MTC helps bring decision-making board game to market

A business development decision-making board game has been brought to market – thanks to manufacturing experts at the Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre.

The MTC’s Business Launch Centre worked with management and team development company Thinking Focus to put their board game “What Would You Do?” into production.

“What Would You Do?” is a game designed to bring teams together to work through business issues in a fun way. The game presents day-to-day business situations for leaders, managers and teams to debate and develop solutions. It aids objective decision-making, empathy and learning, and trials with numerous leading companies have shown it gives lasting results in real-life application.

The concept for the game was devised by London-based people development company Thinking Focus, but having worked on the design of the game with New York designers, they turned to the Business Launch Centre at the MTC to help them bring it into production.

MTC engineers designed some of the game’s components, and introduced Thinking Focus to suppliers for other parts of the game kit. The MTC developed prototypes and went on to manufacture some of the components themselves. The counters and voting tokens in the final version of the game were digitally printed and then mounted on a brass base. They developed the game board using linoleum, which makes it tough and durable but easily transportable by rolling it up.

Thinking Focus director and co-founder Rob Smith said without the help of the MTC the board game would have taken much longer to get into production.

“The MTC input was invaluable to us. While we knew the idea would work with our clients, we had a lot of work to do on the design and getting it into production. The MTC added real value to our product – so much so that we are now working with them on our next project,” he said.

Dean Baker, director of the MTC’s Business Launch Centre, said the MTC team had enjoyed working on the Thinking Focus project.

“This was very different to most of the work that comes our way from SMEs looking for help to develop products. But it was great to help with such an innovative idea,” he said.

Thinking Focus works with teams and business organisations all over the world to help them drive productivity, achieve breakthroughs and enable change and improvement by developing teams, leaders and managers.

Based in the MTC’s newly-opened Sopwith Building the Business Launch Centre provides incubation cells for start-ups to develop and manufacture prototypes of their innovative products. They have access to the MTC’s world-class advanced manufacturing and research facilities, as well as the MTC’s team of engineering and manufacturing experts.

Dean Baker said, “We are able to provide a de-risked environment for start-ups with the support of our product development team from concept to manufacture. Through the MTC’s membership we can give young companies the opportunity to draw on the wider manufacturing community to create a successful and sustainable business. Our knowledgeable team offers an end-to-end service to reduce the stress of bringing a product to market.”

The MTC was founded by the University of Birmingham, Loughborough University, the University of Nottingham and TWI Ltd. The MTC’s industrial members include some of the UK’s major global manufacturers.

The MTC aims to provide a competitive environment to bridge the gap between university-based research and the development of innovative manufacturing solutions, in line with the Government’s manufacturing strategy. The MTC is part the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, supported by Innovate UK.