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Hasbro Trains Leaders With A Board Game
Wanna play? // Image by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E
Hasbro has developed a board game that literally gamifies the role of the company’s CEO — testing how well execs can build the brand, scale the business, and effectively apply changing market research.
The Big Play: Training people to take over the top role at any company is difficult (just look at the drama playing out at Disney), but Hasbro’s solution lets promising leaders get their hands dirty across every aspect of the business in a way that’s both fun and illuminating.
Between The Rolls: Make no mistake — just because Hasbro is training potential CEOs with a game doesn’t mean the stakes are low.
Hasbro made an internal role-playing strategy game called Toy Tycoon that pits selected managers against each other in a simulation of the CEO role, with every round representing a fiscal year.
Under the direction of a game master (think Dungeons & Dragons), players must strategize across a range of company-wide scenarios, from which toy lines to invest in to what talent to hire and which IP to license.
Players earn perks for becoming a “category captain,” like capturing the most market share in a given sector — say, plush (we just sensed Mattel rolling up their sleeves).
The winner is whoever ends the year with the highest market capitalization… which is probably music to shareholders’ ears.
Last Move: Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks told The WSJ that “I think the job of a CEO is very similar to a grand strategy game.” And Cocks is something of the game’s grandmaster. Alongside Chief Financial Officer Gina Goetter and Chief People Officer Holly Barbacovi, he gives execs slated to play a crash course in Hasbro’s overall business — and the toy industry at large.
The game’s ultimate goal is to see how leaders deal with two core concepts: risk and resources, and whether they can balance the former effectively to maximize the latter. Come to think of it, can we play this game? Sounds fun.
Next Round: Don’t be surprised if other companies adopt a similar game for their own succession plans — and maybe even require CEO candidates to play the game in front of the board to help finalize a decision.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited, Polled, and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.