Remote Series Two (2025-S2)

Join a powerful, story-driven business simulation where you'll step into the shoes of the Head of Innovation at Aeki — a fictional company inspired by IKEA.

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Navigate complex stakeholder relationships, build your own innovation team, and shape the future through strategic decisions that ripple across the entire organization.

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What is Strategy Quest?

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Strategy Quest is an immersive business simulation designed for corporate innovators and ambitious professionals.

Over five intense rounds spanning five weeks, you'll experience the full complexity of innovation leadership — from managing your own team of project leads and startup founders to navigating intricate internal politics that can make or break your initiatives.

You'll face shifting priorities, uncertain markets, and stakeholder relationships that evolve based on your reputation and engagement choices.

Whether you join solo or with your team, you'll experience authentic innovation leadership challenges in a risk-free environment where bold experimentation is rewarded.

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📅 Key Facts

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Season Start: Thursday, September 18th, 2025

Season End: Thursday, October 16th, 2025

Duration: 5 rounds over 5 weeks (one "year" per week)

Format: Flexible asynchronous participation + live video-call support during office hours (once/week)

Kickoff: Live session to get you started on Thursday, September 18th, 2025

‍Weekly Rhythm:‍

• Every Thursday: new scenario introduced through dynamic briefings and stakeholder communications
• Every Monday: submission deadline (flexible as your strategy continues evolving even if you miss one)
• Optional: Thursday office hours for questions, peer discussion, and strategy coaching

Price: €199/participant (incl. VAT) - Save €50 when you register by September 5th

Join as an individual or with a team

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👥 Who it’s for

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This experience is ideal for:

• Heads of Innovation, Growth & Transformation
• Business Unit or Department heads with new responsibility for innovation
• Corporate Venture Builders & Innovation Managers
• Strategy & Growth Professionals (e.g. in-house consultants)
• Mid-career professionals seeking exposure to leadership experience

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🎯 Learning Framework

Learning: Master measurable innovation leadership competencies including stakeholder management, resource allocation, strategic decision-making under uncertainty, and cross-functional team coordination.

Storytelling: Experience a rich narrative where your decisions shape character development, organizational dynamics, and ultimate business outcomes through authentic corporate challenges.

Gameplay: Engage through dynamic decision-making scenarios, stakeholder relationship puzzles, team-building challenges, and strategic resource allocation dilemmas.

User Experience: Develop confidence, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence through immersive scenarios that mirror real-world innovation leadership pressures.

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💡 What You'll Get

🎯 Leadership Experience in a high-stakes innovation environment with your own team to manage
🛡️ Safe Experimentation Space – test bold strategies, learn from relationship failures, and adapt without real-world consequences
⚡ Dynamic Performance Feedback in real-time from evolving stakeholder relationships and AI-generated market intelligence
⏰ Flexible Participation that fits your schedule, with regular support during office hours
🤝 Peer Learning Opportunities to benchmark against other innovation leaders facing similar challenges
📜 Professional Development including certificate of completion and personalized leadership feedback report
🧠 Practical Leadership Insights you can immediately apply to stakeholder management and innovation strategy in your current role
🎨 Immersive Storytelling that makes complex business concepts memorable and actionable

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🚀 New Features & Experiences

🎪 Your Own Innovation Team
Interact directly with your project leads and startup founders. Build relationships, allocate resources, and guide their development as they tackle your strategic initiatives.

🕸️ Complex Internal Stakeholder Relationships
Navigate intricate corporate politics where relationships can make or break your actions. Engage strategically but watch your reputation system and stakeholder fatigue levels!

⚔️ Talent Growth and War
Develop your team's capabilities while defending against competitor poaching. Every talent decision affects your innovation capacity and team dynamics.

🏪 Deeper Access to Customers and Aeki Stores
Go beyond market research with immersive customer insights, store simulations, and direct feedback from your target markets.

📊 Enhanced Dashboards and Visualizations
Monitor your innovation portfolio health, stakeholder influence networks, and strategic progress through beautiful, interactive displays.

🤝 Department Collaboration
Work directly with Aeki's departments to roll out your innovation initiatives, experiencing the full complexity of organizational change management.

What you'll master: The 11 Levers of Corporate Innovation

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Strategy Quest is built around 11 proven innovation levers used by leading global companies. You'll gain strategical experience with each approach, supported by market best practices and expert insights:

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External Growth & Partnerships:

• Corporate Venture Capital (CVC)
• M&A strategies
• External Venture Building
• Joint Ventures & Alliances
• Venture Clienting with startups and scale-ups

Internal Innovation:

• Internal Venture Building (intrapreneurship programs)
• Product Innovation and development pipelines
• Startup Incubation within corporate structures

Market & Ecosystem Strategies:

• Open Innovation and ecosystem development
• Strategic Market Expansion approaches
• Targeted Advertising Campaigns for new ventures

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Decision-Making Skills You'll Develop

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Strategic Portfolio Management: Learn to balance high-risk, high-reward bets with incremental innovations using portfolio theory adapted for corporate innovation.

Stakeholder Relationship Mastery: Navigate complex internal politics where every interaction affects your reputation and ability to execute. Master coalition-building across conflicting priorities—from cost-conscious CFOs to growth-hungry CEOs to risk-averse operations teams.

Team Leadership Under Pressure: Build and manage your own innovation team of project leads and startup founders while defending against talent poaching and managing performance across diverse personalities.

Resource Allocation Under Uncertainty: Practice dynamic budgeting techniques that let you pivot quickly when market conditions change or initiatives show unexpected results.

Innovation ROI Assessment: Develop skills to evaluate opportunities across different time horizons and risk profiles, balancing quick wins with transformational bets.

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Measurable Skills Development

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By the end of Strategy Quest, you'll be able to:

• Evaluate 5+ types of innovation opportunities using structured frameworks (incremental, adjacent, transformational, disruptive, and ecosystem plays)
• Build and manage high-performing innovation teams while navigating talent acquisition and retention challenges
• Navigate complex stakeholder relationships where reputation and engagement strategies directly impact your success
• Build compelling business cases that address both quantitative metrics and qualitative stakeholder concerns
• Manage innovation portfolios across different risk/return profiles and time horizons
• Leverage customer insights and market intelligence to guide strategic decisions
• Communicate innovation strategy effectively to diverse audiences from board members to engineering teams

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🎭 Sample Experience: What You'll Face

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Week 3 Scenario Preview:

"Your AI optimization team leader Elena has identified 47 processes for potential automation, but three department heads are resisting implementation. Meanwhile, your subscription furniture venture is gaining traction, but ModCasa just announced a competing service with aggressive pricing. Your best project lead is being courted by a competitor, and your CFO wants to see ROI projections for next quarter.

You have access to customer insights suggesting an untapped market opportunity, but pursuing it would strain your team's capacity. Your reputation with the marketing department is suffering from a previous miscommunication, and the CEO wants a strategic update by Friday.

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⚙️ How It Works: Enhanced Experience & Support

Dynamic Stakeholder Simulation: Every interaction affects relationship scores. Ignore a department head's concerns, and they become less cooperative. Invest time in building alliances, and new opportunities emerge.

Team Management Complexity: Your project leads and startup founders have their own personalities, motivations, and performance patterns. Success requires authentic leadership and relationship building.

Immersive Decision Tools: Use interactive dashboards, visualization tools, and customer insight platforms to make informed decisions just like real innovation leaders.

Flexible Participation: Life happens. Miss a deadline? Your previous strategy continues to execute automatically, but stakeholder relationships may shift. Miss two rounds? You can still learn and catch up during office hours.

Tech Requirements: Simple and streamlined. Access our web-based simulation interface for materials, decisions, and progress tracking. Stay connected through our dedicated Slack workspace.

Team Dynamics: Join solo and get matched with other participants, or bring up to 3 colleagues. Solo players gain fresh perspectives; existing teams stress-test real-world dynamics.

Weekly Office Hours: Every Thursday, join 60-minute live sessions for direct feedback, strategic guidance, and peer learning. Think of it as your innovation leadership coaching session.

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🚀 Why Simulation Beats Traditional Training

Instead of case studies from 10 years ago → Practice with evolving scenarios that respond to your decisions and relationship management

Instead of theoretical frameworks → Apply tools under realistic time pressure, resource constraints, and stakeholder politics

Instead of simplified examples → Navigate the messy reality of team management, talent retention, and reputation building

Instead of learning in isolation → Experience authentic corporate complexity with your own team to develop and stakeholders to influence

Instead of one-size-fits-all solutions → Develop your personal leadership style through trial, error, adaptation, and relationship building

Strategy Quest bridges the gap between academic knowledge and real-world execution – giving you a safe space to make expensive relationship and strategic mistakes and learn from them before the stakes are real.

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Risk-Free Guarantee

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We're confident Strategy Quest will transform how you approach innovation leadership. If you're not completely satisfied after the third week, we'll provide a full refund, no questions asked. The first week gives you plenty of team interaction and decision-making experience – you'll know immediately if this learning style works for you.

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Ready to Lead through Uncertainty?

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Early Bird Special: €149 (regular price €199) - Save €50 when you register by September 5th

Next Steps:

• Reserve your spot - Limited to 20 participants for optimal experience
• Choose your approach - Join solo or assemble your team (up to 4 people)
• Prepare for immersion - We'll send pre-session materials one week before launch

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👈 Get your ticket 🎟️

or Schedule a 15-minute call to learn more

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