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Business Management Book Store > Business Management books beginning with B
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Business War Games: How Large, Small, and New Companies Can Vastly Improve Their Strategies and Outmaneuver the Competition |
Author: Benjamin Gilad
Published: 2008-09-15 |
List price: $19.99
Our price: $13.59
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As of: January 08th, 2009 08:55:33 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 A wonderful intellectual extension of the author's earlier thoughtwares, 'Business Blindspots' & 'Early Warning'.
'Business War Games; How Large, Small & New Companies Can Vastly Improve Their Strategies & Outmaneuver the Competition',
by Benjamin Gilad;
Very interestingly, I realise that a lot of fancy stuff is churning inside my head as I ponder over my impending review of CI (competitive intelligence) guru Benjamin Gilad's latest book:
'Business War Games: How Large, Small, & New Companies Can Vastly Improve Their Strategies & Outmaneuver the Competition'
I have in fact perused the author's two earlier works, namely,
- 'Business Blindspots: Replacing Myths, Beliefs & Assumptions with Market Realities' in the nineties, followed by
- 'Early Warning: Using Competitive Intelligence to Anticipate Market Shifts, Control Risks & Create Powerful Strategies' several years ago.
The first thing that crosses my mind is the flash memory of attending a two-day workshop on 'Marketing Warfare' during the early eighties, based on Al Ries & Jack Trout's books, as well as Huge Davidson's two books on 'Offensive Marketing '.
The second thing is remembering that I had enjoyed watching the sci-fi movie, 'War Games', during the mid-eighties.
It was about a young computer hacker who had unwittingly found a backdoor into a military defence computer, nicknamed 'Joshua'.
It was based on some sort of a war simulation with complete control over the US nuclear arsenal.
His misdemeanour almost resulted in bringing two powerful countries into a devastating & yet futile 'Global Thermo-Nuclear War'.
The third thing that comes to my mind is Oliver Stone's epic movie, 'Wall Street', starring Michael Douglas as the ruthless corporate raider, Gordon Gekko, in the late eighties.
In the movie, Gordon Gekko taught a rookie investor, Bud (played by Charlie Sheen), some harsh realities about the marketplace, especially when he advised him to: "Read Sun Tzu's Art of War. Every war is won before it is ever fought. Thrive about it . . . It's trench warfare out there, pal."
In a nutshell, that was a quick roundup of my early introduction to business in the new economy as a civilised version of war.
The book under review is essentially an operating manual for planning & executing a business simulation, using real-world intelligence & realistic role playing by stakeholders within the confines of the boardroom.
The proper terminoloy is apparently "business wargaming".
To me, the book reads like an intellectual extension of the author's two earlier works.
The first book, 'Business Blindspots', now a cult classic, has touched on the myriad of "corporate myths, beliefs & assumptions", which, if left unchecked, can often derail stakeholders' perspectives of the marketplace.
The author has designated them as "blindspots" [acquired blindspots, in contrast to the natural blindspots inherently built in our eyes] & stresses on the importance of removing our blinkers & truly understanding the market realities. [Futurist Joel Arthur Barker calls them "paradigms" in his book, 'Future Edge.]
Interestingly, in the current book under review, the author has also singled out the importance of discovering the "blindspots" of your competitors.
The second book, 'Early Warning', has built on the first book, by sharing strategies & ideas on how to avoid been blind-sided, & by highlighting rigorous frameworks necessary for the development of an early warning system to anticipate & react to early signals of potential trouble in the marketplace.
In my view, the third & current book under review, now culminating into what I would even call a trilogy, more or less amalgamates all the author's earlier thoughtwares to constitute a systematic methodology for conducting a real business case simulation, with realistic role-playing by stakeholders to understand the competition & the market more accurately.
As I have read, the crux of business wargaming is to answer two key questions:
- what will be my competitor's likely response?
- what then is my best option?
The author's principal premise stands as such: your market performance is always relative i.e. your business success will always be affected by what your competitors do, or rather, by their likely responses, as opposed to obvious responses.
I must compliment the author for making the fine distinctions here.
He cautions though, business wargaming will not guarantee your success - nothing will - but it will increase your odds.
Frankly, I have actually approached the current book under review with the notion of exploring whether business wargaming could be used &/or adapted to help one in making a life decision, say ten years down the road.
After all, a life decision also involves other important stakeholders - parents, spouses, children, siblings, colleagues, friends & others. Besides goals, there are apparently roles & dynamics to consider too. Sad to say, competition will also come in many forms, human, technological as well as the changing nature of work.
I haven't yet figured out all the requisite mechanics in a personal application, but I have certainly enjoyed reading 'Business War Games'.
As a management professor, & also a prior stint as an Israeli police intelligence operative, the author writes very well - clear, concise & succinct.
The book, packed with relevant case studies, is organised in four parts:
- Part I: From Sand Table to Boardroom;
- Part II: Competitors as Characters;
- Part III: Step-by-Step Instructions;
- Part IV: Running a Business War Game;
What I like most about the book is the author's emphasis on the strategic thinking, real out-thinking the competition in the real world, instead of relying too much on imaginary modeling, computer algorithms & fancy MBA's.
Chapter 3 is my personal favourite, in which I reckon his answer to the question, "Can you accurately predict competitors' moves?" is great & candid!
To sum up my review, & also to further substantiate why I think the current book forms a trilogy with the author's two earlier books, I like to paraphrase the author from his book:
"There are several factors behind a success of a game: good intelligence, rigorous frameworks, & naturally, the quality of the (stakeholder) teams."
Well, intelligence analysis requires the understanding & appreciation of blindspots, yours as well as the competitors. This is beautifully detailed in the first book.
Developing rapid response capabilities requires rigorous frameworks. In my view, this is more detailed in the second book.
From my perspective, & to reiterate, bringing it all together is seemingly the focus of the current book under review.
I leave it to readers to decide whether they want to acquire all the three wonderful books. For me, they are definitely worth the investment.
[Reviewed by Lee Say Keng, Knowledge Adventurer & Technology Explorer, December 2008]
Business War Games by Dr. Benjamin Gilad / A review
Dr Gilad's "Business War Games" is the only comprehensive "how-to" book on the market today (that I am aware of). Using the Gilad approach to "realistic" Business War Games that links key elements of business principles and human psychology results in an intense and focused event that gives the host company the best chance of seeing its strategic challenges, opportunities and options clearly. Caution: What you learn may make you uncomfortable! Tom Oglesby, Competitive Intelligence , ExxonMobil
A must have for CI professionals
Instead of hiring external facilitators to prepare, facilitate, and sum up a war game, this time I decided running the game myself using the framework of this book. I followed the suggested time schedule (adapted to an overnight setting) and the result was a definitive success! All participants gained a deeper understanding of the competitive arena, and walked out with the urge to put their knew knowledge and insights to work. Another difference from previous war games we did was that instead of focusing on senior executives and decision makers, a majority of participants were sales people and their managers, with the rest being from several other areas including finance and marketing. We all had a great time and loads of fun - the nerf balls contributing significantly in the second round :-)
 Business War Games
Business War Games, a catchy title, one almost expects the books author Ben Gilad to thrust the reader into one of those office supply store commercials with employees battling for promotion, or an attempt at framing business strategy with gratuitous quotes from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", rest assured that neither is the case. I am as impressed by what Business War Games isn't. The book isn't about war, it isn't an academic dissertation, and it certainly isn't boring or ethereal. What it is is eminently practical. Unless your in big pharma or the defense industry your competitors likely are not using this incredibly valuable tool on a consistent or realistic basis.
I need to be frank, if you make your living in one of the big consulting firms, promoting six and seven figure war games dependent on hoards of consultants, senior executives of the hiring firm, algorithm laden simulations and expensive computers, you won't like this book. If on the other hand, you want to be able to pressure test your strategies, and tactics, anticipate your competitor's responses and develop counters, model the effectiveness of the competitive environment, anticipate government regulation and industry movements than this book is for you. It will help if you have an understanding of competitive intelligence and how to analyze competitive blind spots. Ben discusses both, however only in sufficient detail to make you realize there may be more books you need to read.
Business War Games, is a practical guide to defining what is to be tested, selecting and compiling the intelligence necessary to pressure test the strategy along with the tools to accomplish the task. He covers the pitfalls, provides tips on keeping individuals off the team that will not add value, even if they are senior execs. He provides checklists and techniques that render them dynamic even kinetic rather than static boxes to be checked. As mentioned above this is not an academic work, Ben doesn't lecture the reader, but rather through experience in hundreds of war games successful and not, imparts his experience to the reader.
Ben Gilad is a leading practitioner in the field of competitive intelligence and leading business war games for Fortune 100 companies. I preordered this book and was excited to receive my copy on the release date. I was just as excited upon completion of the book two days later. The book itself is perfectly sized to be comfortably held in the hand well stuck in an airport or in that coach seat in the middle, fits nicely in your brief case. A very readable book at 205 pages. My only wish is that everyone who reads this book would have had the chance to meet Ben in person and study and practice the art with him in person. He is a rich, motivational and unique resource. This book represents an excellent investment; my hope is that you will enjoy, and that you are not a competitor in my industry.
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