BACKGROUND

PriSim Business War Games, Inc. conducts innovative leadership and development training for its Fortune 500 clients. Trainings involve two- to three-days of onsite business simulations as well as lectures and discussions in operations, marketing, finance and other functional areas. Participants, from upper-level managers and directors to VPs, are given the opportunity to become “CEO for the Day” in a risk-free computing environment. Arranged in teams, participants engage in an intensive competition that pits “virtual” companies against each other over simulated business years.

PriSim’s course provides a risk-free environment where participants are able to practice, and in some cases relearn, rarely used and misunderstood business concepts.

David Semb and his partner Jeff Lefebvre started PriSim ten years ago. They tailor their courses to meet the specific needs of a particular industry or the learning objectives of an individual company. Globally, David and Jeff have helped a diverse number of organizations in the fields of insurance and financial services, mortgage banking, manufacturing, aerospace and defense, large hospital systems, and even motorcycle dealerships.

David and Jeff learned about Turning Technologies through another company from within their industry. After a TurningPoint demonstration, they immediately saw the potential of adding this new dimension to their training services.

THE CHALLENGE

When participants first arrive at PriSim training sessions, they take a 15-minute pre-test to assess their general business acumen. The test focuses on financial knowledge-including ratios and statements, general business strategies, as well as leadership and development skills. At the conclusion of the course, David and Jeff administer the same test to see how participant understanding has changed and if the intended material was properly retained.

For years, training organizations such as PriSim have had to rely on paper and pencil to gather this data from participants, spending hours scoring and assessing overall progress. Additional time was then spent analyzing trends in order to determine where they needed to adjust their curriculum and/or teaching style to make the most positive iterative improvements. This was a tedious process costing the company valuable time and money. Fortunately, with Turning Technologies, PriSim was able to easily resolve these issues.

THE SOLUTION

David and Jeff bought 60 ResponseCards^® and two receivers from Turning Technologies a year ago. Both instructors found the technology easy to use and enjoy being able to use Turning Technologies’ system with Microsoft PowerPoint^® – a non-proprietary visualization capability that is not available with other vendors offering similar audience response system technology.

The capabilities of the TurningPoint software significantly changed how David and Jeff delivered their learning concepts, adding an innovative twist to the already successful training they were delivering to companies.

“We use ResponseCards for pop-quizzes that let us track individual results. When we saw the new possibilities that this technology could give us, we embraced it and worked to incorporate it in an innovative way in our instructional activities. For instance, we are now able to reward the person with the highest score on the team who receives simulated money that is used for financial decisions during the simulation,” David said.

CONCLUSION

For David and Jeff, the advantages of Turning Technologies’ audience response system are numerous. The ResponseCards are easily transportable, the receiver is small and has convenient USB capability, and with Radio Frequency, they don’t need to worry about line of sight. All in all, David and Jeff found TurningPoint easy to use, and took pleasure in the fact that their participants were so impressed with the technology.

“Now, we are leading edge. Turning Technologies’ TurningPoint is just one more impressive offer we can provide our clients,” said David.

For more information about purchasing or renting Turning Technologies’ audience response systems for your organization, contact us at 866-746-3015.