Ursus Breweries wanted to strengthen strategic thinking as part of its leadership development and capability-building work.
The goal was to help leaders experience how strategy plays out over time, not only as a plan, but as a series of connected decisions about people, customers, capability, capacity, and timing.
In a competitive and volatile market, leaders constantly make choices that shape future performance.
These decisions are rarely isolated. A demanding customer can become unprofitable if the organization is not ready to deliver. A missed investment in people or systems can become a weakness when competitors move. A delayed capability decision can limit future growth.
Ursus Breweries needed a learning experience where leaders could feel the weight of strategic decisions before making them for real.
Ascendis delivered a two-day strategic thinking program for leaders at Ursus Breweries in Bucharest, built around CELEMI Tango™, Celemi’s business simulation focused on success through people.
The session brought together leaders and specialists from across the business, including commercial, brewing, packaging, innovation, operations, planning, capability, brand, customer transformation, and key account roles. This cross-functional mix helped create a broader strategic conversation, where participants could see how decisions in one part of the business affect results elsewhere.
Participants worked in four teams. Each team took over an identical knowledge company, starting with the same market, the same rules, and the same company value.
Across 5 simulated years, the teams made strategic decisions about hiring, employee development, customer selection, automation, expert know-how systems, and capability building. They had to balance short-term performance with long-term readiness, while competing in the same market.
The simulation made strategy visible. Leaders could see how decisions about people, customers, capacity, know-how, and timing affected revenue, margin, image, capability, and long-term company value.
Because the consequences played out inside the simulation, participants could test their thinking, learn from mistakes, and adjust their strategy without real-world risk.
The experience created a clear and memorable strategic lesson.
All four teams started from the same position. Five simulated years later, the gap in results between the first and last team was 55%.
Same company. Same market. Same rules.
The difference came down to strategy.
But the learning was not limited to the team with the highest score. The value came from seeing why the results diverged. Each team could trace its outcome back to specific decisions about people, customers, automation, expert know-how, capacity, and timing.
Some participants saw the cost of losing skilled employees after overlooking their need for development. Others experienced the risk of taking on demanding customers before the organization had the capability to deliver. One team saw how early investment in automation could create a stronger margin position. Another saw how investing too late in expert know-how systems could leave the business exposed when a competitor attracted a key person.
The debrief surfaced themes directly relevant to Ursus Breweries, including how to grow know-how value in the beer industry and how to increase capacity efficiently in a volatile market.
Participants highlighted the interaction, complexity, and energy of the workshop. Several pointed to the value of cross-functional interaction and the need to think strategically across many variables. When asked what they wanted to implement, responses included testing strategy, investing more in development, applying long-term strategic thinking, and acting immediately.
Ascendis also observed an important team dynamic. Teams with clear functional roles stayed focused, trusted one another, and learned from their mistakes. Teams without clear roles looked busy, but overlooked key tasks and underperformed on the results that truly mattered.
That is what made the simulation powerful. Successes and setbacks both became sources of insight. Participants did not just compare scores. They compared strategies, consequences, and the decisions that created them.
The session helped leaders experience an important truth: strategy is rarely one heroic decision. It is built through the talent you protect, the customers you are ready for, and the capability you develop before you need it.
The program received a 5-star learning experience rating, reflecting both the engagement in the room and the practical relevance of the simulation.
For Ursus Breweries, CELEMI Tango™ helped leaders practice strategic decision-making in a realistic, energizing, and risk-free environment, turning abstract strategy discussions into concrete insight about people, customers, capability, capacity, and timing.