Our first-ever Strategy Quest Pilot is in full swing!
Seven participants are currently navigating a five-year innovation journey inside Aeki (a fictitious version of IKEA). They're having to make bold strategic decisions and testing their ability to drive growth in a complex, dynamic environment.
What's unique about Strategy Quest?
You shape the narrative
In a traditional simulation or business wargame, all the scenarios are mapped out in advance. You move "through" the game, as it was designed.
Whereas in Strategy Quest, the story evolves by itself. Every decision you make has a direct or indirect consequence on the rest of the game. If you choose to "pull the lever" of CVC (Corporate Venture Capital), its success will depend not just on the budget you allocate, but also on the company's culture of innovation – which you influence.
Let's say you see Internal Venture Building (intrapreneurship) as a promising "growth lever". Will you hire an external agency for support? Which one, and what support will you request of them?
Every decision, every choice, every request you make contributes to sculpting your unique story.
Will you lead your company to a glorious decade of profits? Or will you burn money on innovation theatre that fails to move the needle?
100+ autonomous agents
From competitors to suppliers, from internal stakeholders to external service providers, from banks to the press – you're working inside a vast, complex ecosystem of rational agents.
Some are willing to help you, for a price. Others see you as a competitive threat. For example, if you acquire a fast-growing startup, two of your competitors might decide to merge to counter your dominance.
If you neglect to involve a stakeholder in a key decision, she may take offense and become your worst internal detractor.
The agents react and interact autonomously and (mostly) rationally. So you could take part in Strategy Quest a hundred times and never get the same outcomes.
What we've learned already
Faster feedback for better decisions
In the real world, leaders have no choice but to wait years to see the impact of their decisions and –hopefully– learn from them.
Strategy Quest is a simulation that jumps one year between each round. So as a participant, you can very quickly experience the impact of your strategic choices.
It's then upto you to decide again: Do you pivot or do you persevere?
A fast-improving experience
As creators of Strategy Quest, we also benefit enormously from the feedback our Pilot participants share with us.
With each round, we've added new features in response (like a Miro-based portfolio, a KPI dashboard, new messaging filters, simulated market shares, updated valuation models...) which keep raising the user experience as the simulation evolves.
We've also mixed up the formats for receiving new important information – from purely text-based to now including dramatic video updates. (see image)
🚀 But this is still just the beginning.
From Pilot to first Series
We’re already gearing up for Quest Series 2025-S1, our next round of immersive business wargaming sessions. This next class will build on our collective experience with the Pilot and will provide additional tools, challenges, and emerging trends!
We'll be bringing together corporate innovators, business leaders, founders and consultants, to sharpen their strategic thinking in a high-stakes, time-limited format.
Quest Series 2025-S1 will take place on 23-25 June 2025!
Want to register your interest?
📥 Drop your email here and stay ahead of the game.
Let’s build the future of business strategy and innovation management – one Quest at a time.
