Campus - 26.05.2025 - 10:48
Trump stands up, waves to the room and says, ‘We're sure to have a lot of fun together over the next two days.’ Zelensky says briefly and dryly, ‘We have to win.’ And Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, leans back and watches – according to rumours, he is planning to launch a revolutionary AI tool...
This was the scene at the start of the second St.Gallen Strategy Days on 22 and 23 May at SQUARE of HSG – a simulation of global political and economic events. Over two days, around 70 HSG students and external professionals took on the roles of politicians, business leaders and representatives of international organisations. At the start, some of the participants briefly introduced themselves to the others in their roles.
The simulation focused on today's Europe, ‘a continent between allies, algorithms and autonomy’, as the description put it. As in real politics, the challenges included the war in Ukraine, the crisis in the Middle East, globally disputed territories such as Greenland, Taiwan and Kashmir, energy security and the new role of the USA – all overshadowed by the AI revolution. The starting point was the NATO summit at the end of June 2025, which will then also take place in real life in The Hague.
During the simulation, time ran faster; one hour of real time corresponded to one month. Dutchman Diederik Stolk and his team ensured that the players' actions and decisions remained realistic. He has already conducted such ‘serious games,’ as the simulations are also known, with NATO military personnel and European government representatives.
This shows that serious gaming is not just about playing, but about ‘effective learning experiences,’ as Stolk says. ‘Participants can develop soft skills such as communication, leadership, collaboration in diverse groups, and the ongoing adaptation of thought patterns and strategies.’ And they can try things out and make mistakes in a protected environment. When introducing the game, Stolk quoted Plato, who said that you can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
The SQUARE team had already worked with Stolk during the first Strategy Days in 2023. ‘We received a lot of positive feedback from participants after the first edition,’ says Sandro Rüegg. Among other things, he is responsible for external relations and fundraising in the SQUARE team – to this day, a large part of the building's programme is made possible by external donors, including many HSG alumni.
The Strategy Days are to take place annually at SQUARE in future. ‘We can also imagine organising such simulations on a smaller scale and opening them up to people outside the HSG,’ says Rüegg. Experienced managers could also benefit from serious gaming.
The format has already been exported once: at the beginning of May, representatives from SQUARE and the HSG travelled to Sydney with Stolk. There, they supported the Australian Council on Foreign Affairs with a one-day serious game for researchers, politicians and young professionals. Here too, SQUARE plans to open up the format internationally to interested parties. ‘We have also already published a serious gaming handbook for HSG lecturers after the 2023 edition and familiarised them with the teaching method in a workshop,’ says Rüegg.
The two days did indeed bring some surprising developments: on the second day, there was a simulated cyber attack, during which Simon Mayer from the HSG School of Computer Science gave a short talk to participants on cyber security. Switzerland had also been attacked by saboteurs, who blocked the Gotthard Tunnel and cut off the power supply, among other things. On the global market, Open AI had merged with Elon Musk's Starlink. And Switzerland had managed to secure favourable customs terms in negotiations with the USA – these are just a few excerpts from an extremely complex game that also included international conferences, official state talks and a great deal of unofficial communication in the corridors of SQUARE.
At the end of each day, there was a debriefing with all participants. ‘On the one hand, they consciously slip out of their roles. This is important in order to switch off. On the other hand, the debriefing also serves to reflect on what has been done and learned,’ says Lucia Görke, who was on the Strategy Days organising committee. She is a lecturer at the HSG and Head of People Analytics at Swisscom. She has been using serious gaming in her HSG course on leadership in times of crisis since 2020. ‘Simulations are a powerful teaching format for training leadership and decision-making behaviour under pressure,’ she says.
The HSG students also received various training sessions during the simulation: on the one hand, there were keynotes from experts in diplomacy, media, the military and secret services, the corporate world and negotiation tactics. On the other hand, there were daily workshops with these and other experts, where students could ask questions in small groups. ‘In these two days, you will learn a great deal about diplomacy, leadership and negotiations,’ Stolk said at the opening. ‘And you will know whether you are suited for a career in international state and corporate diplomacy.’
