Sun Tzu’s seminal work of military strategy, The Art of War, famously states: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” The same can be said about business. Armed with market and competitive intelligence, companies have always strived to outmaneuver and outsmart the competition. But data alone only goes so far in helping you truly “know” your competition.

Business war games help companies think like their competitors. Using interactive team role-playing and scenario planning exercises supported by competitive intelligence, this innovative approach allows you to identify blind spots and anticipate, understand and prepare for coming shifts in the marketplace, as well as how your main competitors are likely to respond.

As a specialized solution within Bridge’s Accelerated Decision Services, the Business War Game offering is based on our proven collaborative process and incorporates insights from some of today’s leading thinkers on competitive strategy and future visioning: Business War Games by Benjamin Gilad, Ph.D., and Scenario Planning by Mats Lindgren and Has Banhold.

According to Gilad, "war games help discover problematic intelligence gaps, create buy-in, define strengths and weaknesses," and prepare you to formulate a better strategy with a strong business case and team alignment.

In an interview with The Economist, John McDermott, head of strategy at Xerox, has the following to say about using war games: “...in business, as in war, outcomes depend on what others do, as well as one's own actions. Yet many firms fail to think systematically about how rivals will react to their plans—and traditional planning does a poor job of taking competitors' responses into account...Corporate war games, which simulate the interactions of multiple actors in a market, provide a better way to do so.”

To learn more about Bridge’s Accelerated Decision Services and how business war games can help your company outpace the competition, contact Jenny Whitener.