How Senior Energy Leaders in the Middle East Developed Future-Ready Leadership Through the DNA Business Simulation

The energy sector in the Middle East is undergoing profound transformation. As organisations balance energy security, decarbonisation, digitalisation, and long-term diversification, senior leaders are required to make decisions that shape not only performance today, but organisational readiness for decades to come.

To strengthen future-ready leadership capabilities, an energy organisation in the Middle East partnered with AEQLIA and an executive education partner to integrate the DNA Business Simulation into a senior-leader development programme. The objective was to help leaders experience the complexity of leading transformation in the energy sector through realistic, system-level decision-making.

The Leadership Context

Senior leaders participating in the programme were operating in a landscape defined by:

• Large-scale transformation initiatives across traditional and new energy domains

• Increasing focus on sustainability, transition, and long-term resilience

• Rapid adoption of digital and advanced technologies

• Complex stakeholder and regulatory environments

• The need to build leadership depth and organisational capability for the future

While transformation strategies were in place, leaders needed an opportunity to reflect on how leadership decisions influence long-term organisational readiness.

The DNA Business Simulation

At the core of the programme was the DNA Business Simulation, an immersive experience designed to mirror the realities of leading future-ready organisations in complex, capital-intensive sectors.

Participants stepped into senior leadership roles and navigated multiple waves of change over time. Within the simulation, leaders were required to:

• Make strategic and organisational decisions under uncertainty

• Balance short-term performance with long-term capability and resilience

• Navigate trade-offs across people, structure, culture, and technology

• Lead transformation while maintaining operational stability

• Understand the cumulative impact of leadership choices over time

The simulation was delivered in partnership with an executive education provider and embedded within a broader leadership development journey.

What Leaders Experienced

The DNA simulation shifted learning from conceptual discussion to leadership in action.

Senior leaders experienced:

• How transformation unfolds over time, not in isolated initiatives

• The interdependencies between strategy, culture, and execution

• The tension between operational excellence and future investment

• The importance of aligned leadership during periods of transition

Because the experience reflected real energy-sector dynamics, the insights were both credible and immediately relevant.

The Impact

The programme generated strong engagement and meaningful reflection among participants.

Leaders reported:

• Greater clarity on the capabilities required for future-ready leadership in energy

• Increased confidence in leading complex, long-term transformation

• Stronger systems thinking and strategic judgement

• A shared language for discussing readiness, resilience, and change

The shared simulation experience also strengthened alignment across the senior leadership group.

From Energy Transition to Organisational Readiness

By integrating the DNA Business Simulation into a senior-leader development programme, the organisation enabled leaders to build future-ready leadership capabilities through experience, not theory.

The programme reinforced a critical insight: in the energy sector, future readiness depends as much on leadership capability and organisational design as it does on technology and assets.