Double success for Business on the Move at Logistics Leaders’ 15th Anniversary Awards!

After Covid lockdowns and changes at the top, Business on the Move is certainly very much back in top gear and moving ahead fast!

The Humanitarian Edition of the Business on the Move board game – the fifth release since 2014 – is a shining example of what can be achieved through cross-sectoral collaboration. This edition emerged from the combined expertise of HELP Logistics, and The Very Enterprising CIC, blending insights from the humanitarian sector with innovative gamification techniques rooted in global logistics. The end result – after 2 years in development and a further 2 years being rolled out – is a groundbreaking tool that allows professionals to experience the real-world pressures of humanitarian logistics in a way that is both educational and exciting.

HELP Logistics, a leader in the field of humanitarian supply chains capacity strengthening and technical assistance, brought vital expertise to the table. Their deep understanding of the urgent, unpredictable, and, more recently, the sustainability-focused nature of humanitarian operations helped shape the game’s mechanics, ensuring that it mirrors the complexities of real-life humanitarian work. On the other side, Business on the Move, known as a successful logistics education game, provided the gamification framework, elevating logistical lessons into a highly engaging format. This unique partnership transformed abstract supply chain concepts into practical, immersive experiences.

In the words of Susan Hodgson, SCI Head of Humanitarian Supply Change at Save the Children:

The game engages our teams and clients to reveal some of the real-life dilemmas in organising supply to the field, based on programme budgets and within time and cost constraints.

The global reach of the Humanitarian Edition has been nothing short of remarkable. The game has already been played in over 13 countries across the world, from Mexico to Thailand, from Germany to Ghana. HELP Logistics has distributed game boxes to 25 different organizations across the globe, ensuring that the game has a broad impact. Moreover, 9 of these boxes were delivered with specialized training sessions, allowing participants to dive deeper into the intricacies of humanitarian logistics with expert guidance. Whether it’s being played in the heart of Europe or in far-reaching locations like Bhutan and Senegal, the game’s lessons resonate, showing that the challenges of humanitarian logistics know no borders.

The partnership between HELP Logistics and Business on the Move is testimony to the power of collaboration between different sectors. By blending HELP Logistics’ humanitarian experience with Business on the Move’s innovative approach to education, this partnership has created a tool that goes beyond traditional learning methods. This game isn’t just being used in classrooms or training centres; it’s actively shaping how humanitarian organizations around the world think about supply chains and logistics.

It is this shared desire to create enjoyable, exciting and yet authentic learning experiences that continues to underpin the partnership between Business on the Move and HELP Logistics.

Indeed such has been success of their collaboration that we are proud to announce that Business on the Move and HELP Logistics made the shortlist for the ‘Partnership of the Year 2024’ Award by the Logistics Leaders’ Network.

Andy Page, the co-creator of Business on the Move, explains:

I’d like to thank HELP Logistics – and their Middle East Co-ordinator Alia Gharaibeh in particular – for taking me on a learning journey that, not only survived the trials and tribulations of lockdown, but also gave me such a powerful insight into how humanitarian logistics works. The Humanitarian Edition is a celebration of the intrinsic versatility of Business on the Move and, more importantly, of what can be achieved by effective partnership.

Click here to see a short video clip about The Humanitarian Edition

There was a big surprise in store for Andy himself at the Logistics Leaders’ Awards Gala Dinner, held on October 23, 2024, at the St John’s Hotel in Solihull but a surprise with its roots in the early 1970s.

The concept of Business on the Move was based on Andy’s experience of fostering partnerships between schools and industry for over 40 years, initially teaching and fostering partnerships between schools and industry for over 50 years, initially teaching Business Studies, Careers and Economics to 11-18 year olds.

He went on in 1989 to become an Advisory Teacher for what was then Cheshire County Council and subsequently managed two Education Business Partnerships in the area until 2011.

A constant during that teaching and training career was –and remains – his passion for working with actual businesses to create real contexts for learning for his learners of all ages. Authentic learning experiences not only enable younger people to relate their classroom learning to the ‘real world’, that relevance reinforces learning and serves to motivate learners to want to learn more.

Moreover, featuring real businesses as an integral part of the game board of Business on the Move generated the perfect business model – businesses sponsor the game and thereby make playing the game more real to young learners, while the sponsorship covers the production costs of the games that are then donated to schools nominated by the sponsors.

This reciprocity has since sustained 5 different editions of Business on the Move with the next release by the CIC – due for launch in 2025 – the most topical yet’, the ‘Net Zero’ Edition.

The Logistics Leaders’ Network surprised Andy at their Awards Gala Dinner with their prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his enduring commitment to, and belief in, the power of partnership between education and the logistics industry to deliver mutual benefits for their young people and their organisations.

Peter Acton, Chairman of the Logistics’ Leaders Network, commented at the Gala Dinner:

Andy Page is a worthy winner of the Logistics Leaders Network’s Special Lifetime Achievement Award by creating and developing different versions of Business on the Move; a simple fun way to play a ‘board game’ of moving freight globally which is being used today by school children, young graduates and senior managers to understand the complexities and realities of managing global supply chains.

If you want to learn more about our ‘Net Zero’ Edition, planned for launch in the summer of 2025, please contact Lesley Broadwood at Lesley@businessonthemove.org