How Armanino develops leaders by putting them inside its own strategy.

Great case studies that had stopped feeling current

Armanino's top partners liked their Harvard Business Review cases. The problem was that everything around them had moved on. The firm develops leaders across tax, audit, operations, and consulting, and the cases had started to feel like reruns, disconnected from the work these leaders actually face.

Our top partners love Harvard Business Review. The issue was the repetitiveness. The cases felt dated, not really applicable to the current state of the industry.Ann Marie Gordon, Lead Facilitator, Armanino

Two things in particular were missing: AI, which Armanino was moving to the front of its business, and the firm's own direction. Around the same time, Armanino launched Vision 2030, a firm-wide strategy built on AI readiness, client experience, innovation, and the long-term fundamentals of the business. Leadership development needed to reflect that, not sit beside it.

A simulation built around the firm's own strategy

Instead of another off-the-shelf case, Capsim built Armanino a custom business simulation with Vision 2030 embedded directly into it. The firm's real priorities became the terrain leaders had to navigate, so people learned the strategy by living inside it.

Armanino's Vision 2030 strategy

• AI readiness
• Client experience
• Innovation
• Long-term fundamentals

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One custom simulation, built around Vision 2030, not accounting

If you're looking for a package deal that you can customize, you should definitely contact Capsim. It is not a one-size-fits-all.Ann Marie Gordon, Lead Facilitator, Armanino

Set outside accounting, on purpose

The simulation deliberately wasn't set in accounting. That was the point. Armanino's leaders each go deep in one area, and the step up asks them to see the whole business instead of their corner of it. Dropping them into an unfamiliar industry forced exactly that shift.

Some work in tax, some in audit, some in operations, some in consulting. When they go to the higher level, they can't just think of their little specialty. They have to have a bird's-eye view of everything.Ann Marie Gordon, Lead Facilitator, Armanino

A tough crowd, won over

This cohort had already spent two years in the program, and they walked in skeptical. Another two and a half days of work, solving problems in an industry that wasn't even theirs, was a hard sell at the start.

The reception we got was a little cold. In the end, they realized: oh my God, this had a lot of value.Ann Marie Gordon, Lead Facilitator, Armanino

What turned it was the partnership behind the scenes. Armanino's L&D team ran the logistics and the compliance while Capsim carried the build, so the program felt effortless to the people delivering it.

None of it seemed like a lot, because Matt and his team did such an amazing job at holding all of the pieces.Ann Marie Gordon, Lead Facilitator, Armanino

That included a requirement most vendors never touch. Accounting leaders earn continuing-education credit for programs like this, so the capstone had to be NASBA-certified for CPE. Capsim handled the certification alongside the build.

You made things super easy on us, especially on the CPE compliance side. Any questions I had, you addressed very quickly, and we had everything certified before the program.Jessica, Training Program Specialist, Armanino

Now the signature experience, and back again in 2026

The capstone became the high point of Armanino's Advanced Leadership program, the experience that tied the whole journey together, and Vision 2030 is now part of how the firm develops its people. Armanino has committed to running it again in 2026, reaching its leaders earlier this time.

For a program that opened to a skeptical, been-there-done-that cohort, running it back is the clearest verdict there is.