|
Competitive War Games An Effective Component of Your Strategic Planning Process |
|
By Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder, Ten3 BUSINESS e-COACH – Innovation Unlimited, 1000ventures.com
|
"Spectacular achievements come from unspectacular preparation." – Roger Staubach |
|
|
Why War Games? The immediate goal of a competitive war game is to gain a better understanding of the total competitive arena, and anticipate competitive developments and moves in your industry. The war game is an effective tool for uncovering hidden weaknesses – your own and those of your competitors. This understanding will help you formulate best-course action options. Competitive war games will also help you shift managerial focus from internal to external, and lay a foundation of an early warning process. War Games & Corporate Strategy Development Competitive war games can help you simulate the competitive environment, uncover hidden vulnerabilities, and make critical changes that produce a more complete and effective competitive corporate strategy. While preparing your strategic plan, your need to consider competitors' moves as well as competitors' reactions to your own moves before committing to a specific strategy. Apply collective intelligence to identify weaknesses with the goal of taking corrective action that will fortify your competitive position. Who Should Participate in a Competitive War Game? For a war game to be effective, the composition of the teams should be carefully selected. Each team should be headed by a senior executive and include middle and junior managers as well as front-line staff. Team should be cross-functional unless the war game is done with one functional area such as marketing or R&D. The senior executive leadership of the teams is critical as it will ensure success of the war game beyond the "event". Ideally, the CEO or an external advisor should serve as the ultimate "referee".
The Art of War: Planning an Attack
By: Sun Tzu
The best policy is to attack while the enemy is
still
planning.
If you outnumber the enemy ten to one, surround
them.
The value of time, that is of
being a little ahead of your
opponent, often provides greater advantage than superior numbers or greater
resources...
More
Building Sustainable
Competitive Advantage
Sustainable competitive advantage is the prolonged benefit of
implementing some unique value-creating strategy based on unique
combination of internal organizational
resources and capabilities
that cannot be replicated by competitors...
More
4 Entrepreneurial Strategies
By: Peter Drucker
"Hitting Them Where They
Ain't" – either by "creative imitation"; or
by "entrepreneurial judo", a Japanese concept that enables newcomers
to catapult themselves into a leadership position against
entrenched, established companies...
Barriers to Entry Barriers to entry are circumstances particular to a given industry that create disadvantages for new competitors attempting to enter the market... More
Your Competing Skills... Generic Competing Strategies... Game Theory... The Art of War... The Best Technique to Win the Customer Over... Marketing & Selling Strategy at Different Company Growth Stages... Understanding Risks Perceived by Customers... Components of a Competitive War Game... Start with Seeking Answers to the Four Questions... Business Games...
|
Bibliography:
-
"Extreme Management", Mark Stevens
-
"War Games", Academy of Competitive Intelligence
-
"The Power of Simplicity", Jack Trout
-
"Games Company Could Make Play", Luis Garicano
-
"The Art of War", Sun Tzu, app. 500 BC
