Modern business is complex.  How does one capture the interaction of thousands and millions of businesspeople around the world?  How can one duplicate that complexity in a simulation? 

In the past, simulations used to be fairly artificial.  There was one good solution and a number of satisfactory ones, but the situations were for the most part static and boring.  The real world has lions, tigers and bears, and the modern Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz must find her way through the dangerous forest taking into account that her enemies are smart and out to get her. 

Business Simulation: Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

So how can one simulate tough competitors in a business simulation?  It doesn't matter how smart a computer is—no computer can demonstrate the flexibility and adaptability of our fellow man or woman.  The simulations we see in the gaming world bring together thousands of people in a simulation environment that pits one human against another.  Why can't this be done for business simulation?

Business Simulation: Now Available Online.

Business simulation has finally come to the Web in a way that online gaming has done in the past.  A new, free site for teenagers and college students, (www.informatist.net) , allows students to learn about business in a virtual world that is much more like what we find in the real world.  Rather than applying dry business principles, the Informatist brings in the lions, tigers and bears of competition as practiced by real, live human beings who are given similar resources, and who are out to grow their businesses in the same way that you are.

Thus the 'great game' of business comes to the web, and like a great game, Informatist allows the student to learn important lessons along the way.  The Informatist brings business tools to the student that can be useful in the real business world afterwards, and it does it in a way that is fun for the student.

The Informatist is a new site that allows high school and college students from around the world to participate in a fairly realistic business simulation that is both fun and a great learning experience.  This new environment is similar to massively online games and virtual reality environments, such as Second Life, Halo or Doom; unlike these environments, the student can learn a good deal about business in an engaging, interactive way.

Teaching Business Experience.

The Informatist (www.informatist.net) teaches business instincts as much as it teaches business techniques.  Most business thinkers argue that success in business is a matter of developing a 'gut instinct' for making the right decision.  As one professor put it, "it's about making a good decision with very little data."  Another says, "it's better to make a bad decision quickly than a perfect decision over a long period of time."  This kind of thinking is foreign to those in other disciplines, such as law or science, where the exact right decision is expected of the practitioner.

Business simulations online must reflect this complexity and lack of perfection.  One isn't searching for 'the' right answer—one is looking for solutions that are simply better than those around them, that are better than the competition. 

This need for the best good decision can be illustrated in a story:

Two men are in the woods in their bare feet.  As they are out in the morning doing their ablutions, they hear the roar of a bear nearby, and soon see the bear break out into a run, coming directly for them.  The two men of course take off running as fast as they can.  When they get to their clothes, one stops to grab his running shoes.  The other says, exasperated, "you can't outrun a bear.  They can run thirty-five miles an hour, climb trees, ford streams!  It's impossible to outrun a bear!"  His friend looks at him as he finishes tying his track shoe, and says "I only have to outrun you…"

Business is like that guy putting on track shoes.   The best performance may not be perfect, but it beats the competition.  Business simulations like the Informatist teach students how to compete with the resources they have.  This valuable lesson comes to the student in a way that is fun and easy to do.

So I was moving around the Net last night and started looking up business stuff.  There's this site that was developed in Russia or Lithuania or something, but it's in English.  It's called (www.informatist.net) and is about business.  I mean it's about students getting a name and some property and stuff and creating businesses and careers.  You can even buy stock on a fake stock market and do well or grow your money and stuff.  It's interesting because it involves people from everywhere, even China !  I looked up Lithuania on a map and it's right near Europe .  I didn't know that!  And they speak English there—at least they did on the site.

So my geography teacher was talking last week about business in other countries and she mentioned something at (www.informatist.net) which she called business simulation.  So I looked it up and it's just like the Sims, only for business and not just for fun.  But it's a lot like The Sims because you get to get your own name and resources and stuff, like a business and cash.  It's different though because you've got to decide what you want to do in life and get training and buy properties and stuff.  It's kind of interesting 'cause it's just like life I guess.

I don't like my business courses in college at all.  It's just a lot of theory and blah blah blah from a teacher who's never worked at a real job in his whole life. I HATE accounting! And I hate OB (Org Behavior).  It's soooo not fun! 

So anyway I was on the web this morning and looking for business stuff that was a bit more interesting and found something at (www.informatist.net)   It's kind of a funny name—I guess it was developed in Europe or China or something—and I tried it out.  It's like a game but like running a real business—they call it a business simulation.