Via my good colleague Rick Shor, CPLP, here is a McKinsey & Company article on how leading companies are using "war games" to “identify, shape, and seize opportunities to innovate.”  These companies have found that war games are good ways to counteract natural human bias, such as excessive optimism and overconfidence, that cause decision makers to disregard how competitors may react to the introduction of a new innovation. 

Such neglect has often proven costly.  For example, a company launches a product with new features only to find a competitor responding by deeply discounting its rival product, cutting into sales of the innovation.  Counteractions of this type can scuttle a product launch.  Thus, developing scenarios of what competitors are likely to respond, in itself an important innovation, can be key to succeeding with innovation.

Designing and conducting “war games” seems to be a natural area for WLP practitioners to help their companies become more innovative.

 Read more at the link here; registration with McKinsey & Company, which is free, may be required.