How wargaming turns existing data into better growth decisions

When growth teams face a major strategic choice, the instinct is often to look for more data. But many organizations already have access to extensive market intelligence, customer insights, commercial data, and internal expertise. The issue is not always a lack of information. It is that different stakeholders interpret the same information in different ways.

As a result, opportunities that are already visible can be overlooked, delayed, or deprioritized.

How business wargaming supports better growth decisions

Business wargaming is a structured way to explore how competitors, customers, and other market players might respond to strategic moves, competitive actions, or changes in market conditions.

Participants step into competitors’ shoes and work through realistic scenarios to understand how events could unfold. By testing different assumptions, teams can identify potential threats, uncover opportunities, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different strategic options before making important growth decisions.

Wargaming helps uncover blind spots, surface different perspectives, and clarify the strategic options ahead. Most importantly, it helps teams turn existing information into better strategic decisions.

Danone used wargaming to create alignment

Danone provides a strong example of how this can work in practice.

The company saw a significant growth opportunity in the rapidly expanding plant-based category. The challenge was not a lack of information. Danone already had access to market intelligence, competitive insights, and internal expertise. The real question was how to act on that information and align stakeholders around a market entry strategy.

Through a business wargaming exercise, teams explored how competitors might respond, challenged assumptions, and tested different strategic scenarios. By interpreting the available information together, stakeholders developed a shared understanding of the opportunities, risks, and strategic options ahead.

The result was alignment on how to approach the opportunity and a clearer path toward action.

Read the full case study.

Good information alone doesn’t lead to better growth decisions

Danone’s experience illustrates an important point: better growth decisions do not always require more information. Sometimes they require a better way of understanding the information already available.

Seeing what’s already there

Wondering whether opportunities are hidden in plain sight within your market? Contact Arne Maas to explore how business wargaming can help your team uncover opportunities, assess risks, and make better growth decisions.