Wargaming for Leaders: Strategic Decision Making from the Battlefield to the Boardroom

by Mark L. Herman

Business is war. Heres how to win it withfield tested strategies from the world sleading wargamers at Booz Allen Hamilton Today, wargaming is used at the highest levels of government and business to provide leaders with thesharpest competitive edge to anticipate the futureand beat the enemy. In Wargaming for Leaders, MarkHerman, world-renowned wargame developer forBooz Allen Hamilton with coauthors Frost and Kurz,explores the strategies learned from wargamesdesigned and staged for the U.S. Army, global corporations,and nonprofit groups, revealing how these exerciseshave made for significant decisions andcompetitve advantage

Genres: Business, Management, Military Fiction, Leadership

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 12, 2008

Reviews

[Johnny]

I primarily purchased this book because of the reputation of Mark Herman. I’ve played his commercial wargames for 30 years and heard him speak at the second Serious Games Summit. I even had the privilege of playing in his Empire of the Sun tournament this last summer. So, it’s no wonder that I was fascinated about the opportunity to read about applying his skills as a designer of military simulations for dabblers like me to the professional military, corporate world, health industry, and government. Wargaming for Leaders is even more fascinating than I anticipated.

Wargaming for Leaders both begins (p. 4) and ends (p. 261) with the suggestion that wargaming offers the participants an opportunity to probe the probable future, make strategic choices, and evaluate the consequences before the decisions become expensive and irrevocable.

The book recounts military wargames based on a campaign in Iraq that called out the likelihood that Operation Iraqi Freedom (the aftermath of the military action in Iraq) might reflect a victory in war but was likely to be a loss of peace (p. 47)), especially when the 400K troops requested (p. 48) were reduced to a deployment Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) (p. 54) in which the participants sought to analyze how force commitments impacted the high demand/low density forces and platforms and, by considering scenarios using different force alignments, evaluating the needs for reform and realignment in the armed forces (pp. 58-60).

In that regard, the new military approach features basically a six-part campaign: 1) Shape (building a coalition building and diplomacy), 2) Deter (use intelligence to earn DBA (dominant battlefield awareness) that will prepare troops to defend and, if necessary, attack), 3) Seize Initiative (executing offensive operations), 4) Dominate (break the enemy’s will), 5) Stabilize (provide essential services and initiate humanitarian assistance), and 6) Enable Legitimate Authority (helping restore government with a legitimate civil authority). (pp. 64-65) Of course, if you do the first two phases right, you may not have to fight (p. 65).

I also liked reading about the ConAgra business “wargame” and its CEO saw within the game that the silo mentality of its various subsidiaries was unhealthy. One result of the wargame was to go from 50 different incentive plans based on each independent operating unit to one plan determined by ConAgra’s overall results (p. 101). There was also a great account of an aviation company that discovered in a wargame that they needed to scrap two different mergers and acquire an entirely different suitor. Ironically, this was after the “boss” made the wargame control group revise the model four different times (pp. 149-151).

In a wargame dealing with energy innovation, the takeaway was, “Leading the way may be financially beneficial in the long run, but you’d better be ready for the pushback.” (p. 136) I liked the instructions given in several of the wargames, “You make decisions every day with imperfect information.” (p. 162) But the most important take-away from the book for me was: “It’s better to innovate around a plan than to invent a plan on the fly.” (p. 187)

This is a terrific book and I am certain to return to it again and again.

[Merle]

So far very high level. Almost too general for someone already familiar with the topic. Good primer for a novice or someone trying to figure out waht is often called the "net value proposition" of gaming.

The author Mark Herman started his career as a teenager with SPI and is now a VP at Booz Allen HAmiltion (big cosulting firm). Known for many innovativer designs (espcially those using card driven events).

[Aaron Bolin]

Herman, Frost, and Kurz delivery a really compelling account of numerous simulated scenarios (war games) used for strategic planning. The writing and presentation in this book are really tight; they have done an excellent job.

In terms of criticism, I think the title and the subtitle of the book strongly suggest that the reader will learn how to plan with war games. The authors offer almost no practical guidance or tools on how to construct or use war game scenarios. Rather, the book is a series of descriptions (at a very abstract level) of how the authors have used war games with clients.

I gained a stronger interest in war gaming from reading the book, but I did not learn anything new about the tools and techniques of constructing, running, and using the feedback from war gamed scenarios.

This book is a worthwhile read for anyone involved in strategic planning or leadership; I recommend it for both novice and experienced practitioners.

[Beth]

I can't pretend to write an impartial review of this book but will say it presents a solid explanation of how a traditionally military decision making concept translates effectively into civilian business contexts

[Roy]

"If you had an opportunity to probe the future, make strategic choices, and view the consequences of those choices in a risk-free environment before making expensive and irrevocable decisions, wouldn't you take advantage of it?"

A nice book about how war-games are used in the military, business, and philanthropic worlds. Mark Herman is a legend in this world, and a trusted leader in applying wargaming techniques to real problems. It describes several examples in the period of 2002 to 2008. The examples make a strong case for what gaming can contribute that might never become available from any other technique. It also makes clear how challenging it is to do one of these well, while still making clear that it can be done.

[John]

This book provides a fascinating account of the strategic use of war gaming exercises encompassing the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Gulf War, disaster response planning and pandemic response. The usage of war gaming for charting a course for utilities navigating the energy transition and commercial enterprises navigating the uncertainties of major market shifts.

[Troy Swinehart]

Book 16.....

Ummm...yeah....ummm...I have to say I was very interested in this book as potentially a source of information for communicating real life further up the food chain in organizations and customers. Sounds cool right...lets play out the scenarios on paper before we commit "blood and treasure" to the cause. And as of the completion of this reading I still think it is a valid and curious way of getting the point across or selling the ideas home.

However, don't read this book. If you want a 400+ page advertisement teaser then by all means have at it. That is really the content of Wargaming for Leaders.....guys I'm already sold on the idea what about some meat?

There is nothing but "hey look what we did for this big name in industry or government" Look at me Look at me....spend money on my group. I was looking for how one would go about setting up the wargame/simulation for various problems. Guess I should have read the over view more carefully.

Pass....

Shall we play a game?

[Frank Kelly]

Good primer and introduction to wargaming in the corporate setting. I learned a number of strategic concepts and tactical ideas for work.