3 Business Lessons from Strategy Games

I am not sure how much computer games you play. Do you? I am a gamer and I love strategy games which involve planning. My favourite game is Red Alert. I have been playing Red Alert 3 for a very long time and its a war game. I realized, I have learned a lot of business lessons by playing Red Alert. And here are the top 3. 1. Don't Attack Too Soon In Red Alert, we have limited time and resources. I have to build an army with those resources and then attack my enemy. If I did not build a large enough army, I will lose the battle and also my troops. Once I lose my troops, I have to rebuild it from scratch.

If I build a large enough troop after looking at my enemy, and attack with everything I have, I have a chance of winning. In business, it is similar. If you build a product and if it is not as good as your competitors, you will fail. Once you take it to the market and fail, there is no coming back. So have some patience and build a good product. When you release your product in the market, it should be better than your competitors in terms of product quality and price. If you time your product release right, and as long as you are the best, you will earn revenue and profits from sales and you can invest it back into growth. 2. Don't Keep Money in the Bank When I am playing the game, I can't have money unused. If I have money in the bank unused, it is a potential energy that is not converted into kinetic energy yet. Money that is not put into use is not going to help me in anyway. In the game, the money is immediately spent on defence and building more troops. The money is also invested in "Ore Refineries" which will give me an ROI. Spending money on certain things helps me make more money. In business, if you have a lot of money in the bank, you are not using the money to work for you. When money is not spent, it doesn't grow by its own. Growth instruments like Fixed Deposit or Mutual Funds only take care of the inflation at best. Investing money back into your own business is the best way to use money and grow money. I invest the money in the bank in the following things: - Build my brand for the future - Customer satisfaction and post purchase engagement - Building new websites which will generate leads and more traffic for my business - Advertising to get new customers - The best tools that help me grow the business In the first 10 years of your business, you should not aim at making profits and taking money home. Your asset is the market share you have. With a higher market share, you will be able to make more money. So always invest the money back in the business after paying a small salary for yourself. 3. Plan Long Term and Get High-tech In the game, I can keep building troops including gunmen and tanks. But I cannot have high technology units until I build something called a "Defence Lab". The Defence Lab is an investment of $3000 in the game, and after I build it, I can build some high tech units like Mirage Tanks, Harbinger Aircrafts etc. These units are 10x more powerful than the normal units. Helps me increase my chances of winning in the battle. I could use the $3000 to get 10 gunmen, or I can build a Defence Lab and get high-tech units. Now that's an investment for the future. In business, investing in Technology like Tools, R&D, in-depth analysis, data storage and back etc., gives you a competitive advantage, not in the short term but in the long term. It takes time and planning to get high-technology in place and that's one of the best moats against the competition. 90% of the competition will not able to get the kind of depth and understanding you have about your business and customers in the long term. During a recession, all your competition will fade away who had short term thinking. You will thrive post a recession because you thought long term and the market will destroy the weak. Remember, you are here to win the war, not the battle. You are looking to become a market leader in the business, not just sell some products and make money in the short term. I invest a lot of money in tools for my business like: - Email Marketing CRM - Brandable domain names - Landing page tools - High quality design - The best website hosting - The best computers for my office All the investment gives returns in the long term and helps me gain market share to become the No.1 in the market. If you are striving for excellence, you need excellent people, excellent tools and you will be able to attract excellent customers. I hope this email gave you some ideas. Reply to this email and let me know if you liked what you read :) Would like to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks for reading this blog! Sachin