The Challenge
For a manager with no financial experience apart from their own personal finance, stepping into the role of a financial capacity could cause some distress. With a lot of key terms and acronyms to learn, it can frequently be difficult to know which one refers to what. Other challenges could arise when it comes to a situation where actions need to be taken but they might not be sure when or how to action them.
The Solution
Focusing on the financial aspects of business decisions, indicators and performance, The Finance Game from PIXELearning is an online web based serious game, immersive learning simulation, designed primarily to familiarise non-financial people to key financial terms, metrics and concepts.
Learners are placed in a fictitious scenario involving a medium-sized, underperforming mountain bike manufacturing company, in desperate need of help. The learners can see the previous two years historical trading figures (sales figures, profit & loss, cash flow and balance sheet). They are also then given performance targets to achieve over the next three years.
Presented with challenges and a range of decisions to make, users need to discover the strategy in order to achieve their targets. The learner’s performance is tracked and compared to the predicted performance allowing users to see where improvements and adjustments need to be made.
The game's underlying equations have been based on a sophisticated model. This gives the game-play an 'intelligent' responsiveness to the marketing decisions made by the user. Because the results are logical, the game is surprisingly easy to use, yet there's enough complexity to keep people interested; there are no simple solutions.
This serious game features a very detailed profit and loss, cashflow and balance sheet model. Management accounts are generated each month and then annual accounts are 'filed' at the end of each completed year. Key financial ratios and performance indicators illustrate relative performance measures. This exposes learners to financial terminology and concepts in a realistic and meaningful way (for example ‘P&L’ and ‘ROCE’) encouraging learners to see the purpose and benefits of tracking such measures.
All decisions cause realistic, logical business outcomes, e.g. falls in market share when prices are increased sharply allowing learners to understand the interdependencies of various business concepts.
As they practice and strive to achieve the in-game targets that they have been set, they will quickly begin to grasp the sensitivities of each factor (e.g. the importance of working capital) and be able to understand the interdependence of the different aspects of the business from a financial standpoint. The simulation is engaging and fun to use in small teams, individually, or as a group activity on an interactive whiteboard or data projector.
Benefits
- Financial key terms/indicators/measurements
- Realistic and logical outcomes
- Transferable skills
- Highlights connections between marketing, finance and production
- Delivered online available worldwide any time
System Requirements
Software
**Please note that the Flash Player is backward compatible, therefore the game can be delivered in a higher version of the Player, which in turn is supported on newer versions of operating systems and browsers.
Hardware
- 450Mhz or faster processor
- 128MB available RAM
- High speed internet connection
- Sound card/speakers (not essential)
- Printer (not essential)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Please open the PDF document below to view the FAQs related to this product:
 The Finance Game FAQs
Pricing Model
£499 per year +VAT for The Finance Game
OR
Trial
Trial The Finance Game here
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