Meet Mrityunjay Tiwary, the IIM professor who teaches Business Simulation with board games!

Elected as the IIM Lucknow’s Most Unconventional Course last year, Business Simulation has won the hearts and minds of every MBA student. And Mrityunjay Kumar Tiwary, an Assistant Professor in the area of Finance & Accounting at IIM Lucknow, deserves full credit!

A Ph.D. holder from IIM Bangalore, he was always inclined towards outdoor sports. But as the saying goes, ‘What’s meant to be will always find its way’, one day out of the blue he decided to join the board game meetups in Bangalore. Then there was no looking back for Mrityunjay Tiwary. His interest in board games grew over time. After a few years down the lane, he observed that while discussing the games, he and his friends usually applied the concepts studied in the management curriculum.

Eureka! Eureka!

His realization gave birth to the bright idea of reverse engineering his experience. He took aim at designing a course that could use board games to simulate the application of management concepts. He left no stone unturned to put together all the courses. From tweaking the rules of these games and introducing variations to conducting numerous trials before launching the course with the help of the volunteers, he sailed past every difficulty with firm determination.

Bumps, twists, and turns in the journey

The journey was a roller-coaster ride for the IIM professor. Combining the fun and learn elements together was never an easy task. The idea of teaching Business Simulation with the help of board games also invited multiple logistical challenges because the game was ideally designed for 4-5 people. In order to manage 25-60 students in the class, he curated the single-player games to multi-player games. This was where team dynamics also pitched in!

Another bump in the journey of Mrityunjay Tiwary was college regulations. As opposed to the standard class duration of one-and-a-half hours, his game took about four hours in a stretch. However, he was able to persuade the management to at least allow three hours for the class. After the successful implementation of the course for a year, the management allowed four-and-a-half hours, thus providing enough time for a game followed by a discussion.

This concept of Business Simulation is a standout

To keep the novelty of the course, he prefers not to disclose the games. But the game is all about helping students apply the concepts they have learned in the simulated situation instead of learning the new ones. This is the reason, this elective is available only in the last semester of the course.

To play the game, the class is divided into groups where each group has a CEO. It involves the distribution of roles and responsibilities and each move is made after a discussion. This gives them a real-time scenario to make business decisions and see their repercussions.

However, with the alarming second wave of Covid-19 Mrityunjay’s Business Simulation might see a rough patch if nothing improves by the year-end, as it cannot be taught online!

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