CSR game

ThinkingShift reader, Oohlala, has pointed me in the direction of a great resource called the Better Business Game. It’s a simulated experience in managing social and environmental issues in a business. Your role is as the new CEO of a company and the game takes you through a number of decision points. The aim is to balance various stakeholders’ satisfaction levels with corporate social responsibility concerns and you can track satisfaction levels via graphs that appear throughout the game. Depending on how you go, at the end of your one year stint as CEO, you’ll either face an angry crowd at the Annual General Meeting or applause from stakeholders.

The game features news reports and has been put together from general business experience across a number of industries. So the first scenario for example is – you receive an email from the Head of Human Resources saying that she’s received some worrying information about a proposed joint venture with a company in Asia. Media reports talk of harassment of workers and child labour in Asian factories. The joint venture is critical to the company’s stakeholders but, should you decide to go ahead, the company could be in for some severe press criticism. What action would you take as CEO?

Thanks Oohlala!

Update: Patrick Lambe over at Green Chameleon has now played the CSR game and makes some interesting observations around decision games versus closed-option simulations.

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