Strike it Rich!™ 1-10 team | Conference Activity

• How to assess risk
• Handling complex data
• Assessing return on investment
• Lateral thinking skills
• Attention to detail
• Calculating costs and profits
• Business acumen

1-4 team and 1-26 team versions also available 

Teams are trying to locate a precious mineral – rubinium. They have a map and some geological data, but a lot of information has been lost and teams must piece together the few clues that exist.

If all else fails they can purchase answers, but this adds to their investment cost and can lower their rate of return!

Having located the reserves of rubinium teams must pick a plot of land, bid for it at auction and if successful, establish a mine. The cost of the plot along with the cost of establishing a mine represents their investment in the project, so they must be careful not to overbid at this stage!

Once they have secured their plot and mine, teams calculate all costs and work out the return on their investment for Year 1. This depends on a number of factors – how much rubinium they can extract – not all the reserves are easy to get at, the extraction and transportation costs, the risk of natural events such as flooding and earthquakes and the price they can get for their rubinium.

It's a risky business! To succeed teams must demonstrate clear thinking, a bit of creativity, accurate calculations and efficient teamwork. Are your teams up for the challenge?!

1. Introduce the activity.
2. Divide the group into teams and issue each team with a copy of the Team Folder. The folders have all the details teams need including a map of the area.
3. Teams have 70 minutes to study the folder, and plan a strategy. During this time, they may come to you to request answers to the clues. Use the Trainer’s reference Form to keep track of their requests and give answers (if necessary). The amounts they spend are added later to their overall investment.
4. After 70 minutes there is an auction at which plots of land are sold. There is a minimum reserve price for each plot, but no maximum. There are 26 plots that have reserves of rubinium. Hopefully teams will have worked this out and will not bid for plots without the mineral!
5. Hold the auction and continue until each team has obtained a single plot and note the price each plot was sold for.
6. When the auction is over, teams work out their profits and returns.
7. After 10-15 minutes call a halt and ask each team to read out their return on investment. List these on a flipchart or whiteboard. Announce the winner.
8. Lead a debrief referring to guidance supplied to discuss how teams approached the task including whether they were able to get to the nub of the issue, identify the key 'levers' and use their knowledge to make rational decisions.

Full guidance supplied in the Trainer’s Notes.

• Trainer's Notes
• Team Folders
• Maps
• Computer Program
• Trainer's PowerPoint
• Trainer's Record
• Helpful Information
• Breaking News Memo

This activity is for face-to-face classroom use. It is supplied as a hard copy pack and the digital files are supplied via the Northgate Trainerhub.

This Northgate Training activity comes with a five-year licence for repeat use with up to 60 participants at a time, for use by Trainers based at one licence-holding site.

All Trainers physically based at the same office location can access the Northgate resources during the five-year term, including the digital resources supplied on the Trainerhub via your own site-specific Trainer Dashboard. If you have Trainers based at other locations, and/or remote workers, who would like to access and use the Northgate resources, we can advise further depending on your requirements.

For further information on our licence terms please view the Northgate Licence Agreement.