You can be sure: at this point of time your competitors are working on the next (big) thing.

WarGaming is a very clever method, where your Team will get into the shoes of key market players to answer a key question “What will they do?”

The WarGaming workshops, offered by Leadium Consulting, can help your Company to better understand what the real Competitors’ main goals are and where the major threats are coming from.

Why WarGaming?

In today’s world, companies are expected to manage ever-present risks and uncertainties – It’s a part of the game. Some “wait and see”, some proactively seek contingencies and ask “What if” questions:

  • Do we know what to expect from our competitors?
  • Are we prepared for their moves or countermoves?
  • How do we know that our Plan is ‘bulletproof’?
  • Does everyone in our company understand how to execute our strategy?

What is WarGaming? 

It is the role-playing method used by military for centuries, recently getting more and more popular in a business world.

And although today, armies developed sophisticated computer simulations, still the wargaming sand tables are used in operations with the believe “that sweat and tears in a war-game were preferable to blood and tears on the battlefield”.

WarGaming vs. Conventional approach

Increasing reality of the competitors’ analysis

WarGaming helps detecting what drives competition

In business, as in battles, decision making is a human activity. Therefore, rational thinking of market players is usually the tip of the iceberg.

To read the minds of the competitors, during WarGaming workshops we look at their internal motivation drivers (i.e. internal culture, value system, leaders’ agenda etc.). These aspects can give more hints on the future moves than just behavior known from the past.

Our WarGaming is about the Teamwork. 

You can pay big money to create the most sophisticated simulation models but they cannot fully explain decision making in business. Therefore, our WarGaming method fully rely on the people who participate in decisions and execution of the plan. It’s more cost-effective approach and in addition it puts everyone on the same page when developing strategies.

It’s not only about your Competitors.

During to WarGaming you can also detect the Blind Spots of your strategy. Just ask Red Teams (playing your competitors) to attack the Blue Team (Your company). They will quickly find your weaknesses!

 

When to play WarGames?

There are two general contexts when to conduct WarGaming: 

‘Landscape Workshop’

When you work on strategy or the market conditions are changing and you need to know the key competitors’ strategies and how to outmaneuver them.

‘Crash-Test WarGame’

When you have a new Plan (for new product or campaign) and you need to know How the key players will react and How to protect the Plan.

How? The Process

We structure the process into 3 phases:

I. Pre-workshop input.

Collection of all the necessary data (most of information is in your hands or easily available in the public domain);

II. Day 1 of Workshop – RedTeaming.

When the teams role-play the key market players. As the results we identify the Competitors’ Strategic Intentions and the Key Threats and Battlegrounds;

For details about Red-Teaming click here.

III. Day 2 of the Workshop (Blue Teams and the battle)

We refine current strategies and prepare contingency plans against major threats.

The workshop ends up with two main components:

  • The Competitors’ Strategic Directions (what do they want to achieve and how?)
  • Actionable ideas for strengthening your strategy against major competitive challenges.

Benefits

What will you get at the end of the process?

  • Identified competitive risks and opportunities,
  • Refined current strategies and contingency plans,
  • Realistic assessment of your plans,
  • A greater mutual understanding & talents engagement,

and last but not least

  • Better market performance thanks to enriched understanding of your competitors.

What the attendees said after our workshops:

Challenging & Intense!

Thank you so much. I learnt a lot! So insightful. Now I know we can do it together and want to do so!

Great chance to grasp the business from all aspects & gain common understanding!

You guys did a stellar job with facilitating the 2 day workshop. It increased levels of cross-functional collaboration from all participants. 

General awareness of business performance improved across all functions.

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