RETIRED Great Sankey High School teacher Andy Page is going global with a new business board game he has created.
Wind back forty years when Andy was the first Head of Business Studies recruited by, what was then, a new secondary school in Warrington, Gt Sankey High School.
His former students of the 1980s might recall his enthusiasm for what was then called “learning by doing” with the involvement of local business, competitions, role-play and other active learning exercises being regular features of his teaching. That enthusiasm has never waned.
Keen to put into practice the economics and business studies he had taught since the 1970s, Andy jointly set up in 2011 a social enterprise, The Very Enterprising Community Interest Company*, as a “retirement project” whose mission is to excite and inspire young people about the world of business.
Following appropriate market research and extensive trials involving more than 500 pupils from more than 30 schools along the M62 corridor, ‘Business on the Move’ was published in 2014, a fun and educational board game based on UK trade and supply chains with China.
Through the generosity of business sponsors such as DHL, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer (whose branding featured as an active part of the game), some two thirds of the production run went free-of-charge into UK schools. What is more demand grew to the point where, not only is the game now in some 90 universities, more than 40% of sales are exported across five continents.
Consequently the summer of 2018 saw the launch of a new Global Edition of Business on the Move, particularly relevant to the modern globalised world with a focus very much on West-East and East-West trade and transactions in $s rather than £s.
A total of 42 sponsors currently support the new edition including the three companies named above alongside businesses such as CHEP/Brambles, CILT International, Clipper Group, DP World, the Freight Transport Association, Heathrow Cargo, HFW, Jungheinrich, Kuehne + Nagel, Michigan State University, Nestle, Novus Trust, Think Logistics, TT Club, Worldwide Chain Stores and XPO Logistics.
The new Global Edition may have wider international appeal in today’s competitive and globalised world but the core concept remains the same: players run multimodal businesses delivering freight as quickly, profitably and responsibly as they can. Players must make the same decisions businesses make every day. How do I deliver? Will I make a profit? How should I grow? How can I cut my carbon footprint?
The new Global Edition of Business on the Move also retains the original’s versatility to meet the needs of widely differing learners, from pupils in primary school to post-graduates in international supply chain management as well as seasoned professionals looking to convey the ‘big picture’ of logistics to trainees new to the sector.
Andy remarks: “This is a huge and important sector with 40,000 companies and more than 10 million employees across the globe and yet supply chains are under the radar, even invisible, to most young people, despite their relevance to our everyday lives and the diverse career opportunities they offer. Our game seeks to address this anomaly through an educational board game that captures the big picture of logistics across the world in a fun and flexible way.”
For more information, either email [email protected] or visit www.businessonthemove.org
