About 40 invited guests from international development cooperation organisations followed Sparkassenstiftung’s invitation to celebrate the premiere of the management game “Get to know your numbers” at its Bonn-based headquarters on 16 March.
With the help of this business management game, Sparkassenstiftung has imparted knowledge of economic correlations and entrepreneurial skills to small and microentrepreneurs in developing and emerging countries since 2012. During the haptic simulation game, the participants manage the business processes of an orange juice store. This includes the purchase and processing of raw materials, the sale of products as well as the borrowing of money or the payment of wages. In different game rounds, the players learn how their business decisions, their way of thinking or behaviour can influence the success or failure of an enterprise. Local game instructors, who were expressly trained by Sparkassenstiftung, have meanwhile reached about 10,000 participants in over 15 countries with this particular haptic management game. Thus, the Micro Business Game is one of the most important training tools of Sparkassenstiftung.
To spread the learning content of the Micro Business Game among an even broader audience, Sparkassenstiftung has started to visualise the haptic game at the end of 2014. “Get to know your numbers” is the result of a two-month film shooting in Zambia by the Cologne-based filmmaker Andreas Kranz.
“Get to know your numbers” for basic financial education in Zambia
Zambia is twice as large as Germany, but with a number of about 14 million inhabitants very scarcely populated. Despite a generally positive economic development and a growing financial sector, more than 60 percent of Zambia’s population do not have access to financial services. In addition to that, there is not only a lack of knowledge of financial products and their possible use, but also of economic and financial correlations. That is why the Sparkassenstiftung started to support the Zambian government in implementing its national strategy for financial education in 2012. Within the scope of a partnership project with the Bank of Zambia, the Sparkassenstiftung develops and executes education measures for micro and small entrepreneurs.
In ten episodes, the telenovela, which was filmed in Zambia at the end of 2014, shows how the Micro Business Game is played in practice. Thanks to the arch of suspense, which is characteristic for a telenovela, and the direct observing of strategies and sub-goals during the game, the viewer identifies her- or himself with the film characters. Thus, the audience feels and thinks with the on-screen players and with suspense awaits the next episode, where the results of the decisions taken will be shown.
Within the scope of the Financial Literacy Week in Zambia, all ten episodes of the telenovela are currently broadcast on Zambian TV.
Furthermore, a training DVD was developed as additional tool, helping local trainers to spread and explain the Micro Business Game. But unlike in the telenovela, the DVD characters are playing the real board game.
Learning by doing: The Business Games by Sparkassenstiftung
Already in the 1990s, Sparkassenstiftung has started to use business management games to impart knowledge in its project countries all over the globe as an interesting alternative to dry theory. Interaction, practice orientation and the strong motivation to emerge as winner at the end of the day: All these factors lead to a high learning result. Overall, the Sparkassenstiftung offers six business games for different target groups. Since 2010, more than 500 business games were executed for over 13,000 participants in about 30 different countries in total.
The structure of the different business games is similar, as the participants always play together in groups. While slipping into the roles of managers, they simulate executing the business operations and taking the decisions of a bank, a microfinance institution or a small enterprise. In so doing, the participants can draw upon their own knowledge and broaden it through the exchange with the co-players. The discussions within the groups and the competition between the different teams is an essential part of the underlying didactic concept. Computer simulations enable a risk-free testing of options, as – unlike in real life – wrong decisions here only lead to losing virtual money. The results of the simulation games are reported in a year-end statement. Hence, the participants learn to understand business processes, translate them into figures and thus into the language, banks and microfinance institutions make use of.
Entrepreneurial knowledge for everyone: Screen adaptation of the Micro Business Game
No other game has reached so many participants on a worldwide scale like the Micro Business Game. The Sparkassenstiftung is continually qualifying new trainers to meet the increasing demand. However, many small entrepreneurs in developing countries are not able to participate directly in these business game trainings due to different reasons: Many people are illiterates, which is a huge obstacle, as the trainings require reading and writing skills. Many people live in very remote areas of their home country, where the Sparkassenstiftung does not yet offer any of these trainings.
The 10 episodes of the telenovela “Get to know your numbers” can be accessed on Sparkassenstiftung’s YouTube channel via the following <link https: www.youtube.com _blank>link
Handouts with further information about the management games of Sparkassenstiftung can be downloaded here:
<link fileadmin user_upload pdf artikel _blank>Micro Business Game
<link file:510 _blank>MFI Management Game
<link file:511 _blank>Bank Management Game
<link file:512 _blank>Bank Risc Management Game
<link fileadmin user_upload pdf artikel _blank>Market Development Game
Contact partners:
Stefan Henkelmann / Carina Lau
Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation
Simrockstraße 4
53113 Bonn, Germany
Tel.: +49 228 9703-6625 /-6608
Fax: +49 228 9703-6613