“Strategy just isn’t like that”. A Case Study on the Use of a Competitive Game to Experience the Strategy Roller Coaster

Abstract

[EN] This is a case study of teaching strategy based around a geo-political “fantasy” simulation to give students a taste of both theory and practise. It was designed as the public image of consultants offering little useful help has a basis in truth. Many do not have a firm grasp of the realities of “doing strategy”. They fail to understand that problems of implementation are not individual failings but inherent to the academic teaching of strategy. They either teach a rational approach to decision making or produce populist texts based on emotions and apparent first-hand knowledge without evidence. Both approaches suffer from a reality gap either by abandoning practice or academic rigour. The intention is to introduce students to the emotional roller coaster that is the strategy journey. Strategy is about relationships and conflicts, emotional interactions in a world of bounded rationality, and negotiating within and between participants.