Business War Gaming

Explorative strategy development

Business War Gaming (BWG) is used to predict possible changes of markets as well as competitor activities and based on this and to develop the best possible reactions. With this analysis, effective strategies with a distinctly competitive oriented character can be formed. Through BWG, the focus can be changed from an internal to an external perception that has the market and the competitors in view.

In addition, the following goals are tracked with BWG.

* Gaining a better understanding of the market and of competitive dynamics
* Developing realistic future scenarios for both market and industry sectors
* Sensitization of the attendees to weak signals that are the basis for an early warning system
* Development of the ability to role play the position of competitors and anticipate their actions and reactions
* Identification and elimination of “blind spots” in managers

Workshop focus

Introduction

* Goals of BWG
* Variants of BWG
* From the classic business game to the "mul­tiplayer simulator"

Business Intelligence

An established basis of information is a require­ment for BWG. This can be achieved with a market and environment analy­sis that corresponds with demands.

* The task of securing quality, relevant information on the company, its strategy, competitors and customers is vital for BWG
* Identification of system limits

Building of models

* Introduction to Sys­tems Thinking
* Identification of the driving force of growth as well as the central market drivers and re­sources of businesses in the market
* Determining the most important interdepend­encies between businesses and their cus­tomers
* Representation of all influences and their inter­dependencies in a networked model (im­pact diagram, Causal Loop Diagram)

Management flight simulator

As with the cockpit of a simulated aeroplane, the manager of a Management Flight Simulator has the entire repertoire of steering options for the business available. In the flight simulator, the business and the market also react immediately to the measures taken.

* Introduction into System Dynamics
* From impact diagrams to a Management Flight Simulator

Business war gaming

With a BWG process, the atten­dees take on the roles of different market partici­pants. Over a simulated time period of several years, they steer their businesses in the resultant market environment of intense competition that is also influenced by external developments such as cyclical influences, crises and singular events.

* Development of: scenarios and pos­sible external shocks
* Preparation of the playbooks: setting, profiling the market and market participants, role descriptions and strategic levers
* Preparation of the teams (pre-war-briefing): in­troduction of the storyline, roles and re­quirements to the teams, presentation of the course of events
* BWG: execution of moves, coaching, workshops
* Documentation and follow-up: summary, pres­entation and discussion of the results, deduction of strategic consequences, devel­opment of recommendations for action, de­termining further action (implementation of results)

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