Legal Stratego

A Global Game of People, Process and Strategy

Meeting Flow for 90-minute Session

5 minutes
(5 minutes total) / Introduction and set-up
10 minutes
(15 minutes total) / Short introduction to commonly used strategic frameworks and thinking from L. Rohrer (Harvard); presentation on strategic framework and issues around group dynamics in decision making
20 minutes
(35 minutes total) / Interactive Session: Round 1
The “sharing economy” comes to grocery retailing. A Silicon Valley start-up has announced a new service where customers can pay people to do their grocery shopping for them. The advantage over existing online services is that the shoppers have incentives to pick the best fruits/vegetables and substitute appropriately….both of which are lacking in existing approaches. This new company has attracted large amounts of venture capital and plans to enter 20 major markets over the next year.
[Teams discuss their company’s next move and make selection.]
Follow-up: The business exceeds expectations and ends up with 15% of the market after two years. But the primary markets where they have taken market share include the online grocery shopping component of the existing market as well as higher-end grocery stores.
[Points are calculated for the round.]
15 minutes
(50 minutes total) / Interactive Session: Round 2
Significant event: Due to continued global warming major cities have witnessed extreme weather events throughout the year. Major cities in the northeast received nearly three times the snow in one winter compared to normal. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and even Washington DC were snowed in for weeks at a time, severely affecting both the supply chain and demand for non-essential goods, including high-end groceries. The winter comes after an unusually strong hurricane season in the Atlantic where Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, and smaller cities in the Carolinas experienced unprecedented damage from 4 major direct hits. California, in the meantime, has cut off water supplies to 50% of its farms in order to continue to provide adequate amounts of water to the population as the drought continued. While some dismissed the severe weather as a blip, climate scientists warned that these types of weather events would be much more typical from now on.
[Teams discuss their company’s next more and make selection.]
Follow-up: Climate scientists were correct and the next two years were of similar severity. For grocery retailers, those who have been able to expand their supply chain to not be reliant on local providers as well as those with online capabilities have succeeded. Locally-grown specialty retailers have suffered as well as traditional retailers who have not invested in online capabilities.
[Points are calculated for the round and for the entire game.]
20 minutes
(70 minutes total) / Debrief and discussion among the participants and panel relating back to the teachings on strategy and group dynamics
20 minutes
(90 minutes total) / The In-House Perspective: presentation and discussion by 2 in house counsel on their role in strategy and lessons-learned on group dynamics in setting and executing on strategy

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