Author: Daniel F. Oriesek and Jan Oliver Schwarz
ISBN No: 978-0-566-0883
Review date: 06/12/2025
No of pages: 152
Publisher: Gower
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
Wargaming as a business tool is the subject of a book on how to prepare for change or a crisis.
While the authors describe ‘business wargaming’ as a way to apply what army generals do in peacetime to the world of business, there are applications for the security and risk manager. As the authors Daniel F Oriesek and Jan Oliver Schwarz say: "After 9-11 many businesses were worried and asked themselves how vulnerable their operations were to terrorist attacks." Gaming – or as the authors put it wargaming – was used by a bank for instance to see what happened after a terror attack on a data centre. The gamers found that while the bank did propose to switch to a ready alternative site. the bank did have to find out about the attacks, to trigger the crisis response team. The gaming, then, showed up the need to prioritise; and tell customers and the media what was going on. As the authors do spell out, this is a matter of simulations, and scenario testing. UK readers already do this, without calling it wargaming. Does that matter? As such exercises are costly in time and effort, it may help to get executives excited with a sexier name like ‘wargaming’, just as paint-balling is a fashionable way to build teams, without the workers necessarily knowing that’s the reason for it. As the authors sum up: "The most valuable aspect in our view is the unique ability to go through a shared experience of seeing what islikely to happen." Other possibilities, according to the authors: ‘a sensitivity analysis around the major constituents of a corporation to better anticipate reputation risk factors’.
