SAP Teaching Innovations
In 2025, the SAP IG began to engage the global SAP community in the development and sharing of teaching innovations. This happened through a two-stage contest in which 31 teams from all around the world participated. Thank you to all teams for participating!
Below, you find the teaching material that emerged from the contest. Congratulations to all teams who made it. The URLs redirect to a space that is hosted and managed by the authors. In this way, they retain full control over and responsibility for the content so that, in the spirit of sustaining innovation, they might update this content over time. The teaching materials are published under a CC BY license, “enabl[ing] reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator”.
Stay tuned for more teaching innovations in the years to come!
Winners
SAP: Simulation for Actionable Practice
Natalia González-Salazar (Universidad EAFIT) and Martha Eugenia Reyes-Sarmiento (Universidad EAFIT)
In English: "SAP: Simulation for actionable practice" transforms the classroom into a strategy lab inspired by the commercial district of Guayaquil-El Hueco (Medellín, Colombia), where trust, networks, and reputation are strategic capital. The game presents students with dilemmas similar to those faced by migrant merchants in eastern Antioquia, who adapted rural practices such as trust, cooperation, and compadrazgo (godparenthood) to the urban context. Using three metrics: profitability (green), network (blue), and trust (yellow), teams must make decisions under uncertainty, face crises, and collectively coordinate sustainable strategies. More than accumulating tokens, the challenge is to maintain consistency between economic results, social ties, and legitimacy. In this way, SAP turns research into action, showing that strategy is not planned from a desk: it is done in practice, where every decision leaves its mark on sustainability and the future of the organization.
You find the content here.
En español: "SAP: Simulation for actionable practice" transforma el aula en un laboratorio de estrategia inspirado en el distrito comercial de Guayaquil-El Hueco (Medellín, Colombia), donde la confianza, las redes y la reputación son capital estratégico. El juego presenta a los estudiantes dilemas similares a los que enfrentan los comerciantes migrantes del oriente antioqueño, quienes adaptaron prácticas rurales como la confianza, la cooperación y el compadrazgo al contexto urbano. Utilizando tres métricas —rentabilidad (verde), red (azul) y confianza (amarillo)—, los equipos deben tomar decisiones bajo incertidumbre, enfrentar crisis y coordinar colectivamente estrategias sostenibles. Más que acumular fichas, el reto consiste en mantener la coherencia entre los resultados económicos, los lazos sociales y la legitimidad. De esta manera, SAP convierte la investigación en acción, demostrando que la estrategia no se planifica desde un escritorio: se construye en la práctica, donde cada decisión deja su huella en la sostenibilidad y en el futuro de la organización.
Encontrará el contenido aquí.
Lived Strategy: “Family Futures” as a Laboratory for Strategic Practice and Future Making in Business Families
John Fernando Macías-Prada and Martha Eugenia Reyes-Sarmiento
In English: "Family Futures" is a serious role-playing game designed to impact strategy teaching by immersing participants in the complex ecosystem of a Business Family. The primary objective is to move students from abstract theory to experiential learning, enabling them to understand strategy as a social, situated, and emergent practice (SAP) while actively constructing the future through present decisions (Future Making). Participants must balance competing tensions among family cohesion, business performance, innovation, and legacy. The format is an immersive project utilizing a "Strategic Balance Dashboard," which operationalizes SAP concepts like practitioners, practices, and praxis into game mechanics, shifting the pedagogical goal from "winning" to "balancing" multiple dimensions. The material is designed for a dual audience, including business school students (advanced undergraduate, MBA, and Master's) and members of business families or executives. It is highly scalable and suitable for implementation in diverse physical settings or via digital adaptation, ensuring global access.
You find the content here.
En español: "Family Futures" es un juego de rol serio diseñado para impactar la enseñanza de la estrategia al sumergir a los participantes en el complejo ecosistema de una familia empresaria. El objetivo principal es llevar a los estudiantes de la teoría abstracta al aprendizaje experiencial, permitiéndoles comprender la estrategia como una práctica social, situada y emergente (SAP), mientras construyen activamente el futuro a través de decisiones presentes (Future Making). Los participantes deben equilibrar tensiones entre la cohesión familiar, el desempeño empresarial, la innovación y el legado. El formato es un proyecto inmersivo que utiliza un “Tablero de Equilibrio Estratégico”, el cual operacionaliza los conceptos de SAP —como practicantes, prácticas y praxis— en mecánicas de juego, desplazando el objetivo pedagógico de “ganar” hacia “equilibrar” múltiples dimensiones. El material está diseñado para un público dual, que incluye estudiantes de escuelas de negocios (pregrado avanzado, MBA y Educación ejecutiva) así como miembros de familias empresarias o ejecutivos. Es altamente escalable y apto para su implementación en diversos entornos físicos o mediante adaptación digital, garantizando así su acceso global.
Encontrará el contenido aquí.
Finalists
An Economies of Worth-based Pedagogical Tool to Navigate Pluralism through the Lens of Strategy-as-Practice
Corinna Galliano (University of Sydney), Mattia Anesa (University of Sydney), and Jean-Pascal Gond (Bayes Business School, City St George’s, University of London)
This teaching tool has been designed to introduce Boltanski and Thévenot (2006 [1991]) Economies of Worth (EW) framework and translate its core concepts into a pedagogical toolkit that can assist students in dealing with value-laden tensions emerging from pluralism in the practicing of strategy. The EW-based pedagogical toolkit is illustrated through an organizational scenario based on real events emerging from an internal dispute about strategic decision as unfolded at the start-up Lovebox. The teaching tool is organized in three parts, each gradually introducing students to the EW core concepts as applied to the Lovebox dispute. These are done through practical re-enactments by Dr Corinna Galliano and Dr Mattia Anesa, and featuring Dr Mélodie Cartel, followed by the unpacking of disputes by Professor Jean-Pascal Gond, and ensued by exercises that push students to apply the pedagogical toolkit to additional strategic scenarios. The teaching tool concludes with a fourth part that links the EW to contemporary ethical business challenges. Professor Juliane Reinecke and Professor Christopher Wright share their experiences in applying the EW framework to analyse strategic disputes within real-world contexts.
You find the content here.
Speculative Fiction: Anticipating the (Unintended) Consequences of Strategic Innovation
Jonas Spengler (University of Cambridge) and Lucy Caines (University of Cambridge)
A key challenge for strategy-makers is to anticipate the future consequences of their strategic decisions for various stakeholders. This interactive, in-class exercise draws on techniques from the speculative fiction literature to equip students to bring future consequences and multi-stakeholder perspectives more deeply into strategy-making.
Students (i) imagine a future world in which a strategic innovation has been widely adopted, (ii) use storytelling techniques to envision the effects on the future lives of varied stakeholders, and then (iii) apply these insights to inform strategy-making in the present day.
By applying and critically reflecting on the use of such ‘futures’ techniques, this exercise helps students become more future-savvy and responsible strategy-makers.
The suggested duration is two hours and can be conducted either in person or online for a range of classes, including MBA, Master’s, Executive, or Undergraduate courses on strategy, innovation, or entrepreneurship.
You find the content here.
Honorable Mentions
Corporate Divestiture Execution: An Experiential Learning Activity
Patia J. McGrath, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
This teaching innovation is an experiential role play activity centered on a hypothetical case pertaining to corporate strategy. It is designed to advance student understanding of two major, interconnected corporate strategy topics – divestiture and strategy execution – through application and engagement with strategy-as-practice (SAP) thinking. This innovation is anchored in a fun, unexpected, and relatable twist that makes the exercise and its learnings powerful and memorable.
The activity surprises students with a hypothetical divestiture by a familiar organization – the divestiture of the business school from their own university. In teams, students represent the interests of different stakeholder groups to identify the opportunities and challenges catalyzed by the divestiture, and then they formulate recommendations for its implementation that they present to the university board.
This activity is appropriate for both in-person and online formats and is designed for class sizes of ~25–65 students at the MBA, EMBA, or advanced undergraduate level.
You find the content here.
Strategy Without Lyrics: A critical-pedagogical method for SAP Education
Mazi Raz (Ivey Business School, Western University) and Krista Pettit (Ivey Business School, Western University)
Strategy Without Lyrics (SWL) is a pedagogical method that turns live strategy deliberation into the focus of learning. The objective is for learners to experience strategizing as a social accomplishment through four modes of practice—discursive, interactional, material, and identity work—developing embodied sensitivity to recognize how these practices emerge and shape strategic outcomes in real time. The format withholds the usual classroom scaffolds (agenda, prompts, hand-raising, instructor's moderating role) so learners must negotiate the interaction order, then inserts a brief attuning pause to surface what shaped the discussion and why it mattered. We call it "strategy without lyrics" because the rational analysis frameworks that typically dominate strategy teaching are stripped away, leaving the strategic music audible: reframing through metaphors, argumentative tactics, interruptions, artifacts as props, and embodied gestures that signal stance. The method adapts to case studies, simulations, role-plays, and consulting projects within strategy, leadership, or executive education programs, particularly when addressing decision-making under ambiguity. It unfolds in 60–120 minutes, with ~40 participants, in person or virtual.
You find the content here.
Strategizing with an Open Approach
Martha Eugenia Reyes-Sarmiento (Universidad EAFIT) and María Andrea De Villa (Universidad EAFIT)
The teaching material, "Strategizing with an Open Approach," is designed to immerse students in the complexities and challenges of open strategizing. Its primary objective is for MBA students enrolled in a Strategy Course to conduct a strategic analysis of an organization, identify its most prominent strategic challenge, and propose a solution. The material's format is a hands-on, six-step team project requiring approximately 24 class hours plus external teamwork. Students apply established analytical tools, such as PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces, and VRIO, and are specifically encouraged to critically use AI tools for analysis. This approach exposes students to the core dimensions of open strategy—transparency and inclusion—allowing them to experience its benefits and inherent dilemmas. Recommended use contexts include organizational sites in face-to-face or virtual classrooms, and the project is scalable for other masters and executive education programs.
You find the content here.