What could be better than a business game to learn the ideas of management control, exploit the strengths and weaknesses of AI and develop a creative mindset? That was the idea behind a class designed by Imène Haouet, Professor of Accountancy and Management Control, and Gabrielle Sexton, E-Learning Developer at NEOMA for work/study students on the preparatory year for the MSc. Here’s a close-up of the experience: 

The context: Professor Imène Haouet wanted to break out from the beaten track of her management control class. She invented a bespoke business game with E-Learning Developer, Gabrielle Sexton. The students had to create a company in the social and solidarity economy.

The challenges: The first challenge was to create a business in the SSE. The second was to put into action ideas from class, a budget, KPIs, performance indicators and to adapt them to the sector of activity. The third challenge was to develop a website, and set up a chatbot to answer questions, either from clients, or from management control. The students then used AI, the high point of the exercise, to feed into the dialogue tool – and all that in a course of a mere 15 hours! 

The benefit to students: The students discovered the world of the social and solidarity economy, and were steeped in the values of sustainable development, CSR, etc. “I wanted to make them aware that there are strategies in particular sectors, you have to take account of them and adapt the management control tools,” explains Imène Haouet. 

Then, “when I saw the students using generative artificial intelligence, especially chatGPT, in a very passive way, I wanted them to learn to challenge its responses. To use it intelligently. Because AI can play tricks on you too. And the idea of creating a chatbot helped get this message across in an interactive way.”

The class was divided into groups, and each group tested the other groups’ chatbots. “And they were quite hard on their peers, they were trying to catch each other out,” Imène Haouetrecalls with amusement. “Will the tool be able to answer this question? Will it be able to work out the cash flow? Was the correct financial data fed into it?” 

How does this exercise release the creative mindset? Firstly, by giving them a specific sector, the social and solidarity economy, they have a framework, they can’t shoot off in all directions. From then on, they tried to also be innovative in the choice of business so that it would be competitive and not a traditional business. Secondly, by giving them examples of innovative companies and products they had a reference point to think of their own. Then by coaching them, pushing them to challenge themselves with extra credit for the most innovative projects and presentations. “The students wanted to do their best. Some of them found their curiosity was aroused to the point where they wanted to take it further,” enthused their teacher who agreed that the game was a very good way of releasing creativity.

Click on this video to see what the students and teaching staff had to say about the experience.