Hi there
The Change Simulation
For two days, you go through a real change process at Fabrex, a traditional fashion company that needs to change. Step by step, from the first analysis to a concrete implementation plan. Along the way, you switch roles: sometimes you advise Fabrex from the outside, sometimes you are Fabrex.
The case in brief
Fabrex has done well for decades. Now it has to learn something new.
Fabrex is a fashion company in a rural region, founded by Fabian Reichelt. It has made clothes since 1955 under the slogan Fashion for Fun. The company is economically healthy, and most employees have worked there for many years.
But the market is changing fast: digitalisation, sustainability and new customer demands put pressure on the business. The executive board fears that Fabrex is missing important trends.
The board's answer: a new Chief Innovation Officer and a new, seventh division called Strategic Foresight & Disruptive Products. It should have around 15 people. Most of them must come from inside Fabrex. There is budget for only one to three external hires.
What the board does not know yet: what the new division will look like, who will work there and how it will work with the rest of the company.
Your role changes during the game. Sometimes you advise Fabrex as external change consultants. Sometimes you are Fabrex: its leaders, its employees or one of its departments.
The three big challenges, according to the board
What to expect
Each phase builds on the one before. Together they form one complete change process.
Analyse the situation and pitch to win the consulting order.
Write a change vision together with the leadership team.
Interview stakeholders and plan how to involve them.
Design the new structure and the seventh division.
Turn the change into measurable goals (OKRs) and align them.
People@Fabrex
Change happens to real people.
During the simulation you meet the employees of Fabrex: designers, product developers, managers and the works council. Each has hopes and fears about the change.
At one point, you will step into one of these roles yourself.
Learning goals
After the simulation, you can…
Choose your entry
Pick the entry that fits you. If you are not sure, choose “Enter Fabrex”.
For all participants
Use this entry during the two simulation days.
Your facilitators tell you when to open each phase.
For facilitating teams only
Use this entry if your team prepares and runs one phase for the class.
Not in a facilitating team? Then you do not need this area.
For all participants
Open the phase your facilitators name. Each phase has its own material.
Day 1 · 10:00–12:30
Day 1 · 13:30–15:30
Day 1 · 15:30–18:00
Day 2 · 09:30–12:30
Day 2 · 13:30–16:00
Phase 01 · Understand · Day 1, 10:00–12:30
Everything Fabrex has shared with the consulting teams.
Setting up our new division: Strategic Foresight & Disruptive Products
Fabrex has made leisure wear since 1955. We are a family company in the third generation, with about 500 employees in a small town in rural Bavaria. We sell in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Fabrex is financially healthy. But we are losing touch with young customers and with new trends, and innovation has always come second here. We have hired Chris Drucker as our first Chief Innovation Officer. Now we want to set up a seventh division: Strategic Foresight & Disruptive Products.
What the division will look like, who will work there, how it will work with the other departments, and how we take our people with us. This is why we are looking for change consultants.
A pitch of 3 minutes, no more. Show us that you understand:
Our board hears all pitches. We judge them on our own criteria: what matters most to us in this change. We will not tell you our criteria in advance. Use the client hotline to find out what is important to us: each team may ask the board up to 2 questions.
Client hotline
From 10:55 to 11:35, each team may ask the board up to 2 questions. Send one person to the board table. Ask what matters to Fabrex.
Katrin ReicheltCEO, on behalf of the executive board
Key figures
Evidence
Facts from reports, surveys and internal documents.
Source: Industry association report, Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Source: Industry association report
Source: 1,240 end customers, market research partner
Source: Customer survey 2025
| Year | Revenue €m | EBIT €m | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 86.4 | 6.7 | 7.8% |
| 2022 | 91.2 | 6.5 | 7.1% |
| 2023 | 92.8 | 5.9 | 6.4% |
| 2024 | 91.5 | 5.4 | 5.9% |
| 2025 | 89.7 | 4.7 | 5.2% |
Source: Annual accounts
Source: Internal review by the COO
Source: Sales report 2025
Source: 71% of employees took part. Share who agree.
Source: People & Organization, end of 2025
Source: IT department
Source: Desk research
The heads of these three departments report to the CEO.
Source: Organisation chart
Voices
Notes from first talks with leaders. Every note has signals for both sides of the force field.
“My grandfather built this company on courage. Somewhere along the way, we became careful. I have the full backing of the family for the new division. They also expect first results within twelve months, and we cannot put the core business at risk while we do this.”
“I did not come here to run a suggestion box. I need people with fresh thinking, and ideally I pick them myself. The departments will offer me the people they can spare, not the ones I need. And we should start talking to startups this year, not in three years.”
“We are financially healthy: no debt, solid reserves. That is exactly why I do not want to burn money. The division gets 1.5 million euros for its first year, salaries included. After that, I want to see a business case.”
“Every season, our retailers tell me the same thing: your quality is great, but where is the new stuff? Young customers do not find us. If the new division helps, Sales will support it, as long as it does not pull my best people out of key accounts.”
“Innovation already happens in my department, just without a label. Now a new unit gets the budget and the attention. My designers are asking whether their ideas will be taken away. And someone still has to deliver two collections a year.”
“Every transfer goes across my desk. We have no retraining concept and no descriptions for these new roles, and my team is already stretched. People ask me whether jobs are at risk. I am not against this, but nobody asked HR early enough.”
“The workforce is loyal, but they remember the IT restructuring a few years ago, when people were moved overnight and others got their work on top. If transfers are voluntary and nobody loses their job, we will support this. If not, we will use our rights.”
Phase 01 · The board decides
Draw the pitching teams, agree your weighted criteria, and score each pitch. Every board member scores on their own device; the result is revealed on the projector.
Phase 02 · Envision · Day 1, 13:30–15:30
This afternoon you switch sides. You are Fabrex now: its extended leadership team.
Katrin Reichelt CEO, Fabrex
Dear colleagues,
This morning, our board heard the pitches of several consulting teams. We have chosen one team, and the contract is signed. Thank you to everyone who took part.
Now the real work begins, and it begins with us. Before we change anything at Fabrex, we must be able to say why we are changing and where we are going. That is why I am inviting you, the extended leadership team, to our first change workshop this afternoon.
Our goal: by 15:30, we leave the room with one change vision for Fabrex. One vision that every department can stand behind.
Three things matter to me:
Our consultants will guide us through the afternoon. The board and I will join you at 15:20 to approve the result.
See you at 13:30,
Katrin
Katrin Reichelt · CEO · Fabrex · Fashion for Fun since 1955
Agenda
Previously at Fabrex
Consulting teams analysed Fabrex and pitched for the order. The board chose one team. All teams found the same four patterns.
The board chose
Now you switch sides
Fabrex has hired the consultants. This afternoon, you are Fabrex: the extended leadership team. Each team speaks for one department. Together, you agree on one change vision for the whole company. The winning pitch canvas and the board’s criteria from this morning hang on the wall. Use them.
Your department
Your facilitators tell you which department your team speaks for. Read your card. Your job: make sure the vision works for your people, and for all of Fabrex.
Led by Nadine Vogt, CSO · Key account managers, sales staff, marketing and the online shop team
One fact to remember: Online share of revenue: 11%. Among customers under 35, the Net Promoter Score is −8.
Led by Bernd Kramer, COO · Designers, product developers and pattern makers
One fact to remember: From idea to shop floor takes 14 months. Only 9% of revenue comes from new products.
Led by Head of Logistics · Warehouse, shipping and planning staff, many of them in shifts
One fact to remember: 58% of all employees work in production. Only 26% feel that changes are communicated well.
Led by Martina Baum, Head of P&O · HR, training and recruiting
One fact to remember: 23 open positions; filling one takes 5.4 months. Training budget: €310 per employee per year.
Led by Ulrich Hartl, CFO · Controlling, accounting and the IT team
One fact to remember: Budget for year one: €1.5m, salaries included. The ERP system dates from 2009.
Led by Chris Drucker, CIO · The new division: the CIO and its first future members
One fact to remember: About 15 people, 1 to 3 external hires. First results expected within twelve months.
The afternoon
A good change vision passes all five checks.
Phase 02 · Envision
Fill in the four sentence starters, write your vision in your own words, then run the test. One per team.
Which department does your team speak for? Your facilitators told you.
Turn your cover story into four sentences. Finish each one in plain words.
Now write it in your own words: 2 to 4 sentences, plain enough for everyone at Fabrex.
A good change vision passes all five checks.
Phase 02 · Envision
The two teams of each department read both drafts, keep the strongest parts, and write one department vision.
Phase 02 · Gallery walk
Every department’s vision, side by side. You have three dots — mark the visions that speak to all of Fabrex. The count updates live.
Phase 02 · One vision · 15:05–15:30
One delegate per department writes the final vision live, in the centre. The board tests it, every department signs it, and the facilitator releases it for the days ahead.
Phase 03 · Engage · Day 1, 15:30–18:00
The vision is signed. Now find out how Fabrex’s people see the change.
Previously at Fabrex
Consulting teams pitched for the order. The board hired one team.
The extended leadership team agreed on one change vision. The board approved it, and every department signed it.
The vision is on the wall. Before the consultants plan anything, they want to hear how Fabrex’s people see the change.
The vision we agreed on
Your task now
You are consultants again, and you also play Fabrex employees. In trios, you interview each other. Each person plays a persona, an interviewer and an observer once. Then you map all the people you met on one stakeholder board and plan how to involve the most important ones.
How the interviews work
Sit in a trio. Give yourselves the letters A, B and C.
| Round | Persona | Interviewer | Observer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round 116:05 | A | B | C |
| Round 216:21 | B | C | A |
| Round 316:37 | C | A | B |
Everyone plays their own persona once: A in round 1, B in round 2, C in round 3.
Your trio workspace
People@Fabrex
Click a person to see their public profile. Interviewers: look up the person you will interview.
The afternoon
Phase 03 · Engage
Place the people you met on the influence–interest grid and mark how they feel about the change. Every planning team builds its own board; on the projector, all the boards come together to show where the class agrees.
Phase 03 · Engage
For one or two key stakeholders from the board. Good choices: high influence, against the change, or with a hidden concern you uncovered.
First step tomorrow
What is the very first thing we do?
Biggest risk
What happens if we do nothing?
Phase 03 · Engage
Sign in once. The page then shows your task for every round.
Start with step 1: click your letter.
You are the interviewer. You interview the persona played by . observes.
You are the observer. You watch interview the persona played by .
During the interview, rate the interviewer on four criteria, from 1 to 5 stars. Each rating gives you a question to ask in the feedback.
Give a rating to see a question you can ask the interviewer.
Give a rating to see a question you can ask the interviewer.
Give a rating to see a question you can ask the interviewer.
Give a rating to see a question you can ask the interviewer.
You play your persona. interviews you, observes.
Load your persona in step 2 to see your card here.
Phase 04 · Transform · Day 2, 09:30–12:30
Design how it works, choose its roles and decide who moves in.
Previously at Fabrex
A consulting team won the order to plan the new division.
Fabrex agreed on one change vision. Every department signed it.
You met 33 employees and mapped their hopes and fears on the stakeholder board.
The vision we agreed on
Your task today
You work with Fabrex HR as the design team for the new division. In teams of 4–6, you design the division on a board game, choose its job roles, decide on the first three internal transfers and write a job description for one external hire.
Organisational ambidexterity
An ambidextrous company does two things at once: it exploits its current business and explores new business.
| Exploit · the core | Explore · the division | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Run today’s business well | Find tomorrow’s business |
| Time horizon | This season, this year | 2–5 years |
| Way of working | Plans, standards, efficiency | Experiments, fast tests, learning |
| Success means | Low costs, on time, no errors | Learning fast, some ideas scale |
| Failure is | A problem to avoid | Part of the process |
The key idea
Separate, but connected. The division needs its own way of working. It also needs strong bridges to the core, or its ideas never reach customers.
Two traps: too separate, and the division becomes an ivory tower. Too close, and daily business swallows it.
The board game · 10:05–10:50
Your team gets one game set: the design board (A3), 24 task cards, 8 role cards and blank cards.
Exploit
Tasks that keep today’s business running. They stay in the six departments.
Connect
Tasks the division does together with one department. Place them next to that department.
Explore
Tasks for finding and testing the new. Group them into sub-teams.
Read the 24 task cards together. Place each card in one zone of the design board: the core, the bridge or the new division.
Not every card belongs in the division.
Group the division tasks into 2–3 sub-teams. Give each sub-team a name and a focus in one line.
Each sub-team works towards one common goal.
Pick 4–6 role cards and place each one in its sub-team. Check which division tasks no role covers.
You cannot take all 8 roles. Choose what matters most in year one.
For each bridge card, name the department and one thing you will do together.
A division without bridges becomes an ivory tower.
When you are done
Job roles
A job role describes a set of tasks and the skills they need. One person can hold several roles, and several people can share one.
R1
Spots what is coming before competitors do.
Research · Customers · Data
R2
Runs the idea process from workshop to decision.
Facilitation · Projects · Communication
R3
Builds partnerships and new business models.
Startups · Communication · Finance
R4
Turns ideas into samples and tests them.
Design · Materials · Customers
R5
Develops digital services and the data behind them.
Digital · Data · Projects
R6
Checks whether ideas pay off.
Finance · Data · Projects
R7
Brings new products into the core business.
Operations · Sales · Communication
R8
Prepares people for new skills and new ways of working.
Training · Facilitation · Communication
Transfers and development · 11:30–12:00
In the workspace, you drag people from their old department into your roles. Each move shows what you gain and what the department loses.
People learn a new role mainly by doing it. Plan all three parts:
Training budget at Fabrex: €310 per employee per year. Plan carefully.
External hire · 12:00–12:15
After your three transfers, some tasks have no one. Pick the most important open role and write its job description.
The morning
Phase 04 · Transform
Use one laptop per team. Work through the steps from top to bottom.
Copy the sub-teams from your board.
Click the sub-team for each role card you placed on your board. Leave the others on “Not used”.
Tick the departments you work with and write what you do together.
This view updates with every change. Use it to present your design.
Bridge you defined Department loses someone
Drag a person onto a role, or click a person and choose the role. Each move shows what you gain and what the old department loses. Decide on three.
33 Fabrex employees can move into the division. They appear sorted by their current department.
For each of your three transfers: why this person, how they learn the new role and who covers their old job.
Pick the most important open role and write a short job description. The preview on the right is what a candidate would see.
Phase 04 · For the lecturer
Every team’s transfers, side by side. See who is wanted by more than one team, which departments run thin, and sign off each team’s plan — live on the projector.
Phase 05 · Implement & Optimize · Day 2, 13:30–16:00
Every department sets OKRs that move Fabrex towards the vision.
Previously at Fabrex
Fabrex agreed on one change vision, and you heard how its people see the change.
You designed the new division, chose its roles and planned the first transfers.
The board approved the design. Now every department sets goals to make it happen.
The vision we agreed on
Your task this afternoon
Your team plays one Fabrex department. You set 3 OKRs for the next three months: what your department will achieve so that the new division takes off. Each OKR supports at least one of the board’s company OKRs. At the end, all departments connect their OKRs on one wall.
Set by the board · Q1 2027 · January to March
Your department’s OKRs show how you contribute to these three.
Company OKR 1
Company OKR 2
Company OKR 3
Objectives and key results
OKRs are for change, not for daily business. Daily business is measured by KPIs.
Example · People & Organization
OHelp the people who move into the division feel ready for their new role
Supports company OKR 1 and 3
Not every key result needs a number. But every key result needs a clear answer on 31 March: did we make it, and how far did we get?
Good and bad OKRs
Use them when you write, and when you give feedback.
Number in the objective
Weak: Objective: Increase online revenue by 2 percentage points
Strong: Objective: Make our online shop the first choice for young customers. KR: Raise the online share of revenue from 11% to 13%.
The objective says where to go. The number belongs in a key result.
A task, not a result
Weak: KR: Implement a new training programme
Strong: KR: 40 employees complete the “Working in experiments” training and rate it at least 4 of 5.
Implementing is an activity. Ask: what is different when it is done?
Not measurable
Weak: KR: Improve communication with Logistics
Strong: KR: Raise the share of logistics staff who feel well informed from 26% to 45%.
Without a number, nobody can say at the end of March whether it worked.
Business as usual
Weak: Objective: Deliver the autumn collection on time
Strong: Objective: Bring the first ideas from the division to the shop floor faster.
OKRs are for change. Daily business is measured by KPIs.
Not doable in three months
Weak: KR: Raise revenue from new products from 9% to 25%
Strong: KR: Cut the time from idea to first sample from 14 to 8 weeks for 3 pilot ideas.
Ambitious is good. Impossible in one cycle, and out of your hands, demotivates.
Feedback walk · 14:30–14:45
Good feedback
Is specific, refers to the five checks and suggests a better wording. “KR2 has no clear measure: how about ‘from 26% to 45%’?” helps more than “KR2 is unclear.”
Alignment · 15:15–15:50
Alignment means that the OKRs fit together: upwards to the company, and sideways between departments.
Upwards
Each department OKR supports at least one company OKR. Gaps show where no one works on a company goal.
Sideways
Departments depend on each other. “Our KR needs data from IT” is a connection that must be agreed.
How your OKRs get onto the wall
The afternoon
Phase 05 · Implement & Optimize
Enter your revised OKRs here, after the feedback walk. Use one laptop per team.
Which department do you play?
Copy them from your revised canvas. The checks below each OKR update as you type.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
On 31 March, the answer is yes or no. Use this for one-off results.
One or two sentences. This helps you in the debrief.
Create your code, copy it and post it where your facilitators tell you.
How your OKRs look on the wall
Phase 05 · For facilitators
Collect all teams’ OKRs and see how they connect, live on the projector.
Teams on the wall
Hover over a bubble to read the OKR. Click a company OKR to highlight everything that supports it.
Connect with
Closing · Day 2, 16:00 · with the lecturer
A simulation: how could Fabrex’s OKRs develop over the next twelve weeks?
This is a simulation with invented progress. It shows how OKRs make problems visible early, not how your OKRs would really go.
For facilitating teams
Your team prepares one phase of the simulation and guides your classmates through it.
Timetable
The same plan applies to everyone. Facilitating teams lead the coloured phases.
Good to know: Phase 01 ends with a short method debrief by the lecturer. Day 1 has no closing debrief: Phase 03 ends the day at 18:00. Plan a short break inside your phase.
The phases
Each card shows when the phase takes place, what the class works on and what your team would do.
Run by the lecturer. This phase cannot be chosen. Everyone takes part as a participant.
No password yet? That is normal. You get it from the lecturer once your phase is confirmed.
Briefing for facilitating teams