The use of marketing simulation games as means for
educating students in the practice of business is by no account a new idea. In
fact, employing board games and war games as part of learners’ field training can
be traced back to ancient China, some 5,000 years ago.
However, modern marketing simulation games date back to 1955, when the RAND
Corporation developed Monopologs, a simulation software
focusing on U.S. Air Force logistics. The game put players in the role of
inventory managers in a supply scenario that duplicated real life situations
without the risks and costs of bad decisions. The Air Force reported great
results with using Monopologs as a
standard training device.
This breakthrough software was held in such
high regard, that the military commissioned 7 more prototypes in subsequent
years, including Air Battle Model I,
a training module which was to be used to practice the response to a nuclear
threat. The success of RAND paved the way for a new industry of serious games
to emerge.
Of course,
business entrepreneurs are seldom slow at recognizing an opportunity. The American Management Association
contracted RAND to adapt its successful military games to the business
environment in 1956 and the result was Top
Management Decision Simulation. Running on an IBM 650 computer (the
world’s first mass‑produced computer), the software was tested by presidents of
20 large companies. With their feedback, the first marketing simulation was
released in 1957. Only a year later, this educational software was used by 350
corporate executives and a number of business schools.
Greene and
Andlinger became the continuators of the trend in 1957, when they developed the
Business Management Game for the consulting firm McKinsey &
Company, as part of their management seminars. The first business simulation game to be used in a university class was
the Top Management Decision Game,
developed by Schreiber in 1957 for
the University of Washington’s business policy course. Since then, students
benefit from using more and more means created especially for a better learning
experience.
