p.5 Competitive intelligence, as a means to see through and ahead
of fast-changing rivals, has become a critical component in the business arsenal... intelligence itself has evolved
into something much less neat, clean, and easy to manage. It has become more sophisticated and, for those who take full advantage
of it, an ever more powerful weapon.
p.7 The art of intelligence is appreciating the information you have in whatever form it appears
p.11 Frameworks allow you to see right through market static and information noise in an amazingly efficient
way. You need to know which frameworks to use to develop intelligence and when to use them.
p.12 Strategy games, such as war games or scenario analyses, are examples of frameworks that force you to
confront today's real issues. The options a strategic game presents are more interesting and less scary than the images conjured
up in your own mind. Whenever you face industry upheavals... a war game is a way for you to decode a rival's cryptic
moves before it's too late to do anything about it.
p.17 I have written this book to allow anyone in business to learn how to begin using intelligence.
p.69 A war game is not about outright victory or defeat.
It is about yanking you out of your comfort zone and helping you gain a fresh, realistic view of the competitive landscape...
It can demonstrate whether or not your strategy can truly withstand a rival's onslaughts, or guerilla tactics.
p.69 A war game is a live simulation reflecting the real industrial world, forcing
competitors, customers, and possible new entrants to act out their strategies.
p.83 The secret to winning in the real marketplace is having the best strategy and then executing it.
p.83 A Driver is what motivates management; it is the thing that makes executives get up
in the morning and go to work.
p.111 No matter the industry, I have seen managers gain profound
insights about how their market works, insights that teach lessons far beyond the development of a particular strategy.
These are the reasons why war games are such an important strategic intelligence tool for
anyone in any business.
p.111 Most of the time revelations that surface during a game's various
rounds teach management how to reposition... War games serve as powerful tools to reshape company strategy for the
best possible outcome... Consider the outcome of a war game as a new set of directions with which management can
steer its very large battleship... a game can also identify where your rivals are likely to try to stop you
or cause you to misdirect your ship altogether.
p.113 The winner in a war game is usually the entire company that has played the game.
p.113 Seeing the implications of each decision you may make is the equivalent of a chess master looking
at a chessboard. A chess master knows the opponent's strategy, understanding each counter-move. The expert player
can actually envision the chessboard two, three, or even four moves ahead.
p.114 War games discipline you to play out your strategy in light of existing intelligence.
p.143 Although no one has a crystal ball, most will admit that change
will occur and that the future will not be the same as today... The early warning concept - the ability
to see into the future - is easy to understand [JLJ - perhaps not so easy]. Early warning consists of four very
simple steps: (1) drawing the road map of possible futures, (2) identifying the signals you need to watch for each of these
futures, (3) finding the people who will watch those signals in the course of their everyday work, and (4) making sure you
create an approach to act quickly once one of the futures you have identified begins to emerge.
p.144 A good reporter can find and review the evidence once it has
arrived. It takes some digging, but investigative reporters do it all the time. The
signals are out there.
p.272 When is enough intelligence enough?
Our response should immediately be "How much risk are you willing to assume?"
p.278 War gaming or nearly any form of strategic gaming will draw the decision makers into understanding
the critical intelligence and its implications.
p.281 Intelligence by definition is unique and hard-won... a time-sensitive assessment
that will direct someone to act.
