Discovery reproduces a business in your classroom, with functions from supplier, through internal processes, to end customer. Participants take the Discovery business from start-up to efficiently running business through alternating cycles of:
- business activity (experiencing)
- review and analysis (observation and reflection)
- change (conceptualisation and experimentation)
Each business activity phase typically lasts an (unbelievably short and frantic) 10 minutes representing one business month. Roles include accepting or rejecting purchase orders, supplying inputs, intermediary and output assembly, and delivery to the customer. Participants use the keypads to log events, actions and decisions, from which a host of metrics are calculated and even a full set of accounts generated. These data then support the review and analysis phases.
After each stage of business activity, the facilitator leads discussions to canvas opinions on, for example, sources of problems, possible solutions and opportunities for improvement. Participants then adapt operations, invest in improvements and modify contracts with the customer before the next "month" of business activity, hopefully achieving profitability by the end of the third cycle.
Duration: minimum 4 hours, ideally 1 day.
Participants; minimum 12, maximum c. 40
What Makes Discovery so Effective for Business Education?
Discovery replicates so many of the facets of a real business in a manageable and visible format;
- The end-to-end business is visible from supplier to customer
- Multiple pressures and dynamics; time, performance, peer, social, competitive and financial
- The keypad IT system is simple enough not to distract, but provides rich performance data
- The inter-connection of processes becomes apparent , along with the tendency towards insularity and silos
- The experience is compelling and immersive
- Change and improvement options are varied and the discussion and decision process both passionate and educational
The shared experience often leaves the language of Discovery behind in an organisation to aid communications many months later. Discovery can also be used to model and trial organisational changes in a safe experimental environment.
Learning Objectives
Discovery can be used to demonstrate a wide variety of business issues and can be configured to replicate several operating models. Possible learning objectives include:
- Transformation, change and improvement
- Managing people and organisations
- Leadership
- General management
- Organisational behaviour
- Business analysis
- Quality management
- Delivering strategy
- Practical leadership
- How to achieve cost reduction
- Sources of value and competitive advantage
- Cultural dynamics
- The challenges of change management
- Incremental v structural improvements
- Organisational and human behaviours in the workplace
- The benefits of information systems
- Process management, mapping and optimisation
- The "cost" of quality
- Quality management techniques
- Continuous improvement
- Just in Time and the use of Kanbans
- Understanding capacity
- The Theory of Constraints (ToC)
- Supplier integration and vendor managed inventory
- Connecting operational practice and business profitability
- Budgeting, forecasting and data accuracy
- Revenue, cost and cash
- Balancing quality, productivity, flow, speed and service
Discovery can also be adapted to mirror specific organisations, or to form the basis of a course capstone case.
Download a two-page pdf summary for your information 
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