Why we teach merger stories before spreadsheet models

When strategy teams jump straight to numeric appendices, they often lose the plot on what decision-makers actually need to hear first. At Antitrust Forge, we sequence merger simulations so that each cohort articulates a plain-language storyline, identifies the competitive theories that matter, and only then layers on quantitative support that is explicitly tied to those theories.

This sequencing mirrors how many Korean enterprise committees actually read materials: they scan for narrative coherence before approving deeper analytical spend. Participants tell us the approach reduces thrash between legal, product, and communications stakeholders because everyone can point to the same paragraph-level claims.

We still use structured data exercises, but they arrive after teams have committed to which questions remain open. That ordering makes it obvious when additional data collection would be genuinely informative versus merely busywork.

Finally, the narrative-first cadence helps internal champions rehearse answers to skeptical questions without sounding evasive. Facilitators document recurring gaps so each cohort benefits from the last team’s learning, which keeps the curriculum grounded in operational reality rather than abstract theory alone.