Business Wargaming

About this Webinar

Organisations have been, and always will be, subject to rapid change, high dynamics, and in­creasing discontinuity. In the late 1960s management guru Peter Drucker advanced the argument that the world had entered the “Age of Disconti­nuity,” meaning that change was occurring more rapidly than it had in the past.

Managers need to prepare for change and look for new constella­tions for better ways to re­allo­cate their resources and to position their companies in the market. Strategic management in such an environment involves creating and moulding the future, along with making sense of the past and developing the capability for long-term flexibility and strategic op­portunism. The key challenge for today’s managers is to formulate a strategy and execute a strategic management system under complex circumstances.

But how are managers to achieve this essential task? In particular when the situation at hand is too complex for conventional (i.e. mostly linear) forms of analysis, Business Wargaming, (a methodology developed originally in a military context), offers decision makers a way, if not to eliminate, at least to reduce the uncertainty they face when making decisions. The Webinar will give clarity on how:

* To actively involve the participants

* To anticipate future developments through simulations

* Multiple perspectives are included

Webinar Leader

Jan Oliver Schwarz Consultant & PhD Research Berlin University of the Arts Germany

Jan Oliver Schwarz is a researcher and consultant in the field of Strategic Foresight and Business Wargaming and currently a PhD candidate at the Berlin University of the Arts, Germany.

Jan previously earned a MA in General Management from the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany and an MPhil in Futures Studies form the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He has been a visiting scholar at the School of Management, University of St Andrews, Scotland and is the author of several articles on Strategic Foresight and co-author of the book Business Wargaming: Securing Corporate Value.

Session Outline

• Introduction
• History of Business Wargaming
• How does a Business Wargame work?
• Design and Execution
• Field of application
• Case studies

Key Insights

In this session Jan Oliver Schwarz will

• Give an introduction to Business Wargaming
• Highlight fields of application
• Talk about design and execution issues of a Business Wargaming

By attending you will learn:

• How Business Wargaming can help you to make more sense of your competitive environment
• Will help you to assess if a Business Wargame could be of use for your specific questions and company
• What resources are required to design and execute a Business Wargame

Who should attend?

VPs, Directors and Managers of: Strategy, Planning, Corporate Development, Innovation Management, and Product Development.

Technical Requirements

An Internet connection with a browser is required for the visual presentation. For the audio component, a separate phone line is required (toll-free numbers are made available for most countries).

You will receive dialing and WebEx instructions via email prior to the Online Seminar taking place.