SM-GT-CS-01  ยท  Sigma Mentoring  ยท  Leadership Hub

Game Theory for Business:
Playing the Right Game.

Strategic negotiation for the global boardroom. One intensive day that replaces tactics with something better: an accurate model of the game you are actually in โ€” its players, payoffs, alternatives and equilibria. Four sessions. Six landmark cases. Six live simulations.

90%
of preparation spent on your own position โ€” not theirs
$18.9B
how far one deal’s zone moved in six months (Disneyโ€“Fox)
5
pre-negotiation questions that change every preparation
6
landmark cases, played not just discussed
28
years Asia-Pacific practitioner experience
The Problem

Negotiation Training Sells Tactics. The Game Doesn’t Care.

Most negotiators prepare their own position with great care โ€” and almost none prepare their counterpart’s position with equal rigour. That asymmetry is where most negotiation value is lost.

A tactic is a move within a game. A model is a map of the game itself. When the map is wrong, better arguments only lose more efficiently โ€” because equilibria do not move by persuasion. They move when payoffs, alternatives and structures move.

Assumptions this programme dismantles
Win the argument, win the deal The other side is irrational Your plan B is a feeling Culture is etiquette Price is the only payoff Every deal is one-shot Stable means good
When your counterpart appears irrational, almost always the explanation is that you are using the wrong payoff matrix. Fix the matrix, and the mystery disappears.
โ€” Brendan McMahon ยท Founder, Sigma Mentoring ยท Visiting Faculty, Hertford College, University of Oxford
What’s Included

A Complete Teaching Ecosystem

One intensive day โ€” 5 teaching hours in four sessions โ€” with everything needed to deliver it: slide decks in two variants (undergraduate and executive), a full role-play and simulation pack with confidential briefs, interactive labs, a facilitator run-of-day guide and a cited research library. Browser-based tools, no installation.

4
Sessions ยท One Day
6
Landmark Cases
8
Named Frameworks
6
Role-Plays & Simulations
5
Interactive Labs
6
Sector Spotlights
4 Teaching Sessions ยท 90 + 90 + 60 + 60

From Seeing the Game to Designing It

Each session pairs frameworks with landmark cases and a live exercise โ€” a matrix build, a role-play with confidential briefs, a repeated-game tournament, a sealed-bid auction. Theory is never more than fifteen minutes from practice.

1
See the Game
90 min ยท Payoff matrices ยท Dominant strategies ยท Nash Equilibrium
Why Samsung supplied Apple $7โ€“8B of parts a year while fighting 50+ lawsuits โ€” and why that was the most predictable outcome in the room. Scoring real outcomes 0โ€“10, cell by defensible cell. Toyota’s nemawashi pre-game at NUMMI.
Free Lab Preview 2 Cases Matrix Build
2
Power and Time
90 min ยท BATNA & ZOPA ยท Repeated games ยท The discount factor
The written, risk-adjusted BATNA discipline. How one rival bid moved Disneyโ€“Fox by $18.9B. SoftBank’s $14B relational-BATNA lesson. Brexit’s 45-month stalemate โ€” and the deadline that ended it in days. Contract role-play and repeated-game tournament.
3 Cases Role-Play Tournament
3
The Invisible Payoffs
60 min ยท Mianzi ยท Nemawashi ยท Kibun ยท Guanxi ยท Dual framing
Culture as payoff structure, not etiquette. The USโ€“China trade war as two games at one table. Designing both sides’ victory announcements before the terms โ€” because a deal your counterpart cannot describe as a win is a deal they cannot make.
USโ€“China Case Framing Exercise
4
Design the Game
60 min ยท Shapley fair shares ยท Game trees ยท Auction design
What each partner’s contribution actually justifies โ€” and why unfair structures always resurface. Credible threats via backwards induction. The ยฃ22.5B auction that earned five times its estimate, and the winner’s curse your team will feel first-hand in a live sealed-bid simulation.
2 Cases Live Auction Consortium Capstone
8 Sigma Frameworks

Original IP, Built on the Classics

Nash, Schelling, Shapley and Axelrod supply the theory. Twenty-eight years of Asia-Pacific boardrooms supply the practice. Each framework arrives with a worked valuation โ€” students see where every number comes from.

The Method
Five Pre-Negotiation Questions
The 30-minute written discipline before any significant negotiation: structure, payoffs, alternatives, time horizons, equilibrium. The habit that IS the course.
Diagnosis
Payoff Matrix Method
Score every outcome 0โ€“10 for both players โ€” money, position, reputation, face. Find dominant strategies and the equilibrium before you sit down.
Power
Honest BATNA Assessment
Four steps: brainstorm, develop, risk-adjust, write it down. An alternative that exists only as an idea is a hypothesis, not a plan B.
Sigma Original
Relational BATNA
What walking away REALLY costs: relationship damage, network ripple, face. In Asian contexts, almost always the binding constraint.
Time
Discount-Factor Management
Why negotiations stall for months and close in days. Diagnose what shortens each side’s horizon โ€” then restore the shadow of the future.
Culture
Cultural Payoffs
Mianzi, nemawashi, kibun and guanxi as precise modifications to the model โ€” a payoff dimension, a moved decision point, a raised discount factor.
Design
Dual Framing
Write both sides’ domestic announcements before proposing terms. If you cannot draft their victory speech, the deal is not finished being designed.
Coalitions
Shapley Fair Shares
What each partner’s contribution mathematically justifies. When formal share diverges from real contribution, the gap eventually closes โ€” on someone’s terms.
6 Landmark Cases

Real Deals. Real Numbers. Played, Not Just Discussed.

Every case is taught with corrected, source-checked facts and a worked payoff analysis โ€” then handed to participants as a simulation, a role-play or a matrix they build themselves.

๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท Korea ยท Free Preview
Samsung โ†” Apple
50+ lawsuits ยท $7โ€“8B annual supply ยท One equilibrium
Sue your biggest customer, supply your fiercest rival โ€” for three straight years. The cooperation paradox that makes Nash Equilibrium unforgettable.
Read case โ†’
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan ยท Full Course
Toyota / GM ยท NUMMI
50/50 on paper ยท 26 years of quiet control
The joint venture decided before the formal talks began. Nemawashi as pre-game strategy, and why knowledge transfers but capability does not.
Read case โ†’
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ USA ยท Full Course
Disney / Fox
$52.4B โ†’ $71.3B ยท One rival bid
How a single competing entry moved the zone of possible agreement by $18.9 billion โ€” and why the lower headline bid can be the stronger one.
Read case โ†’
๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Japan ยท Full Course
SoftBank / WeWork
A 12-minute meeting ยท A $14B write-down
Sunk costs, pattern-matching and the relational BATNA โ€” why one of the world’s smartest investors kept saying yes when the spreadsheet said no.
Read case โ†’
๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง UKโ€“EU ยท Full Course
Brexit
45 months of “no” ยท A deal in days
The Prisoner’s Dilemma played by governments โ€” and the deadline that restored both sides’ discount factors at the same moment.
Read case โ†’
๐ŸŒ Global ยท Full Course
USโ€“China Trade War
Two games at one table ยท The wrong payoff matrix
What happens when each side prices the other’s payoffs wrong โ€” and how dual framing finally made an agreement describable as a win on both sides.
Read case โ†’
Interactive Tools

The Game Theory Lab. Free to Explore

Browser-based companions participants keep using long after the day ends. Every scenario includes an estimate-then-reveal walkthrough showing exactly where its numbers come from.

๐Ÿงช
5 Labs ยท Free Preview
Game Theory Student Toolkit
Build payoff matrices and find Nash Equilibria. Move BATNA and ZOPA walls. Play repeated games against five strategies. Compute Shapley fair shares. Feel the winner’s curse in a live auction.
Open the Toolkit โ†’
๐Ÿ“–
6 Cases ยท Free Preview
Easy Cases Reader
The six landmark negotiations told simply โ€” a 60-second timeline, the game behind each story, and check-yourself questions. Designed for pre-reading, including second-language cohorts.
Read the Cases โ†’
๐Ÿญ
6 Sectors ยท Free Preview
Sector Spotlights
Game theory on a Tuesday morning: insurance fraud, supply-chain hold-up, bank runs, airline alliances, the price-match paradox and platform standards wars.
Explore the Sectors โ†’
๐Ÿงฎ
Calculator ยท Live
Relational BATNA Calculator
What does walking away really cost? Relationship damage, network ripple and face loss added to standard BATNA analysis โ€” weighted by culture, across seven profiles.
Try the Calculator โ†’
๐ŸŽญ
Full Course
Role-Play & Simulation Pack
Six printable exercises with confidential briefs, observer scorecards and worked solutions โ€” from the Supplier’s Dilemma to the three-party Consortium capstone with its Shapley mathematics solved.
๐Ÿ“‹
Full Course
Facilitator Guide & Research Library
Minute-by-minute run-of-day for both variants, assessment rubric, six-month follow-up instrument, and a cited reading pack from Nash 1950 to the UK 3G auction designers.
Who This Is For

Two Variants. One Method.

๐ŸŽ“
Universities & Business Schools
The undergraduate variant: case-first, scaffolded and assessment-ready, in clear international English designed for second-language cohorts. Built for the Oxford Programme and partner institutions in Asia.
๐Ÿข
Executives & Deal-Makers
The fast-track variant: compressed theory, live-deal exercises, and the advanced layer โ€” commitment devices, signaling and screening, the mathematics of patience โ€” closing with a consortium negotiation capstone.
๐Ÿ“‹
HR & L&D Leaders
A complete, deployable ecosystem: decks, role-play packs, browser-based labs and a facilitator guide โ€” measurable through a six-month behaviour follow-up, not a happy-sheet.
Commission SM-GT-CS-01

Ready to Stop Arguing
and Start Changing the Game?

One intensive day, two audience variants, and a complete teaching ecosystem โ€” decks, simulations, labs and guides. Browser-based, no installation. The Student Toolkit, Easy Cases and Sector Spotlights are free previews.

Sigma Mentoring  ยท  SM-GT-CS-01 ยท Game Theory for Business: Playing the Right Game  ยท  Leadership Hub
Dagda Media Ltd  ยท  info@sigmamentoring.com  ยท  Hong Kong ยท Singapore ยท Tokyo ยท Oxford

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