How do you justify the ROI of an operational simulation compared with a theoretical audit?

The return on investment of an operational simulation is measured by the coordination failures and critical costs it prevents in a real situation. By experiencing decision-making stress first-hand, your teams embed behavioural reflexes that no reading of procedures can create. The exercise immediately reveals human breaking points and bottlenecks before a real crisis paralyses your operations.

Does this high-stakes format suit private companies and people who don't like games?

The crisis-room setting neutralises corporate reflexes and puts every participant on an equal operational footing in the face of the unexpected. Stepping outside their usual professional frame, even the managers most reluctant to play take on their role in the crisis unit straight away. The urgency and realism of the injects mobilise collective intelligence without requiring any prior gaming culture.

How do you run this training for 50 to 500 decision-makers at once without losing intensity?

Arcane's interactive digital platform synchronises dozens of autonomous crisis units simultaneously at your convention venue. Unlike handcrafted approaches limited to a small committee of twenty people, our engineering guarantees an equally intense experience for several hundred decision-makers. The format aligns your entire management line or regional leadership in just two hours.

How does this simulation connect to our organisation's real protocols?

While the simulation primarily tests soft skills and clear thinking, bespoke embedding modules link the exercise back to your internal procedures. A closing application quiz compares the decisions played out with your own emergency plans, while an impact report documents the strengths and vulnerabilities observed. This methodological bridge is the ideal preparation for an in-depth governance programme.

Simulation

Corporate crisis communication simulation

Crisis Protocol “Shockwave”

icon quill pen fill — An immersive cyber and media crisis management simulation

icon users — From 15 to 500 decision-makers at once (split into crisis units of 3 to 5 people)

icon equalizer — Table-top delivery anywhere via a digital platform (one computer per team, BYOD, or a fleet of preconfigured laptops/tablets available to hire)

icon backward — France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg (from our Paris and Lausanne offices)

icon time — 1 hour of intensive exercise (1.5 to 2 hours including briefing and alignment debrief)

icon supervision — 2 professional actor-facilitators playing journalists and regulators (+1 facilitator per 50 participants)

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Simulation de communication de crise et cyberattaque en entreprise Protocole Crise Arcane

The scenario: surviving the cyber and media storm

A major financial transaction is about to close with your shareholders. It’s the strategic deal of the year. But this morning, a ransomware attack takes down your servers and brings production to a halt. The clock is ticking before operational losses become irreversible.

While your crisis unit gets organised internally, the technical incident turns into a public scandal: a well-known tech journalist lights the fuse on social media, confidential data appears on a leak site, and rolling news desks jam the switchboard. In the confusion, fraudsters try to slip into your banking channels to divert the funds of the deal in progress.

Each participant is given a concrete operational role within their unit (executive management, IT, finance, legal, communications). As professional actors burst in between the tables as relentless reporters or bogus negotiators, your managers must channel collective emotion, keep their incident log and protect the organisation’s reputation under pressure.

Collective intelligence & skills under extreme pressure

This crisis serious game puts your teams at the heart of experiential learning to test how solid their management reflexes really are :

Strict holding statement discipline: Lock down public communication to stop improvised denials, internal leaks and the risk of a Streisand effect

360° cross-functional synchronisation: Align technical investigation constraints, regulatory notification duties and media transparency strategy in real time.

Alertness to social engineering: Foil extortion attempts, fake intermediaries and financial fraud that exploit a stunned team.

A spokesperson’s composure in front of the media: Build the emotional control needed to face microphones, trick questions and viral rumours without flinching.

How the exercise runs

The simulation unfolds in four waves of tension, driven by streams of digital injects, timed decisions and live interventions from actors.

01

Phase 1 — The trap of silence and uncertainty

The technical incident breaks and threatens business continuity. Crisis units form, gauge the scale of the failure and face their first communication dilemma: speak out immediately without full visibility and risk a misstep, or wait and let the silence fill with rumour?

02

Phase 2 — Digital frenzy and the extortion threat

The attack is revealed online and public outrage follows. The hackers threaten to release strategic data while booby-trapped emails slip into the payment chain. Each unit must qualify the threat, verify its sources and decide against the clock.

03

Phase 3 — Media storm & live happenings in the room

The crisis reaches a new level of exposure: professional actors playing investigative journalists burst in between the tables to corner your leaders and extract a live admission. Teams must give factual answers without breaching commercial confidentiality or fuelling the controversy.

04

Phase 4 — The moment of truth & press conference

The real impact of the data leak comes to light. Teams must own their responsibilities publicly, build watertight key messages and rebuild stakeholder trust at a closing press conference.

05

Alignment debrief — From scenario to reputation protection

The session closes with an immediate review of statements made, how well key messages held, and the alignment gaps observed. Our experts show that a crisis can't be improvised: without a shared method and regular immersive training, a brand's reputation can be destroyed in seconds.

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From a one-off crash test to a full management programme

The simulation Crisis Protocol: Shockwave fits in as an experiential module within our flagship programme Deciding under uncertainty. To extend the operational impact of the exercise, several specialist workshops can be added to the session :

Media training & key messages workshops: Targeted on-camera practice where your spokespeople and executives are grilled by a relentless journalist played by a professional actor, to sharpen their messaging under pressure.
The protocol reinforcement quiz: A post-session exercise comparing the decisions taken in play with your organisation’s real procedures (press approval chains, business continuity plans, GDPR compliance, payment protocols).
The management impact report: An assessment report for executive management, mapping the leadership team’s resilience, communication vulnerabilities and cross-functional cohesion under stress.
The neuroscience masterclass: A session with an expert decoding the cognitive mechanics of collective panic, loss of perspective under pressure, and the keys to leadership in hostile environments.

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Delivery & budget

The simulation is a ready-to-play solution delivered at your offsite venue, on your company premises or within your public-sector organisation.

Starting price: From €4,200 excl. VAT (CHF 4,200.-) for a standard session with up to 30 participants.
Always included: Full scenario, collaborative software platform, exercise materials, facilitation by two professional actor-facilitators and project management.
Equipment required & options: The exercise runs on BYOD (one connected computer per team of 3 to 5 participants, provided by you). A fleet of preconfigured laptops or tablets is available to hire.
European mobility: Our teams travel to your site from our offices in Paris and Lausanne, anywhere in France, in French-speaking Switzerland (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, Fribourg, Valais), in Belgium (Brussels, Liège) and in Luxembourg.
Tailored scaling: Sizing for large gatherings (up to 500 decision-makers at once), additional actors, impact report or on-camera media training workshops.

Build the exercise around your critical risks

What if we simulated the crisis you fear most? Viral reputation crisis, environmental incident, cyberattack with theft of strategic data, controversy around a senior leader or product failure: we build your bespoke crisis simulation by adapting the storyline, the media channels and the dilemmas to your own governance realities, in the private sector as well as in public administration.

Frequently asked questions from executive teams and public-sector leaders

How does this simulation differ from traditional media training?

Unlike classic media training, where questions and answers are rehearsed passively behind closed doors, the simulation puts your managers in the real stress of a live crisis. Your teams physically experience the cognitive destabilisation of facing microphones, viral rumours and countdowns. This crash test under pressure builds behavioural reflexes and a cohesion in action that theoretical workshops simply can’t deliver.

Why involve the whole leadership team rather than just the communications people?

The exercise isn’t a simple reputation test but a systemic simulation that confronts the leadership team with the technical, legal, financial and media impacts of an attack. A cyberattack paralyses production and threatens cash flow long before it hits the press. Bringing the whole leadership team together breaks down silos and lets them experience the vital synchronisation between operational experts and spokespeople.

How do you keep 50 to 500 people immersed in a plenary setting?

Our software and our theatrical facilitation synchronise up to 300 or 500 decision-makers at once without diluting the intensity of the exercise. Unlike the handcrafted approach of consultancies limited to twenty people around a table, our platform runs dozens of crisis units in parallel. Every unit receives the same digital injects, investigative calls and decision points, guaranteeing consistent skill-building at scale.

Is the scenario credible against today's cyber and media threats?

The simulation faithfully reproduces the extortion chain of recent ransomware attacks, combining dark web leaks, financial fraud attempts and media pressure. Professional actors bursting in as relentless reporters or bogus negotiators place your teams right in the arena. This immersive realism tests resistance to social engineering attacks and embeds holding statement discipline.

Related resources & client case studies

Proof it works at scale: Explore the crisis management serious game run for 300 Mousquetaires managers.
Design & learning: Browse our full range of strategic decision-making training.

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