From Knowing to Doing: How Business Simulations Close the Execution Gap

“Top-performing graduates know what to do - but too often, they fail to do it.”

That’s the challenge highlighted in a recent Times Higher Education article by José Ignacio Sordo Galarza: while top business students excel at analytical thinking, many struggle to turn ideas into action. They master theory, models, and frameworks - yet struggle to make decisions when faced with real-world complexity, extensive data, and time pressure.

The Missing Skill: Execution

According to the article, today’s graduates are experts in strategic thinking but lack strategic doing. They can design the perfect plan, but when ambiguity strikes — when a choice must be made with limited time and imperfect information — hesitation replaces leadership. The author calls this the “strategic execution gap”: the space between knowing what to do and actually doing it.

Closing this gap requires a fundamental shift in how we teach business. Instead of rewarding flawless theoretical answers, we need to cultivate decision-making, resilience, and accountability. The very skills that drive performance in the real world.

Why Education Must Evolve

For decades, higher education has celebrated intellectual mastery - training students to analyse, critique, and plan. Yet the modern workplace rewards something different: the ability to decide, adapt, and execute amid uncertainty. Traditional teaching often isolates knowledge from experience, producing graduates who are conceptually strong but operationally hesitant.

This is why education must shift from knowing to doing.

Many institutions are addressing this by embracing more experiential approaches such as project-based learning, live industry collaborations, and business simulations. Among these, simulations offer a unique advantage: they are both highly scalable and widely accessible. Universities can use them across courses, disciplines, and class sizes without the logistical challenges of arranging live projects or external placements.

How RealGame Business Simulations Bridge the Gap

This is precisely where RealGame business simulations aim to make a difference.

RealGame turns theory into action by placing students inside dynamic, realistic business environments where every decision has consequences. Learners must plan, act, and adapt, just as managers do in real companies.

Here’s how RealGame brings execution to life:

• Decisions under pressure: Students make cross-functional business decisions in real time, balancing operations, finance, and strategy. There’s no perfect information - only smart judgment, analysis, and teamwork.

• Accountability and iteration: Each team owns its results. They must analyse outcomes, adjust strategies, and try again. Success comes not from perfection, but from progress and learning.

• From strategy to measurable outcomes: Just like the OGSM framework described in the article (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Measures), RealGame builds a clear line between strategic intent and performance results. Students see how leadership, communication, and prioritisation drive tangible outcomes.

• Learning by doing: Instead of analysing case studies, participants live the case. They experience the tension of limited time, conflicting goals, and resource trade-offs - the true environment of execution.

Building Leaders Who Act

In RealGame sessions, students often experience the same revelation as Victoria, the student from the article who discovered that perfect thinking doesn’t guarantee progress. By taking ownership and acting under pressure, learners discover that leadership is not about knowing all the answers. It’s about making things happen.

This is why universities and business schools around the world are integrating RealGame simulations into their curricula. They see that execution is not taught — it’s practiced.

Turning the Classroom into a Lab for Action

The Times Higher Education article concludes with a call to turn the classroom “from a seminar into a scrimmage.”

That’s exactly what RealGame does: it transforms learning into a safe, data-driven, and engaging environment for practice, where students build the confidence and muscle memory to execute, not just analyse.

Because in today’s world, the best graduates aren’t the ones who can explain strategy.

They’re the ones who can make it happen.