SRS Distribution, Advantage win 2026 Brandon Hall Group Gold Award with ‘Profit Wars’

Fast-paced, game-based competition helps branch managers hone their business skills

A manager development initiative by SRS Distribution Inc. with Advantage Performance Group has earned a 2026 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Gold Award in Learning Development for Best Use of Games or Simulations for Learning.

Together with our clients, Advantage has won 13 Brandon Hall Group awards since 2018, including 6 gold. SRS Distribution and Advantage also won gold together in 2025 for an escape room initiative.

Collaborators on the 2026 project included SRS Distribution's Leadership Programs Senior Manager Sarah Cini  and Advantage Partner Beth Boone, Learning Architect Jeannie Taylor, and Editor Julie Wolpers from Advantage Performance Group.

Following the 2025 success of the award-winning Wild West HR Escape Room, Sarah approached Beth with another challenge: Could we create a fast-paced, game-based experience that would help branch managers better understand their P&Ls and use them to make decisions that increase profitability?

The result was Profit Wars, a high-energy business simulation designed to get branch managers thinking like business owners and seeing how everyday decisions around pricing, hiring, operations, competition, and other business levers impact the bottom line.

The blended experience combined P&L e-learning, game-show-style competition, realistic branch scenarios, team analysis and decision making, custom videos, and presentations to SRS financial leaders for feedback and scoring.

Following the first run of the program, SRS leaders called Profit Wars the “biggest hit” of their week-long Branch Manager Academy.

“The competition was fierce, the learning was real, and the energy in the room was incredible.” – Sarah Cini, Senior Manager, Leadership Programs at SRS Distribution

For Advantage, the award reinforces the importance of strong learning design, especially as AI provides more tools for creating learning experiences.

“Making smart decisions in the moment is still an in-demand human skill, and it can be honed through realistic simulations. Add fun, challenge, and competition, and the learning becomes much more memorable. AI gives us exciting new possibilities, but strong, creative design is what turns those possibilities into experiences that help people perform better.” - Beth Boone, Partner, Advantage Performance Group

“Going two for two with SRS is incredibly exciting. We have now had two opportunities to take a real business challenge and turn it into something creative, innovative, and genuinely fun to learn from. Profit Wars and the Wild West HR Escape Room are very different experiences, but they share the same goal: giving people a chance to learn and practice important skills in a way that is engaging, memorable, and connected to the work they actually do.” – Jeannie Taylor, Learning Architect, Advantage Performance Group

Profit Wars gives SRS branch managers a safe place to practice interpreting business information, making decisions, seeing the potential consequences, and getting feedback before applying those skills on the job.

"We are proud to share this Brandon Hall Group Gold Award with Sarah Cini and the SRS Distribution team, and happy to see creative, experiential learning recognized for helping leaders build the very human skills that matter to business performance," Beth said.

About SRS Distribution Inc.

SRS Distribution(opens in new tab) is one of the nation’s leading distributors of roofing materials and building products -- focused on providing the best service for their customers, building a great culture for team members and giving back in the communities they serve.

About Advantage Performance Group

Advantage Performance Group, named a Training Industry Top 20  Leadership Training Company in 2025 and 2026, works with your L&D or HR team to build stronger leaders, sharper sales teams, and people who think like the business. Every initiative is designed around real behavior change— and measured impact you can see. We help organizations develop great people.

About the awards

Brandon Hall Group™, the Workforce Excellence Intelligence company, announced the winners of its 2026 HCM Excellence Awards® on August 13, recognizing organizations that have demonstrated exceptional innovation, measurable business impact, and excellence across Human Capital Management.

Founded in 1993, the HCM Excellence Awards are the longest-running and largest awards program dedicated to Human Capital Management. For more than three decades, the awards have recognized organizations whose people strategies deliver measurable business results and have become widely regarded throughout the industry as the “Academy Awards of Human Capital Management.”

The complete list of 2026 HCM Excellence Award winners is available at: https://excellenceawards.brandonhall.com/winners-2/(opens in new tab)

“The HCM Excellence Awards have become the most recognized benchmark for excellence in human capital management because organizations know they are earned, not given. Every winning program has demonstrated measurable impact, innovation, and execution through one of the industry’s most rigorous evaluation processes. We are proud to recognize the organizations setting the standard for the future of work,” said Brandon Hall Group CEO Mike Cooke.

Entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group analysts, and executives using a proven and published evaluation framework that applies the same criteria to every submission:

• Alignment to their business need and environment.
• Program design, functionality and delivery.
• Adoption, integration, user experience, innovation and creativity.
• Overall effectiveness, impact, and measurable benefits.

This rigorous evaluation process provides organizations with independent validation of their work and ensures that recognition is based on demonstrated results rather than popularity or nomination alone. Brandon Hall Group publishes its judging criteria and judge profiles at https://excellenceawards.brandonhall.com(opens in new tab)

“Every year, the HCM Excellence Awards remind us that innovation is ultimately about impact. The organizations recognized this year have demonstrated that great HR and learning strategies don’t just improve programs, they strengthen organizations, empower people, and deliver measurable business results. We are honored to celebrate their achievements,” said Brandon Hall Group COO Rachel Cooke, HCM Excellence Awards program leader.

Winning organizations represent excellence across learning and development, leadership development, talent acquisition, talent management, human resources, sales enablement, future of work, and other areas critical to organizational performance.