Book Review: Competitive Success by Arjan Singh

If you are feeling overwhelmed in today’s saturated market, then this book can be your step-by-step guide. Competitive Success: Building Winning Strategies with Corporate War Games by Arjan Singh offers a strategic approach to staying on top of the game. This book changes the path by showing how a military strategy can be adapted for business success.

Unlike traditional methods that focus solely on internal strengths and weaknesses, war games provide a 360-degree view.  They take into consideration customers, competitors, regulations, and supply chains, unlikely and unforeseen circumstances (both internal and external) – all crucial for building strong business plans.

When you have a strategy, whether it’s tactical execution, operational or strategic, ask yourself what is the most disruptive event that could happen? And consequently, are you prepared for it?

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War games foster collaboration and embrace diverse perspectives.  The book dives into three war game areas: strategic, operational, and tactical. By creating safe, simulated scenarios, businesses can explore potential challenges and unknown variables.

According to Singh, the outcome of a well executed war game shows many benefits such as anticipating industry trends, ability to define your competitive landscape with precision, and align product capabilities with market demands.

The games begin with a blueprint, The Briefing Book, that is a guide to the war gaming exercises. It ends with an actionable Playbook to identify competitive advantage, mitigate risks, and seize market opportunities.

Singh’s approach is applicable to all companies, from startups to multinationals. He uses clear language to give practical insights.

The book cites examples of some well-known companies and even case studies. These give an idea into the success stories but the challenges and failures have not been analysed in detail. The core of the book is to incite curiosity and urge to take on a war game and up your market opportunities. Singh even shares how his childhood led him to the concept ot creating war games for companies.

Competitive Success has templates at the back, which can be a useful roadmap for oragnisations to handle unforeseen disruptions. The book can also be useful for those wishing to find their way out of a disruptive situation.

Singh, a seasoned business consultant with over 25 years of experience, has delivered war games to top Fortune 500 companies. Co-author of Best Practices in Managing Competitive Intelligence Research: For Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Managers, Singh has helped companies develop data-driven strategies through war games, strategic and competitive analysis, scenario planning and building business early warning systems that deliver significant impact. He is an Adjunct Professor of Marketing and Global Consulting at Southern Methodist University (SMU) COX School of Business and lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Book Details
Publisher: ‎Forbes Books
Language: ‎English
Hardcover: ‎232 pages
Price: INR 2,240 (Kindle Edition available)

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