The Business Simulation Blog

Business simulation games can be put to use to achieve a wide range of learning outcomes. In this week’s blog post, we will explore and consider the benefits of using business simulations in teaching in modern education. We interviewed Senior Lecturer Jukka Sirkiä from Saimaa University of Applied Sciences in Finland, who has accumulated over a decade of experience in business simulator games, both as a learner and user, as well as an educator. As an enthusiastic adopter of technology in his role as a Lecturer, Jukka has adapted a portfolio approach to the use of business educational games, utilizing different simulations for a variety courses which he is lecturing.

Student engagement is a hot topic in education today, and for a good reason. With a multitude of distractions available to learners at any given time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make your course material both relatable and memorable over the long term. 

Business simulations can help you overcome this barrier by adding a hands-on learning element to your course that connects the dots between theory and practice.

Management in organizations is the function that coordinates the efforts of people to accomplish goals and objectives by using available resources efficiently. As such, it is a vitally important cross-departmental discipline that relies on long term strategic thinking, timely communication, and effective decision-making based on often times incomplete information.

Running such a multifaceted business as a hotel requires a great deal of cross departmental know-how of its leadership. To really understand the nuances of customer satisfaction and how it relates to bottom line performance, hotel managers must deal with a variety of decisions that span the entire chain of the organization. Teaching hospitality management is thus a complex endeavor that can benefit greatly from a risk free practical learning environment to consolidate what the students have learned in the class.

As we have covered in previous articles, business simulations are already a fantastic supplementary tool on their own in higher education learning. Today we talked to Associate Professor Anssi Tarkiainen at Lappeenranta University of Technology about how he is taking the use of simulations to the next level. Professor Tarkiainen has been using Cesim Global Challenge for 5 years in a capstone course for the internationally accredited (EPAS accreditation) Master’s in International Marketing Management program offered at the LUT School of Business and Management. Recently, LUT was ranked as the best young university in the Nordic countries by Times Higher Education 100 under 50 rankings.