Realising and predicting forthcoming events and problems in the running of a business, is key to the organisations success. Business War Gaming strategies will provide an unprecedented level of security and help with development for the future, allowing for growth and best practice within those companies.
Chris Paton served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Marines with distinguished service. While serving, he came to realise war gaming strategies within the military could be adapted to provide relevant techniques within a business context and began his company ‘Quirk Solutions’, “It’s all about pressure testing plans and strategies,” he says, “the object being to create quality procedures and pre-empt problems before they start,” he continues.
Many companies write plans for the direction their business is to develop, then roll it out and will react when things start to go wrong. At that stage remedying the situation in crisis management mode, becomes very expensive and time consuming. Making a good plan allows you to predetermine risk and opportunity, not originally thought of.
At Quirk Solutions, they take a broad view of the ways clients can look to the future creating red and blue teams of relevant parties, be they suppliers, customers, employees and outside agencies. The blue team will take a plan, strategy or issue they wish to test and then work out all this issues surrounding it, the red team, with stakeholders in place will react, giving a critical appraisal of the blues presentation. A facilitation panel will act as referee, chaired by an impartial third party individual, advising how a particular stakeholder has reacted to the plan. It gives the blues the opportunity to decide whether they will change or adapt the plan based on what they’ve heard.
For any business the War Gaming scenario, allows individuals to look at second and third effects which might happen, rather than simply concentrating on the obvious which may happen. It’s a strategy Chris has promoted while working with the likes of Downing Street, Shell and Waitrose, among others.
“The advantages of all this, mean a client can look, three months, six months or even a year in advance and be able to predict with a reasonable amount of accuracy, future outcomes,” Chris advises, “they will be able to mitigate or even eliminate possible risks altogether.” It’s all about predictability and planning.”
This ability to bring decision making forward means that when a plan comes unstuck, as all plans do to varying degree, confidence is high as a coherent plan to deal with the situation is in place.
Foresight and agility are the two key words which characterise the process of Business War Gaming.
Since the advent of Quirk Solutions, a new concept by Chris, he has been inundated with enquiries for the unique service the company provides. He travels the country and globally, outlining what Quirk’s, Business War Gaming strategies can do for businesses, from corporate organisations to SME’s. Business size is irrelevant with this type of approach to problem solving. It’s a stakeholder driven approach to improve business and make life as easy and risk free as possible for the people who work within a company.
To further promote the concept of Business War Gaming, Exclusive Business have arranged an interactive strategy dinner at St. Mary’s Heritage Centre on Monday 30th January 2017, the evening starting at 6.30pm. Chris Paton and five of his associates will take everyone through the process of War Gaming, imparting their expertise and directing the evening.
www.quirksolutions.org
