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Test a strategy
Your leaders play your market for a half or full day, against tables playing your competitors and customers. You leave with a written record of what held, what broke and who owns each fix.
Answer four quick questionsYour game is built by our director, Dan Epstein, who has designed more than 130 scenarios, so the competitor tables push back the way real ones would. One to three facilitators with defence wargaming experience keep every table moving.
Is this for you?
- Next year's plan is set, and nobody has tested it against a competitor who reacts. The plan does not have to change: you leave knowing where it is weakest and what you will do if a rival or a retailer moves.
- You run a sales or commercial team and want to test the trade plan before retailer talks. Your team plays itself and we play the retailers and rivals. Half day from A$12,000.
- You have a planning offsite coming. This game can be the strategy day itself. Want a shorter, lighter session instead? See the conference or offsite game.
- A merger or a new market is coming, and the leadership team needs to rehearse year one. Before completion? We run it with one side only, inside your lawyers' rules.
What you get
- A game built on your market and your plan
- A debrief while it is fresh
- The written record, yours to share
How it runs
Before
A short scoping call. We survey your players and build the game around your market and your plan. We agree the date you get the written record.
On the day
8 to 60 leaders at tables. Your tables play your business. Other tables play competitors, customers and investors. Three or four rounds, then a debrief.
After
A written record: the decisions each table made, what held, what broke, and who owns each fix.
What it looks like at the table
Each table plays one company: yours, a rival or a big customer. Each round, every table gets the same news, argues it out and commits to a move in writing. The next round shows what those moves did to each other. With a small team, your people play your business and our facilitators play the rivals and customers. One function can run it alone: your sales team plays itself while we play the retailers and rivals.
Games we can build for you
- A competitor cuts price by 20% on a Monday
- A major retailer squeezes your terms
- A new entrant goes after your best customers
- A new market: the incumbents react and a regulator steps in
- Year one of a merger: who decides what
Price
Half day, up to 12 people: A$12,000 to A$15,000, plus GST.
Half day for more than 12, or any full day up to 60 people: A$18,000 to A$25,000, plus GST.
The price depends on how many people play and how much of the game is built new. You get a fixed quote before you book.
Travel outside Melbourne is at cost, quoted first.
Book about four weeks ahead. Your report date is set when we scope the game.
Proof
Ability to align on priorities in a fun way.
Mars, 2023It helped change the way we think about our business and how we run workshops.
Mars, 2023Ability to align on priorities in a fun way.
Mars player, 2023- Mars, 2023: a 90 to 120 minute game for seven leaders on acquisitions, risk and strategic planning.
- Mars, 2026: a three-hour competitive game for about 50 commercial leaders.
- After the 2026 game, Mars raised a smaller game for its sales team.
- Honest note: we have not yet run a game built around a live merger. The Mars 2023 game covered acquisitions, and the mechanics are the same as our competitor games: rivals react, customers renegotiate, and decisions run through new reporting lines.
See the format: a written record from a food-security game
A volcanic winter, nine stakeholder tables and two hours to keep Australia fed. The scenario, every table's moves, what happened next and what players said.
Read itHow we work
What you tell us stays private
We sign your NDA, and so does every facilitator. We only name you with your written OK.
You own the findings
Show the report to your board, regulator or funders. Want to publish it? You can.
Paying
Half to book, half within 30 days after the game. Prices plus GST.
If plans change
Move the date once, free, with 14 days' notice. Cancel more than 21 days out and the deposit comes back, less design work done.
Full terms: How we work and terms. We carry A$1M professional indemnity and A$10M public liability cover, and more on request.
Four quick questions
Two minutes. We reply within two working days with a format and a price. If it fits, you pick a time to talk.
Keep it general here. We sign your NDA before you share anything sensitive.
Prefer to write? email@longgameproject.org