The Right Game: Use Game Theory to Shape Strategy

by Adam M. Brandenburger, Barry J. Nalebuff

Since 1922, "Harvard Business Review" has been a leading source of breakthrough management ideas - many of which still speak to and influence us today. "The Harvard Business Review Classics" series now offers readers the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the world-and will have a direct impact on you today and for years to come. Business is like war: The best combatant wins while the worst loses, right? Not necessarily. Companies can succeed spectacularly without destroying others. And they can lose miserably after competing well. Exceptional businesses win by actively shaping the game they're playing, not playing the game they find. "The Right Game" shows you how to do this - by altering who's competing, what value each player brings to the table, and which rules and tactics players use.

Genres: Business, Economics, Nonfiction

104 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

Adam Brandenburger is the Vice Dean for Graduate Education and the J.P. Valles Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Prior to joining Stern, he held the M.B.A. Class of 1958 Professorship at Harvard Business School.

Adam is an authority on game theory and its application to business strategy, and teaches an MBA course on this subject. He was voted NYU Stern M.B.A. Professor of the Year in 2006. His book Co-opetition (with Barry Nalebuff, Doubleday, 1996) is used by businesses as a guide to strategy in the information economy, and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Born in London, England, Adam received his B.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge.

Reviews

[Y Ravi Kiran · Rating 5 out of 5]

One book for all the game theory u need to learn.

[Juan Manuel Sotelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the idea of using game theory to forge strategy. The Value Net and the PARTS (5 elements of game theory) for strategy are a good baseline.

[Charvie]

PARTS:
Players : define and change
Added Value: increase yours or decrease others
Rules: change the rules; use rules for coopetition, instead of trying to take their share
Scope of the game: boundaries of the game are everchanging.

[Morris Yen · Rating 5 out of 5]

well-written!

[Nawasandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Game theory began in 1944 by a mathematics genius John von Neumann and an economist Oscar Morgenstern. It solves almost everything, especially business complexities.
"Business is a high stakes game. The way we approach it reflected in the language we use to describe it. " (p1). Adam makes a shift in perspective. Business game isn't zero-sum operation in the creation of value, it is allocentric rather than egocentric. It means that to look forward and reason backward, player has to put himself in the shoes (even the head) of other players. Ask what you can bring to other players and ask not what the other players can bring to you.
Adam underlined the simplification (without lose any essential elements) in a model of "Value Net". It is actually a market forces, a tango between demand and supply in the creation of values. In tango you wont find a loser. Thats why Adam suggest the term COOPETITION. It means looking for win-win in the creation of value as well as win-lose opportunities. It sounds like Bastiat's Broken Window Fallacy, isn't it?
Adam describe lot of example about the behaviour of players e.g. General Motor, Nintendo, NutraSweet, Kiwi Int'l Airlines, etc. The point is: the essence of business success lies in making sure they're playing the right game. How do they know if they're in the right game? The answer is by identifying all the elements of the game. According to game theory, there are five: player, added value, rules, tactics, and scope, for short PARTS.
PARTS are designed to help managers recognize and avoid the five potential trap of strategy.

[Tobias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, the rating depends on the point of view....
The book is well written in a way which makes it very easy to read.
It provides a sample (actual/ real business business cases) based introduction to the game theory.
But it lacks the background information of the concept (math, statistics...)
Therefore the Wikipedia article provides the detailed concept information and this book adds "real business cases" ...

[Robert Steers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea but to short and shadow

Overall the book doesn't have enough depth on game theory or strategy to give the reader any idea of how this can be analysed.