By Andreas Buchholz, Wolfram Wordeman and Ned Wiley; John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

While I was playing Candyland with 5-year-old Ashlynn last fall, she drew a bad card that would have sent her back to the beginning of the game. Her reaction? “I know, let’s play the same game, but change the rules.”  Which is exactly the way the authors define their Game Strategy: changing the rules of the game to your advantage--while you’re playing it.

They develop four strategies:
1. Redefining the measure of performance (DeBeers grading diamonds)
2. Redefining the market structure (Red Bull creates “energy drinks” to avoid comparison with tastier soft drinks)
3. Redefine the roles (lawyers changing “jealous aggressive husband kills wife” to “bad racist cops frame innocent black guy OJ Simpson”)
4. Challenge the existing business model (dolls look like babies, dolls are fashion models, now dolls are counter-cultural lifestyle icons).

Examples range from German broadcast networks to pharmaceuticals, the iPod to outsourcing and all support the premise of changing the rules. Their four divisions, however, were hard to remember, and as practical tools for innovation, not as applicable as Blue Ocean Strategy or Christiansen’s Disruptive Innovation.

I’d give it a 7 on the LL innovation meter, thought provoking for someone who wants to break into a mature market or break out of the pack in a competitive market space.