My daughter, usually a cool rational teenager, is currently obsessed with Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, insisting that I see when she has a new animal. In case you are thinking what am I talking about… it is a computer game for Nintendo quite similar to farmville or animal crossing in that your avatar has to look after a farm ( or mine).
After much protestation ( well two minutes anyway!) I did take a look at it and was quite intrigued… it encourages you to water your plants, take out weeds and ensure that earn enough each day to purchase more seeds and machinery… that will mean you can add more value to your product. You also need to manage your cash…
So i was thinking about games and business… it is a good idea to use games to learn about business principles… if they are engaging and fun, children/ teenagers will want to play … and maybe chief executives as well! Thinking about how popular the cash-flow 101 and cash-flow 202 ages have been for Robert Kiyosaki ( and if you haven’t heard of them they are great at getting you to practice managing your cash flow).
What can we learn from games?
1) it gives an opportunity to practice skills in a safe environment ( without having a lot of cash at stake).
2)You can try different strategies to see which works.
3) You can learn while having fun.
What can you do to think of your business as a game?
Is it like more like Monopoly or Risk?
