A Fortune 500 global asset management company partnered with SimuRise to align its extended leadership team around strategic execution, collaboration, and accountability. Through a high-impact simulation experience and leadership through experiential learning, 56 leaders from global capability teams redefined what it means to lead with ownership, data-driven action, and the mindset of ‘Win As One.’
Introduction
In high-stakes environments like global finance, execution isn’t just about plans.
It’s about people.
At this Fortune 500 asset management company, the extended leadership team—comprising senior leaders and people managers across global capability centers—carries a critical mandate: drive outcomes, inspire teams, and deliver on the brand promise.
To unify this diverse leadership cohort under a common vision of execution excellence and client obsession, SimuRise was invited to lead a behavioral transformation intervention.
The Challenge
The organization’s leadership identified four key challenges across the cohort:
- Strategy was understood, but not always executed with precision
- Accountability varied by function and team
- Siloed thinking slowed collaboration and outcomes
- A need to embed the core value “WIN AS ONE” in daily decisions
With teams spread globally and working in high-pressure roles, the need was clear:
Shift leadership behaviors from intent to action.
Our Approach
SimuRise designed a half-day simulation-led intervention using the award-winning business simulation: The Quest for King Solomon’s Mines.
This immersive game-based experience replicated a dynamic, resource-constrained environment, where teams were tasked with exploring, navigating, and “mining gold”—a metaphor for executing strategic business outcomes.
The simulation embedded five key leadership behaviors:
- Executing strategy under uncertainty
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Data-driven decision-making
- Ownership and accountability
- Client-centric choices under pressure
The Play – Learn – Apply method allowed leaders to experience the impact of their behaviors in real time, reflect on team dynamics, and connect insights to their day-to-day leadership decisions.
What Emerged
The simulation created a revealing leadership mirror. Across teams, key patterns emerged:
- Intent vs Execution Gap: Many realized they understood strategy, but didn’t always lead in ways that executed it
- WIN AS ONE in Action: The importance of trusting other teams and not operating in silos became crystal clear
- Delayed Decisions = Missed Outcomes: Speed and clarity of decision-making directly affected team performance
- Client-First Thinking: Leaders saw the impact of prioritizing internal wins over external value
Results & Reflections
What made this session powerful wasn’t just the learning, but how fast it landed.
Leaders left with a renewed sense of what high-impact leadership looks like:
- Ownership isn’t just individual—it has to be modeled top-down
- Collaboration is not a culture deck word—it’s a behavior under pressure
- Business outcomes are designed through daily, deliberate leadership choices
The program sparked deeper conversations post-simulation around aligning team rituals, reviewing execution cadences, and simplifying decisions to deliver faster.
Conclusion
For this global financial leader, the simulation wasn’t a one-off training. It was a pivotal step in unifying leadership around a sharper, more intentional way of working, where strategy doesn’t just stay on paper, and collaboration isn’t a buzzword.
Through experiential learning, 56 leaders walked away with a clear message: Execution is everyone’s job. And it starts with how you lead.
