CLIENT CHALLENGE
BMO Bank of Montreal's Office of Strategic Management identified a significant learning need to orient its mid-level management team (numbering ~ 3,000) to the ‘what’ of Managing for Shareholder Value along with the ‘how’ of people management. exper!ence it’s design team, along with our BMO design partners, were given the opportunity to design a simulated world in which participants
would experience and learn just that! CREATIVE RANGE
We worked very closely with BMO’s internal team in order to understand the nuances of their culture and their business model, structures and processes. We worked with representatives from Marakon Inc. in order to ensure that the technical and financial rigour of the Value Based Management (VBM) methodology was reflected in the model we created. Marakon is one of the world’s most sophisticated VBM consulting companies. The more we learned, the more we realized that participants needed to gain a bit of distance from banking in order for them to be able to see and learn in a new way. Early in the research and design process, we asked for permission to ‘take the bankers out of the bank.’ We decided to place them into a make-believe industry and company; but one with the same reporting structures, financial considerations, cross charges, hierarchical layers, and customer nuances that they deal with in reality. e! SOLUTION…
The MAXX Performance Entertainment Inc. The MAXX business simulation is an extended learning experience in which participants join a fictional company, Maxx Performance Entertainment Inc. They are assigned designated roles, which immerse them in a competitive world where customers, shareholders and employees face critical choices that will affect the results of the company. The MAXX offers participants a unique and engaging opportunity to build skills and knowledge in: - creating shareholder value (VBM)
- leveraging employees’ talents and building commitment
- focusing customers profitably
- motivating and retaining employees
- developing enterprise-wide initiatives that outperform the competition
This action-learning program immerses participants in a competitive world in which they find themselves facing challenging and urgent decisions, and the rich opportunity to learn from the consequences of their behaviour and choices. Throughout the experience, a 'mirror' is held up, allowing participants to see their own behaviours and the way that their decisions and actions impact on customers, employees and shareholders. ISSUES COVERED
The MAXX business simulation creates a sense of urgency
for learners to integrate their thinking around employees, customers and shareholders. It clearly demonstrates the opportunity cost of not getting it right in all three areas. Employee Issues: - People management issues, on customers and shareholders, are shown to be as important as financial and tactical issues for impacting and achieving organizational goals.
- In the ‘War for Talent’, participants are challenged to create environments that attract and retain top talent - where 'getting it right with people' truly matters.
- Sharing information and tapping employees’ valuable input is shown as key in creating an effective enterprise-wide strategy.
Customer Issues: - Customer needs grow more sophisticated, fragmented and nuanced over the MAXX’s three simulated years. Participants must grow closer to these customers and learn to respond quickly to their changing needs.
- Not all customers are created equal! Ensuring that the ‘right customer group’ is being serviced with the ‘right product,’ through the ‘right distribution channel’ forces tough strategic choices at all levels of the organization.
Shareholder Issues: - Maximizing shareholder value quickly becomes a constant (and very challenging!) imperative throughout the experience.
- Stock prices of all competing teams are affected by their company's financial performance and by the analyst's review of their leadership’s strategy.
- It is not enough to do the 'least possible,' so appropriate risk must be taken to become number one in this simulated marketplace.
RESULTS
Over the span of approximately three years, more than 3,000 Bank of Montreal (and Harris Bank) managers participated in
the MAXX! Participant evaluations, in both the short and longer term (over three years), have demonstrated tremendously high ratings. Higher, in fact, than for any other program in the history of BMO’s Institute for Learning (their globally award winning leadership centre). The response has been overwhelming and participants, years after their experience, still write to tell us that it was one of the most valuable and powerful programs that they have ever experienced. In addition, exper!ence it inc. and Bank of Montreal received
an award for the MAXX from the Canadian Society for Training & Development, in the category of ‘Best External Training Program.’ THANKS
There are many people to thank for the success of this project. Jim Rush had the initial vision and took the leap of faith to fund the project. Clair Duff was our BMO design partner in the MAXX and her ideas, sense of fun and creative enthusiasm not only made the project better, but also made it a joy for us to do together. BMO's Tracy McClure added depth and consistency to the model and continues to bring her talents to the delivery. | 
