Global Management

Gamesman’s mindset

Indian companies entering the global arena are fast realizing that there is no level playing

field; transnational players deploy a volley of attacks and counter-attacks to deny them turf.

What then is the way forward? Emerging globalisers need a ‘gamesman’s mindset’ to counter the multi-pronged attack of global rivals.

Global competition can be brutal, complex and dirty. Global companies have learnt in this integrated world economy to protect turf by deploying an arsenal of strategies to thwart the ambitions of emerging global players. Virtually multi country, multi product game plans to tie the emerging rivals in knots. This is called global gamesmanship.

The moves that an organisation makes in one market are designed to achieve goals in another market in ways that are not apparent to its rivals. This approach is called competing under strategic interdependence – CSI – according to Columbia University Professor Rita Gunther McGrath

Your company is an instigator; competitors are opponents; a marketplace is an arena; market share is territory; resources are live ammunition; and the battleground could be anywhere, anytime around the globe. It is a way of thinking about competition that emerging globalisers would do well to come to grips with.

By adopting the gamesman’s mindset, you may be able to cover two flanks. For one, it can

build defences against the multi pronged attack of global rivals. For another, by using

gamesmanship, it can deploy limited resources for offence more efficiently across the globe

It is equivalent of playing chess when your opponent is playing checkers. There are multiple moves that you can make to get your opponents to behave in a way that is convenient for you. If your opponents are not aware that you are doing that, you can really trip them up.

It sure helps to know who your competitors are

Two questions that companies should ask themselves who are sitting on the fence are: does the company understand which firms it is competing against? And does the company keep that knowledge uptodate?

Companies should draw a matrix that lists all the product categories and territories that they are compete in. The goal is to uncover the interdependencies

It sure helps to know what your competitor fights for

Once the matrix has helped identify each competitive arena, by product or service category as well as geography, a company needs to figure out where it stands. This is done through tracking three parameters - Competitor’s potential reactive ness to increased pressure in each market, which shows the competitor’s propensity to defend its territory - The market’s attractiveness, based on criteria like market share, profitability and even emotions to the company - And the relative clout that both firms enjoy – where clout measures each company’s ability to fight back. This final step helps to map the competitive landscape.

And it sure helps to know that the competition is fallible

There are six main CSI strategies: the onslaught, the contest, the guerilla campaign, the feint, the gambit and harvesting. Once a company has developed its product-and geographic arena charts, it can plan specific strategies for each arena.

The onslaught

Goal: To mount a direct attack for market share in a target arena and force the competitor to retreat

Tactics: Instigator cuts prices without regard to profits, increases market spend aggressively and upsets existing distribution patterns

The contest

Goal: To use a narrowly focused and less costly attack strategy to grab market share

Tactics: The instigator focuses on highly attractive niche area in which competitor has less clout. Then attacks in a way that the competitor finds hard to match

Guerilla campaign

Goal: To drive a wedge into the target market and exploit the smaller segments

Tactics: Instigator focuses on underserved segments of highly attractive arenas where competitor has clout but reactiveness is low

The feint

Goal: To gain market share in target arena by diverting the competitor’s attention and resources

Tactics: Instigator forces a competitor to divert resources from target area, by attacking a different focal area.

The gambit

To sacrifice a non-essential focal arena in order to gain market share in a target arena

Tactics: Instigator lures the competition to divert resources into non-essential arena by making a show of vacating it. Instigator then increases resources to gain market share in target arena

The harvesting

Goal: To extract profits from an arena that is no longer attractive in the long term

Tactics: Instigator and competitor combine moves – for example through cross-licensing arrangements – to maximize profit for both

To a degree, all companies employ gamesmanship intuitively.

Successful gamesmanship is not about smart knowledge management, though. Top management needs to plan attack and counter attack moves, and then communicate them down the line, so that each piece on the board knows its role.

The most important skill in gamesmanship is the ability to look at the world, not through your own eyes but through the eyes of your opponent. The best companies make time for that. Not every global company need practice gamesmanship; but emerging globalisers certainly need to give it a thought. And this will facilitate them whether they can take on the world.

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