By Natasha Khan
PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- The maker of Candyland, Monopoly and Scrabble has a new board game on its hands.
But it is only for a select group of Hasbro employees.
"Toy Tycoon" is a role-playing strategy game for up-and-coming leaders. Promising managers inside Hasbro chosen to play the game become CEOs for the day, facing decisions like whether to push into electronic games or go all-in on plush toys.
Is that Marvel or Pokémon license worth it? How about that star hire? How much product should they produce? Did they hit the plan communicated to Wall Street?
"I think the job of a CEO is very similar to a grand strategy game," said Hasbro Chief Executive Chris Cocks.
A Dungeons & Dragons fan, Cocks brought the idea of "Toy Tycoon" to Hasbro from Microsoft, where he played a similar simulation game.
"Moving pieces on a complex game board has a lot of dynamism around it," he said. "I've always thought about business that way, and that's partially why I like it."
Promising managers at Hasbro play at the company's Pawtucket headquarters, after a two-day crash course in business and the toy industry taught by Cocks, Chief Financial Officer Gina Goetter and Chief People Officer Holly Barbacovi.
The game takes a full day. Under the direction of a game master, players confront a series of scenarios testing their managerial mettle. Every round corresponds to a year. The game heats up as each round goes by.
Recently Kate Fakonas, a senior director of product design for Play-Doh and Nerf products, and Stephanie Buscher, vice president of supply planning, took part as co-CEOs competing against other teams.
The two had never met before pairing up. Their assignment: building and dominating toy markets armed with two brands, Super Soaker and My Little Pony. Their rivals were three other pairs of colleagues.
The contestants sat around a table at the "University of Play" conference room at Hasbro's offices in a converted brick mill building.
In the center was a giant board with the categories -- toy segments such as dolls and collectibles, plush and interactive, action figures and play sets -- while each pair of "CEOs" had in front of them their cards and a phone with only the game loaded so contestants could check their progress.
As soon as Fakonas and Buscher sat down, they had to make a frenzy of decisions, including how much product to order and money to earmark for innovation -- as well as profit, dividends and sales to promise investors.
"It struck me immediately how fast it pulls you into a very real-feeling environment," Fakonas said.
Sharp increases in freight costs caused skyrocketing expenses. Then dwindling demand for legacy categories required each player to enter a new category. If a player chooses wrongly, all market share could be lost.
Meanwhile, players also battle each other to secure star talent and license hot brands. Often, they egg each other on, cheer and raise their hands in celebration or disappointment.
The goal of the game is to help the player executives think through how to manage their company's cash, time and other resources -- and pivoting when the most thoughtful plans are torpedoed.
Players aim to build a brand, scale a business and smartly apply market research. Milestones include hiring the best talent, controlling inventory and dominating a category.
Over the course of the game, a market leader emerges. Players are rewarded with perks for ascending to "category captain" because their product gains the most share of, say, the plush sector.
Players can lose all their market share in one year, however, though they can claw back if they make a shrewd investment and it pays off.
"It gave me a much broader perspective of what it takes to run a business," Fakonas said.
Also a benefit: Players can observe their own management style. What is their appetite for risk? Should one give a lowball forecast to investors only to over deliver later, or be ambitious and do everything possible to stick to the promised goal?
Fakonas and Buscher ended up winning after five rounds, beating out rival teams by having what the game master calculated was the highest market capitalization.
"We had to balance being responsive to the market without being too reactive to it," Buscher said.
She said she went back to curious colleagues with a broadened view of how the business is run.
But she has tried not to reveal too much about the game to anyone who might play in the future to preserve the element of surprise.
Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 01, 2026 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments