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Contents
ALINE’S BUSINESS IS IN DANGER...........................................................................................................3

Backpacks Production............................................................................................................................3

BALANCE SHEET.....................................................................................................................................3

BASKET MARKET....................................................................................................................................4

BEAD OR PEARL.....................................................................................................................................4

BEST DEAL..............................................................................................................................................4

BRAINSTORM - ROUND ROBIN..............................................................................................................4

BRAINTEASERS.......................................................................................................................................5

Break Even Story....................................................................................................................................5

Break Even Pipe.....................................................................................................................................5

BUSINESS PLAN PUZZLE.........................................................................................................................5

CEFE Cubes Tower.................................................................................................................................6

COCA-COLA MARKET.............................................................................................................................6

COST CATEgORIES..................................................................................................................................6

Crowns...................................................................................................................................................6

Darts......................................................................................................................................................7

Endangered Hotel..................................................................................................................................7

envelope exercise..................................................................................................................................7

FARM Exercise.......................................................................................................................................8

Flying eggs.............................................................................................................................................8

finance game.........................................................................................................................................8

Flying eggs.............................................................................................................................................8

Macro and Micro Screening...................................................................................................................9

MARKET ROOM SIMULATION................................................................................................................9

MARKETING Plan Presentation..............................................................................................................9

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Match Box Heroes.................................................................................................................................9

match making organogram..................................................................................................................10

mini goals............................................................................................................................................10

Mini Market.........................................................................................................................................10

mirror painting....................................................................................................................................10

New Scissors........................................................................................................................................11

PANCAKE DELICACY.............................................................................................................................11

PECs.....................................................................................................................................................11

PECs SELF-RATING QUESTIONNAIRE....................................................................................................12

PICTURE ASSOCIATION Brainstorm.....................................................................................................12

PING-PONG ASSOCIATIVE CReATIVITY.................................................................................................12

PRAGMA Corruption............................................................................................................................12

Production of Mobiles.........................................................................................................................13

Project Cost & WORKING CAPITAL......................................................................................................13

Ring TOSS.............................................................................................................................................13

SCAMPER Creativity.............................................................................................................................14

Swot Analysis.......................................................................................................................................14

to be or not to be................................................................................................................................14

total project cost.................................................................................................................................14

Tower building.....................................................................................................................................15

TOWER of BABEL.................................................................................................................................15

XY.........................................................................................................................................................15

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ALINE’S BUSINESS IS IN DANGER

The protagonist of our case study is Aline, who has her own
business for one year now: she repairs television sets.
Unfortunately, Aline’s business is not running as she hoped,
she does not gain as much money as she expected.

Through the stepwise analysis of Aline’s business situation,

the participants will understand the basics of profit and loss
calculation, to distinguish fixed and variable costs, the necessity and calculation of
the amortisation of investments, and, at the end, the relation between increasing
output and decreasing unit costs. Participants will work together in groups, which are
competing in giving the best advice to Aline’s business. “Aline’s business in danger”
is a very comprehensive and powerful exercise.

BACKPACKS PRODUCTION

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

“Backpacks” works well on production processes, division of labour, and the

efficiency obtained by an adequate production structure. It should also work well with
non-production target groups as here the production process can also be viewed as
an example for the necessity to organise one’s own business well and to define
clearly everybody’s role.

In this expercise participants act as business consultants for an entrepreneur who

starts a new factory for the production of students’ backpacks at the outskirts of a
metropolis. He has produced a preliminary plan of how the production will be
organised, but he is not yet sure, if this is the most efficient way to do it. Therefore,
he needs professional advice.

BALANCE SHEET
All participants become living parts of a balance sheet and physically
form the balance. In a very easy to understand and funny way, this
exercise teaches participants about the Balance sheet, how it is formed
and how to make changes to it and how these changes affect other
variables in the Balance Sheet.

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BASKET MARKET
Participants play in a basket market to win customers for their
companies. Groups select participants to shoot at a goal. Depending
on the success and some external factors, companies will face
increasing or decreasing markets and expenditures. All this affects
their cash flow. Without managing their cash well and adapting the
company’s strategy to cash realistic projections, the competing small
enterprises will fail. In a very lively way, the Basket market will convince participants of the
importance of cash flow and how to do it properly. They will even love doing it.

BEAD OR PEARL

The Bead (Pearl) Exercise is an active one which gets all participants involved in the
production of beads (pearl necklaces) which are provided for sale to a buyer based on strict
adherence to the specified samples. Participants sign delivery contracts and have a limited
amount of time to meet the contract terms. The exercise does not yet touch costs but focuses
on personal entrepreneurial competence. Winners are not those with best technical abilities
but those applying entrepreneurial behavior. What qualities do business people possess? And
why are they nuch more successful in the second round?

BEST DEAL
Objects of different colors are given to competing groups. All
receive a task, which they can only achieve by negotiating and
trading with the others. Who is better organized, faster and more
efficient in this process to make the best deal? In some rounds,
destructive tasks are given. What do the others do with it? In a
very lively way, participants learn about cooperation and competition in a positive manner.

BRAINSTORM - ROUND ROBIN

Round Robin is a very joyful and productive brainstorming exercise
during which up to 600 project ideas (production and service
businesses) can be generated in 45 minutes time, especially when
the maximizing version is applied. It allows participants for new
thinking during the tossing of the soft ball in a circle from one to
another compelling every receiver of the ball to name a
product/service within a short period of time, and it surely attributes
the project idea generation crown to someone who truly deserves it.

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BRAINTEASERS

Brainteasers is an exciting and unique exercise which helps bring

out the creative thinking of participants by providing them little
challenges which they need to solve individually in the classroom
environment. Each of them is solved in front of the whole class
after the class has been given sufficient time to solve them
individually, and the rules of creativity are discovered and
discussed.

BREAK EVEN STORY

A small business person just succeeded to finish the first week of his
production and sales. He is so happy about his income that he
invites all participants to a party. But they will warn him that he
cannot consider the money as profit. Stepwise, the pipe
producer/carpenter tells his story and participants will help him to get
costs right and develop – without knowing – the breakeven point
concept. Very simple, easy to understand introduction into BEP.

BREAK EVEN PIPE

A small business person just succeeded to finish the first week of his
production and sales. He is so happy about his income that he invites all
participants to a party. But they will warn him that he cannot consider the
money as profit. Stepwise, the pipe producer tell his story and participant
will help him to get costs right and develop – without knowing – the break
even point concept. Very simple, easy to understand introduction into BEP.

BUSINESS PLAN PUZZLE

An absent minded professor wants to give a lecture on
business plan. Since he confuses all cards which he
produced for presentation, participants have to help him.
They jointly discuss and structure the chaos. Doing this,
they learn the logical sequence of and links within the
process of business plan preparation.

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CEFE CUBES TOWER

A set of amazing little mind teasers (inside special plastic cubes) is
provided to groups of participants. Their task is to build a tower with
them. But only those cubes may be used as ‘bricks’ for which the
‘bricklayer’ found the solution. Participants learn so many points:
finding a solution sometimes requires assistance; cooperation
between groups increases results; not all solutions are sustainable;
sometimes, the challenge (or objective) is not even clear and needs
to be found out. Attention: the exercise requires a set of the cubes, available in the CEFE shop.

COCA-COLA MARKET
By simply using five tins of Coca Cola (or a similar product) the
exercise simulates the market. In a simply to organize way, participants
will have several buying options and nicely experience marketing mix
and marketing strategy. Coca-Cola market also emphasizes that cheap
prices are not the key to success in marketing. Participants learn to
apply marketing alternatives to products and services. Coca Cola
Market is an alternative to the much more complicated market room
simulation exercise.

COST CATEGORIES
There are differences in costs that everybody is aware of,
however it is not easy to describe the difference sometimes. This
exercise guides participants through the jungle of different cost
categories without lecturing - by putting them in the shoes of a
very interesting business.

CROWNS
How can an entrepreneur face tough competition and still make a
reasonable profit? Participants make crowns to sell to a foreign buyer
who has limited funds to make purchases and will only buy the
cheapest crowns which meet basic requirements. The participants
work in groups and compete to earn the most money. Crown exercise
can be used to train special aspects like profit and loss, break even, organization,
management, financial planning, entrepreneurial skills – or all at once. Very lively, interactive
and motivational.

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DARTS
Dart may be simply seen as a game. This exercise transforms it into an
experience which gets under the skin. Several companies compete on the dart
market. Technical skills are not decisive. Those companies will win that find the
right match of strategy and calculated risk taking. Real money is involved to
make decisions relevant. Far beyond a game, the companies enter into serious
business decisions. Apart from risk taking, other personal entrepreneurial
qualities are developed, such as commitment to work contract, opportunity
seeking, goal setting, systematic planning and self-confidence.

ENDANGERED HOTEL
Tourists arrive at the airport and look for hotel accommodation. Three
hotel owners try to get them as customers. What they all experience
when people want to tale a room at hotel receptions serves perfectly
to discuss and learn about sales concept, unique selling proposal,
customer attention and care, dealing with external factors and more.
Endangered Hotel is a very lively role play and simulation in the service
industry.

Specific ”personal entrepreneurial characteristics” (PECs) such as the ”demand for quality
and efficiency”, ”information seeking” (about the client’s desire), ”persuasion” and the
”commitment to work contract” also come into play during this exercise and provide ample
opportunities to practice them.

ENVELOPE EXERCISE
By simulating the production and marketing of envelopes, groups acting as
manufacturing enterprises compete against each other. The participants will
plan their businesses and prepare for production. Groups have to meet strict
quality requirements in order to have their envelopes accepted by the
international buyer. A lot of activity, group work and motivation – and a real
tough entrepreneurial challenge! The exercise aims at organization, costs,
quality and entrepreneurial skills.

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FARM EXERCISE
In the farm expercise participants are divided into groups consisting of planners,
implementers and observers. The planners design farms using plastic toy sets
without the implementers seeing the desired outcome.

The farm expercise demonstrates the importance of communication in business

regarding planning and implementation processes and is used in the organisation
and management part of the business plan preparation. It is a good tool to introduce
to the topic. It also creates a context around which an organogram is designed.

FLYING EGGS
Did you ever see real raw eggs flying – and landing without
breaking? Such a challenge is given to the participants who
will then discuss and develop aspects of team building,
creativity and problem solving.

FINANCE GAME
An all encompassing finance exercise which covers the
financial statements Profit and Loss, and Cash Flow, learnt
during the CEFE training. Through role playing and case study,
the different parts of the financial aspects of business,
participants will demonstrate understanding of preparing a
financing plan. Participants work in groups, presenting their
results to the class while corrections are made by all.

FLYING EGGS
Did you ever see real raw eggs flying – and landing without
breaking? Such a challenge is given to the participants who
will then discuss and develop aspects of team building,
creativity and problem solving.

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MACRO AND MICRO SCREENING

Participants have generated so many ideas through brainstorming. Now what do they
do? Participants evaluate their many ideas using the funnel method. They first reduce
their ideas to 5 using the macro screen and then finally to one idea using the micro
screen. The session is very interactive and done in working groups. The process can
be applied for any kind of decision making.

MARKET ROOM SIMULATION

Market room simulation is an interesting expercise to improve the
participants marketing strategies and to develop marketing competencies.
Participants are divided into buyers and sellers. As a result of the buying
and selling participants experience the interplay of factors that influence
buyers to purchase products. There are two similar products: one is high
quality and the other low quality. In the first round four sellers set up
shops and sell their allocated products at a set selling price to the buyers.
This forces the sellers to focus on using promotional strategies to sell their
products. One of the ”buyers” in this round is an entrepreneur who wants
to start a business in the second round, he/she uses the opportunity to study the competition and
potential customers and develop a marketing strategy that will ensure a profitable market share is
captured. This new and fifth seller’s success depends on the strategy applied, his/her selling ability
and how the other competitors respond to their market shares being encroached upon.

MARKETING PLAN PRESENTATION

After fieldwork about markets and marketing, participants
will have prepared their own marketing strategy. Now it is
time for a critical check. Participants will present their
plans to a panel – in ideal cases external experts. The
panel will score all presentations according to defined
criteria in an evaluation form. This will enable further
conclusions about what makes a marketing good and what
are the typical mistakes to avoid.

MATCH BOX HEROES

An extremely exciting and interesting exercise where participants form
groups and attempt to pick up match sticks previously scattered on the
training room floor. Match sticks are counted for each group and
participants learn essential marketing concepts like market potential,
share and entry strategy.

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MATCH MAKING ORGANOGRAM

Participants form enterprises and have to produce bundles of match
sticks. As market demand grows, companies can do as well. But that
means: they have to change and develop, otherwise they will fail.
Participants will physically experience what it means to run a growing
company and what needs to be done to organize all the changes. But
will the entrepreneur make more profit as his/her business grows?

MINI GOALS
Defining an objective, having a goal – it sounds simple, but it is
not. And what is a good objective?? Participants are challenged
with setting objectives for themselves and achieving them. All this
in a very short time and inside the training room. A lot of fun and a
little bit of competition helps them to realize what is needed, why
goals/objectives are essential, and how to define them.

MINI MARKET
A very exciting, fun filled, action packed session in which
participants simulate a real buying and selling market experience
using real money. Participants make products and offer services
and attempt to sell them to the buyer. Through this interactive
activity participants are able to understand the marketing mix and
the 5 P’s of marketing.

MIRROR PAINTING
Mirror Painting is an extremely interesting and lively exercise in
which participants sit back to back as one describes a drawing
while the other draws it. Success and failure are perfectly
visualized, causing a lot of laughter and stimulating discussion.
What will participants learn about how to communicate?

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NEW SCISSORS
Did you ever try to improve functions and values of a simple match
box, and simultaneously reducing production costs? Participants do in
this exercise and that is only the brain teaser. Steps of value analysis
and engineering are elaborated and applied in order to invent new
scissors. The outcome is spectacular. And participants get simply to
apply tool for innovation in their businesses and in general.

PANCAKE DELICACY
This very interactive and funny expercise is part of the
”Production and Costs” module of the training programme.
Participants will observe time and resources needed to
produce pancakes. With cost information for used resources
at hand they must calculate production cost of one pancake.
Usually, training programs only estimate costs per unit by
dividing total costs by produced number of units. This
common approach does not facilitate analysis of waste, idle
time or efficiency. With the Pancake Expercise participants
learn to identify options for improvement.

The expercise is also an opportunity to introduce participants to feasibility analysis of an idea.

Knowing demand and market price for a given product – like pancakes in this case - cost analysis is
the basis to determine whether the business can compete on the market. Conditions are discussed
to make the enterprise or business idea become viable.

PECS
This expercise was born in the early days of CEFE in French-speaking
Africa. It’s a rural version with a lot of black-and-white painting in the
statements. Finally, it’s less the absolute truth of the statements but
more the general discussion which is supposed to be triggered by this
expercise before 10 PECs will be presented.

It contains the PECs Book which participants can use for

self-assessment, and the case of Juan and Carlos: PowerPoint
slides that visualize the key impact of PECs for business success.

The personal entrepreneurial characteristics can be nicely

practised in combination with the ”PECs self rating questionnaire”.
In this case, the participants can really identify their weak and
strong PECs and they get a tool at hand to train themselves.

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PECS SELF-RATING QUESTIONNAIRE

It is one of the oldest CEFE expercises, but still powerful and a
lot of CEFE trainers swear on it! During an individual and
confidential self-rating, the participants have the opportunity to
make a self-evaluation and think about their attitudes and
entrepreneurial characteristics in life. It should be an instrument
to help getting to know their own personal profile and working
out some important aspects less developed. Each participant
should find out the best moment to do this expercise and how
much time it would take. It should be handed out as a home
assignment, and the trainer should not interfere - although it
may be very untypical not to process this expercise.

Similar questionnaires are now en vogue in assessment centres and academic

training programs.

PICTURE ASSOCIATION BRAINSTORM

Once, a CEFE course participant suddenly shifted his
business idea from noodles to soap making – by the way,
with a lot of success! This was due to the expercise Picture
Association. It is a specific brainstorming expercise,
powerful and very much to the point!

PING-PONG ASSOCIATIVE CREATIVITY

Ping-Pong of Associations is a technique of Stimulus –
Association, from which a great amount of ideas is generated
by relating words to images. Ping-Pong is an introductory
expercise or energizer for the brainstorming expercise
generally used during the elaboration of business plan course,
since it allows the participants to generate and select business
ideas.

PRAGMA CORRUPTION
Corruption and unethical business practises have a negative
impact on business, especially on those enterprises that do not
have financial power or influence to manipulate the situation to their
advantage. This group exercise has been designed to expose the
disadvantages of corruption and the advantages of doing business
cleanly and honestly. The groups are competing manufacturers
and suppliers of origami paper boats for export. An international
buyer is willing to purchase all the products they commit to
produce, provided they are good quality.

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PRODUCTION OF MOBILES
In this expercise, each participant represents an individual company that
produces 3 different kinds of mobiles. During the planning process,
participants have to buy materials, plan and experiment production, and
to calculate purchases, financing needs, revenue and costs. The Mobile Expercise fits well to the
Business Planning course, as it discusses various aspects of a company’s financial and economic
feasibility and increases the knowledge about planning and control of results in a production
process.

The expercise is similar to the Envelope Expercise, but emphasising cost related issues, including
break-even analysis and financial indicators.

PROJECT COST & WORKING CAPITAL

As the name indicates, the project cost expercise aims at
calculating the total cost of the participants selected
projects. The main components of the calculation – fixed
capital, pre-operating-expenses and working capital are
introduced. Special emphasis is given to the calculation of
the components of working capital. The project cost is a
little dry as expercise, but it is still very important, because
the mismanagement of working capital is one of the major
causes for failure of small enterprises.

The project cost requires knowledge about many cost components. Therefore this
expercise should only be done, when the participants already have gathered the
necessary information. See expercise on cost components.

RING TOSS
The new version of the Ring Toss expercise will allow the
participants to experience the need to formulate the right
strategies in different environmental situations in order to
become successful. The expercise is done with real money
investment and from round to round, simulating different market
conditions by changing the rules of the expercise. The changing
environment simulated during the expercise keeps the
entrepreneurs also to realise the need of different strategies in
order to compete with other competing entrepreneurs.

Ring Toss can be used as alternative to the Dart Expercise.

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SCAMPER CREATIVITY
In many countries small enterprises only imitate what others
are doing without special value added or unique selling
proposition. The SCAMPER model can be used to develop ideas
for distinguishing their own products and services from those of
competitors' and to identify market niches for a product with
new features and better value.

SCAMPER is a brainstorming tool; therefore the session can be quite loud and filled with laughter
while the participants are identifying possible product innovations and new business opportunities.

SWOT ANALYSIS
Check it out is one of the most interesting exercises in CEFE
involving a football match played by participants who have been
divided into two groups. The referee is very biased and one team
has an unfair advantage, but who will win the match? And how is
the SWOT analysis trained by this?

TO BE OR NOT TO BE
Participants get some sweets and have to find a way to survive.
A very simple task creates a lot of interaction. Some will survive
others will not. And a very motivated discussion will arise on
how to solve problems. This will be used to develop a problem
solving strategy.

TOTAL PROJECT COST

How much money do I need to start a business? People may think
of land, buildings, equipment, but the hardly see the complete set.
This very often leads to lack of funding and is one of the main
reasons for young enterprises to fail. In an interesting participative
manner, the exercise shows that it is not complicated to do it right.
Participants then have to think twice if their project is still viable.

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TOWER BUILDING
The Tower Building Exercise is a very exciting exercise which uses role play in
a very funny and lively way by showing how external factors can affect an
entrepreneurs’ plan. Intensively, participants learn that preparing and running a
business is much more than ‘just’ business planning. The exercise also raises
the question of social responsibility of entrepreneurs. Although being a role
play, people are amazed how close it comes to reality.

TOWER OF BABEL
It is one of the oldest CEFE expercises: still powerful and very much
to the point! Participants have to build the highest structure possible,
using the material available. All structures will be measured, even if
some participant builds one that goes outside room limits. The main
purpose of this step is to break limits of participants and their
paradigms on unspoken rules. This expercise is an instrument for
creativity training and is used for the developing of entrepreneurial
competencies.

The expercise can also be designed to experience the importance of planning. Some
CEFE trainers use it in ToT’s to enable the participants to develop a Structured
Learning Expercise based on the Experiential Learning Cycle.

XY
'Prisoners dilemma' is a standard metaphor for conflict between
the options of cooperation and selfish acts of interactive
players. It is dynamic exercise with often dramatic
developments. Three groups make decisions by simply
choosing „x” or „y” and have the chance to earn money if they
cooperate, but in most cases there are double-dealings, broken
agreements, conflicts and arguments. Its useful exercise for the
negotiators for choosing negotiating strategy, during which
participants can clearly see differences between integrative
(win-win) and distributive bargaining (win lose).

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