develop employees. The program includes a combination of content presentations, group exercises, and simulation decision-making. The simulation experience provides participants with a platform to apply and practice the concepts and skills they learn during the program.

This customized simulation was developed specifically for the client and models a typical dealership and its markets. Participants assume the role a of General Manager of a fictional dealership. Working as a team, they lead a multi-function business that serves multiple customer segments. They are accountable for achieving strategic goals through decisions in strategy, finance, operations, human capital, and leadership. The simulation is structured around multiple decision-making rounds that represent different business quarters, allowing participants to experience the consequences of their choices in a controlled and risk-free setting. After each round of simulation decision-making, the program facilitator conducts a learning debrief to reinforce DMS program objectives and makes connections to the participants’ work challenges.

Learning Objectives

As a result of the Dealer Management Simulation, participants identify opportunities to improve business performance by:

• Improving profitability.

• Better managing and utilizing company assets.

• Increasing cash flow.

• Using key financial metrics to monitor and manage business results.

• Recommending and justifying investments.

• Understanding how different lines of business contribute to functional performance.

• Increasing leadership impact to better engage employees to drive business results.

• Increasing shareholder value.

Program Design

The Dealer Management Simulation features several key elements to ensure an effective learning experience:

• Current client financials and performance: Program content is taught using actual and current client financials. This not only reinforces the concepts presented but deepens participants' understanding of their company’s financial performance.

• Realistic business model: The DMS simulation is modeled after a typical client dealership, presenting participants with realistic and relevant business and leadership challenges.

• Integrated and interdependent decision-making: Simulation teams make a variety of functional decisions. They need to consider how their decisions not only impact functional results but also optimize enterprise performance.

• Team-based learning: Working in simulation teams fosters learning among participants as they engage in debates and discussions about decisions, sharing their experiences, insights, and opinions in the process.

• Expert facilitation: Sessions are led by experienced facilitators who offer deep content expertise, feedback, and support to maximize learning efficacy.

Agenda

The program asks participants to engage in decision-making across four business quarters, each session guided by expert facilitators to deepen their understanding and the application of learned concepts.

• Day 1 introduces the program, sets learning objectives, and engages participants in strategy planning and Quarter 1 of the simulation. It also includes an introduction to the Profit and Loss Statement, teaching participants the drivers of profitability. The day concludes with a learning discussion that reviews Quarter 1 simulation results, highlighting the decisions and results achieved by the teams.

• Day 2 focuses on the Balance Sheet. Participants learn about the importance of asset utilization and the concepts of liability and equity. Day 2 includes two additional rounds of simulation decision-making, each followed by its own learning discussion.

• Day 3 concludes the program by with a focus on cash flow. Participants learn about working capital, the cash cycle, and free cash flow, along with their respective impacts. Simulation teams make their last round of decisions and receive their final results. The DMS program culminates with participants identifying how they can apply insights and lessons back at work.

The program is also available for virtual delivery. The program content, activities, and business simulation are the same as the classroom-based offering and are organized into five sessions spanning five days.

Simulation Overview

In the simulation experience, participants step into the role of a General Manager of a fictitious wind turbine business, Energy Solutions Worldwide, Inc., that reflects similar challenges and opportunities they face at their dealerships. Simulation teams must market and distribute products, provide product support to customers, manage cash flow, manage for profitability, and make choices about what to communicate to employees and how to spend their time as the General Manager of the business.

During several rounds of decision-making, participants are asked to apply business management skills, strategic thinking, market and competitive analysis, and financial acumen to make effective operating decisions.

Participants who attend the program virtually access individual assignments, course content, and group meetings using a virtual learning platform, which provides financial and business resources as well as optional readings and assignments.

History and Results 

The Dealer Management Simulation has been delivered more than 300 times to over 6,000 participants worldwide. The program has been adapted to the unique needs of the client’s business units, geographies, and language requirements. DMS has been taught in North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

The simulation has significantly improved the business acumen of its employees and those of its dealers. This success has prompted widespread adoption both internally and across its dealership network. The program has been running for nearly two decades, with dozens of sessions offered each year, demonstrating its effectiveness and ongoing relevance.

The program’s effectiveness is reflected in the overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants. One noted that it was “the most enjoyable and rewarding training program I have been involved with in over twenty years with the company.” Another stated, “I have an MBA degree from a reputable business school. I learned more about finance and dealership operations in three days than I did from my entire MBA program!” Attendees have consistently praised it as one of the company’s best corporate education experiences.