Case study

Revolutionizing executive assessments: how TENEA built the first trustworthy flight simulator for C-level

Kumara01-50

The project at a glance

What if executive leadership potential could be measured through actual real-world decisions?

Predicting executive success is one of the toughest challenges in hiring and leadership development. Traditional assessments rely on self-reported answers and artificial role-play, failing to capture how leaders perform under real-world pressures.

To change this, TEN Executive Assessments (TENEA) partnered with us to create The Kumara Challenge—a groundbreaking, simulation-based leadership assessment. Over three hours, C-level candidates step into the role of a CEO, navigating complex dilemmas, building relationships, and making high-stakes decisions in an immersive experience that blends digital and real-world interactions.

By capturing real behavior in a high-pressure corporate setting, The Kumara Challenge translates behavioral data into objective, actionable insights, helping organizations assess leadership effectiveness, decision-making, and strategic thinking with unmatched depth and accuracy.

Want to learn more about what game-based assessments can do for your organization?

Talk to our experts

Our process: from challenge to solution

Understanding why traditional executive assessments fall short

Predicting leadership success at the C-suite and board level is no easy task. Strong interview performances don’t always translate to real-world effectiveness, and when the pressure is on, even top candidates can falter. Additionally, traditional assessment methods weren’t delivering:

  • Self-reported questionnaires – Candidates often say what they think assessors want to hear, skewing results.
  • Role-play exercises – While immersive, they fail to generate the depth of behavioral data needed for accurate evaluations.
  • Existing game-like tools – Many lack the scientific foundation required for serious executive assessment.

TENEA needed a solution that would go beyond surface-level assessments, capturing authentic leadership behavior in high-stakes, real-world scenarios—without bias. But they didn’t just want to assess leadership—they wanted to predict it.

So together, we set out to develop an immersive, data-driven assessment that would measure leadership in action—helping organizations identify true executive potential before the moment of decision arrives.

image57

Blending science and storytelling in a unique partnership

To build a next-generation leadership assessment, we worked closely with TENEA, combining behavioral science, game design, and immersive technology. Our goal was to create an experience that would move beyond traditional methods, capturing authentic executive behavior through simulated and immersive, real-world scenarios. 

We started by mapping key leadership traits and decision-making patterns, ensuring the assessment would measure what truly matters at the C-suite level. Through an iterative design process, we prototyped, tested, and refined game mechanics and scenarios to elicit genuine responses under pressure.

Scientific validation was very important to our approach. Every interaction was rigorously tested to ensure accuracy, fairness, and predictive value, ensuring the final assessment would not only be immersive but also a trusted tool for evaluating leadership potential.

This collaborative process laid the foundation for The Kumara Challenge.

Our solution: a game-gased assessment that accurately predicts executive impact

The Kumara Challenge is a next-generation leadership assessment where candidates step into the role of CEO of a fictional global enterprise. Over the course of three hours, they face high-stakes dilemmas, manage competing interests, and make strategic decisions—all within a mixed-reality environment that blends digital tools with real-world interactions. Every decision is tracked and analyzed, offering a data-rich, science-backed evaluation of leadership potential.

Some of the key features:

  • Immersive, real-world leadership simulation
    Over three hours, candidates step into the role of CEO of a fictional company, making high-stakes decisions in a dynamic, interactive environment. A mix of digital and real-world elements—including email, chat, websites, and live role-play—creates an assessment so realistic that participants forget they’re being evaluated.

  • Multi-dimensional executive scenarios
    From boardroom negotiations to crisis response and stakeholder management, candidates face realistic leadership dilemmas that test strategic thinking, adaptability, and decision-making under pressure.

  • 150+ data points for behavioral insights
    Every decision, interaction, and response is tracked and analyzed, providing a data-driven leadership profile that predicts real-world performance based on observable behavior, not self-reported answers.

  • Scientifically validated & bias-free
    Developed with occupational psychologists and neuroscientists, Kumara meets rigorous psychometric standards, ensuring fairness, accuracy, and predictive validity in leadership evaluation.

The impact

Uncovering executive leadership potential with real-world impact

The Kumara Challenge quietly surpassed expectations, offering TENEA deeper insights into leadership qualities than ever before. The experience allowed TENEA to observe how leaders operated in dynamic environments, measuring competencies that traditional methods often missed.

The result? A higher caliber of board-level candidates, better equipped to lead through uncertainty and drive meaningful change. The program marked a pivotal step in TENEA’s mission to elevate leadership quality.

Kumara's success also caught the industry's attention, earning recognition for excellence in interactive design and applied gaming:

  • Silver Dutch Interactive Award (New Interfaces), 2021

  • Nomination for Dutch Game Awards (Applied Games), 2021

DIA Award

Where we are now

LTP and TENEA join forces to scale Kumara's impact on boardroom assessment

TENEA’s success has led to its acquisition by LTP, a leading business psychology consultancy. This move marks a significant step toward modernizing boardroom assessments, combining TENEA’s innovative game-based approach with LTP’s scientific expertise. LTP plans to further develop the platform to deliver even sharper insights into executive leadership.

Logos of LTP business psychologen and TENEA executive services, displayed side by side with circular graphic elements surrounding each company name.

Services we provided:

  • Simulation design and development
  • Immersive storytelling and narrative creation, integrating TENEA's psychometric model
  • Rich media asset production
  • Full-cycle project management and deployment, LiveOps

Ready to build your own innovative, game-based assessment? Let’s bring your vision to life.

Talk to us