Business simulation a powerful tool for experiential learning

Dr Suresh Srinivasan, Associate Professor of Strategy at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, believes that business simulation can be a powerful tool of pedagogy in management education.

“In a typical two-year MBA, students get into specialisation in different disciplines such as marketing, operations or finance. While they do case studies and undergo lectures, there is difficulty in underpinning what they learn to real-life situations. Experiential learning is lacking; so, in that context, business simulations created for functional courses help students come out of their silos and understand the implications of decisions made in one corner of the company, on the entity as a whole,” explains Prof Srinivsan.

Experiential learning

Business simulation, thus, can be an enormous experiential learning exercise, where all the decisions taken by various members of a team are factored in. What happens in an actual market situation is simulated in a real-time environment and students can understand how prudent decisions are made.

Students are keen on picking up a course which has a simulation component as they believe they can go beyond what is being taught in theory, he says. View a video of Prof Srinivasan talking about what role business simulation exercises can play in management education.