Mettenmeier GmbH is an IT service and consulting company specializing in the energy and water industries. Their managers and trainees use our Management Essentials business simulation to gain insight into the business world and to network with other employees at different locations. Management Essentials can be played online in the TOPSIM-Cloud, offers a targeted introduction to the world of entrepreneurship and features a modern dashboard, making it particularly suitable for training and development of employees from different departments.
Structure of the Business Simulations
Mettenmeier GmbH has already used Management Essentials twice. First, they played our simulation once a week for six weeks with their trainees from various departments. The second time it was played with managers from various technical, commercial and sales departments at Mettenmeier GmbH. The up to 43 participants were divided into eight teams of five to six people each. Depending on their workload, they had a maximum of two weeks to make their decisions.
The participants played six periods of Management Essentials in each of the two events. The trainees received an introduction to the business simulation and the TOPSIM-Cloud before the start, while the managers familiarized themselves with the simulation independently with the help of the participant manual. As the simulation progressed, the participants organized themselves by first exchanging ideas within their teams. Then they made their decisions. After a joint evaluation of the results, the next simulation period was played.
Goals of the Business Simulations
As Mettenmeier GmbH is represented at three locations in Germany (Paderborn, Teltow near Berlin and Sankt Wendel), the internal networking of employees plays a particularly important role in using the simulation game to promote cooperation for future projects. In addition, the participants come from different functional areas of the company and have different levels of business knowledge. Therefore, the teams are put together in a way that ensures that the individual skills of the team members complement each other as well as possible.
The simulation periods are evaluated in person and online via videoconferencing software. Employees from other locations can participate or view the results afterwards. The criterion for winning is the so-called success value of Management Essentials, which is made up of various business indicators. However, competition is not the main reason why Mettenmeier GmbH uses business simulations. In addition to establishing contacts within the company, the main goal is to teach business skills and give employees insight into cross-departmental tasks and priorities.
What I particularly like about Management Essentials is that it is easy to learn and yet it has so many numbers that you can do wonderful calculations with. For example, our employees have downloaded many Excel spreadsheets from the TOPSIM-Cloud and worked with them to make meaningful decisions for their company. – Sara Schäffer, sales assistant at Mettenmeier GmbH
Additional Tasks
As an additional task, after the fourth simulation period, the teams implemented marketing campaigns of their own design. First, they came up with names, slogans, and logos for their virtual companies. They then designed billboards, wrote press releases, and created 3D animations to promote their products – Management Essentials simulates the business environment of a manufacturing plant for advanced on-ear headphones. The innovative artwork was impressive, provided a change of pace between simulation periods, and gave each team an individual touch that set them apart from the competition.
The event concluded with an AGM where each team presented their results. Meanwhile, the other participants took on the role of shareholders. During the AGM, the teams also reflected on their decisions and presented the planned development of their companies for the coming financial years. Ulrich Mettenmeier, founder and former managing partner of Mettenmeier GmbH, took on the role of an investor and decided which of the virtual companies he would financially support based on their presentations. At the end of the event, the teams received certificates for their participation.
We would like to thank Sara Schäffer and Günter Ruberg for their fascinating insights into the use of our Management Essentials business simulation at Mettenmeier GmbH!
