But the fabulous monster may be a useful metaphor for executives who must steer their companies through a competitive universe as full of unknowns and uncertainties as any fifteenth-century map. It will be a long time, if ever, before we have definitive maps of all the new realms created by technology and global competition. But, in this issue of HBR, you will find ideas and examples that can serve as compasses to help you chart a foward course and even do some mapmaking yourself. The result is an article that may transform both the way you think about shaping strategy and the way you map your own competitive terrain. Game theory came of age in 1944, when John von Neumann, a mathematician, and Oskar Morgenstern, an economist, published Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, which offers a systematic way to understand how people behave in interdependent relationships.
Interdependency is the name of the game in business.
But, over the years, remarkably few bridges have been built between the academic experts who study game theory and the business executives who might profit from its insights. Brandenburger and Nalehuff provide a practical framework that allows business leaders to analyze the game they're currently playing and to identify ways to change it to their company's advantage. New product introductions have always been menaced by the dragons of uncertainty. Today, more than ever, marketers need new ways to keep them at bay. The wider a company's explorations, the more its leadership needs a North Star to test direction and adjust course.