Case studies

Real organisations. Real decisions. Real pressure.

From corporate crisis management and emergency response to diplomacy and national security, Capital Shield designs simulations around the decisions organisations may one day have to make for real. Every exercise below runs in Foresight.
Request a briefing
Back to home
Filter by sector

9 exercises

  1. Corporate crisis management

    Delivered

    Exercise Avian Shield

    An outbreak that tests the whole business.

    Client
    A major Australian poultry producer
    Format
    Half-day senior leadership exercise

    An avian influenza outbreak forced the leadership team to balance containment, mass culls, business continuity and a Board demanding answers while media scrutiny built. Foresight recreated the information pressure; leaders reassessed priorities, coordinated the response and briefed the Board.

    • Executive crisis decision-making
    • Business continuity
    • Escalation and governance
    • Crisis communications
    • Organisational coordination
    • Decision-making under uncertainty
    Inside Avian Shield

  2. Strategic wargaming

    Partnership

    Exercise Ernstfall

    Strategic questions turned into decisions that can be tested.

    Client
    German Wargaming Center, Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Bundeswehr Hamburg
    Format
    Flagship exercise under a research collaboration

    Political signals, media reporting, public pressure and adversary behaviour were built into a strategic simulation, including a persistent AI nation-state adversary developed jointly with the Center. The collaboration continues under a memorandum of understanding.

    • Strategic decision-making
    • Crisis escalation
    • AI adversaries
    • Decision analytics
    Inside Ernstfall

  3. Whole-of-government coordination

    Delivered

    Exercise Datum

    A submarine misses a check-in. Within hours the country is watching.

    Client
    A national security agency
    Format
    One-day simulation, 60 participants

    An unexplained fault, speculation about a radiation leak and public panic converged. Agencies coordinated a whole-of-government response under media and alliance scrutiny, with exercise control escalating as participants decided. The course received a Hindsight debrief and a reusable scenario.

    • Whole-of-government coordination
    • Public communications
    • Alliance management
    • Escalation
    Inside Datum

  4. Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief

    Ready to run

    Exercise Dawn Wave

    A regional disaster. A response across borders.

    Format
    Multi-rotation exercise for emerging diplomatic leaders

    Participants represent governments, agencies and other stakeholders responding to a catastrophic regional tsunami. As the humanitarian situation deteriorates and aftershocks create new emergencies, they negotiate with one another, develop policy responses and coordinate assistance under severe time pressure.

    • Crisis diplomacy
    • Humanitarian coordination
    • Multilateral negotiation
    • Cross-cultural collaboration
    • Strategic communication
    • Decision-making under uncertainty
    Inside Dawn Wave

  5. National security education

    Delivered

    Exercise Hard Shell

    A regional order breaks down. A government must decide how to respond.

    Client
    A leading Australian university
    Format
    Two-week undergraduate course simulation, 200 students

    Law and order collapsed in a small island state amid ethnic tension and external competition. Students briefed decision-makers and negotiated a regional response as the situation moved. 97% said it was one of the best educational experiences they had had at university.

    • Crisis diplomacy
    • Whole-of-government coordination
    • Briefing under pressure
    • Negotiation
    Inside Hard Shell

  6. Intelligence collection and analysis

    Delivered

    Honeypots and Overcoats

    Four crises converge on the national intelligence community.

    Client
    Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University
    Format
    One-day simulation closing a week-long intensive, 25 students

    A tsunami in northern Papua New Guinea, an ISIL plot to assassinate an Australian politician and a cyber attack on critical infrastructure arrived together. Students in ANU's Mastering Honeypots and Overcoats course played the national intelligence community through five days of crisis in one, each agency holding only part of the picture, while allies, neighbours and AI role-players pressed them for decisions.

    • Intelligence triage
    • Disinformation analysis
    • Lawful response
    • Cross-agency coordination
    Inside Honeypots and Overcoats

  7. Wildfire readiness

    Ready to run

    Exercise Red Horizon

    The season has not started. The fire has.

    Format
    Full-day incident management team exercise

    Changing fire behaviour, resource constraints, community impacts and stakeholder pressure test an incident management team before peak season. The team makes decisions, communicates them and deals with what happens next.

    • Incident management
    • Situational awareness
    • Resource prioritisation
    • Inter-agency coordination
    • Information management
    • Decision-making under pressure
    Inside Red Horizon

  8. Whole-of-government national security

    Ready to run

    Exercise Pacific Breakpoint

    Australia must decide how, and whether, to intervene.

    Format
    Whole-of-government scenario in escalating phases

    A breakdown of law and order in the fictional Pacific island nation of Tribagi puts Australian citizens and interests at risk. The local government asks for help, foreign naval forces move into the region, and an internal security crisis becomes a geopolitical confrontation.

    • Whole-of-government coordination
    • Strategic crisis management
    • Intervention planning
    • Crisis diplomacy
    • Alliance management
    • Media and public communications
    Inside Pacific Breakpoint

  9. Financial services operational resilience

    Delivered

    Exercise Counterparty

    One critical dependency fails. Then another.

    Client
    A professional association of chiefs of staff
    Format
    Demonstration exercise, about 15 participants

    A severe-but-plausible disruption asked one question: can the organisation keep its critical operations running? Leaders decided which operations to protect, when to escalate, how contingency arrangements were activated and how to communicate as uncertainty grew.

    • Business continuity
    • Critical operations
    • Third-party dependencies
    • Executive decision-making
    • Escalation pathways
    • Stakeholder communications
    Inside Counterparty

Request a briefing

Which decisions does your team need to practise?

Every scenario here can be adapted to your organisation, or we can build one around the situation you are most concerned about.

Request a briefing