Business acumen

In any competitive situation, the competition divides competitors into two categories: success or failure. It cannot simply be a matter chance as to which category a competitor goes into. Something more than luck must account for the difference.

Fortunately, there is a branch of mathematics that has evolved during the course of the last century that allows us to deal with this kind of problem. It is called Game Theory, a conceptual framework for studying competition in environments where there are many unknowns, constant change, uncertainty and competition. This describes the environment of the Internet and the World Wide Web, so, Game Theory should help us in determining the differences between winners and losers in the serious game of e-business.

Game theory approaches the problem of uncertainty by looking for best decisions rather than right decisions. Strategies are devised that consist of sets of "rule of thumb" guide-lines to decision making. This ensures that although decisions may not always be correct, the number of right decisions are always more than could be obtained by relying on luck. In other words, Game theory is a way of making intelligent guesses. In business this might be called 'business acumen'.

It may seem that business acumen can be learned by studying successful business people, seeing how they create business opportunities and build successful businesses. Ah! If only it was that simple. Business acumen isn't about what people do, it is about how people think.

As we can't get into people's heads to take a peep inside, we have to do it the hard way and learn to think correctly ourselves. We have to acquire a set of conceptual tools that will give us a competitive edge. This is what this book is about. It is about building a tool box of conceptual tools - that can be used to make us more successful competitors in the world of e-business.

Don't be frightened off by the somewhat abstract approach. It is in being able to manipulate abstraction that is the secret of being successful. Let others work with buzz words and bullet lists. We want to get at the fundamental reasoning.